TEDxAthens

Costas Voyatzis [{Vo}Yatzer] was born in Athens, Greece in 1980, but is international at heart! After dabbling in an early academic career in Meteorology at the Physics University of Athens, his passion for design prevailed, and he switched his major to Interior Design. In the search for a career to suit his immense curiosity and thirst for design knowledge, Costas worked for seven years at Greece’s leading interior design magazines. In his role as stylist and trend forecaster, Costas began developing relationships with many international designers and manufacturers, and was soon recognized as a unique eye when it came to the new and the innovative. As more of the design community sought to share his design finds, Costas decided that he needed a platform to combine his love for graphic design, photography and architecture! Yatzer.com was created in January 2007, and his vision of creating a single, high quality source of design information was realised. In April 2011, Costas Voyatzis was named one of the 100 most influential people in the design industry by French heavyweight Architectural Digest. Costas Voyatzis is the Editor in Chief and Public Relations Officer of Yatzer.com which is now owned by Yatzerland Limited.

Steve brings almost 20 years of experience to Google from the world of digital, design and advertising. Some of the campaigns, platforms and hacks that he’s most recently been involved with include: Chrome Web Lab, a series of interactive experiments connected to the web live at the Science Museum in London, World Wonders Project, which give access to the world’s heritage sites through Street View, the launch of Google+ ‘A life lived and shared’, the ‘Jamal Edwards’ Chrome campaign, the Vs. g+ debates series featuring Richard Branson and Russell Brand and the YouTube Space Lab Channel and launch video which invited teens from all over the world to send their science experiments to space in partnership with NASA and judged by Stephen Hawking. To date it has received over 50 million channel views.

Previously he was one of the original partners and Creative Director at VCCP London. His approach is simple: to create famous work that gets talked about. Things that people will want to interact with and continue to do so with over time. Stuff that people chat about over a pint, communications with cultural currency. Campaigns that contribute to popular culture. Platforms that provide utility, content, entertainment and much more value to people’s lives than just a broadcast message. Stuff that gives back to society.

Yannis Theocharis studied Sociology at the University of Crete, New Media at the London School of Economics, and received a PhD in Political Science from University College London. He is currently working on a postdoctoral project on the effects of the internet on political behaviour as a two-year Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research, University of Mannheim. He also co-directs the ‘Social Media Networks and the Relationships between Citizens, Politics and Institutions’ Project, and teaches Internet and Politics at the University of Mannheim. His research is in the areas of political behaviour, civic engagement, and new media, and particularly political activism, new forms of political participation and social capital. He has published in several international journals and presented his work at international workshops and conferences.

Oliver Reichenstein was born in 1971 in Basel, Switzerland. He learned programming as a computer kid in the early 80ties. After studying Philosophy in Basel and Paris, he started working as interactive brand consultant for Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux.

He moved to Japan in September 2003 and started iA Inc in 2005. iA has set new standards in interaction design with clients like DIE ZEIT, Tages-Anzeiger and Freitag and its best selling text editor called iA Writer.

Ada Alamanou is one of the founding members of the organization KLIMAKA. She has been a member of the board of directors since the year 2000 and is the coordinator of KLIMAKA’s program Support for the Homeless and the director of communications, sponsorship and the press office. Her involvement in the organization has a multi-faceted nature. Ada has been responsible for the creation and development of the axes of intervention to prevent and tackle poverty, social exclusion and groups in need. Among other things Ada is active player in KLIMAKA’s Programs; with a key role in implementation of activities and projects dealing with social and economic inclusion and research projects.

Pavlos Tsiantos studied Sound Engineering & Music Production in STC Dublin Ireland and later graduated with BA in Cinema and TV Directing from QMUC Edinburgh. He is also a passionate mountain climber since the age of eighteen.

In 2008 he completed a National Climbing Instructor training and a year later became a Mountain Guide. As expected, he likes to combine his two passions and specializes in nature and music documentaries. His previous works “Cho Oyu” (2005) and “Schoolwave” (2007) were both awarded with the “Audience Award” at the International Documentary Film Festival of Thessaloniki.  However his career peaked when he decided to climb the summit of Mount Everest with his fellow companions of the First Hellenic National Expedition to Everest and complete a film about the event, becoming the first Greek who ever tried to do so.

