SHAPING THE FUTURE WITH CONFIDENCE

WHAT IS DIGITAL AGENDA CY?

Nicosia, Cyprus, being an international service centre, is becoming a regional education hub with 6 Universities, 30K students, from more than 120 countries. Living in changing times we gather A-class technology speakers and policymakers to discuss about the future of humanity in regional
​and European perspective.

A project endorsed by

OUR GOAL IS

∙ Endorse the student/ youth community to discuss and speak about the future
∙ Rise the Global agenda in local perspective
∙ Establishing Nicosia as a creative hub in the world digital agenda
∙ Presenting A – class speakers in topics that have never been discussed in our region

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Watch Digital Agenda Cyprus Summit 2019

32 SPEAKERS
1186 ATTENDANCES
34765 SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTIONS

"ONE OF THE BIGGEST TECH GATHERINGS IN EAST MED"

Meet our 2021 Speakers

@hugh_montgomery

Dr Hugh Montgomery is a Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at University College London (UCL), where he also directs the Centre for Human Health and Performance. He is a broadcaster, fiction author, scientist and clinician. 
​He still works clinically, caring for patients in an Intensive Care Unit in North London. Here, he had a frontline role in caring for Covid patients. He is also on the Council of the UK Intensive Care Society, chaired the UK National Emergency Covid Critical Care Committee, consults for an international pharmaceutical company on novel vaccine development, and is the principal investigator for trials of a novel therapy. 
In his research capacity, he has published over 500 scientific papers, several in Nature. He described the first ‘gene for human fitness’. His research has address cardiac growth, muscle wasting, bone and muscle response to exercise, and adaptation to low oxygen levels: he was research lead for the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition of 2007, and co-reported the first genes for evolutionary selection in response to high altitude. He has helped define the factors which influence survival in extreme environments, and also in intensive care: whether survivors are born, or made. He identified a genetic element that changes the chance of surviving critical illness by five-fold. 
Hugh has an interest in Artificial Intelligence as applied to Health and has worked with Google Deepmind and Google Health. 
In innovation, Hugh holds patents for new metabolic therapies, (for cancer wasting and prevention of injury in stroke); new technology for patient hydration; a novel mask for the removal of pollutants; and a new asthma inhaler. He chairs the board of Cambridge-based adaptive learning company Obrizum. He chairs Dyson’s Independent Medical and Scientific Board. 
Montgomery has a 22-year track record in the field of environment and health. He chaired the last two Lancet Commissions on Human Health and Climate Change and has written and lectured extensively on the subject. He now co- chairs the 27-country, 35-institute international Lancet Countdown on Climate Change, which reports annually. He was appointed London Leader by London’s Sustainable Development Commission, attended many of the international ‘COP’ climate negotiations, and created the children’s climate education Project Genie. 
He organised the Royal College of Physicians first meeting on Climate and Health, was a founder member of the UK Climate and Health Alliance and helped create the International Alliance on the same subject. He organised the first International Meeting on Climate, Health and Security in 2009. 
In media, Hugh has is a published author of award-winning children’s books (‘The Voyage of the Arctic Tern’ and ‘Cloudsailors’) and of best-selling thrillers (e.g. ‘Control’). He has hosted documentaries and appeared frequently across print and broadcast media. He delivered the five Royal Institution Christmas Lectures broadcast over Christmas 2007. 
Hugh was previously a commercial and archaeological diver, who was part of the team which raised Henry VIII’s flagship the Mary Rose (which sank in 1545). He was worked on a 2,500-year-old Etruscan wreck. 
Hugh is also an experienced ultramarathon runner and mountaineer (European Alps, Andes, and the Himalayas). And he still holds the World Underwater Piano Playing Record! 

