andreas

Venue: Thessaloniki International Exhibition & Congress Centre – HELEXPO

154 Egnatias Street

546 36 Thessaloniki, Greece

Event description

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Department of Civil Engineering (AUTH – PP2) in close cooperation with the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH – PP1) and the Professionals’ Chamber of Thessaloniki (PCTH – PP3), partners of the project “Freight transport services connecting shipper and carrier operations / SCOPE”, funded by the INTERREG Balkan-Mediterranean program, have successfully organized between September 16-18^th , 2021 the 1^st SCOPE Communication Event about the project.

The event was held during the International Thessaloniki Fair (85^th ITF 2021) that took place physically at the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre between 11-19^th September 2021. This event is considered one of the most significant annual events providing a multi-dimensional physical interaction between key stakeholders from all interested sectors (i.e. transportation, energy, manufacturing, retail, tourism, etc.). The meeting was organized in physical form, implementing all security measures and necessary hygiene protocols according to the national legislation and protocol of Anti-Covid 19 measures in Greece.

Due to the unavailability of key national freight stakeholders to attend in one-day physical event and their willingness to have a live presentation of SCOPE outcomes and platform features, it was commonly agreed between the Greek consortium partners (CERTH, AUTH & PCTH) that a specific exhibition corner dedicated to SCOPE project will be placed during the ITF for a 3-day period (16-18^th September 2021) in the CERTH’s exhibition kiosk. Thus, no official agenda or registration process was followed although interested stakeholders could provide their information to a written form if they wished to.

Invited stakeholders had the opportunity to learn about the SCOPE project’s impacts, completed outputs and expected results with a special focus on the video presentation of the SCOPE FEP’s revised alpha version in order to proceed to a fruitful discussion and evaluation of the platform’s offered services. Only one video presentation was presented and all relevant information about SCOPE project and platform were included in the used printed promotional materials.

Key results and outcomes

The event was successfully organized. Around one-hundred fifty (150) stakeholders attended the SCOPE exhibition corner and shown interest for the SCOPE platform features and future exploitation methods. In this context, several stakeholders provided remarks on how the SCOPE results could be deployed effectively. Several comments provided by the participating stakeholders are summarized below:

• Overall feedback was quite positive, and the Greek stakeholders were very excited to see the final version of the SCOPE FEP.
• The platform was seen as easy to use and user-friend interface.
• Highly appreciated that SCOPE platform is available in Greek & English language as well as the video tutorials in English and local languages.
• The rating system and evaluation section (i.e. Evaluating History) was highly appreciated as well by stakeholders, since nowadays everyone reads Online Reviews before purchasing a service or a product.
• The verification process is very easy and effective at the same time.
• The issue of these platforms he claimed is that they need to put a floor and ceiling price or a minimum/maximum price for a certain number of kilometers. This measure would limit the abusive usage from both end-user categories.
• Last but not least, a special section of platform effectiveness statistics should be enhanced and presented within the platform and social media in order to illustrate the added-values and aggregated positive results of the SCOPE platform.

Venue: Xheko Imperial Hotel

Rruga Ibrahim Rugova Nr.56/H2

Tirana AL, 1019, Albania

Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tirana and The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, partners of the project “Freight transport services connecting shipper and carrier operations / SCOPE”, funded by the INTERREG Balkan-Mediterranean program, organized on September 27, 2021 National Communication Event about the project.

The focus of this project is to create facilities for all businesses operating in the field of land transport, to facilitate the exchange of products and information and to support multimodal freight services in the Balkan and Mediterranean regions, through the creation of an online platform and will bring numerous benefits by reducing transportation costs. Meanwhile the focus of the meeting was to identify and invite potential interested stakeholders and to ensure that they will become part of the platform.

The meeting was organized in hybrid form, with physical presence and online participation, implementing all security measures according to the protocol of Anti-Covid measures in Albania

Overall outcome of the event for the SCOPE project

• About 20 stakeholders interested to join the platform immediately and they would promote the platform to their colleagues as well.
• Positive feedback for the platform by the Albanian stakeholders.
• Platform rated 4 out of 5.
• Opinions from stakeholders.
• Dissemination of communication materials of SCOPE project.
• Collaboration with MIE and discussing next steps of the project in order to ensure successful implementation of all project activities.

Venue: GoToMeeting-virtual

Event description

On 31st of March 2021, Interreg Balkan-med “SCOPE” project organized the 3rd project meeting virtually. The consortium consist of 8 members from Albania, Bulgaria and Greece. Throughout the event, the partners presented the project’s objectives, current achievements and the alpha version of SCOPE freight exchange platform presented by APOPSIS SA – external expert company.

Thanks also to the attendees, Stefan Kostadinov (BCCI), Natalia Dicheva (BCCI), Dimitrios Nalmpantis (AUTh/TSRG), Pavlina Lazaridou (AUTh/TSRG), Vasiliki Amprasi (AUTh/TSRG), Evangelos Genitsaris (AUTh/TSRG), Nastjana Dedo (CCIT), Majlinda Lila (MIE), Pervin Pasholli (MIE), Ivo Tsarev (RIA Smolyan), Pavlos Kazantzidis (PCTh), Iliya Godev (SmCCI) and Petros Pallis (APOPSIS SA).

Lastly thanks to the moderator Dr. Afroditi Anagnostopoulou (CERTH-HIT) for her presentations, photos and for hosting the event. Plus, we would like to thank and Mr. Giorgos Voulkas (APOPSIS SA) for the demonstration of SCOPE freight exchange platform alpha version. We would like to thank all the participants that brought their expertise and experience, and engaged in the fruitful and constructive discussions.