Andreas Mershin is a Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. He leads the “Label Free” research group demolishing boundaries between physics, biology and materials science. From inexpensive photosynthetic solar panels to quantum effects in biomolecules, and from cytoskeletal memory encoding and machine olfaction to bioenergy harvesting, his research and the technologies it spawns are used by industry and government, exhibited at the Boston Museum of Science and Designer’s Open Exhibition and globally covered by media including CNN, BBC, NYT, Discovery Channel, Wired, New Scientist, Nature and Science.

He is the co-founder and Director of the international Molecular Frontiers Inquiry Prize (MFIP) a.k.a “Kid Nobel” open to anyone under 18 years old (www.moleclues.org) awarded annually at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm (home of the science Nobels). Winners are determined by a jury of eminent scientists including thirteen Nobel laureates. The MFIP is the world’s first ever prize awarded for asking good questions.

He received an MSci in Physics from Imperial College and an MS and PhD in Physics from Texas A&M University. He is a Scuba divemaster, a private pilot and sometimes teaches the “hard” physics class at MIT.

Maria Karchilaki is Greece’s best known female war correspondent. Since 1993 she has been reporting from war zones and devastated areas; the war in Bosnia, the 1997 uprising in Albania, NATO’s bombing campaign in Kosovo and Serbia, the 2003 war in Iraq, the Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006, the Palestinian Intifada and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, political violence in Algeria in the 1990’s, Al Qaeda’s terror campaign in Saudi Arabia, London and Madrid, the suburb riots in France in November 2005, Iran’s nuclear crisis, earthquakes in Turkey and Kashmir, the Arab revolution in Cairo, Egypt and Benghazi/Tripoli, Libya. She has also been reporting on the progress of the FYROM name issue and the Cyprus question and Greek-Turkish relations. Apart from covering war and conflict she is branching out into foreign policy, policy analysis, international economics and finance, feature writing, online & social media. She often lectures on a variety of issues, more commonly on the human cost of war. In 2005 she was awarded the prestigious Botsis Foundation Award for her reporting from wars. She earned a B.A (with Honors) in Political Science, department of Sociology and a Postgraduate Certificate in Mass Media from Panteion University of Athens, Greece. She speaks English and French and understands Serbian.

David Shing is AOL’s Digital Prophet. He spends most of his time watching the future
take shape across the vast online landscape. The rest he spends talking to people
about where things are headed, and how we can get the most out of it.
Shing has spent most of his adult life in the digital world working for both large and
small creative companies. He served as AOL’s European Head of Media and
Marketing before taking on his current mantle.
Engaging, witty and refreshingly candid, Shing provides both historical perspective
and current context as he lays out his vision of the brave, new world of marketing to
come – one he believes will belong to those willing to embrace change and take
risks now, and that he dearly hopes will suck a great deal less.
The opportunities are incredible. The rewards are real. And Shing’s here to show you
the way. That, after all, is what prophets do.

Originally from Denmark, Lars Rasmussen is a director of engineering for Facebook in California, and has a PhD in theoretical computer science from UC Berkley. In early 2003 Lars and his brother Jens co-founded a mapping-related startup, Where 2 Technologies, which was acquired by Google in October 2004. Lars became the lead engineer on the team that created Google Maps and worked out of Google’s Sydney-based office until joining Facebook in late 2010. Lars has probably the world’s least  developed sense of direction and consistently types faster than he can spell. In his copious spare time he enjoys advising early-stage startups, and coffee.

Bindi is VC/Emerging Business lead for Microsoft UK and is the UK member of the Silicon Valley Emerging Business Team. She leads BizSpark and BizSpark One in the UK, where she focuses on how Microsoft can drive success for leading edge and early-stage technology companies. She is also responsible for working alongside the UK Investor Community, including Venture Capitalists and Angels on behalf of Microsoft. In addition, Bindi sits on many Advisory Boards, including Seedcamp, Astia, EVCA – Digital Agenda Task Force, and BCSEntrepreneurs.