@JeremyLeggett

​Jeremy Leggett chaired Carbon Tracker, a climate-and-finance think tank analysing climate risk in capital markets. He was the first winner of the Hillary Laureate for International Leadership in Climate Change (2009), won the Gothenburg Prize (2015), and was the first non-Dutch winner of a Royal Dutch Honorary Sustainability Award in 2016. He has been described by the Observer newspaper as “Britain’s most respected green energy boss”.
Leggett is author of four books, the most recent of which is The Winning of The Carbon War, an account of what he sees as the “turnaround years” in the dawn of the global energy transition. His other books are The Carbon War, an eye-witness account of the climate negotiations in the 1990s; Half Gone, an account of the interaction between oil depletion and climate change; The Solar Century, a vision of the solar revolution; and The Energy of Nations: Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance.
Jeremy Leggett is founding director of Solarcentury, an international solar solutions company. He is also founding chair of SolarAid which builds solar lighting markets in Africam, a charity funded with 5% of Solarcentury’s annual profits.
He resigned from Imperial College to become a climate campaigner with Greenpeace International. Leggett then led Solarcentury as CEO from 1997-2006, Chairman from 2006-15 and a board director from 2015 to present.

@Optimisontour

​One of the world’s most respected thinkers on technology and societal trends,
‘Reluctant Futurist’ Mark Stevenson is a strategic advisor to governments, NGOs and corporates, helping them face the grand systems challenges of our time and understand their (changed) role in meeting them, or dying gracefully if they need to.
Though branded a ‘futurist’ by others Mark is more, as one client puts it, ‘Chief Annoying Question Asker’. He helps organisations change the way they feel, think, invest and operate in order to answer the intertwined questions the future is asking us – on climate change, inequality, the retreat of democracy and the failures of the markets to price risk properly (to name just four).
His two bestselling books, An Optimist’s Tour of the Future and the award-winning We Do Things Differently map out some existing and proven solutions to our current dilemmas.
He is Futurist Without Borders for Medicines Sans Frontiers (UK), Global Ambassador for Client Earth and a strategic advisor of climate change to the UK Ministry of Defence.
TED curator, Chris Anderson remarks, “Stevenson wears no blindfold. His tools are curiosity, open-mindedness, clarity and reason.”
He also enjoys a successful side career as a comedy writer and songwriter, which he regards as essential for maintaining key skills needed in his strategy work. “The brain does the PR for what the heart has already decided, if you can’t speak to the heart any systems change is dead in the water.”
His hit podcast with comedian Jon Richardson and fellow systems change advocate Ed Gillespie is available on all major platforms.

@ItsDonRobbie

​Robbie has become one of Arsenal's most well known fans in recent years due to his successful YouTube Channel, ArsenalFan TV. ArsenalFan TV is getting 1.083 billion YouTube views and 1.5 million subscribers.
Arsenal fan Robbie Lyle has become an internet sensation and gets recognised all over the world due to AFTV.
In 2013, he won the Football Blogging Awards for Best Male Football Blog.
Formerly a BBC reggae radio host and surveyor, he quit his job to work on the YouTube channel full-time.
According to stats gathered by statsmash.com, AFTV is worth $1.7million as of January 2021.

@kyriac_kokkinos​

Kyriacos Kokkinos is the Deputy Minister to the President for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, since March 1st 2020.
He previously served as the Chief Scientist for Research & Innovation of the Republic of Cyprus, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Research & Innovation Foundation and Member of the National Board of Research & Innovation.
He is a distinguished professional with 30 years of experience in Executive Management, Technology and Business Consulting, served at senior Executive roles in global corporations such as IBM Europe (Executive Director & Partner) and PwC. He also served at the Board of Directors of many Organisations, including Invest Cyprus (Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency - CIPA), the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO), the Cyprus Port Authority (CPA), and the Board of Trustees of the Cyprus Institute.
He is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions for professional excellence, including the ‘Business Leader of the Year Award’ 2016, by Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and the ‘Quality Leader Award 2015’ by Cyprus Quality Association.
His Academic qualifications include Executive MBA in Strategic Management from Henley Management College (UK) and MSc & BSc in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology (USA).

