Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou

Curator

Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou is a young entrepreneur, trainee lawyer and technology enthousiast who splits his life between London and Athens. Dimitris holds a Law degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury and an LLM (Masters of Law) in Computer and Communications Law from the Queen Mary University of London.

Dimitris is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Away.gr, which is considered as one of the most influential and well respected media sources about innovation and technology in the country. Dimitris is also a Contributing Editor at TechCrunch Europe and a trainee lawyer at G.-E. F. Kalavros and Partners Law Firm. He is also a member of Sandbox Network, the foremost global community of extraordinary young achievers between 20 and 30. Dimitris attended TED Salon 2010.

Abraham Tsoukalidis

Curator

Abraham began his Career in Monitor Company in London as a strategy consultant. In 2000, he joined Intracom S.A. setting up the company’s bioinformatics and IT Solutions management for the Life Sciences division. Abraham holds a degree in Applied Mathematics and Biology from the Harvard University, Cambridge and a European Master in Total Quality Management. Today, Abraham is the President and Founder of Positive Energy S.A. www.positiveenergy.gr as well as the Executive Director of GENNET group of companies (www.gennetsa.com). The main activities of the companies are Renewable Energy Sources Investment and Construction, as well as High Technology. Abraham is a founding member of the Hellenic Young Entrepreneurs Association Young Leaders and attended TED Global 2009 and 2010.

Afrodite Manta

Executive Producer

Afrodite studied Archive and Information at the Ionian University, Greece and holds a Master’s Degree from the University College London (UCL) in Library, Archive & Information Studies. Afrodite began her professional career in Benakeion Phytopathological Institute, Athens, as a librarian.

She has been working as a Public Relations Specialist in Kraft Foods Hellas and as an Internal Communication specialist in Sanofi-Aventis Greece, for more than 10 years. She has been assigned various projects, assuming a series of positions of increasing responsibility, with large exposure, domestically and internationally. Afrodite is very enthusiastic, passionate for reading and dreaming of a better and innovative world for her two children.

Sophia Belouka

Event Architect

Sophia started her career at Beluga Associates, a Strategic Planning & Public Relations Company where, as account director, she handled several local & international accounts on a strategic, as well as implementation level. Key accounts include Diageo and Logitech. She specializes in event management, brand communication and media relations. Her background is in classical music where she has completed her studies with a Bachelors Degree from King’s College, London and Postgraduate Degrees from Goldsmiths College and Trintity College of Music.

Recently, she has joined the team of Advocate / Burson – Marsteller. She is also a contributing editor, writing feature articles and conducting interviews for several monthly and Sunday supplement magazines.

Marineta Kritikou aka M.A.K.

Director, Film and Video

Marineta is a multimedia director, specializing in documentaries. She studied Contemporary History, Journalism and Film in Paris and pursued Post Graduated studies in Scriptwriting at the Sorbonne. She also studied Film & Television at UCLA,California. For the last few years she has been living and working in Greece as a Director on TV Programs, Documentaries, Films and Commercials. The last two years she was also teaching Cinema at the Faculty of Arts, Film Studies of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her documentary Dreaming of Zhejiang is the only greek participation at the first ever PangeaDay, a TED Prize Event held in May 2008 in Los Angeles. She is member of the Pangeaday Filmmakers Community believing strongly in the intercultural dialogue and its force. She is currently working on her next documentary Living in Sacred Islands and she is also a member of TEDxThessaloniki Organizing Committee.

Yiota Skouvara aka coYot

Head of Production

32 years old, born and bred in Athens – Greece. I have studied Communication Arts majoring in Public Relations.

I have worked as: Production Manager Assistant and Production Coordinator in more than 100 t.v commercials over the past 11 years and I still do mainly as a Production Coordinator. I have also tried the “taste” of theatrical and film production in the same job position. What still holds me in this ‘crazy’ professional environment is the few but priceless magic moments that it offers.

I have a passionate interest in every creative mean and that forced me to attend seminars on Script – Writing and Photography. I am a music lover most of all and a strong believer that music is the ultimate language; the the most precious luggage I carry and share. I recently created my communicative channel: themuzikbooks.blogspot.com

That’s all.

Eleftheria Deko

Lighting Designer

After her post-graduate studies (Master of Arts), in Lighting Design, Performance and choreography, with a scholarship at New York University (1987-1990), Eleftheria worked as a lighting designer in several theaters in New York until 1992, when she returned to Greece. She has designed since, the lighting of more than 350 plays, music and dance performances, operas and art installations, for which she has received great reviews while she has repeatedly been invited by international groups to design the lighting of dance performances in international festivals.

