The situation in debt-wracked Greece might be one of empty pharmacy shelves, angry protests and high unemployment, but there seems to be plenty of positive momentum among young people seeking opportunities for themselves in the world of programming and mobile technology.
Athens was the most popular event in Europe for Microsoft's global WOWZAPP hackathon competition, where it invited students in 100 locations to compete for prizes, 5,000 euros in award money and job opportunities by publishing their apps on the Greek Windows Store for mobile apps.
While around 200 students showed up for a simultaneous hack day in Ireland, 350 in Poland and 200 in Russia, among other locations, more than 550 showed up to the main venu in Athens -- this despite the fact that Friday was a day of major transport strikes.
"Almost nothing works as its supposed to," said Lia Kampantai, a 24-year-old developer whose news-aggregation app Insomnia is one of the most popular Greek-language apps on the Windows Store. "This has not prevented students from coming."
Many students at the event were complete novices in the world of mobile app development, but they had been lured by the prospect of an introduction to new skills and opportunities.
"I did not expect to be a developer," admits Kamantai, who lives in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. Members of her family aren't even all that familiar with the world of app development, assuming that she spends late nights whiling away the hours on Facebook, not parsing code and finding bugs.
"But being a developer has many advantages," she adds, "and in Greece it's one of the few job opportunities. I can work for people in a different country. Every developer can speak the same language, no matter the place."
Microsoft's local manufacturing partner in Greece, Plaisio is also sponsoring the event and has said it aims to hire six student developers as a result of the competition.
George Kanellopoulos of Microsoft's Athens office said the three-day hackathon was "buzzing" on Friday, despite the transport strikes. "It's great to be able to help the next generation of Greek developers and students to shine and kick-start their careers."
More on global competition here.