Irene Skylakakis is a new songwriter of the English-speaking Greek music scene.  Her first debut album was released in September, with music and lyrics composed and written by herself and the orchestration and production of the well-experienced musician and songwriter Euripides Zemenidi. Irene Skylakakis is currently based in London as she is completing her Masters in Law.

Born in Patra in 1966. Country Director of ActionAid Hellas since 2007. In the past, he has been the Director of the Greek Section of Amnesty International, Special Advisor to the Ministry of Education for Civil Society, national representative in the EU for youth related issues and chair of the “Youth” Working Party of the Council of the EU during the Greek Presidency (2003), General Manager of Bridges of Friendship and Director of Voluntary Services at the Hellenic Children’s Museum.

His academic background includes a Master of Business Administration degree by Nottingham Trent University with concentration on non-profit management and a Veterinary Medicine degree by Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki. He has given several lectures and workshops for various audiences in Greece and abroad within his area of expertise. These audiences include university under-graduate and post-graduate students, public officers, youth workers, volunteer managers and NGO’s senior staff.

His artistic background includes Opera studies and over 150 performances as member of the Greek State Radio Choir, as well as several acceptances and honourable mentions in national and international photographic competitions. He is the co-founder of the fair-trade movement in Greece and Board member of the respective NGO, Fair Trade Hellas.

Paul Papadimitriou seeks to understand innovation. How it is created. How it is adopted. How it evolves.

He believes cultures shape innovation and is fascinated to witness the result, technology impacting societies.

Paul delivers intelligence to businesses, focusing on consumer forensics and trends foresight —the future of digital behaviors.

He finally scouts for startups that redefine innovation, and advises a handful of those.
Paul has lived in Tokyo, Geneva, Manila, Limassol and London. He’s a Swiss, a Greek and a Finn. He feels at home in long haul flights.

Sam is Co-Founder of Livity a ‘more than profit’ youth engagement agency that works with youth every day to co-create socially innovative campaigns, communications, content and communities that improve the lives of young people.

Livity engage thousands of young people from a broad range of backgrounds and abilities, empowering them with the skills, equipment, training, apprenticeships and contacts to change their own lives for the better.

Livity’s pioneering and financially and socially successful business model currently works for Google, Blackberry, Barclays, Channel 4, Penguin and Nike.

With his business partner Michelle, Sam was awarded the prestigious 2011 UK Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Sam believes in sustainable business ideas for social change and fly’s the flag for social as well as financial profit.

“A product of south London, Sam entered full time work at 18 with a sudden promotion when his manager in Croydon’s Whitgift centre, had a heart attack on the shop floor. A cocktail of career opportunities ensued including: chef, cosmetics buyer, club promoter, outdoor adventure wear retailer and band manager until Sam started his own promotions agency, age 21, called Don’t Panic, now a global youth culture community and company, but in 2001 Sam left to start Livity, with the vague notion of ‘harnessing the power of marketing to change the world…”

Sofia Athanasiadou was born in Veria but grew up in Athens.  Since 2004 she lives and works in Santorini where she runs her own clothes store selling hand-made goods. Motherhood changed Sofia’s life forever, not only did she have her own child to care for, but she decided that she never wanted to leave any other child uncared for. She began expressing her opinions on various topics revolving around maternity through her personal blog in 2010 and has since updated daily with articles about parents and children. Her sensitivity lies in her love of giving to others, volunteer work, and her fellow human beings. She communicates an optimistic message and through her blog, Super Moms Rock, has accumulated a faithful following of mothers who she has mobilized into a group that spreads love and does good through charity events for children and families in need.

