Periplous is a demo theme for AstroBaaS. The programme, speakers and ticket counts come from a live CMS.All demos

Periplous11–12 January, Thessaloniki
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3 harbours, 560 people so far

The voyage so far

Every year a different harbour, and every year a poster drawn by the same program, seeded with the year. Thessaloniki is the fourth.

21°E22°E23°E24°E25°E26°E35°N36°N37°N38°N39°N40°N41°NNext year?Announced on the boat2023Syros60 people2024Chania180 people2025Kalamata320 people2027Thessaloniki420 people

A periplous is a voyage around: a ship going from harbour to harbour and coming home with the log.

We took the name from the first edition, when the wind closed the port of Syros and a fisherman took all sixty of us around the island instead of home. Every edition since has ended on a boat.

The conference moves because it is run by people from all over Greece, and because a different town each year means a different room, a different kitchen and a different set of locals who had never been to a web conference. Most of them come back.

The log

2023SYROS

The first edition

Syros 2023

A borrowed classroom at the Ermoupoli technical school

People
60
Talks
9
Open seats
6

One room, nine talks, and the ferry home cancelled by the wind.

Five of us had just come back from a conference in an aircraft hangar where we never saw the same face twice. We borrowed a classroom for a weekend in November, asked nine people we admired to talk, and hoped for thirty. Sixty came. On Sunday the wind closed the port, nobody could leave, and a fisherman called Stratos took all of us around the island in two trips. That was the first periplous, and the name stuck.

2024CHANIA

The second edition

Chania 2024

The old arsenal on the Venetian harbour

People
180
Talks
18
Open seats
14

Two rooms under stone vaults, the first workshops and the first captions.

We registered the association in the spring, so the second edition had a bank account and a budget. Two rooms under stone vaults that echoed until we hung sailcloth from the ceiling. The first three workshops sold out in a day, and live captions in the big room turned out to help far more people than the ones who asked for them. The boat went round the lighthouse at sunset.

2025KALAMATA

The third edition

Kalamata 2025

A former tobacco warehouse by the port

People
320
Talks
26
Open seats
30

Three tracks for the first time, and a lunch that ran an hour over.

Three rooms, three tracks, and the first year we paid every speaker a fee as well as their travel. Lunch ran an hour over because the kitchen made everything to order, and nobody complained. It rained for the boat. We published the accounts in January: the conference cost 91,400 euros and ended 2,100 euros up, which paid for this year's first deposits.

2027THESSALONIKI

The fourth edition, this one

Thessaloniki 2027

Warehouse 9, 11–12 January 2027

People, at most
420
Sessions
24
Open seats
40

The first edition in a city, and the first with a lift. The story of this one is yours to write.

Get a ticketSee the programme

And next year?

We choose the next harbour at the members' meeting in the spring and announce it on the boat, at the end of the last day. If your town has a building by the water and people who would come, tell us about it.