At the intersection of tech, communication and community: Artemis Pnevmatikou’s story

Her path was shaped less by long term plans and more by a curiosity that carried her across industries, until TechIsland offered a mission that immediately resonated with her.

As she explained, something simply clicked. Today she is part of the team guiding one of Cyprus’ most influential non profit organisations, helping connect people, ideas and sectors across an ecosystem that continues to evolve at remarkable speed.

What emerges from her story is a clear sense of purpose. Artemis speaks with striking clarity about representation, responsibility and the work required to build a community that serves both the tech industry and the wider society.

Her role places her at the centre of conversations that will influence Cyprus’ development as a tech hub, while her own experiences offer an honest view of the challenges and possibilities ahead.

Finding purpose through communication and community

Artemis never imagined herself in the tech sector. Her path had always been shaped by curiosity rather tha n long-term plans, as she explained.

Before joining TechIsland, she thrived in agencies because they offered her the chance to “learn about the world through different clients, different professionals and different sectors.”

For her, this constant movement fed her curiosity and kept her mind engaged.

Tech, she said, was never “the plan”. However, when the opportunity to join TechIsland appeared, “something clicked instantly.” It felt less like a traditional career step and more like a mission.

As she put it, “TechIsland is a non-profit, a collective of people working together to support a bigger vision, positioning Cyprus as a true tech island.” That purpose continues to inspire her.

Working in communications, she explained, has given her a tool that brings people together.

“We bring people together, open conversations, connect organisations and help shape ideas that influence the future of the ecosystem,” she said.

Technology then became her arena, fast, global, evolving and shaping the world “in real time.”

For Artemis, being part of something so dynamic still feels energising every single day.

Shaping Cyprus’ tech ecosystem from the inside

Reflecting on what excites her most about her role at TechIsland, Artemis described the organisation as “a mission in motion.”

Nothing is static; everything moves with purpose. “Every project, every initiative, every discussion has a clear end goal: supporting Cyprus’ evolution into a tech island,” she noted.

She recalled how TechIsland grew into something more dynamic than a traditional association. It is, in her words, “agile, it adapts quickly, and it leaves space for ideas to take shape.”

If something isn’t working, they fix it. If an opportunity arises, they build around it. This freedom to create, reshape and constantly refine ideas is what keeps the work alive for her.

What she finds most inspiring is TechIsland’s role as a facilitator.

“TechIsland sits in the middle of conversations that usually don’t happen under one roof,” she said, conversations involving different industries, mindsets and priorities.

Still, “it brings them together and makes progress possible.”

This environment, she added, shapes how she understands work: ideas alone are nothing unless someone acts on them. “Many people want to be part of something meaningful, but few are willing to put action behind it,” she said.

TechIsland, however, was built by people who act, “fast, consistently, and not to catch up with what others are doing, but to lead and to open new paths.”

Such a mission-driven setting demands clarity and alignment every day.

Her job is to take large intentions and “give them the right shape and the right momentum.”

She described it as a privilege to be part of something “that feels bigger than all of us” and which pushes the ecosystem forward for the benefit of society, not just industry.

Understanding women’s place in tech through lived experience

Asked how her experience as a woman in tech has shaped her perspective, Artemis was straightforward. Working in tech as a woman means “you constantly notice the gaps, not because you look for them, but because they are there.” Many rooms are still shaped by male perspectives.

Women learn early that their thinking or communication style is not always the default. As she pointed out, “sometimes it takes twice the effort for your message to land the same way.”

This awareness affects everything: how much space women take, how they phrase things, how often they are interrupted and how much explanation is expected from them.

These realities became particularly visible while she was preparing and hosting this year’s Women in STEM Cyprus Summit.

Beyond hosting, she explained, she implemented the main theme, managed the content and worked directly with speakers, gathering their stories firsthand. Listening to so many perspectives across disciplines gave her “a clearer sense of what is still missing in our ecosystem.”

One of the biggest gaps, she said, concerns representation. “We talk a lot about having pro-female policies,” she explained. “But how do you achieve that in a country where we have only eight women in parliament? Or at EU level, where we have zero female representation from Cyprus?” Representation matters because policies reflect the people who write them.

She then pointed to AI, a defining force of the future. AI learns from data created mostly by men, she said. It learns their biases, assumptions and blind spots.

“If women are not part of building these systems, then the future will repeat the past on a much larger scale.” She believes Cyprus needs more women leading in AI, designing models, auditing systems, asking different questions, just as it needs more women in politics.

Hosting the summit made one more thing very clear: “when you give women a platform, an honest, respectful platform, they don’t just speak, they illuminate.”

Every conversation added a new perspective. Bringing those voices together and putting that energy on stage was, for her, “one of the most meaningful communication experiences of my career.”

It reminded her that “progress starts with voices being heard, clearly, loudly and without apology.”

The future she hopes to help build

Artemis hopes to help build a tech ecosystem in Cyprus where diversity is not a special programme but a natural outcome.

She wants a place where “women and men have equal access to opportunity, where community is not an event but a mindset,” and where communication is used responsibly to build trust between industry, government and society.

She also wants workplaces that are modern and human, flexible, grounded and conscious of wellbeing not as a trend but as a component of sustainable performance. And she hopes the next generation of girls in Cyprus will grow up knowing that “tech is not a closed world. It’s a space where they can create, lead, and shape the island’s future.”

For her, the ecosystem’s youth is its advantage. “This ecosystem is young, and that’s its superpower,” she said. Cyprus has the opportunity to build it “consciously, with openness, clarity, collaboration and care.”