Croatia’s Weekend Media Festival in Rovinj has been connecting various industries with communication and marketing experts for years. They’ve explored topics from fundamentals of digital marketing, employer branding and new social media strategies to leadership, technology and storytelling. No wonder one of their recent expansions revolves around AI innovations.

AI Weekend, the new AI conference in the region takes place in conjunction with the renowned WMF. From September 19th to 22nd, top-notch experts and enthusiasts from the AI world will gather to demystify this technology, unveil its potential, and showcase its exciting possibilities.

One of those experts will be Orestis Trasanidis, Director & AI Leader at the EIT Community in Silicon Valley. The EIT Community is a collaborative network comprising the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s (EIT) long-term partnerships in academia, research, and business, among others, focused on on driving AI innovation.

As the EIT AI Leader, Trasanidis directs AI initiatives, coordinates projects, and leads an EIT Community, developing tools and contributing to policy reports. Additionally, as the Managing Director of the EIT Hub Silicon Valley, he works on fostering transatlantic synergies and facilitating access to US and EU programs, aiming to bridge the ecosystems.

We used the opportunity to speak with Orestis Trasanidis about those transatlantic collaborations, his expertise in leading innovation projects and AI initiatives, what it takes to make a good application for EU projects, and how regional startups can leverage them even more.

“How to get machines to do things they do in the movies”

Throughout his career, Trasanidis has been involved in numerous innovation projects all over Europe. He focused his academic work on decision-making, and in recent years, he has worked at EIT Digital to develop sustainable open innovation ecosystems. No wonder, as he holds MSc degrees in ICT, Smart Cities, and Environmental Engineering.

At one point, however, he switched his focus to AI. “AI became crucial when I started tackling sustainability challenges, especially around decision-making. I’ve always been driven by optimizing solutions to complex problems, and AI naturally aligned with that goal.”

Sources:TheRecursive