She has collaborated with most of the Greek theatrical companies and groups, and she has designed the lighting equipment installation for many theaters all over Greece. In 1997 she founded and still directs the commercial company “Lights International” which specializes in lighting (lighting design for shows, concerts and events, lighting equipment and design for the lighting installation for theaters, conference rooms, studios, etc.). Since 2001 she is also working in architectural lighting, making building facades attractive or revealing and highlighting their character. Her work has been described as a “minimal artistic statement, with light/color playing the key role”.

She has taught Stage Lighting design at New York University (1990-1992) as well as Stage Lighting design seminars for professionals and non professionals in Athens (1997-1999). Since January 2005 she has been teaching “Stage Lighting Design” at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Fine Arts, School of Drama. In April 2009 she was constituted Professor in the same school.

Important moment in her career was her participation in the Olympic Games Athens 2004 as Lighting Director and Lighting Designer of both Opening and Closing ceremonies. In September 2005, at the 57th ceremony, she was awarded by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences with an EMMY award in the category of Outstanding Lighting Direction for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Athens 2004.

Angelika Daskalopoulou

Music Producer

Angelika is a Concert Manager for orchestras and bands. She has worked with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the orchestras of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (E.R.T.), the Greek Festival, as well as with various bands in London and Greece. She studied classical music at Brown University in RI, USA, where she performed as a singer in opera recitals, choirs, musicals and various contests. She continued her music and vocal studies at the London Centre of Contemporary Music, where she studied jazz, blues, and rock and performed with a band in venues.

Angelika currently works at Damma Holdings S.A. as part of a team that manages a contemporary art collection. She continues her piano and vocal studies with Takis Farazis and Asimina Morfi, and performs in small venues in Athens.

Filimon Papapolyzos

Brand Strategist

Filimon is a young professional, passionate about marketing and technology. In his last role Filimon worked at DDB London, a leading advertising agency in the UK and part of DDB Worldwide. He worked as an account planner being part of the team formulating advertising strategies across Europe for major clients. He was also a frequent member of the new business team that led the company’s pitching process for local and global businesses. Prior to that he worked briefly at DDB South Eastern Europe and DDB Athens. He graduated in May 2008 from the University of Kent, UK with a degree of Business Administration. Recently he completed his military service in Greece. He is a big fan of TED and the idea behind it.

Eleni Andreadis

Special Projects Director

After starting her career as a strategic management consultant in London, Eleni soon focused on environmental issues, earning her Master’s in environmental policy and media at Harvard University. Her career within the environmental field has ranged from Divemaster on an environmental NGO mission ten years ago in Honduras, to environmental TV presenter and producer for a variety of environmental channels, such as Green TV, New Consumer TV and Current TV, as well as the BBC, in the UK, US and Canada. Eleni has worked as an environmental strategy consultant for, among others, the Participant Productions follow-up documentary to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, EnergyWatch, presenting to UK Environment Minister Hilary Benn on ways consumers can reduce their carbon footprint at the home and the Ministry of Tourism in Greece, for which she designed an environmental hotel certification scheme. Eleni is now based in Greece where she is active in the tourism industry; alongside consulting on green issues related to tourism, she has created Planet Agents, an environmental non-profit, where elementary school children are entrusted with Green Mission Possible, a programme made up of a series of missions empowering them to turn their school, home and neighbourhood green.

Stathis Haikalis

Strategic Communication Director

Stathis Haikalis has more than 25 years of experience of the Greek media and policy environment. From 1979 until 2000, he was journalist to Vima, the largest Greek newspaper and contributed weekly to Financial Postman, a major financial paper mainly read by policy and business influencers.

Since 2000, Stathis left the world of journalism and committed himself for developing his own business, Communication Effect which he had founded some years earlier. The company currently has 35 associates and is amongst the largest and best reputed agencies working in communications and public affairs in Greece. Having had business contacts with the last two Prime Ministers and the main opposition leaders, Stathis has an extensive network of contacts in the Greek political establishment. Since 1996, Stathis has advised several candidates in every national election, most of whom have received Ministerial mandates.

Stathis is married with two children and enjoys sports, technology and cinema.

