Virtual Trip Ltd. proud sponsorship of the 11th Hellenic Data Management Symposium (HDMS)

 Virtual Trip Ltd., member of the Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem was a golden sponsor of the 11^th Hellenic Data Management Symposium (HDMS). HDMS is the annual forum for the Greek database community to present and discuss recent advances in the data management field. The program of  HDMS 2012 included research and application paper presentations, tutorials, panels and demonstrations of research prototypes. The Symposium was organized by the Technical University of Crete and Athens University of  Economics and Business.

After a successful series of ten events, the 11th HDMS was held with great success in the beautiful city of Chania on 28 - 29 June 2012.

Thanassis Parathyras presenting Virtual Trip Ltd to the members of the Ecosystem

Thanassis Parathyras presentation of Virtual Trip Ltd, with emphasis on services, to the team of Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, talking about the past, present and future of Virtual Trip, explaining in detail how his team works and is being organized:







You can also find the presentation slides here:

Virtual Trip LTD

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Dimitris Tsigos presenting to the members of the ecosystem

Dimitris Tsigos presentation to the team of the Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem talking about the background, history, current positioning and future plans of the organization which is the evolution of the first student startup in Greece:

Video streaming by Ustream

Here you can also find the presentation slides:

Virtual Trip The Story

View more presentations from Dimitris G.E. Tsigos

The Colliding Worlds of Virtual and Real Currency Gambling

[Originally posted on http://www.socialgamesobserver.com/guest-post-virtual-and-real-currency-gambling-12660]

[Editor's note: Real money gambling could turn into a main revenue driver for social games – if it is going to happen. In the first few weeks of 2012 this seems to have become increasingly likely; both Facebook and Zynga have been reported to be in talks with potential partners, and slot machine company IGT bought social casino game publisher DoubleDown Interactive for $500M in January. We are covering this topic from different perspectives (see the first articleon gambling law).
This is a guest post by Andrew Hughes, fourth-time mobile entrepreneur and Co-Founder & CEO of AbZorba Games (founded in summer 2011) whose Games Social Casino recreate the live casino game experience for Android. Currently AbZorba is expanding to multiple platforms and channels, including online and IPTV.
In this guest post, Andrew shares his views on opportunities and risks of real money social gambling.]

My father once said “Everything in life is a gamble son, just know the odds”.

Sound advice and timely for those of us who thrive off casino app games as decisions will soon have to be made to align or decline real money gambling alliances.

Social gamers’ growing appetite for casino apps

Whilst Virtual Casino app games may not be the next ‘throw a cabbage at a pig’ blockbuster – and how many try that tough route? – but they are trending, and will continue to trend, for the very fact they are perennial ‘evergreen’ fun that gamers come back to time and time again. Games such as Blackjack, Poker, Bingo to name a few.

The mobile format in particular offers the ‘perfect storm’ of smartphone penetration, network reliability and app popularity. Throw in live multi-players, like we did with AbZorba’s Live Blackjack21, and it’s seriously a compelling format.

Its proper, grown-up gaming with proper in-app spending power; AMRPU in double digits and lifespan that only cartoon characters can dream of. But take a look more closely and what can we see going on?

Online gambling is a $30B market, but what are the risks?

Casino apps sit right in the cross-hairs of the moral and legal debate between just-for-fun and real gambling – virtual chip play or real dollar risks. The outcome could be the biggest opportunity yet or the biggest threat. By offering links to gamble real money runs a considerable risk the high rollers, or ‘whales’, could turn away in droves.

Even without the chance to win real money some players spend up to $3000 for virtual chips.

So, why should a perfectly good app generating revenues from virtual goods take risks to court controversy and potential gamer backlash by offering real money gambling? And, in the online world, why should Facebook and Zynga for example, the most successful social games partnership yet, separate their strategies to contemplate launching disparate real gaming?

