Creators of Cosmos SMPC
INTERVIEW
Where did the idea come from ? Who are the project holders ?
The idea was born during the professional counseling sessions that Mr. Kekkas and Ms. Kondyli were engaged to. The concept of the idea combines the love of the two founders for Live Action Role Playing games with its capacity to become a hybrid tool that may offer added value in major economic axes. The company has been established as a Single Member Private Company under the distinct title “Creators of Cosmos”
Mr. Konsantinos Kekkas holds the position of the company’s Presidency. Mr. Kekkas holds a degree from the School of Local Government, from the Technological Educational Institute of Kalamata and he is an active member of the Greek community of L.A.R.P. players, with participation in games both in Greece and abroad. He has previous professional experience as a contract worker for the municipality of Athens, a private company employee in the catering industry and as a performer in various theatrical projects. He is an athlete of archery with competitive claims in national and international competitions.
Mrs. Angelina Kondyli holds the position of Director of Research/Environment/Security/ Systems and Technology. Mrs. Kondyli, holds a Bachelor Degree in Tourism Management, from the Management and Economy department of the Technological Educational Institute of Patras (now known as Western Greece University of Applied Sciences), she is a post graduate student at Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies of University of Piraeus for the degree of Certified Systemic Analyst Professional, and an active member of the Greek community of L.A.R.P. players. She has previous professional experience as a travel agent and personal secretary with organizational competences and she has organized and implemented cultural festivals with a total investment of €100,000, within a three years period.
Mr. Mario Chatzidamianos holds the position of Director of Communications & Business Development. Mr. Chatzidamianos holds a degree of Journalism and Public Relations. He has a 20 years background of professional experience as a journalist for Greek and international media specializing in international relations, defense, and diplomacy (war correspondent, chief political and parliamentary editor for digital media). He has worked as a career development consultant in private and public, co-funded employment promotion programs; he has designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated various European programs. He is the only Greek entitled by Knowledge Broker’s Forum (1 of the 3 global networks of knowledge managers) as Senior Social and Solidarity Economy Knowledge Broker, thus producing evidence-based policy making in the third sector of Economy. He has been a business consultant for over 10 years, with most of his ventures being recognized as Best Practices among Public and Private Bodies in the Social and Solidarity economy sector.
Mr. Konsantinos Kekkas holds the position of the company’s Presidency. Mr. Kekkas holds a degree from the School of Local Government, from the Technological Educational Institute of Kalamata and he is an active member of the Greek community of L.A.R.P. players, with participation in games both in Greece and abroad. He has previous professional experience as a contract worker for the municipality of Athens, a private company employee in the catering industry and as a performer in various theatrical projects. He is an athlete of archery with competitive claims in national and international competitions.
Mrs. Angelina Kondyli holds the position of Director of Research/Environment/Security/ Systems and Technology. Mrs. Kondyli, holds a Bachelor Degree in Tourism Management, from the Management and Economy department of the Technological Educational Institute of Patras (now known as Western Greece University of Applied Sciences), she is a post graduate student at Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies of University of Piraeus for the degree of Certified Systemic Analyst Professional, and an active member of the Greek community of L.A.R.P. players. She has previous professional experience as a travel agent and personal secretary with organizational competences and she has organized and implemented cultural festivals with a total investment of €100,000, within a three years period.
Mr. Mario Chatzidamianos holds the position of Director of Communications & Business Development. Mr. Chatzidamianos holds a degree of Journalism and Public Relations. He has a 20 years background of professional experience as a journalist for Greek and international media specializing in international relations, defense, and diplomacy (war correspondent, chief political and parliamentary editor for digital media). He has worked as a career development consultant in private and public, co-funded employment promotion programs; he has designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated various European programs. He is the only Greek entitled by Knowledge Broker’s Forum (1 of the 3 global networks of knowledge managers) as Senior Social and Solidarity Economy Knowledge Broker, thus producing evidence-based policy making in the third sector of Economy. He has been a business consultant for over 10 years, with most of his ventures being recognized as Best Practices among Public and Private Bodies in the Social and Solidarity economy sector.
What do they do ? What’s the project about ?
Creators of Cosmos S.M.P.C. is the first Greek company that designs and produces scripts for Live Action Role Playing Games. The company uses these scripts in four axes of business activities: Tourism – Creative Industries – Gaming – Knowledge Economy. The games produced may be used in five categories of services and products: as destination management tools, for lifelong learning, for professional capacity building, to tackle social exclusion, as well as for research and development of new products and services.
Why did they create it? What kind of impact (social, artistic, innovative) does the project have ?
The company produces scenarios for Live Action Role Playing Games (L.A.R.P.) and events. With our idea we’ve managed to establish the first hybrid Hellenic company with its innovation lying with the use of our scenarios in four business axes that is: tourism, creative industries, gaming and knowledge economy, and in five distinguished categories: tourism and destination management, lifelong learning, professional capacity building, tackling social exclusion, research and development of new products in the aforementioned fields. More specific our innovation regards the usage of L.A.R.P. scenarios as hybrid tools that combine future emerging technologies in the field of art and science and thus may be used for the gamification of policies that serve:
1. The protection of natural habitats.
2. The management of cultural heritage.
3. The upgrade of all traditional tourism products into the main trends (experiential tourism, me tourism, dark tourism, apocalyptic tourism).
4. As safe environments for individuals to identify new abilities and skills.
5. As multi-sensory tools to identify multiple intelligences in youngsters and thus nurture them to be used for their personal and professional development.
