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Victoria Mindova

Ignite Athens will enable 20 young innovators to present their ideas in 20 slides in five minutes to a wide audience of potential investors. This is the concept of the forum expressed in one sentence. It will take place in Athens on 20 September this year. The innovation compared to other business forums lies in the way of presenting the ideas - each slide will change automatically every 15 seconds. The slogan of the organizers is "Ignite us, but make it quick." The idea is to present quickly and clearly innovative ideas that can find practical applications and become effective business models.
 
"People should not be afraid to share their ideas," the initiator of the event in Athens Panayiotis Tzinis said. He is certain that through an open dialogue, a debate and a creative confrontation a good idea can develop and become a great business opportunity. "Greece must break free from the old dogma that if I have a good idea I should keep it for myself because otherwise someone will steal it," the organizer said. He is a member of the European Alliance for Innovation and the founder of Ignite Athens.

The five best ideas during the event in Athens will win the chance to present their projects at the international Ignite Your Plan in San Francisco, USA. It will take place on 3 and 4 December this year. They will compete there with followers from around the world. In addition, they will also have the opportunity to participate in a three-day workshop on drawing up a business plan, gaining practical knowledge of how to make their brilliant ideas real profitable business ventures.

During the initial stage of preparation, the organizers received over 600 proposals for innovation. Fifty of them were selected at first and then, their number was reduced to twenty. Both a special commission and the audience in the hall will rate the twenty presentations. The commission is a mix of local and foreign experts. Among them is the former Minister of Employment and Economy Louka Katseli, who is also a professor of economics at Athens University. Representatives of the firm that created the idea of Ignite, O'Reilly, of the European Commission and Imrih Hlamtak, chairman of the European Alliance for Innovation will evaluate the capabilities of future innovators.

The Ignite initiative has been held for six years now. The event was organized in Seattle for the first time, and after the successful format for the bearing of innovative ideas was found, it took place in 120 cities across the world. Ignite has become the point of reference of some of the leading companies in the world of new technologies like Intel, O'Reilly, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Oracle and PayPal.