Dimitris Charitos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where he teaches human-machine communication, interactive design, digital art and visual communication. He holds a PhD in interactive and virtual environments design. His artistic practice includes electronic music, audiovisual and interactive installations and virtual environments. He has participated in exhibitions in Greece, the UK and Cyprus. As a researcher or coordinator, he has participated in more than 15 research projects (funded by Greek and European programs) on the subjects of virtual reality, locative media, digital art and multimedia.

BA in History - scientific branch by Portucalense University, Master and PhD in Museology from Porto University he’s currently Director of the Department of Research and Training of Sistemas do Futuro, Lda. and Affiliate Professor in the Department of Sciences and Techniques of Cultural Heritage, Faculty of Letters at Porto University. His academic and professional activity focuses primarily on research in management and documentation of collections in museums and in the use of technology in the cultural heritage sector. He was responsible for the first Portuguese translation of the standard SPECTRUM and is currently part of the team that manages the translation and adaptation of that standard in the territories of Portugal and Brazil through the SPECTRUM PT project (www.spectrum-pt.org). His research interests cover areas such as collections management policies, standardisation in museums, the use of social networks in the cultural sector and the dissemination of collections using tools like storytelling. He’s a researcher at the Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar Cultura Espaço e Memória (CITCEM - www.citcem.org), member of the advisory board of the eCultSkills Project (www.ecultskills.eu) and eCultObservatory ambassador (www.ecultobservatory.eu). He’s member of the current governing bodies of ICOM Portugal and member of the Portuguese Association of Museology (APOM). He’s also author of the blog Mouseion (www.mouseion.pt) and coordinator of MuseusPortugal project (www.museusportugal.org).

For nearly 15 years has been occupied at the former EKEPIS (National Accreditation Center for Lifelong Learning Providers) and currently at EOPPEP (National Organisation for the Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance), since May 2015 as Head of the Educational Framework dpt of EOPPEP. Main tasks and responsibilities, among others, include:

• Certification of Adult Trainers for non-formal education,
• National Register of Certified Adult Trainers
• Certification of Occupational Profiles,
• Certification of CVET Programmes
• Certification of “Training of trainers” Programmes

Holds a degree from the National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology and a Post Graduate Degree from the Hellenic Open University in Adult Education.

I studied Italian Literature in the Aristotle University of Thessalonica and Classical archaeology in Italy (BA at the University of Lecce). I obtained my Masters degree in Museum Studies from the University of Athens (Graduate thesis on the use of multimedia exhibits in archaeological museums and cultural institutions entitled: “The Role of the Mediator in Virtual Archaeology Experiences”). I am currently pursuing a second Master’s Degree in Digital Communication Media and Interactive Environments at the Department of Communication and Media Studies of the School of Economics & Political Sciences of the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens.

My professional experience as an employee of the Foundation of the Hellenic World (1999-2005) was related to the presentation of Ancient Greek Heritage through new media (in particular the Virtual Reality shows). From 2007 till the present day I worked for the Greek Archaeological Service on various contracts as an archaeologist-museologist: the 7th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in Ancient Olympia, the Directorate of Modern Cultural and Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Numismatic Museum in Athens, the Department of Educational Programs and Communication and recently at the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens.

During the last three years I work voluntarily but in a regular basis as the administrator of the Facebook page of the Hellenic Committee of ICOM of which I am also an elected board member. In the past I had worked at the Hellenic Committee of ICOM as a volunteer at the Library services on a data entry project.

Dr. Maria Lagogianni-Georgakarakos is currently Director of the National Archaeological Museum – Athens. She graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Archaeology and Art History. She did post-graduate studies at Munich University (1977-1982). She served as post-doctoral research fellow at archaeological institutes in Germany (1983-1984) and thereafter in Greece served at the Greek Ministry of Culture at various positions (Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Heraklion-Crete, Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities-Athens, Directorate of Museums, Exhibitions and Educational Programs, Secretariat of the Central Archaeological Council).

During 2006-2010 she was Director of the Epigraphic Museum in Athens where she conceived and organized thematic and periodical exhibitions. One of them, “Athenian Democracy” travelled successfully to Brussels, Melbourne and Shanghai.