Simple: money. Serious money. Some say Facebook could be worth as much as $100 billion revenue when, and not if, online gambling in the US opens up again.
Even so, data shows a total global value of online gambling in 2011 approaching $30 billion of which casinos, including poker and blackjack, contributed 46%. Bingo wasn’t too bad at $1.6 billion though and marks a strong increase and presence. Let’s understand that’s a 12% increase on 2010 and in recessionary times.

Serious questions arise though. How will gamers themselves take to being invited to move from entertainment to gambling for real? Where is their risk tolerance line drawn and do we dare entice them over? Or, if we don’t, will they just go elsewhere to play? And anyway, is it even up to us to police them? Hard choices indeed.

At AbZorba, we believe most gamers have made a conscious decision not to gamble, or can’t, whilst still loving our casino game format. We know our gamers specifically enjoy the live multiplayer element we provide, where their skills are tested against others not their wallets, moreover it’s key to their loyalty. That’s not to say they don’t spend real money, some spent as much as $3000. But that whole social element of chatting up the person on the same table and buying them a ‘cocktail’ is pure fun, not risk.

However, we have noticed a fascinating change. There is a sharp rise of interest for real money gambling. Perhaps there is an untapped appetite for social gamers to morph in to real gamblers after all, empirical evidence suggests so.

Real and virtual casino gaming industry – a clash of titans

As the games industry debates the real battleground will not be between the likes of Facebook and Zynga but between the real and virtual gaming industry. Each titan is eying each other’s territory. To the real casinos social sites and apps provide a massively untapped opportunity but why should Facebook, arguably the best gatekeeper, leave ‘chips’ on the table? Why not just enter the game itself?

We too have been inundated with request from real gambling companies to reach our gamers. Why? Our gamers play live in an authentic casino environment and it’s that competitive element that encourages greater spend compared with say a single player format and they get that.

The question remains for us all though. Should we rush to bridge the divide between virtual and real money? Can the two worlds co-exist, indeed should they? Its undecided but one thing is for sure, the risks if we do or don’t are real, the stakes are high and my father’s advice has never rung truer.

Virtual Trip sponsor of the 1st APP CAMP and ACM SIGMOD / PODS annual conference

Virtual Trip Ltd, member of the Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, is a proud sponsor of the 1st App Camp that will take place at selected App Campuses between 4 and 19 July 2011.

The 1st App Camp focuses exclusively on the development of mobile apps or tablet PC apps. It is worth mentioning that MVNS S.A. which is an active member of HAMAC- Hellenic Association of Mobile Application Companies, for the past two years has been implementing an ambitious plan of research & development on mobile social gaming, having early foreseen the explosive growth of this market.

Synthex S.A. is an official distributor of eFront and Solo Gateway in Greece.

The Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem has announced that Synthex S.A. is the official distributor in Greece of eFront, an easy to use, visually attractive, SCORM certified, eLearning and human development platform, and Solo Gateway, an all-in-one Unified Communications software for SMEs.

Synthex S.A. has experience and international presence for more than 20 years in the areas of consulting, transfer of knowledge, and technology expertise both in America and Europe. The company is responsible for designing, developing and implementing organizational and operational tools to improve the overall quality and efficiency of infrastructure, products, and services for companies and organizations.

Collaboration between MVNS and Tapjoy

mVision Network Solutions SA, member of the Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, announced that the 1^st of June was the beginning of the collaboration with Tapjoy, a leader in monetization and distribution of services in official markets of Android (Google) and iOS (Apple). Just four days after the publication of the updated application of Live BlackJack 21, MVNS doubled its revenues.

The Live BlackJack 21 is ranked in the Top 10 of the Android Market

The mVision Network Solutions S.A., a member of the Virtual Trip's business ecosystem, has done one of the most dynamic entries in the mobile gaming industry. MVNS' Live BlackJack 21 is currently ranked 9th in the American Android Market, Cards and Casino section, while Zygna's popular poker game is in the 20th place.

