The joint roadmap of actions, which highlights Rhodes as a hybrid work destination by hosting 17 fully remote Cisco employees, from all over Europe, for 3 months, from March 2 to May 31, 2023, was presented by CISCO today , a leading technology company worldwide and the South Aegean Region. For the South Aegean Region, this is another collaboration that is part of the wider strategy of promoting the islands of the South Aegean. A strategy that includes collaboration with the leading representatives per sector and puts the South Aegean islands in the spotlight in sectors such as Tourism, Innovation, Sustainable Development.

Specifically, through Cisco’s digital nomads hosting program from various European countries, Rhodes is presented as a “smart” digital island and a comprehensive destination for attracting remote workers around the world. A critical parameter of the program is the targeting of the Region in the interconnection of these highly qualified from a technological point of view employed with the place, the agencies, the society, so that they constitute a new cell of the local community through a living relationship of mutual cooperation and offer.

The digital nomads, staying in fully equipped apartments in the city, using state-of-the-art technology tools and applications and having 5 workplaces, the Dodecanese Chamber of Commerce, the South Aegean Region Offices, the Development Organization of the South Aegean Region – K2, the Dodecanese Technical Chamber and the Museum of Modern Greek Art of Rhodes will be able to develop their creativity, producing substantial work. The city of Rhodes will be an integral part of the daily life of the nomads, forming an essential dynamic of business development and extroversion.

With a central message “All roads lead to Rhodes”, the two partners are turning the island of Rhodes into a place of hospitality with a series of projects and collaborations with local bodies, as well as its business and professional community place. Particularly:

  • Digital solutions will be developed, which will significantly improve the interface of the Dodecanese Chamber of Commerce with its member companies, shaping an even stronger and active local business community.
  • In collaboration with the Rhodes International Culture and Heritage Society (RICHeS), digital applications will be adopted, which will contribute to highlighting the digital heritage of the place.
  • In collaboration with the University of the Aegean, the digital nomads will propose, design and implement digital solutions for remote work, while at the same time they will actively participate in research on the integration of remote work in societies by strengthening existing actions of the University.
  • In collaboration with social structures, they will leave their mark on the local community, organizing special seminars and workshops, which will focus on the safe use of the internet by children and the creation of a protective environment.

Rhodes takes over from Venice as an experiential laboratory for hybrid work (Hybrid work experience lab), emphatically capturing the company’s philosophy, as a pillar that integrates the digital future, into the organic and collaborative present of local societies. These values ​​are fully integrated into CISCO’s Country Digital Acceleration Program (CDA), which supports digital research and education, while at the same time promoting digital entrepreneurship.

As part of the programme, an innovative data analysis method was applied, which links factors such as temperature, humidity and air quality to produce a series of measurements for the stages before, during and after meetings or meetings. The results of the measurements will produce useful conclusions regarding the health, safety and well-being of the employees, while determining the sustainability status of the meeting workplaces. The ultimate goal is to create essential specifications for sustainable environmental management. The approach is part of a wider program aimed at providing “intelligent actions” in both home and boardroom work, is being piloted by a Cisco staff and a company partner in Norway, and will be refined during duration of the program in Rhodes.

The Managing Director of CISCO Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Malta, Antonis Tsiboukis states: “The sustainability of the new working model lies to a large extent in the well-being of employees and the ability to create and produce in an environment that favors growth of soft and digital skills (soft & digital skills). Rhodes, for the next 3 months, will be the ideal destination for remote work, with the local society and economy becoming the focus of interest for the effective implementation of the digital transformation.”

The regional governor of the South Aegean, Giorgos Hatzimarkos states: “The islands of the South Aegean are not only holiday islands. They are islands of vanguardism, islands of life. We put Rhodes on the international map of telecommuting destinations by starting with an organized approach and in partnership with a leading company in its sector. Because in the South Aegean Region we bring tomorrow today with initiatives and projects. We welcome Cisco’s digital nomads to Rhodes, to become the most genuine ambassadors of the message that our islands are becoming an ideal place to work, develop, create, live.”