This year’s IFES World Summit runs June 26-28 in Athens, Greece, bringing the exhibition and event industry together to meet colleagues from all over the world, discuss new trends and find new partners to expand international business.
The “Summit of Inspiration” is the brainwave in change, architecture, sustainability and economy. From these four points of view, the specialists give horizon-widening insights in their key notes and workshops.
Isabel Bardinet is known as a consistent advocate of developing relevant methods to analyze and promote meetings, conferences and congresses. This applies both economically and in terms of content. This also includes the documentation of better measures for event results as well as the promotion of the role of women in the MICE industry. Much of what she advocated years ago is now propagated across industries. She sums up her experiences and aspirations in her presentation, “The end of the congress: Long live football clubs and 7 sense events.”
Hosted by the Design Ambassador Vassilios Bartzokas, some of Greece’s most recognized architects and designers will inspire the audience with some of their recent projects ranging from space installation to urban planning, design and the development of complex and non-standard architecture.
Natassa Liannou and Ermis Chalvatzis focus on a variety of works, from towers and master plans to small products and interiors. They will introduce the London Iconic Pavilion, a housing prototype called Breathe for the future living environment. It takes a holistic approach to sustainability. By making life an active experience, environmental awareness should encourage visitors to face the tendency to use resources rather than take them for granted. Breathe is designed for reuse, adaptable. The fabric can be exchanged to meet a variety of climatic and environmental conditions.
In a motivating and appealing narrative, based on a strongly anchored belief and value system that is expressed inside and outside the company, Peter Economides deals with the associated turbulence in times of rapid change. With changes in technology and the resulting rapidly changing expectations of consumers, CEOs across all industries believe they urgently need to change the way they do business. Economides will draw on his extensive experience with some of the world’s leading companies to reflect on what it takes to build a strong, sustainable business.
Dr. Kyriakos Pozrikidis, Irene Tolis and Theodore Vokos will talk about the trade fair and event industry in Greece, the challenges they face in organizing trade fairs in Greece and the future prospects for the Greek event industry.
Panagiotis Podimatas deals with the idea of ” When economy drives your creativity.” In 2012, he founded the Athens Flying Week, which has been a successful event for seven years and has become one of the largest aviation events in Europe and one of the most important thematic events in Greece.
Today’s exhibition business takes place in an extremely competitive environment, with exhibition space in many markets over capacities and increasing fragmentation and congestion. Furthermore, shows must compete with other media and means of communication.
“Is it now time for organizers to expand their presence in the service industry?“ asks Jochen Witt. Everyone who has listened to his presentation in Chicago knows that his analysis should be given attention if you want to continue to position yourself successfully in the industry in the future.
In addition to this mixture of lectures and discussions, there will be workshops, networking and, of course, evening events that are equally sought after in their breadth and quality.