Paul Loeb has spent thirty-five years researching and writing about citizen responsibility and empowerment–asking what makes some people choose lives of social commitment, while others abstain. He’s the author of Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time, which including its wholly updated new edition now has 135,000 copies in print. He’s also the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear (Basic Books, 2004), named the #3 political book of fall 2004 by the History Channel and American Book Association, and winner of the Nautilus Award for best social change book, Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy & Action on the American Campus, Nuclear Culture, and Hope in Hard Times.  He’s written for the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Psychology Today, Mother Jones, The Nation, Redbook, the International Herald Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor, been interviewed on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN, NBC news, CBC, the BBC, and NPR, and lectured at 400 colleges throughout the country and numerous national and international conferences.  Paul participated in the Department of Education’s 2011 roundtable on civic engagement in higher education.  He initiated the Campus Election Engagement Project, which helped 500 colleges and universities engage their students in the 2008 election, and is running it again in 2012.

Craig Walzer was born in Toronto, Canada in 1981. He grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and has studied at Brown, Oxford, and Harvard Universities. In 2004 he and several friends moved to Oia, Santorini to open Atlantis Books. In 2010 the bookstore spawned Paravion Press, which is run by members of the Atlantis Books team as well.

Craig is the editor of “Out of Exile: Narratives from the Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan,” published in 2008 by McSweeney’s Voice of Witness Series. He divides his time between Santorini and New York, working on the bookstore, the press, other writing projects.

Stefanos Sitaras is a 22-year old Greek filmmaker, who has been writing/directing his own projects since he was 11. He has made over 40 short films in Greece, France and the US, and has participated and/or been distinguished in a prodigious amount of international Film Festivals. Apart from his work on film, Stefanos is a distinguished writer, musician, blogger, and public speaker.

Stefanos was born in Athens, the only child of Dr. Nikolaos M. Sitaras and Dr. Giulietta Pavlopoulou, who exposed their son to classic cinema at the age of 6. At the age of 11 he got his first digital camera and started making amateur films with his friends. At 12, he enrolled in a summer theatre conference, and the next year he attended the New York Film Academy program in Paris, under director Michael Unger. There, he wrote, directed and edited three shorts in 16mm film. His final project Through the Eyes of a Child, a poetic anti-war interpretation of the Iraq war, was considered to have been the finest NYFA short in years.

At 13, Stefanos wrote and directed his first major motion picture, the historical epic Light Blue and Orange, which opened the Athens Opening Nights Film Festival, engaging an international audience of over 2000 people, among them the Academy Award winning filmmaker Costa Gavras. The film was an immediate sensation all throughout Greece, and the 14-year old was praised by both Greek and International media. The film has won a plethora of awards, including Best Debut Filmmaker and Opening Film at the 2005 Athens Opening Nights International Film Festival. It was also in official selection in many film festivals around the world.

Stefanos then enrolled in Film Editing School in Athens and, at age 15, devoted his time to making commercials, documentaries and educational videos and a feature-length documentary about an Albanian family struggling with life in Athens.  During this time, he also directed over 30 short films, most of which participated and received awards in film festivals worldwide, including the Mannheim International Film Festival, the India International Film Festival, the LA Shorts Fest, the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlinale Talent Campus and many more.  He also made his acclaimed Silent Trilogy, three short films each made at the age of 15, 16, and 17, all black & white with no dialogue, following the adventures of a young beggar in the streets, featuring a young Mike dePapas in the lead role.

At 17, Stefanos went to the US to study filmmaking, at Emerson College in Boston. His making short films continued ceaselessly.  Apart from his work in film, he also completed his first book, a collection of psychoanalytic articles entitled One, Two, Three Plato dies; the sexual neuroses of philosophy.

Thereafter, he began going back and forth between Greece and America, making films, including his biggest-budget production to that date: the historical epic Colors of the West, set in 1879 Asia Minor, produced by ERT, the national Hellenic Radio-Television network.

Stefanos became interested in music production at 19 and formed a collaboration with acclaimed Greek artist Pavlos Alexiou who has since been composing for all his films. They have been working on the production of a pop/rock album heavily engrained with ethnic sounds from the East and the Balkans with Sitaras producing, playing guitar and writing lyrics.