Nancy Mallerou

Speakers Coach

Nancy has studied and lived in Europe: Athens, Oxford, Madrid, Paris and London. After her Bachelor in French Literature from the Philosophical School of Athens, she got an MBA from the European School of Management and a Ph.D. in strategy from Panteion University of Social and Political Science in Athens
Following a successful career in the field of communication and in various industries, such as Media, film, advertising, cosmetics, telecoms and others, she founded Market Inc, a communication and marketing consultancy and Life Coaching Greece. 
She is one of the first professional Life Coaches in Greece – Coach U graduate – specializing in personal, Business & Executive Coaching.

Since 2001 she teaches Marketing at the Communication & Media Department of Panteio University and since 2009, she teaches Dental Marketing & Life Coaching Techniques at the Dental School of Athens.
In 2006 she published her first book “Competitors Co-operate!”, on co-operative strategies. Her 2nd book, “It Can Get Better: The 1st Greek Life Coaching Guide” was published in November 2009.
She is passionate about quality of life, happiness, personal development and success and believes that love growth and contribution are what makes life worth living.

Danai Papoutsi

TEDxAthens Presenter

Danai Papoutsi is an actress born in Athens. She studied drama at “Piraeus Union” and “Mary Vogiatzi-Tranga Drama School”.

Her acting career started at the “Vapheion Theater” with Euripides’s Medea by the “Prosodia” theatrical group founded by Lakis Karalis. As an constant member of “Prosodia” she also appeared at You talk about him (2009). She has worked with “Theater Technis” (Howl of Love), “Knossos Theatre” (The Gap, Euripides’s Helen), “Theater under the bridge” (Lorca’s Yerma). In 2010 she participated  at the 24 Hour Play project at the “Chora Theater”. She currently appears at the “Theater of Kefallinias Street” in Alexis Stamatis’ play Dakrygona.

She collaborated with Eve Sussman at the video art project “The Rape of the Sabine women”. In 2006 she won the special prize for supporting actress at the “Vassilis Kotronis Festival of the Cinema of the Fantastic” for the short film At his commandments.

Her short story the “Station” was recognized at the “Greek Short story competition” (2010) and was published by Eleftheroudakis editions. Her first personal cd Tableau Vivant (music by Sakis Tsilikis) where she sings and has written the lyrics came out in 2010.

Maria Kokidou

Communications Coordinator

Maria is a journalist and an avid supporter of every innovating idea. She loves spending most of her time surfing the Internet and expanding her knowledge on technology and how it affects our daily life. Her studies in Media, Communication and New Technologies led her to work as a technical editor in a few leading technological magazines. Today she is the Editor in Chief of the Greek edition of PC Magazine and does her second master’s degree.

Dimitra Themeli

Visual Communication Designer

Dimitra studied Photography and Graphic Design. She worked as a Photographer until 2003. Since 2000, she started her career in Graphic Design in publications. She worked for six years as Advertising Art Director. Today, she is the Art Director of PC Magazine – Greek Edition.

Dimitra has her own brand, ThePopEye, her “design-break from designing”. When she was little, she wanted to become a stewardess. Now she is afraid of aeroplanes. Dimitra -except from design- loves music, food, ingenious conversations, dogs and dreams.

She doesn’t love anything that makes her feel bored.

Dimitris Kokkoris

Director of Print

Dimitris is a design and print communication specialist and a social connector. He began his career as a digital press operator and later on as an account manager of Dot Imaging. In 2002 he became the cofounder and General Manager of Dot Powerprint S.A., a print production management company. He holds a degree in Printing Management, Graphic Design and Information Technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. Today, Dimitris is the CEO of Dot Repro S.A., a creative print solutions provider and the CCO of Dot Imaging, now the first ecological digital printing solutions provider in the country. He is a founding member and Board member of the Hellenic Young Entrepreneurs Association Young Leaders and also a Board member of the Costeas-Geitonas School Alumni Association. In 2009 he publishes for the first time a magazine for the Alumni Association called TheMagazine. He is involved in several non profit activities and projects that promote social responsibility, human rights and the preservation of our natural environment. Dimitris is passionate about simple and effective design, natural living, outdoor sports, personal development and quality of life.

Maria Tritari

Memorabilia Creative Director

Maria holds a law degree from Athens University and is a self employed attorney. Daughter of a Greek Ambassador, her journey in life began in Bern Switzerland and continued in several countries and continents. She considers herself a citizen of the world but Athens remains her true love. She believes that it is the most vibrant and inspirational city in Europe. She often says “art and culture is not only our legacy but also a worthy investment for the future”. Maria’s vision is for Athens to become a true hub for young entrepreneurs in the creative business. She is currently setting-up a down-town gallery that will host innovative people and ideas with any artistic form. After all art imitates life and life is anything we view, listen or taste. Maria is also a certified wine and spirits connoisseur.

