Cisco Connect Greece 2014 was once again the most important Internet of Everything event in Greece. Approximately 1,700 executives from every industry, and every company department and level, had the opportunity to experience the modern technologies that set the course for a new working environment, create new business opportunities, and ultimately drive the transformation of society.

Cisco Connect topics ranged from deep-dive technical explorations to solving key business challenges. The event comprised keynote speeches, CEO and CIO discussion panels, business and technical parallel sessions, exhibition-demo area, interaction with customers, partners and key Cisco executives, as well as plenty of time for socialising and sharing experiences.

Cisco Connect 2014

The field of non-invasive Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI) is gaining massive momentum as startups, companies and researchers are pushing hard. The race on BCI research is on improvement of the efficiency and the accuracy of the systems, while some of the first commercial efforts are testing the waters with several affordable devices already available to consumers. Professor Bin He, a pioneer in the field of Biomedical Engineering, talks about the ground-breaking research currently being done at the University of Minnesota in decoding brainwaves more accurately and reliably using non-invasive interfaces. We discuss the already impressive results of a  brain-controlled helicopter experiment, some of  the present challenges and the upcoming breakthroughs in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks central.

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TTC #109 Your brain as the ultimate controller, Prof. Bin He

Corporate networks become more intelligent but also more complicated driving increasingly demanding business needs. We talk with Nikos Botinis, Cisco Regional Sales Manager for Greece, Cyprus and Malta, about Cisco FastIT; the new App-centric  IT operating model which considerably reduces complexity and cost through a simpler, smarter and more secure IT infrastructure. Having Internet of Everything at its core, Fast IT provides a unifying framework to integrate major technology transitions - cloud, mobility, SDN, security and data analytics. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central

TTC #133 Cisco Fast IT: the future or IoE-centric corporate infrastructure, Nikos Botinis

The blueprint of corporate IT has changed dramatically during the last few years due to the advent of technologies like the cloud, virtualization and Software as a Service. Jacint Juhasz, Systems Engineer, South Eastern Europe mentions the Storage Virtualization technologies that have been co-created by NetApp and Cisco and the FlexPod, the core product of the line, the key benefits and how storage virtualization affects the modern complicated corporate IT infrastructure. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central.  

TTC #128 Storage Virtualization at the heart of modern IT infrastructure, Jacint Juhasz

Natassa Mastellou, although very young in age, seems very passionate and knowledgeable in the truly ‘dark’ field of data analytics. Starting out as to how she landed in SAP Hellas and what an important opportunity the SAP graduate program was for her professional life; she continues to explain what solutions SAP offers for Big Data and how the different layers it offers, can help a business grow and make meaningful sense out of the data it collects. Interviewed by Vicki Kolovou for Tech Talks  Central

TTC #129 SAP Analytics to the rescue of Big Data, Natassa Mastellou

Internet of Things will bring new modes of interaction between devices and people. As intelligent electronics get embedded to items which are used outside offices and living rooms, there is a growing need to move beyond keyboards, screens and touch interfaces. Alexandros Christopoulos, Business Lead for Human Electric and Constantinos Tsolakidis, Tech Lead for Human Electric talk about their vision to build new user experiences for activities that cannot rely on traditional interfaces starting by their passion: cycling. A first prototype uses a combination of hardware; a jacket laden with indicators, tactile feedback mechanisms and connectivity with mobile phone and an accompanying mobile app to seamlessly augment the cycling experience with navigation, social and security features. Interviewed by George Voulgaris for Tech Talks Central.  

TTC #125 Creating new modes of interaction between devices and people, Human Electric

Security has always been a very “hot” issue in ICT and Nikos Mourtzinos, Security Account Manager, for Cisco Greece, Cyprus & Malta, tells us how Cisco ASA, a next generation firewall, protects its users much better against the ever increasing threats. He also talks about the security issues we are (and will be) facing in the era of Internet of Everything and suggests possible ways and solutions to most effectively overcome them. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central

TTC #126 Better protection thanks to new Cisco firewall, Nikos Mourtzinos

In the ICT World (and not only…) market intelligence firms tend to provide a much better overview of a sector, than bits and pieces of information collected from the companies themselves. Emir Halilovic, Program Manager for Networks & Infrastructure at IDC, gives us precious information about Software Defined Network and the benefits it brings to data centres managers and users. He agrees that the market hasn’t taken off yet, but he reminds us that we are still in a transformation period. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central

TTC #127 We are still in a transformation period, Emir Halilovic

James Tagg, author of the book ‘Are the Androids Dreaming Yet?’ presented in front of an audience his own beliefs on the Singularity issue. He started out by answering his own question ‘Can a Machine think Creatively?’ and argued mathematically on how much artificial intelligence has progressed, which are the crucial parity point dates and why he doesn’t believe that machines can surpass the creativity of humans. The speech was conducted during a Heroes of Mobile event organised by its founder Helen Keegan, on the 2nd of March at the Talent Garden(TAG).