Having recently finished his studies, Sitaras is working on short films and recently moved to Southern California in hopes of becoming a Hollywood film director. His credits include over 40 short films, 10 educational videos, 5 commercials, 3 music videos, one animated film, and one feature film in the works. His work has been shown at renowned film festivals around the world. Stefanos has been critically acclaimed and won countless awards, including awards for filmmaking, directing, editing, cinematography, original score and costume design. In 2012, Stefanos went back to Greece to work on his most ambitious film, The Magic World of Harrison Patrakis, which is set to be released in 2013.

Downtempo, dub and funk master, Giorgos Bratanis aka Cayetano, released his 1st album with his group Stroggilo Kitrino in 1996, making waves in Greece and Italy. In 1999 he moved to Spain, composing music for theatre and film and gaining a reputation as a top keyboard and bass session musician with a number of leading Spanish artists. He returned to Greece in 2004, ready to beat a new path of his own. His 2006 album, Focused, brought him international recognition. Live appearances, film scores, awards and collaborations have followed and in 2011 he launched the Cayetano Live Band, a six-strong team merging drums, bass, sax and guitars with loops and keyboards which has quickly become a major attraction in Greece, regularly filling dance-floors in Athens and Thessaloniki. Cayetano’s fifth album, Once Sometime, was released in 2012.

I am a professional motocross racer and I started racing when I was 7 years old. I entered into the professional ranks when I was only 17. I won my first professional motocross title in my rookie year when I was 18 years old. I have won 4 women’s motocross titles in 5 years and I won 2 gold medals at ESPN’s x games racing super cross. I was born profoundly deaf but I have never let that slow me down. I’ve toured the US giving inspirational speech to young deaf students to try and motivate them and to show them that they can do anything. I contribute my time to the women’s sports foundation to help young women’s advance in sports. I have appeared in commercials and documentaries and also on the Conan O’Brien show. I also had a part in ABC families ‘Switched at Birth.’

John-Paul Flintoff writes for major English-language newspapers and magazines about people who are well known and powerful – and others who are little known and powerless.

His new book, How To Change The World, is a practical manual containing insights from people he’s interviewed, the latest psychological research, and stories from around the world and throughout history. It also contains some examples of Flintoff’s own attempts to make a difference – to show that changing the world is not the business only of “great souls” like Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela. It’s something we can all do.

The book is published in 13 languages, as part of a series from The School of Life, founded by Alain de Botton in London, where Flintoff is on the faculty.

His previous book, Sew Your Own, described his own attempt to take back control, save money and help the environment by making his own clothes. It was described by kind reviewers as (variously) wonderful, amazing, funny, warm, inspiring, moving and utterly brilliant.

He has advised major global corporations on creative ways to make a difference – but he also works with members of the public in libraries, among faith groups, and at schools.

Viktor Koen holds a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem, Israel and an MFA with honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Mr. Koen serves on the faculty of the MFA Illustration program and the BFA Graphic Design Department at SVA. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Nature magazine and his client list includes Penguin Books, Random House, Doubleday, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Rizzoli, Houghton Mifflin, Time, Newsweek, Esquire, The Economist, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Wired, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Readerʼs Digest, Manʼs Journal, GQ, Bloomberg, Fortune, Money, Forbes, The Financial Times, Nation, The Village Voice, Mother Jones, BusinessWeek, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Atlantic Records, Roadrunner Records, Virgin, the BBC, Delta Airlines, IBM and Merrill Lynch. His award winning prints are exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia and are part of private and institutional collections. Mr. Koenʼs work is regularly featured in books and publications worldwide.

Nick Touliatos is a musician and composer with extensive experience in improvisation and composition of contemporary music. He creates music ranging from silence, to noises from nature and is a pioneer in his use of non-traditional objects as percussion instruments.

Nikos is the founder of the first percussionist school in Greece and teaches in many educational programs with the GS for Youth. He is currently a professor in the Music Department of the Ionian University in Corfu with numerous seminars and lectures already under his belt.

He has performed at the Athens Concert Hall, at the Classic Theatre of Herodium, in Delphi, at various international festivals with top musicians from around the world. He is a partner of the Ministry of Culture and the General Secretariat for Youth.