@michalispersianis

Michalis Persianis has been Corporate Affairs Director at Bank of Cyprus since 2015. 
Michalis worked as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones from 2011 to 2014, and as Chief Editor for Finance at Kathimerini newspaper (Cyprus edition) from 2009 to 2014.  From 2005 to 2009 he was Head of Research (Presidential campaign) and Parliamentary staffer (European Parliament) for Mr Ioannis Kasoulides.
Michalis also worked as an analyst for the Institute of World Politics (2005), and provided political support to George Vassiliou, the Chief Negotiator for Cyprus' accession to the European Union.  
Michalis sits on the Board of Directors of the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre and on the Board of Directors of the BoC Cultural Foundation.
He earned his BA in Political Science from Rutgers University, New Jersey, in 2002, and went on to earn an MA in International Economics and European Studies from John Hopkins University in 2005.

@marineconomidou​

Marina Economidou was born in Nicosia in 1985. She is the editor in chief of Kathimerini newspaper and since 2014 is the political editor and columnist of Kathimerini. She holds a master degree in political communication from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Cyprus, a diploma of French literature and language from the University of Paris 4 Sorbonne. She speaks English and French.

@Anetttu

​Having lived and studied in different countries, Anett has learned to appreciate living in a digital society. Anett believes that all processes and structures of public services should be accessible and simple for every single citizen. Based on her academic background in political science, Anett focuses on enhancing good cooperation between the public and private sector to create a comprehensive and supportive environment. Her goal as a Digital Transformation Adviser at the e-Estonia Briefing Centre is to explain the Estonian digitalisation experience and thus inspire leaders and decision-makers alike to create a better tomorrow.

@LucyHawking

Author Lucy Hawking makes science accessible and entertaining to young readers through her ‘George’ book series of fantasy adventure novels based on real science. Written in collaboration with world-leading scientists including her father, the late Professor Stephen Hawking, the George series is published in over 40 languages, including Zulu and Xhosa. The final book of the series, ‘Unlocking the Universe’ a compilation of the science content from the whole series with some outstanding new essays added, was published in January 2020 by Penguin Random House Children’s Book and has been a #one best seller. 
In 2015, Lucy created the Principia Space Diary with Curved House Kids for the UK Space agency. Principia Space Diary represents an innovative educational concept for primary students which allowed them to write their own book about astronaut Tim Peake’s mission to the ISS. Principia Space Diary was shortlisted in 2017 for the Arthur C Clarke award for education and outreach. With the same team, Lucy created the Mars Diary for primary age school children, published in 2018, also shortlisted for an Arthur C Clarke award. On July 20th, 2019, as part of the musical and theatrical troupe, The Lunatic Fringe, Lucy co-wrote and co-performed a critically acclaimed tribute to the Apollo Moon Landings at the Petworth Festival called ‘Fly Me to the Moon.’ 
As well as editing the text for her father’s final book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Lucy wrote the Afterword for the posthumous book and recorded the audio version for Audible and Radio 4. Lucy has also made documentaries for BBC Radio 4 about the impact of technology on different aspects of human life. She is currently working on a series of podcasts for Audible about the future of the human race in space. 
In 2008, Lucy won the Sappio Prize for Popularizing Science and in 2015, the UNSW medal for Outstanding Science Communication. In July 2015, Lucy was awarded an honorary doctorate in science by Queen Mary University London for her work in STEM education. In 2017, Lucy was a judge on the Royal Society’s Young Science Book of the year and is a regular judge for the Breakthrough Junior Challenge in Palo Alto, USA. 
With the Guardian Media Group, Lucy made a virtual reality film, The Party, about an autistic teenage girl. The Party was nominated for an award in the ‘social impact’ category at the annual VR Awards 2018 and received huge critical acclaim for its realistic and authentic depiction of the life of a teenage girl with autism. Lucy is currently working with Atlantic Productions on a virtual reality experience based on black hole theory as well as a new book series for young readers. 
In 2020, Lucy wrote and presented a highly well received series of podcasts for Audible, 'Lucy in the Sky', a look at the future of human space travel. In 2021, Lucy led a project at the Stephen Hawking Foundation in collaboration with the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and QMUL to produce free to download resources for teachers to support discussion around vaccines in the classroom. This project has been very well reviewed by users and is the result of intense collaboration and investigation not just of the scientific source material but also of the way in which a young audience relates to the subject of vaccines and how they access information about issues around science and society. 
Lucy is the Chairperson of the Stephen Hawking Foundation.