During 2011-2014 she was Director of the Directorate of Museums, Exhibitions and Educational Programs of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism where she also organized and co-organized thematic and periodical exhibitions. One of them “Nautilus: Navigating Greece” travelled successfully to Brussels. She is a member of Greek and international scientific organizations and elected member of the German Archaeological Institute and the Greek Archaeological Society of Athens. She was awarded a “Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research" from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Munich, 1996-1998).

She is the author or co-author of publications on the issues of sculpture, bronze sculpture, epigraphy, and numismatics in international journals and conference proceedings and editor of catalogues of museum exhibitions. Most cited are her two monographs of the international series Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani

Dr Despina Kalessopoulou is archaeologist and museologist. Since 2006 she works at the National Archaeological Museum where she is involved in museum communication, education and exhibition design, events management and visitor research. Her major areas of interest, teaching and published work are on the educational and social role of the museum.

Mr. Vassilis Matsos is the Director of the Educational Programs and Productions dept. at Noesis. His has planned and supervised the installations of all IT and audiovisual equipment at Noesis for educational graphics and video applications including Digital Planetarium, giant screen 3D cinema, Motion Simulation installations, digital signage. He also led the creation of interactive real-time shows in the planetarium and educational online content. He was also project manager for EU and National projects targeted at edutainment applications. Mr. Matsos holds a Bachelor’s Degree at Information Technology from Sunderland University UK and a Master’s of Business Administration Degree from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne UK.

Penelope Theologi-Gouti, Architect, Ethnologist (DEA), Responsible for Exhibitions, Educational Programs and Other Activities of Patras University STM, Greece. She has served as Vice Chair and Secretary of ICOM Hellenic National Committee, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer of UMAC, the University Museums and Collections Committee of ICOM (founding member), Chair and Secretary of CIDOC Ethno Group. She has numerous publications in national and international journals, including articles in Museum International, ICOM study series, OECD journal, Museologia, Tetradia Mouseiologias etc. She has also numerous publications in national and international conferences organized by ICOM or affiliated Committees, Universeum, University Museums etc.

Maria Vayanou is a senior researcher, holding a bachelor degree from the department of Informatics of University of Piraeus and a Master degree in “Advanced Information Systems” from the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the University of Athens. Since 2007, Maria has worked as a research associate for the University of Athens, as well as for “Athena” Research Center, participating in several European funded projects. She has participated in the DELOS project for the dissemination of results into The European Library, as well as in the TELplus project for the design and implementation of personalized services to The European Library portal. Maria has also joined in the OpenAIRE project, for the extraction of usage statistics and impact metrics over research publications and repositories. Since 2011, she participated in the CHESS project, for the provision of adaptive, personalized stories to museum visitors. Her research interests include interactive digital storytelling, adaptive systems, personalization applications, user modeling and profiling, user behavior analysis and mining, knowledge extraction, digital libraries, information retrieval and databases.

Ilse Rombout works as Creative Director at 7scenes. She supports many cultural organizations in implementing mobile storytelling in their organizations, on both a conceptual and practical level. After she graduated at Utrecht University on both digital media and culture and cultural marketing, she worked for many of the Utrecht cultural organizations, advising them on how to use (amongst other things) technology in their marketing and communication.

Elia Vlachou holds a diploma in Archaeology (University of Athens) and three postgraduate degrees -in museology (Ecole du Louvre), prehistoric archaeology (Paris I) and comparative literature (Paris IV-Sorbonne). She has worked as museologist at art galleries and at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. In 2003, she joined the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP) and in 2007 she became Head of the Museums Department. Head of the Foundation since 2013, she is coordinating PIOP’s various activities and EU-financed projects aiming at the valorization of Greece’s cultural landscape and productive history. She gives lectures on museology and on cultural management at graduate and postgraduate level. Member of ICOM (Greek section), European Museum Academy (pool of experts), TICCIH and of the judging committee for the prize Heritage in Motion.

Museologist, museum consultant, exhibition developer. Teaches museology and cultural heritage management at the Hellenic American Union and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Project management of digital heritage projects.