A big, sincere and warm "Thank you"

Exactly tean years ago, on Tuesday September 5th 2000, Virtual Trip Ltd was founded in Heraklion, Crete.

The founders of the company were Periklis Akritidis, Miltos Vassilakis, Nikos Ventouras, Charalambos Gikas, Dimitris Tsigos and criticalpublics.com, a company founded by Costis Dallas and Alexandros Kouris.

Virtual Trip was a student start-up in the ICT sector, based in Heraklion, Crete at the Science & Technology Park of Crete. We all know that success was anything but obvious.

On tha occasion of our 10th birthday, I'd like to say a big, sincere and warm "Thank you" to my Virtual Trip founding partners! Without them, our entrepreneurial ecosystem would never have existed. So, Costi & Alexandre, Perikli, Milto, Niko & Chari, thank you very much for taking the risk and starting Virtual Trip! Over all, thank you for setting the culture of technical excellence, "aim high" and extroversion, which have been the success ingridients for our venture.

Virtual Trip has evolved to a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem of hight-tech ICT companies. In our second decade we'll try even harder to materialize our vision for greek high-tech companies competing successfully in the global market.

As far as I am concerned, the main lesson learnt from these ten years is very simple: "It's all about people". Only people can make the difference. So, our objective remains to get people excited with high-technology, both for producing and for using/consuming it.

We're still in the begining, all the best is yet to come :)

Thank you very much,

Dimitris Tsigos

We are hiring s/w engineers specialized in .NET and in PHP

Virtual Trip Ltd, the leading company of the Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem seeks for Computer Scientists / Engineers for its Services Division located at 40A Katehaki Ave, which undertakes consulting, development and integration services projects for large organizations of the private and the public sector in Greece and the neighbor States.

Virtual Trip Ltd offers consulting, development and integration services in the following fields:

- Network – Centric Information Systems
- Systems & Networks Infrastructure
- Enterprise Security Consultancy
- Voice Portals & Multi – Channel / Multi – Modal Applications
- Spatial Intelligence Systems

- Human Capital Development Information Systems

Currently there is a job opening for Software Engineers specialized in the Microsoft .NET development framework and/or in PHP.

The Canditates should have:
- Degree in Computer Science or Engineering
- Experience in the Microsoft .NET development framework or in PHP
- Experience in Microsoft Sharepoint and generally in HTML / Web Development

The Candidates will integrade in a demanding business environment, with great emphasis in quality and performance. High professionalism and team spirit are demanded. Virtual Trip offers an attractive compesantion package, challeging working environment and advanced career opportunities.

Send your CV at talent@vtripgroup.com

Transformation Services Laboratory receives a SERVICE COMPUTATION 2009 Award

A research paper on "Enhancing Service Network Analysis and Service Selection Using Requirements-Based Service Discovery", which had been submitted to the "SERVICE COMPUTATION 2009 - The First International Conferences on Advanced Service Computing" by Konstantinos Zachos, Christos Nikolaou, Pantelis Petridis, George Stratakis, Manolis Voskakis, and Eyaggelos Papathanasiou, has received an award by the reviewers.

The research team is composed by members of the Transformation Services Laboratory at the University of Crete in cooperation with the S-Cube Network of Excellence, lead by Prof. Christos Nikolaou while the paper which received the award is part of the TSL efforts to link requirements engineering to service value networks.

Virtual Trip is a research partner of TSL and proud to support one of its major activities, The Second Service and Software Architectures, Infrastructures and Engineering (SSAIE) Summer School.

Dimitris Tsigos interview on away.gr for the transformation of Virtual Trip to an Angel Investment Fund

[Interview]Dimitris Tsigos' interview on away.gr for the transformation of Virtual Trip to an Angel Investment Fund

Fujitsu Australia- New Zealand chooses eFront to be their LMS

A recent significant addition to the rapid expansion of Epignosis international customer base is the agreement with Fujitsu Australia- New Zealand. In the context of this project, Fujitsu will use eFront platform for managing its human capital, starting with 2,500 users while it is expected that the total amount of users will have reached the 7,500 users by the end of 2010.