Protegee of Mikis Theodorakis, years of working by Thanos Mikroutsikou side, partnerships with Savina Yannatou, Alkisti Protopsalit and a multifude of other internationally recognized musicians, establish Niko as a composer for theatre and film.

Additionally he has participated in the Openign Ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.

Ramy is the director and co-host of TEDxWaterloo in Canada, an independently organized TED event. TEDxWaterloo has grown into one of the largest TEDx events in North America and next year’s event, called Chasing Home, will take place on March 27, 2013.

Ramy works as a consultant to several technology companies and startups with a background in both sales and business development to help them grow and thrive in a competitive market. He is also building a real estate development business in his hometown of Waterloo, Canada.

Mary Katrantzou was born in Athens in 1983, to an interior designer mother and a father who trained in textile design. She moved to America for a BA in Architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, before transferring to Central Saint Martins to complete her BA degree in Textile Design. During this time, Katrantzou worked on a freelance basis as a print designer for Bill Blass. Graduating from her BA in 2005, Katrantzou shifted her direction from textile design to womenswear with a focus on print. She then went on to graduate in MA Fashion from Central Saint Martins with distinction. Katrantzou’s graduating show in 2008 mapped out her signature style.

It was themed around trompe l’oeil prints of oversized jewellery featured on jersey-bonded dresses. These pieces created the illusion of wearing giant neckpieces that would be too heavy in reality. She also designed real jewellery made out of wood and metal that were exact replicas of the prints. Mary Katrantzou’s first ready-to-wear collection debuted at London fashion week in spring/summer 2009, with the support of the bfc and the NEWGEN scheme. Despite a small collection of nine dresses, Katrantzou picked up 15 prestigious stockists including browns, joyce and colette. The designer achieved show status the following season, in autumn/winter 2009.

Her thematic collections revolve around an icon of luxury, an object from art or design that a woman would not be able to wear if it were real. Mary has based the collections on perfume bottles, artisan blown glass, eighteenth century society paintings, and interiors while keeping the printed image central to her aesthetic. Her collections are complimented by a capsule jewellery line with the same play of illusion  and effect, highlighting her other talent, that of a jewellery designer. Her work was featured in publications including Vogue, Dazed & Confused, The New York Times, Wallpaper* and Grazia. She now boasts over 100 stockists ranging from 10 corso como to barneys. For the fifth season Mary was a recipient of the NEWGEN award, presenting her show for autumn winter 2011.

In 2010 Mary was awarded the prestigious Swiss Textiles Award. As well as producing a second collection for Topshop she has collaborated on a perfume with six scents, entitled Trompe l’oeil’ and with atelier Swarovski on a jewellery collection. In November 2011 Mary was awarded the British Fashion Award for Emerging Talent: womenswear and in February 2012 was awarded Young Designer of the Year at the Elle Style Awards. February 2012 saw the release of her much anticipated collaboration with Longchamp creating a capsule collection of their signature bags and totes. For autumn/winter 2012 the collection takes on a couture element with Mary working with the renowned Parisian embroidery house Lesage, a first of its kind collaboration with a London designer.

Katia Paschou recently appeared as Valencienne at the National Greek Opera’s production of the Merry Widow, and was praised for her sauciness and youthful vitality of her presence ( Svolos, To pontiki). In January 2011 Katia made her debut in Torino as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the Araldo Theater. The same year she also debuted with the State Orchestra of Athens in the Greek Opera singing the leading part of “The Cretan Girl” by S. Samaras at the Megaron Athens.

In 2009, Katia won the 2^nd prize for the role of Adina in L’ Elisir d’ amore, at the Opera Rinata Competition, Torino, Italy. The same year, Ms. Paschou performed with the international bass Dimitri Kavrakos in concerts that took place in Greece in his honor. In May, Soprano Katia Paschou made her Weill Hall debut, as a winner of the Artists International Presentations Special Prize.