TTC #145 Are The Androids Dreaming Yet, James Tagg

Background, context, and poem text: http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/28/keeping-quiet-sylvia-boorstein-reads-pablo-neruda

Excerpted from https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/what-we-nurture-with-sylvia

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Sylvia Boorstein reads "Keeping Quiet" by Pablo Neruda

Marcello Melgara Responsible for International eHealth Projects, Italy /
Karima Bourquard, IHE-Europe Director of Interoperability, France

How does compliance with the European Interoperability Framework(EIF) help a National health system’s sustainability? At what percentage would you say your country’s NIF is aligned w/ the EIF when it comes to eHealth? What are the obstacles? Does your country have a published eHealth Strategy and what are its core objectives? In what percentage is it being implemented?


TTC #204 Interoperability & eHealth Strategies In Italy & France

Dimitra Liveri, Network and Information Security Expert at ENISA /
Marcello Melgara Responsible for International eHealth Projects

European eHealth companies have a huge potential to grow, by approaching an ever growing market inside and outside EU borders. Apart from the obvious innovation potentials in a broad number of health & patient care sectors, markets like that of the US, Latin America and China have come ‘closer’ due to international agreements. What kind of impediments will European eHealth companies have to overcome, in order to reach these markets effectively?


TTC #205 Extroversion of eHealth Companies

George Crooks, Medical Director for NHS24 and Director of the Scottish Centre for Tele-health and Telecare. President of the European Telematics Association (EHTEL) & leader of the Integrated Care Action Group of the European Innovation Partnership for active and healthy ageing for the European Commission

George Crooks responds to our questions on whether Scotland has a published eHealth Strategy and what are its core objectives. Also, how does compliance with the European Interoperability Framework(EIF) help a National health system’s sustainability? 


TTC #210 George Crooks on Scotland’s eHealth Strategy & Interoperability

Grab a cocktail, put on your favorite karaoke track, and let’s talk some more about disentangling audio data!

The Cocktail Party Problem

Centuries ago, Germany came up with a way to keep books that contained "dangerous" information without releasing them to the general public: The Giftschrank.
The word, a combination of "poison" and "cabinet," has a variety of meanings in different contexts. At its most literal, a Giftschrank is a space for storing controlled substances in places like pharmacies. Colloquially, it can refer to spaces reserved for all kinds of hidden and forbidden objects, ideas or stories.

203- The Giftschrank

So... about those bots. Bots bots bots. Bots!

In this episode of the botcast, a16z partners Benedict Evans and Connie Chan -- along with Chris Messina, longtime advocate of the open web and more -- pull apart various threads related to the topic of bots, mobile, and beyond: the (evolution?) from web to apps to messaging to bots; chat as an interface; “conversational commerce”; and so on. They also discuss why framing messaging through the lens of WeChat both reveals useful things (what works/ might not work) and not-so-useful things (such as seeking the “WeChat of the West”).

More importantly, how can we keep bots, and what they represent, in perspective -- beyond the fad? Especially when it comes to considering innovation on the 'web' vs. 'mobile' (remember the mobile browser!) and when it comes to removing friction (vs. adding limited interaction). What contexts (like customer service) are most useful for thinking about bots? And how can we even know, given it’s early days yet and we haven’t moved much beyond the command-line interface... 

Finally, as computing moves outside the classic work-centric paradigm to room- and urban-scale, how do we think about integrating online and offline, ubiquitous and “diffuse” computing through bots?

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a16z Podcast: Bots and Beyond

The Tech Talks Central web radio covers all the hot topics and trends in the connected world and features interactive interviews with thought leaders, as well as movers and shakers of the tech industry.
It’s a joint venture between entrepreneurs working in the mobile and technology field and people who love the radio waves!

TTC #133 Cisco Fast IT: the future or IoE-centric corporate infrastructure, Nikos Botinis

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