On 15th of June, during the official Open Knowledge Network Meeting Evangelos Chondrokostas delivered an insightful presentation about the objectives of the UPCAST project – in which the Open Knowledge Foundation Greece participates as a partner – as well as the four real-world pilots that will emerge from this project. He further elaborated on the Thessaloniki pilot, in which Open Knowledge Foundation Greece collaborates with the Major Development Agency Thessaloniki (MDAT). This specific pilot will utilize the tools that will be developed throughout the project’s lifespan to facilitate the sharing of public administration data for climate across the Thessaloniki region. The interactive presentation sparked the interest of representatives from the Open Knowledge Network’s chapters, who expressed their interest in the project’s goals and shared their relevant experience from similar projects.
On 16th of June 2023, the Open Knowledge Network’s chapters from Germany, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Nepal, Brazil, and Greece joined the Opendata.ch 2023 annual forum – a day of inspiration, innovation, and networking. Experts from research, business, government, politics, journalism, and civil society joined the forum to discuss the impact of open data and knowledge on transforming our world for the better. The forum was a great chance to meet top speakers from Switzerland and abroad and to network with like-minded individuals. Among those productive and up to date presentations, Dr. Charalampos Bratsas and Evangelos Chondrokostas from Open Knowledge Foundation Greece had the opportunity to further discuss the UPCAST project’s goals and the pilot of Thessaloniki with participants from a wide scientific spectrum.