Biotechnologia 2016

Welcome to Athens and ΒΙΟΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ 2016, the annual gathering of our extended biotech and pharma

family. Since our first meeting sixteen 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; and last year we were hosted by friends in the small city of Kastoria, a Byzantine urban center

continuously inhabited from the Byzantine age until today.


This year we are meeting in Vouliagmeni, right outside Athens at the Astir Palace Hotel, the same place where

we met in 2005. Our program starts in the evening of Wednesday, June 22 nd with a cocktail reception. Our

business sessions, as always, will be on Thursday and Friday mornings, followed by lunch. On Thursday

afternoon we will visit the Acropolis before being given a private guided tour of the Acropolis Museum. On

Friday afternoon we will hold the Alex Barkas Memorial Soccer Tournament in honor of our great friend

Alex. In the morning of Saturday, June 25 th we will visit the Ancient Agora, the political, cultural, and

commercial center of ancient Athens. After lunch in the adjacent picturesque area of Monastiraki, we will visit

the National Archeological Museum. Our day will end with our farewell dinner back at the hotel.