Mr. Giannis Balakakis

He is a forward thinking and results oriented strategist specialized in event management, marketing, BtL communication and hospitality industry. In his career, Giannis has been appointed as Planning | Product | General Manager & Chief Executive Officer in various Greek and International firms.

He currently serves as President of the Board at Geo Routes Institute, Chair of the Organizing Committees at the Balkans & Black Sea Forum and AgriBusiness Forum and Chair of the leading event & destination management company Gnomon Performance.

Giannis has repeatedly leaded large scale projects and events around the globe, has been founder and initiator leading socioeconomic platforms, and has been regular speaker to international fora related with business strategies, innovation, culture-tourism-development and policy strategies.

He has served as member of the BoD of the Association of Chief Executive Officers Greece, former VP of the Society of Incentive Travel Executives, member of Meeting Professionals International, member of UN Global Compact and other relevant organizations.

Giannis has financial background (banking marketing & management), he speaks Greek (mother tongue), English and French, and has excellent skills in planning, negotiations and cross-cultural communication as a result of his extensive experience in more than 80 countries around the world.

Ms. Elena Kostopoulou

Highly qualified and self-motivated luxury hospitality professional with vast experience of over 25 years in Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Events (MICE) sales and planning within international hotel chains and landmark hotels such as Hotel Grande Bretagne, Hilton Doha, Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi and Hilton Abu Dhabi.

Her responsibilities include but are not limited to the sales and planning of different types of local and international events such as conferences/congresses, press conferences, workshops, trainings, meetings, outside catering etc between 10 to 2.000 attendees.

Furthermore, her role is to maintain and establish business relationship with existing and solicit new accounts through proactive sales activities as well as lead her teams to success.

Always working with high standards, paying great attention to detail and following standardized operating procedures to ensure smooth operation and exceed guest satisfaction.

Elena is a passionate luxury hospitality professional with excellent communication and negotiation skills, , customer focused, results oriented, valuable strengths that define her as an expert in her field.