Fujitsu Australia- New Zealand is a provider of integrated information and communications technology solutions. Ranging from strategic consulting to application and infrastructure solutions and services, Fujitsu has earned reputation as the single supplier of choice for leading corporate and government organizations. Therefore, Fujitsu has developed a network of over 10 million customers and 160,000 professional staff in 60 countries around the world. In Australia and New Zealand Fujitsu has 10,000 staff.

EPIGNOSIS Ltd is a fast growing, young, dynamic, and technology oriented ELearning Company. Based in Athens – Greece, it’s a member of the Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, together with other twelve high-tech companies in Greece, Spain and the US. EPIGNOSIS Ltd, is the vendor of “eFront” e-Learning platform, envisages e-Learning 2.0 as the dominant approach for human capital development, education & training services.

Lefteris Trimintzios nominated as "Vtripper of the year 2009"

Lefteris Trimintzios, Senior Software Engineer at Virtual Trip, was nominated as "Vtripper of the Year 2009" at a party which took place at Virtual Trip Group HQ in Athens, Greece on Thursday February 4th 2010.

Being part of the vtrip team from its very early steps, in 2002 at the Science & Technology Park of Crete, Lefteris contribution for materialing the vtrip vision in 2009 has been absolutely great, serving as an outstanding example of appying the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem's corporate values: Entrepreneurship, Usefulness, Innovation, Commitment and Quality.

Lefteris follows Periklis Venakis, Chief Software Engineer of Epignosis Ltd who was the "Vtripper of the Year 2008", and George Dramitinos, Director of Services in Virtual Trip, who was nominated the title of "Vtripper of the Year 2007" in January 2008 when the "Vtripper of the Year" award was introduced for first time.

CIRITE Technologies joins SOLO Gateway VAR Partners community

SOLO Gateway is pleased and honoured to announce that CIRITE Technologies (Pvt) Ltd., www.cirite.com, has joined the SOLO Gateway VAR Partners community as the first partner in Sri Lanka!

CIRITE, based in Sri Lanka and in the UK, is dedicated to providing ICT Infrastructure Management and Application Development Services, to a wide spectrum of international, private as well as corporate clients from SME to large scale.

In SOLO Gateway we are delighted for welcoming CIRITE to our Partners network and committed to exploring opportunities in its very interesting target markets.

Virtual Trip approved as an EBAN Gold Member

Virtual Trip announced today that has been approved to join EBAN as a Gold Member.

EBAN, the European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds, & Early Stage Market Players,is a non-profit association representing the interests of business angels, business angels networks (BANs), seed funds and other entities involved in bridging the equity gap in Europe. EBAN was established with the collaboration of the European Commission in 1999 by a group of pioneer BANs in Europe and EURADA (European Association of Development Agencies).

Virtual Trip recently announced its new strategy for formally operating an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the sense of providing financing, strategy consulting, business development coordination, human capital development & marketing communication services, financial & accounting management and MIS/IT infrastructure both to its spin-out companies and to other high-tech start-ups to which will invest in the future.

Virtual Trip materialized major international expansion in 2009

The Virtual Trip Entrepreneurial Ecosystem is pleased to announce that a major international expansion plan has been successfully implemented in 2009.

Specifically:

-Virtual Trip Spain SL, the first Group Antenna Office started its operations in Madrid - Spain, EU, in January 2009, contributing to the promotion of Group products in Iberia and in Latin America. New antenna offices will be founded in 2010 in New York - US, London - UK, Mumbai - India and Nicosia - Cyprus.

- Actech LLC, a new Virtual Trip venture in Akron -OH, US, was founded in September 2009 to promote Group products, starting from the Group flagship product SOLO Gateway, to the US market.

- eFront, the Virtual Trip e-learning offering by EPIGNOSIS, materialized a major expansion of its international VAR Partners network from 5 partners in January to 33 Partners in December.