Joseph Psistakis is the Co-founder of Eyelead Software, a company specializing in 3D graphics and games development. He holds an MSc in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Patras, specializing in 3D Graphics with a thesis in Generalized Ray based rendering and a post-graduate thesis in developing a unified server-client network programming language. As a researcher, he has participated in the workshop paper “Normal Mapping Technology – Parthenon Case Study” and the 3D reconstruction of the Parthenon of Athens (MoBIUS 2003 award). As the CTO of Eyelead Software, he has been involved with many cultural reconstruction and digitization projects, including the 3D digitization of the War Museum of Athens, a 3D reconstruction of the old Argostoli and the reconstruction of ancient Miletus, for the intro sequence to the Planetarium Show “Evolution”, a co-production between Eyelead and the Eugenides Planetarium of Athens. He has designed educational, entertainment and advertisement applications and games and has worked as a UX consultant in several high-profile projects, while leading the development efforts for Hive3D, Eyelead Software’s proprietary development platform.

Dr Maria Economou is Joint Curator/Lecturer in Museum Studies at the University of Glasgow, a post shared between the Hunterian Museum and the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII). She helps to bring closer the University’s Museum and Art Gallery with the teaching and research within the College of Arts and make better use of the collections. She was previously Associate Professor in Museology and New Technologies at the University of the Aegean in Greece and before that also worked at the universities of Manchester, Glasgow and Oxford (at the Pitt Rivers Museum) in the UK. She has collaborated with several cultural heritage institutions around the world, particularly on the use of new technologies for public engagement. Her research focuses on evaluation and visitor studies, as well as the ways the digital technologies are reshaping cultural organisations and the ways they communicate with different audiences.

Yannis Skarpelos is Associate Professor of Visual Cultural Studies at the Dept. of Communication, Media & Culture, Panteion University. Has been teaching at the graduate programs “Cultural Administration” at Panteion University, and “Cultural Organizations Management” at HOU.

Jenny P. Albani is an Architect Engineer NTUA (1982), Doctor of Art History at the University of Vienna (1986), and researcher at the Institute of Art History of NTUA (1987-1991). Since 1992 she is working at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture Education, and Religious Affairs (Directorate of Museums – Department of Exhibitions and Museological Research). She has taught at the School of Tourist Guides of Athens and has been tutoring students at the Hellenic Open University. She has participated in excavations by the American Archaeological School in Pseira island, north of Crete, and by the University of Vienna in Egypt. She has written and edited articles, books and manuals on art history, architecture history and museology and participated in conferences in Greece and abroad. She is currently Vice President of ICOM Greece.

Sofia Aidoni is an archaeologist (UOA, 1994) and since 1995 is working at the Ministry of Culture, Education, and Religious Affairs (Directorate of Museums – Department of Archaeological Museums and Collections). She has developed, performed and evaluated educational programs and material (printed and digital) for museums and archaeological sites and she has also participated or/and edited on thematic editions. In relation to his office, she coordinates the European Heritage Days in Greece, since 2003.

Vassilis Louros holds a diploma in IT (vocational training institute) He has worked as Project Manager for 13 years at the Electronic Banking Division of Piraeus bank (Internet banking, mobile banking and e-payments). Since 2012, he is Head of the IT services and digital applications of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP). He has extensive experience in internet, mobile and interactive applications.

Elena Bazini is a graduate of the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Athens and possesses a postgraduate degree in Islamic Art and Archaeology of the University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies). She knows three foreign languages, English, French and Turkish. Since 2001 she is an employee in the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs (Museum of Hellenic Folk Art and Directorate of Museums - Department of Educational Programs and Communication). She is engaged in planning educational programs in archaeological sites and museums and writing educational texts which familiarize young people with cultural heritage. Since 2004 she has participated as a trainer in seminars ‒organized under the auspices of the National Center of Public Administration ‒ for archaeologists of the Ministry on methodology issues concerning the management of educational material on cultural heritage. Since 2011 she is responsible for a Ministry’s project on the crucial educational role of antique and contemporary Hellenic theater, which is financed by the European Union and the Greek State.

