Workshop #1 of the SPEARHEAD EU project was hosted by the National Observatory of Athens and it took place in Peloponnese from 11-13 June, 2024.

1. Aim & Scope

This is the first face-to-face meeting of the consortium. Brings together the participants, the Expert Advisory Committee, and selected experts of the field to present and discuss the goals and plans of the project as well as the first results.

Workshop 1 is organized at the end of the preparation phase of SPEARHEAD (see Figure 1-1). This is a carefully selected timeframe, at which the Consortium has already interacted and collaborated for half a year. At that point six of the projects’ Deliverables have been finalized and/or are submitted to the EU. These deliverables mostly concern plans to be deployed during the main analysis phase of the project. In addition, the end of the preparatory phase marks the time that Partners have recruited their respective personnel. Therefore, Workshop 1, provides an excellent forum of interaction between all members of the project, when ideas have already shaped.

2. Workshop’s Agenda

The agenda of the Workshop can be viewed here.

3. Participants

The participants of the Workshop are listed here.

4. How to participate

This is a hybrid workshop. There will be no registration fee for remote participation. However, registration is required. Please express your interest through this form. For any questions and/or inquiries please contact spearhead@noa.gr.

5. Venue

The conference premises of the Sikyon Coast Hotel, Peloponnese, Greece are the Workshops’ venue. The conference venue is in a small and picturesque village of Sykia, 2 km from the town of Xylokastro. This historic hotel enjoys a quiet location on the Corinthian beach, next to a pinewood forest. The hotel boasts a unique architecture, as it is housed in a 1916 villa.

6. Transport

The area is served by the Athens International Airport (AIA). A suburban train runs every hour (between 06:07 & 22:07). The trip takes about 100 minutes. The ticket costs 14€ (one direction).

Take the suburban/proastiakos train (obs: make sure this is NOT the metro) from AIA in the direction of Athens (departure at each hour at hh:07) and change trains at Kato Acharnai station (arrival hh:40) towards Kiato (departure at hh:45, only 5 mins after arrival). After a further 70-minute train journey you will arrive at Kiato station, which is <10 km from the conference venue. Then the most straightforward way is to take a taxi (cost 15€) from the taxi station outside the train station to reach the venue.

Useful links here.

7. Presentations

You can find the presentations of the workshop here.

8. Recordings

You can find the recordings of the workshop here.