6. As tools that tackles social exclusion of marginalized population.
7. As tools for Knowledge production, transfer, and movability (3 sectors of knowledge economy).
8. As tools for economic leverage of population and communities were the games are established.
9. As tools that ensure the viability of professionals in the creative industry sector (production of commodities related to the scenarios e.g. clothes, jewelry, music etc.).
More than that we exploit the model of circular economy, the biosynergetic model of a strong business ecosystem, as well as the third party economic contribution to each and every project of ours, so that we may keep a very low cost of production and a high ROI for the stakeholders involved to our projects.
Our target markets are B2B and B2C markets related to gaming, tourism, creative industries and knowledge economy, in which according to the Organization of Economic Collaboration and Development (OECD, 2018) Greece has no comparative proposal to showcase in terms of a global value chain venture combining all four into one hybrid product-service. Our scenarios are directed to:
• B2C: Gamers (Live Action Role Players, Tabletop Games Role Players, Digital Games – MMORPG players – Cosplayers),
• B2C: Tourists (engaging with ego-me tourism, experiential tourism, cultural tourism, entertainment tourism, recreational tourism, dark-war tourism, hybrid tourism models such as co-work residencies in creative industries, as well as city break tourism),
• B2C: Pupils, students, professionals in the public and private sectors, populations on the move (refugees, climates and economic immigrants), populations belonging to Vulnerable Social Groups (unemployed, members of single parent families, people living in poverty.), Populations living under the threat of social exclusion (former drug abusers, former incarcerated, victims of domestic violence, victims of human trafficking), as well as individuals participating in skills acquisition programs (Erasmus +, LLLP).
• B2B: Private companies (management incentives and low-level staff of small and medium-sized companies, Private Vocational Training Institutes, Colleges and Private Universities, Non-Governmental Organizations). Public Bodies (Schools, Lifelong Learning Centers 1 & 2, Universities, Municipalities-Regions-Ministries, Law on Public Broadcasting). Destination Management Agencies and Hospitality providers.
1. The protection of natural habitats.
2. The management of cultural heritage.
3. The upgrade of all traditional tourism products into the main trends (experiential tourism, me tourism, dark tourism, apocalyptic tourism).
4. As safe environments for individuals to identify new abilities and skills.
5. As multi-sensory tools to identify multiple intelligences in youngsters and thus nurture them to be used for their personal and professional development.
6. As tools that tackles social exclusion of marginalized population.
7. As tools for Knowledge production, transfer, and movability (3 sectors of knowledge economy).
8. As tools for economic leverage of population and communities were the games are established.
9. As tools that ensure the viability of professionals in the creative industry sector (production of commodities related to the scenarios e.g. clothes, jewelry, music etc.).
More than that we exploit the model of circular economy, the biosynergetic model of a strong business ecosystem, as well as the third party economic contribution to each and every project of ours, so that we may keep a very low cost of production and a high ROI for the stakeholders involved to our projects.
Our target markets are B2B and B2C markets related to gaming, tourism, creative industries and knowledge economy, in which according to the Organization of Economic Collaboration and Development (OECD, 2018) Greece has no comparative proposal to showcase in terms of a global value chain venture combining all four into one hybrid product-service. Our scenarios are directed to:
• B2C: Gamers (Live Action Role Players, Tabletop Games Role Players, Digital Games – MMORPG players – Cosplayers),
• B2C: Tourists (engaging with ego-me tourism, experiential tourism, cultural tourism, entertainment tourism, recreational tourism, dark-war tourism, hybrid tourism models such as co-work residencies in creative industries, as well as city break tourism),
• B2C: Pupils, students, professionals in the public and private sectors, populations on the move (refugees, climates and economic immigrants), populations belonging to Vulnerable Social Groups (unemployed, members of single parent families, people living in poverty.), Populations living under the threat of social exclusion (former drug abusers, former incarcerated, victims of domestic violence, victims of human trafficking), as well as individuals participating in skills acquisition programs (Erasmus +, LLLP).
• B2B: Private companies (management incentives and low-level staff of small and medium-sized companies, Private Vocational Training Institutes, Colleges and Private Universities, Non-Governmental Organizations). Public Bodies (Schools, Lifelong Learning Centers 1 & 2, Universities, Municipalities-Regions-Ministries, Law on Public Broadcasting). Destination Management Agencies and Hospitality providers.
How does the SMATH Project help them? What are the next steps?
By entering the SMATH project, we hoped to have a chance to introduce our product to a wider audience, after having effectively tested it during the establishment phase of our company. Another issue we wanted to solve was to put our business model to the test from professionals engaged in funding, management, and cultural development. Thus, we believe we’ve succeeded to persuade them about its innovative approach and economic model. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the chance to follow through the pitching presentation part, which has been our ultimate goal to reach out to possible funders, due to the Sars-Covid19 events taking place around the world. Nonetheless, we are already designing new products for 17 destinations in Greece, we are to enter a partnership with the Japanese government to introduce our product in the market during 2021 Olympic games, we have presented and signed collaborations with both Innovathens and Charokopio University -to the extend of the provided services on behalf of our company. Moreover, we are designing an LLP testing program in association with two Greek universities, so that we may later this year design and launch two postgraduate programs on special effects (digital and physical), directly related to our concept, as well as a Research and Development program to further exploit the capacities offered through the digitalization of our scenarios.