Nikitas V. Georgiopoulos is an archeologist, graduated from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 1998. He has been working since 2001 at the Ministry of Culture Education, and Religious Affairs (Directorate of Museums – Department of Exhibitions and Museological Research). He has participated in designing, and presenting numerous educational exhibitions and programmes, as well as activities and events in museums, archaeological sites, schools and special designed spaces.

Tonia Koutsouraki is a graduate of the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Ioannina, majoring in the science of Archaeology (1990). She has worked on the archaeological excavations for the Athens Metro and has participated in excavations of the University of Ioannina in Greece and Jordan. She has license for marine excavations and has participated in the underwater excavation of the prehistoric wreckage near the island of Dokos, under the supervision of the Hellenic Institute of Marine Archaeology, of which she is an affiliate since 1988. From 2002 till today she is an employee in the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (Directorate of Museums – Department of Educational Programs and Communication). She has also written information booklets with historical and cultural content.

Dr. Nikolaos Simou is a senior researcher at the National and Technical University of Athens. He has been involved in many initiatives and EC projects concerning metadata modeling and aggregation, digital cultural heritage access and interoperability, and semantic web technologies.

Alexandra is an associate professor of museology at the University of the Aegean, Greece, Department of Cultural Technology and Communication. She studied archaeology and history of art at the University of Athens and museum studies at the University of Leicester, UK. Her research interests are on the history, theory and management of collections and museums, the interpretation of material culture, and the use of new media technologies as interpretive media. She has published in Greek and international journals and participates in research projects in Greece and abroad.

Assistant Professor Christos Kalloniatis holds a PhD from the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the University of the Aegean and a master degree on Computer Science from the University of Essex, UK. Currently he is an assistant professor in the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the University of the Aegean. His main research interests are the elicitation, analysis and modelling of security and privacy requirements in traditional and cloud-based systems, Privacy Enhancing Technologies and the design of Information System Security and Privacy in Cultural Informatics. He is an author of several refereed papers in international scientific journals and conferences and has served as a visiting professor in many European Institutions. Prior to his academic career he has served at various places on the Greek public sector including the North Aegean Region and Ministry of Interior, Decentralisation and e-Governance. He is a lead-member of the Cultural Informatics research group as well as the privacy requirements research group in the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the University of the Aegean and has a close collaboration with the Laboratory of Information & Communication Systems Security of the University of the Aegean. He has served as a member of various development and research projects.

She received her undergraduate degree in Archaeology from Aristotle University and her postgraduate degree in Archaeological Heritage Management and Museums from Cambridge University. In 2009 she completed her doctorate in Archaeology (Southampton University). She is currently a lecturer of Heritage Management at the University of Patras.

Initially trained as an Archeological artifacts conservator, later widened her education with an MA in Conservation of Historical Buildings. Cofounder and currently Managing Director of DIADRASIS- Interdisciplinary research on Archaeological & Architectural conservation.

Eleni Toli has been involved since 2002 in the scientific, technical and financial coordination of several EU- and national funded projects related to ICT in general, and to Digital Libraries, Data Research Infrastructures and Cloud Computing, in particular.

Verena Perko, born in 1952, is a writer and poet, an archaeologist with a doctor’s degree in the field of Roman archeology, defended at the University of Ljubljana. She upgraded her professional knowledge at ICOM summer schools of the Masaryk University in Brno, at various museums in USA as a Paul Getty scholarship-holder and at the East England University in Norwich. She studied museology at the University of Zagreb and completed her studies with a doctoral thesis at prof. TomislavŠola. Perko’s published thesis the fundamental theoretical work in Slovenian language for heritage studies. Verena Perko started her career at the City Museum of Ljubljana and at the University of Ljubljana. Since 1997she has been a museum curator in the Regional Museum in Kranj. For a shorter period she acted as Director General of the Directorate for Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. Perko is one of the initiators and founders of heritage doctoral studies at the University of Ljubljana and holds courses in museology and public archaeology at the Department for Archaeology at Ljubljana University. She is an organizer and a teacher to museum professionals. Verena Perko is an active member of several Slovenian and international professional and scientific associations, such as ICOM, ICOFOM, ICOMOSS, INTERPRETEUROPE.