Biotechnologia2019 1.0

Welcome to Greece and ΒΙΟΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ 2019, the annual gathering of our extended biotech and pharma family. Since our first meeting nineteen years ago our wish has been to share with you Greece’s history, culture, and natural beauty. Starting in 2001 we have sat with you beneath the windmills of Mykonos; walked in the medieval city of the Knights of St. John in Rhodes; visited the home of the great Macedonian kings, Philip II and Alexander the Great, in northern Greece; marveled at the site of the great Minoan palaces in Crete; admired the magnificence of ancient and modern Athens; had a taste of the unique blend of Greek and Italian culture in Corfu; strolled in the port of Nafplion, the first capital of the modern Greek state; were welcomed in Samos, the island of Pythagoras; were inspired at Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games; watched the full moon rise over the ancient Temple of Poseidon in Sounion; climbed to the small village of Papingo in the Pindos Mountains of Epirus; experienced the centuries-old multicultural history of Thessaloniki, the capital of northern Greece; met in a sea of olive trees in Messinia by the bay where Greek independence was determined; in Eastern Crete; we were treated to a private visit to the ancient necropolis of Eleftherna and the leper island Spinalonga; we were hosted by friends in the small city of Kastoria, a Byzantine urban center continuously inhabited from the Byzantine age until today; we revisited glorious Athens; we were back in Corfu, from where we visited the closely connected with Corfu ancient Greek city of Bouthroton in Albania; and last year we returned to Crete where we tasted the famous Mediterranean diet and admired the amazing exhibits in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.

This year we are back at the Cape Sounio Grecotel Resort in Attica, near the small port city of Lavrio and the ancient silver mines that were a major source of wealth for classical Athens.