The city of Heraklion is served by the 2nd most connected airport in Greece, which is located within 10 minutes driving time from the city center of Heraklion, the major hotels, and the candidate venue for the conference. The airport of Heraklion is international with several direct flights from Europe and other continents. In addition, it is connected with a 45-minute flight to Athens, the capital of Greece, which has the largest airport in the country.
Heraklion is the capital of Crete and one of the largest tourism hubs in Greece. It attracts approximately 2.5 million tourists per year and it has a vibrant tourism industry with an excellent infrastructure to visitors and conferences.
Heraklion is also the home of the University of Crete and of the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH). FORTH is the largest research center is Greece and has its headquarters located in Heraklion with approximately 1,500 researchers there. The Institute of Computer Science (ICS) has approx. 400 employees and has a long tradition in systems and networking research. Its spin-off, FORTHnet, is the organization that brought the Internet to Greece. FORTH hosts the .gr DNS TLD servers. In addition, the campus of FORTH hosts the headquarters of the European Union’s Agency for Networks and Information Security (ENISA). FORTH will be the host organization of the conference, since its employees have significant experience with organizing similar events. Finally, University of Crete and FORTH, according to the Nature Index, rank as the top two academic institutions in Greece.
Besides, Heraklion and Crete in general have many popular tourist attractions. For example, the Minoan Palace of Knossos is located in the outskirts of the city. It is the largest ancient city of the Minoan Civilization and is considered by archeologists as the oldest city in Europe. In addition, the Venetian Fortress of Koules, the Fortifications of Heraklion and the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion are also popular attractions in the city.