In 2004 Ms. Paschou received the Onassis Foundation Scholarship and moved to the US, where she performed at various venues, as a member of the Allegro Singers, in productions & concerts, singing the roles of Zerlina/Don Giovanni, Musetta/La Boheme, Micaela/Carmen. Meanwhile, she participated in concerts at summer festivals around Greece, such as Nafplio Festival, International Festival of Cyclades, Festival of Salonica and in performances of the National Opera and Concert Hall. Her repertoire includes roles such Traviata / Verdi and Manon / Massenet, and vocal chamber works by Schumann, Ravel, Brahms, Granados etc. Katia Paschou holds a BA in Theatre Studies from the University of Athens, a Diploma in Voice from Mannes College of Music, and has been a member at Sande Shurin’s Transformational Acting Studio, in New York.  Since 2010, Ms. Paschou has been coached by the renowned sopranos Jeannette Pilou on repertoire, and Marina Krilovic on vocal technique and has been in charge of a very successful and original educational program “Interactive Opera” at the Theocharakis Foundation, in Athens. Katia is the creator of the innovative tailor-made opera event for Lipton &Dior “Three tea sopranos” as her dream and ambition is to bring opera to young audiences.

I have been the writer and cartoonist of the daily comic strip EGOLAND for 25 years, closing the strip down in 2009 (I had in fact planned it to run for only 10 years). A year later, I was honoured with the KOMIKS:DK Prize as Best Danish Comics Creator at the International Festival in Copenhagen. The strip was published in the leading Danish newspaper POLITIKEN, and brought lots of readers into its rather absurd, funny, poetical, philosophical AND satirical universe.

In 2000 I published THE SIXTH SENSE (in Danish), a book about the history of ideas connected to the development of writing and communication from the great days of Hellas and first experiments in public readership, to the invention two thousand years later of mass production in books – called printing – a revolution of the human mind, taking place within the life time of a generation or two (as did the revolution of Greek letters, with Plato as the towering genius among other great names).

And now it’s happening again. Once again, young people are cleverer than their parents, learning faster about new ways of getting across to their fellow human beings. Forgetting about History, perhaps, forgetting about language, too – that may be seen as inevitable. Homer was soon forgotten, too, or rather, he was made to look dignified and ancient. Much as we deal with, say Shakespeare, today. Tomorrow is getting closer with each new day, if I may say so.

I studied Ancient Greek and Latin at the University of Aaarhus, and have been teaching these subjects for years at the Aarhus Katedralskole and at the University. My title is MA in Classical Philology, and I mastered in Plato. These years, I have received funding to write a book about Plato, which will, I hope, become available and understandable to a wider public. They need to know, as the Master would have put it himself.

In between, I have produced a few plays for Children’s Theatre, and an Opera (the word, not the music, thank God!) in 2001. My composer and I are presently preparing a new opera, based on my comic strip EGOLAND, to be performed next year in Aarhus and Copenhagen. And of course I am part of the great Danish project these years, translating all works of Plato once again into contemporary Danish, 6 volumes appearing 2009 to 2014.

Matheos Yosafat graduated from Athens University of Medical Studies in 1963 and acquired his neuropsychiatry specialty diploma in 1967. He then left for further studies in London where he remained for 15 years. It was there that he acquired several diplomas in Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry. He was elected Director of the National Health System ( Center of Child and Family Psychiatry, Finchley London). He taught at the Towistock Center and at London University (medical Graduate Center) as a Senior Lecturer. He had a 5 year training in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and a 4 year training in Group and Family Therapy. Upon his return in Greece he was elected director of Children’s Psychiatric Hospital  of Attica. He was one of the main founders of the Greek Psychoanalysis & Psychotherapy Association, where training courses are given for psychoanalysis treatments and the Greek Association of Group Therapy and Family Therapy of which he is president and director for the Educational Institute.  He is a regular member of International Research & Science Centers and he has participated in writing many scientific books and numerous articles. He was the main lecturer for various centers abroad (Oxford Univerity, London School of Economics etc) as well as hospitals , scientific centers, Megaron Plus Lectures etc.

He is also the co-founder of the Hellenic Society of Child Psychiatry, where he is also the first elected President.