- Insurance Manager, Virtual Trip's integrated business software solution for insurance agents and brokers materialized its first sales abroad, having approximately 10 installations in Cyprus.

- Mobile Social, the unique mobile social networking UGC/gaming platform by MVNS has been tested by more than 10 MNOs across EU and relevant services will be launched in Q1/2010

- SOLO Gateway, beyond its introduction to the US market by Actech LLC, is in the process of creating an international VAR Partners network with more than 40 members in Africa, Asia, Latin America and EU

Virtual Trip is committed to continue its international growth at even higher pace in 2010. Beyond eFront e-Learning, SOLO Gateway, Mobile Social and Insurance Manager, a new portfolio of high-tech software products will be promoted to the international market, including OpenVote secure internet voting system, S4Trips electronic tourism services distribution platform, Publisher integrated newspapers publishing platform and the Diagramma Student Information System.

Virtual Trip introduces the concept of the "Entrepreneurial Ecosystem"

Virtual Trip, a leading entrepreneurial group in the ICT field, is pleased to introduce the concept of the "Entrepreneurial Ecosystem":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurial_ecosystem

""An entrepreneurial ecosystem is a group of non-competing companies, including start-ups, established companies and one or more coordination entities, which share the same vision, values, culture, strategy and business processes and decide to form an organization in order to explore economies of scale in business functions such as business development, financing, market analysis, marketing communications, IT / MIS infrastructure, human capital management, legal support, financial & accounting management.""

In Virtual Trip we suggest that this new form of business network is ideal for the development of new ventures in related fields; We announce an open invitation to high-tech start-up companies worldwide which would be interested in joining our ecosystem as well as an open-invitation to angel investors and VC funds who are interested in supporting this first entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Moreover, we would be very glad to share our experience and know-how to other groups of start-ups which would be interested in forming entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Virtual Trip delivers High-Performance Computing in Computational Molecular Biology

The R&TD dept. of Virtual Trip has successfully completed in 2008 the PA.MICH ("PAthogenous MECHanisms") project, a co-funded, R&TD, computational molecular biology project in the framework of the Regional Enterprise Program (PEP) of Crete, run in collaboration with the Lab. of Crystallography, dept. of Biology, Univ. of Crete.

The project developed a methodology and related computational tools that assist in the design and synthesis of durgs, that are capable of inhibiting the undesired actions of certain proteins and enzyms. Virtual Trip developed a tool that scans through world-wide databases of small molecules, (e.g. the "Cambridge Structural Database", containing ~400.000 molecules), and superimposes each candidate on the "active center" of a given target-protein. Subsequently, all candidates are reported and new "lead compounds" are synthesized. The project's results have been successfully demonstrated with the BcZBP protein of the Bacillus Cereous, a protein with significant similarity (3 homologues) with the highly hazardous B.anthracis. 111 compounds were computationally synthesized and have been proposed as candidates to inhibit the infectuous activity of this protein.

The above outcomes, combined with recent global research results from cancer research, immunology and cardiology can potentially lead to the development of a wide range of antibiotics, to the cure of certain forms of cancer and to the reduction of cholesterol and the atheromatic plaque (which cause cardiovascular diseases).

Virtual Trip and the Univ. of Crete are committed to followup this research work and proceed with the real synthesis and clinical testing of the PA.MICH results, as well as to extend the application domain of this methodology and tools to other areas.

Virtual Trip moves in new HQ bulding in Athens

The Athens-based team of Virtual Trip has recently moved in a new building which will serve as Group HQ. This brand-new, six-floors, 480 m² establishment is one more major milestone to the Group's development path, which keeps on steady growth, even during this challenging crisis-era.

The interior design is based on the concept of open spaces and designed to boost team-members collaboration. Providing a high-end working environment in terms of usefulness, easiness and design remains a key-objective for Virtual Trip which is greatly materialized in this exciting new workspace.