@rorysutherland

​Rory Sutherland is vice chairman of Ogilvy UK and is an expert on consumer behaviour, trends and the influence of the internet. He analyses what branding means, what creativity is, and the value of persuasion over compulsion. He is also technology correspondent for The Spectator, the world’s oldest English language magazine. He is the author of two books: The Wiki Man and the book Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense.
Before founding Ogilvy Change, Rory Sutherland was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Direct Jury at Cannes, and has spoken at TED Global. He also writes occasional pieces for Wired. 
Sutherland works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behaviour – these are the often small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make – for instance tripling the sales rate of a call centre by adding just a few sentences to the script. Put another way, lots of agencies will talk about “bought, owned and earned” media: we also look for “invented media” and “discovered media”: seeking out those unexpected (and inexpensive) contextual tweaks that transform the way that people think and act.
It is a hugely valuable activity – but, alas, not particularly lucrative. This is because clients generally do not have budgets for solving problems they did not know they had.

@danielsusskind

​Dr Daniel Susskind explores the impact of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, on work and society.
Daniel Susskind is a Fellow in Economics at Balliol College, Oxford University, where he teaches and researches. In conjunction with this he is the co-author of the best-selling book, ‘The Future of the Professions’ (2015). Based on the authors’ in-depth research of more than ten professions and illustrated by numerous examples this book assesses and questions the relevance of the professions in the 21st century. Laterally he has written ‘A World Without Work’ (2020), described by The New York Times as “required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future”. His TED Talk, on the future of work, has been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
Previously Daniel Susskind worked in the British Government – as a policy adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, as a policy analyst in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and lastly as a senior policy adviser in the Cabinet Office. in 2016, Susskind received a doctorate in economics from Oxford University and prior to this was awarded the honour of being Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.

@neocland

Before assuming office as the CEO of Cyta in January 2019, Mr Neocleous main work experience comes from three large multi-national companies (Goldman Sachs, Ericsson and MTN). His time as a Senior Technology Analyst at Goldman Sachs (London and New York), introduced him to the corporate financial world at the highest level. His time in Ericsson Cyprus allowed him to make a smooth transition from technology to business while at the same time adjusting to the Cyprus business environment. Very importantly, his assignment in several Senior Management positions in ΜΤΝ Cyprus offered him priceless experience in leadership and organizational culture change in a demanding and multi-cultural global environment.
His academic qualifications include a Masters of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a PhD in Telecommunications & Digital Signal Processing, all from Imperial College, University of London.

@lphylactou

Prof Leonidas A. Phylactou received his Bachelor’s degree in Medical Biochemistry with honours from the University of Birmingham, UK in 1992 and his PhD in Molecular Genetics/Gene Therapy from the same University in 1995 in collaboration with the University of Connecticut Health Center, USA. Upon completion of his studies, he moved to Oxford University as a post-doctoral scientist where he led a research team on the use of catalytic RNAs as tools for gene therapy in the brain and muscle. Upon returning to Cyprus in 1998 he was employed at The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING) where he established a research team to investigate and develop novel ways to study gene function and exploit gene therapy approaches. In 2005, he was appointed as the Head of the Department of Molecular Genetics, Function and Therapy, which he still directs. 
 From 2012 until 2015, Prof. Phylactou served as the first Dean of the newly established post-graduate school of the CING, the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine (CSMM).
 From March 2014 to July 2015, Prof. Phylactou served as the Acting Chief Executive Medical Director of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics and Acting Provost of the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine. In November 2015, he was appointed as the Chief Executive Medical Director of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics and the Provost of the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine.
 During his scientific career Prof. Phylactou has secured research funding from several local and international funding organisations and published extensively in the areas of molecular genetics, gene function and gene therapy. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of international peer-reviewed journals.  

More speakers will be announced in the coming days...

Networking events

Cyprus Cocktail Festival 2021

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The second "Get Together" Festival that brings both Cyprus and Greece at the spotlight of the global bartending scene, will be held in Nicosia, on 19th October 2021 at Nicosia Municipal Garden.

Organisers