Born in Athens.He studied at the Physics Department of the University of Athens. Then pursued postgraduate studies in Meteorology oceanology University Pierre and Marie Curie, PARIS VI. Returning to Greece he followed postgraduate studies of General Oceanography at the University of Athens.

Since 1985 he is actively participating in grass roots organizations for the protection of the environment and wildlife.
In 1992 he joined Greenpeace as a campaigner for the protection of marine life. Later on he initiated a campaign against the release of genetically modified organisms to the environment (known in Greece as “metallagmena”). Since February 2002 he is the Executive Director of Greenpeace in Greece.

During the most recent years he focuses on green development, ie to promote solutions that will contribute to getting us out of the dual crisis (and economic climate). He has authored books and articles on issues related to environmental protection, the role of civil society and NGOs, climate change and energy, green development.

I was born and raised in Andros. I loved the sea ever since I was young and dreamt of becoming a fisherman, despite my family’s attempts to prevent this. In 1995 I got my first boat. Since 2002 I have been actively engaged with the organization and protection of the fisherman’s profession. In January 2007, the idea for an area of marine regeneration was born between the rowlocks of the boat, in a small shipyard in Syros. Since then, on an effort both to protect my profession, as well as to regenerate the sea, I have been cooperating with local authorities, international NGOs and Members of the European Parliament. With their assistance I have managed to present the idea in Greece, at the European Commission for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, to participate in a number of committee meetings in Brussels on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, as well as in meetings for the exchange of experiences among coastal fishermen from the rest of Europe. Greek and foreign media alike have shown s strong interest in the opinions that I express on the management of the field of fisheries. During this past year I have been representing MedArtNet (www.medartnet.org) in Greece. Until the 20^th September 2012, and for a number of years, I was President of the South Aegean Federation of Coastal Fishermen, at which point the Federation was automatically dissolved, due to a change in the legal framework.

Since 1991, Anastasia Sapouna and I sail through life together and we have three children.

Yorgos is co-founder of non-profit initiatives “UP Greek Tourism”, a grassroots, crowdfunding campaign aiming to promote Greece as a tourism destination, and “Volunteer4Greece.gr”, an online platform created to facilitate access to volunteer positions in Greece.

Yorgos believes the solution to the Greek economic and societal crisis lies within active citizenship, hard work and transparency.

Born and raised in Athens, Yorgos lives abroad since 2005. Currently based in Dubai, at day-time, he is working on an e-commerce start-up. He has studied business in AUEB and INSEAD.

Diane Kochilas is one of the foremost authorities on Greek culinary traditions in the world. She is the author of 17 books on Greek cuisine, including the just-released Country Cooking of Greece (Chronicle, 2012) and the IACP-awarded Glorious Foods of Greece.
Diane is on the forefront of bringing healthy, delicious Greek cuisine to a global audience. In that capacity, among other things, she is working with Harvard, Yale, and UMass Amherst, developing healthy options for the universities’ dining halls and retail outlets as well as educational programs for students and the community at large. She is also consulting chef at Boukiés and Pylos restaurants in New York City, as well as at other restaurants around the country, including Axia (NJ) and Avli (Chicago). She is a frequent lecturer at the Culinary Institute of America and at other culinary gatherings around the world.

Diane appears regularly on American television, including “Throwdown with Bobby Flay,” “Bizarre Foods,” “Foodography,” the “PBS News Hour,” and “360° w/Anderson Cooper” and her writings appear in major international media outlets, such as the Washington Post, Dow Jones wire, Food & Wine, Gourmet Live, zesterdaily.com and more. For 20 years, she has been the food columnist for Ta Nea, Athens’ largest daily newspaper.

She is founder of GreekFoodTv, a webtv venture, and, together with her husband, Vasilis Stenos, a photographer and artist, of the Glorious Greek Kitchen cooking school on her native Greek island, Ikaria, which is one of the world’s Blue Zones. With her extensive knowledge of Greek food, Diane also consults for retail operations, including most recently the Hellenic Gourmet shop at the Athens airport.

Her latest venture is a 98-episode television series called “What Are We Going to Eat Today Mom,” (in Greek), which highlights healthy, accessible food in a family setting.