Michael Papadopoulos

Chief Scientist

Mike is a jack of all trades for all things IT. A generalizing specialist, Mike trained for his Ph.D. in Computer Vision at the University of Essex. During his years there, to support his academic habit, he worked various jobs such as bartender, web designer, doorman, teaching assistant, events coordinator and programmer acquiring a wide range of skills and competencies.

Growing restless with academia he joined Atos Origin and participated in various projects around the globe ranging geographically from Kenya to Belgium and in subjects from e-banking to bioinformatics – with some telecomms in between. Leaving Atos Origin he decided to settle down in Greece where he joined Innova as Software Achitect specializing in Value Added Services and Thema Energy as Chief Scientist specializing in power and renewable energy.

Mike’s current research interests are Open Source Software and renewable energy.

Dimitris Kalogeropoulos

Social Media Enthusiast

Konstantina Zoehrer

Social Media Fairy

Konstantina is a communication professional with a human point of view. She is passionate about creative ideas with social impact, spending a lot of time on research about connections between online and offline world. She studied Political Science and History, Public Relation Management and works on digital content production and digital communication projects. Konstantina is a coorganizer of the Jelly Coworking Community in Greece and a communications volunteer for various non-profit organizations and movements.

Matina Zolota

Administrative Supervisor

Matina holds a BSc. Degree in Business Planning and Information Systems from the Technological Educational Institute of Patras. Her working experience starts in 2000 from Folli Follie S.A., where she stayed until 2004. She continued her career for one year in the Department of Planning and Information Systems of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In 2006 she joined Aegean Airlines, acquiring great experience in controlling flights. She has also worked for Danos S.A., in alliance with BNP Paribas Real Estate for the last four years. Within her main duties were the organization and controlling of various matters related to the smooth operation of the company and the setting up of all types of conferences, meetings and seminars.

Matina speaks Greek, English and French and has attended various seminars related to the organization of events and conferences. Her intention is to attend a Master degree in Marketing Management.

Matina is very enthusiastic, hard working, ambitious and well organized person.

Nikos Papachristou

Narrator

Nikos is a Medical Technologist working in Thessaloniki. He holds a MSc in “Life Informatics” and a diploma in Education for Technological Professions. As we speak he is a student for a bachelor degree in Computer Science. You will find him on the web under the nickname ehealthgr. His main hide-outs are his personal blog, The BioMed LabS Magazine and #opnhealth. His online presense consists mostly of talking and writing about stuff such as eHealth, Medicine & Health 2.0, Science & Learning 2.0, Biomedical Science. Finally, Nikos wishes to declare he is not photogenic and that he is a real person.

Aktaia Onodi

Translator

Aktaia was born in Bucharest but has been living in Greece since childhood. She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Economic, Legal and Political Translation from the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting of the Ionian University in Corfu, Greece. Today, she is a freelance translator working for various translation agencies in Greece.

Aktaia enjoys going to the cinema, learning foreign languages, nature, outdoor activities, originality and new experiences. She has recently discovered the beauty of scuba diving and wants to take photography lessons.

Giannis Bafakis

Doctor

Giannis was born in Athens. He is a General Doctor specializing in Cardiology. While waiting for his specialty training to begin, he volunteered to accompany the Greek swimming team to the Paralympic Games of 2008. He has also worked as a volunteer doctor in many hospitals and medical clinics in Athens. During the period 2008-2010, he was a trainee at the Pathological clinic of Molai Hospital, Greece.

Today he is an associate doctor at the Ά Hypertension Clinic of the Hippokration GH University Department of Cardiology and at the same time conducting his PhD in Hypertension. Finally he has participated in various global, international and Greek conferences.

Giannis enjoys scuba diving, sports and spinning.

Dj Giannis Sartzetakis

TEDxAthens Party Soul

Music is the key to party… and when music and party is turning to fun you can search for Giannis Sartzetakis spinning around. Professionally DJ-ed since 1995 in the most talked-after events in Athens and all over Greece, he can recognize the protagonistic role of Music to the success of each event and make the difference from a standard night to a hit-off-the-roof party. An extensive and all-time updated track list together with important experience in sound planning, just invite your guests.. and get ready to party…