On January 31, 2020, Thessaloniki will be one of more than 140 cities worldwide to hold a "Why Think Tanks Matter Forum." The Dukakis Center and Transparency International Greece, in collaboration with the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at the University of Pennsylvania (TTCSP), will host local think tanks, research institutes, and NGOs with a research and advocacy capacity to participate in an open house and pitch session/press conference at the Manolis Anagnostakis Room, Municipality of Thessaloniki, from 4 to 7 PM.

Last April, the Dukakis Center, and Transparency International Greece organized the first Greek Think Tank Summit in Athens, with James McGann, Director of the TTCSP, and representatives from several Athens-based think tanks and NGOs.

Our objective in this new event is to draw public attention to the breadth and depth of scientific and social-scientific talent and capacity in Thessaloniki and to link our city with a global network of think tanks and research institutes. The "2020 Thessaloniki Why Think Tanks and Civil Society Matter" Forum will be convened by Dr. Anna Damaskou, Chair of the Board of Transparency International Greece, and Dr. David Wisner, Executive Director of the Dukakis Center. Working languages will be Greek and English. The forum will be open to the general public and will reach out particularly to youth active in civil society. We will be looking particularly to gather organizations that engage with the general public and produce or commission research conceived to inform policy decisions by local and national authorities.

For more information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Program

16:00-16:30 Open House

16:30-17:15 Pitch session

17:30- 19:00 Panels

1. Core values and civil society

What are the principal activities and contributions of think tanks and other institutions of civil society? How do we measure their impact? To what extent is civil society a sphere of competing voices?

Virginia Tzortzi, Center for International and European Law

Giorgos Kokkas, Entrepreneurship Hub at ACT

Anastasis Drosou, Information Technology Institute (Centre for Research and Technology Hellas)

Moderator: Vassilis Christakis, American Universities Alumni Association of Northern Greece

2. Helping civil society

What are the requisites for a healthy civil society? What input is required from the public at large? To what extent does competition for scarce resources and lack of coordination impact the contribution of think tanks, research institutes, and NGOs?

Giorgos Siakas, Public Opinion Research Unit, University of Macedonia Research Institute

Aris Paraschou, United Societies of Balkans

Nikos Zaharis, Southeast European Research Centre

Moderator: Lambrini Nassis, ACT-Dukakis Center

3. Civil society in Greece – the way forward

How does your organization assess the future of civil society? What needs to be done? What might your contribution be?

Nikos Filippou, Neo Revma - Neo Orama

Epaminondas Christofilopoulos, Millennium Project Greek Node and UNESCO Chair on Futures Research

Angelos Kaskanis, Navarino Network

Christina Papazoglou, UNHCR

Moderator: Anna Damaskou, Transparency International Greece

Interested in a career in an emerging field?
With a strong emphasis on coaching, this program is aimed at those wishing to turn their experience into expertise, and expertise into leadership!
Study organizational leadership and change, conflict resolution and management alongside positive psychology and well-being, and learn to create more positive and profitable workplaces for you and your clients.
Discover the trends and best practices and advance your career in all areas of business, industry, consulting, government, health and education.

Explore one of the fastest growing careers in industries worldwide!

Interested in a career in an emerging field?

ACT’s flexible, 15-month MSc in Industrial Organizational Psychology features a strong emphasis on coaching and is aimed at those wishing to turn their experience into expertise, and expertise into leadership!

You will study organizational leadership and change, conflict resolution and management but you will combine such courses with positive psychology and well-being, creating more positive and more profitable workplaces for you and your clients and increasing your personal and professional well-being at the same time.

Discover the trends and best practices, learn how to increase your emotional intelligence and market it to advance your career in all areas of business, industry, consulting, government, health and education.

The program at a glance

• 36 credits
• 10 courses, including:
  • 3 coaching courses
  • 3 online courses
  • thesis
  • internship
• 5 academic terms
• 15month program

Courses

Main Courses

• Applied Statistics for Business Decisions
• Conflict Management & Resolution
• Introduction to Industrial/Organizational (I/O)
• Organizational Leadership & Change
• Positive Psychology & Well-being Coaching
• Psychological Testing & Measurement 
• Psychology of Group Dynamics

Electives

• Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace 
• Executive Coaching & Leadership Mentoring 
• Sports Coaching 

• It’s the only industrial-organizational psychology graduate program of its kind currently available in Greece
• An interdisciplinary program inviting eager learners and professionals from various walks of life
• Cutting-edge courses such as positive psychology and well-being, coaching and sports coaching
• A focus on cultivating a new mindset for new results
• An important management and life skill that will help you become more self-reliant and communicate more effectively. Through coaching you’ll gain more job satisfaction, communicate more effectively and become more productive and motivated.
• Online delivery of select courses for easier attendance
• Hands-on experience through internship opportunities as part of the curriculum

I/O Psychology is a growing field. Organizations will need psychology graduates to fill positions in many areas. Even in a tough job market, employment of I/O psychologists was expected to grow 26% through 2018 according to the U.S Bureau of Labor and Statistics. This growth rate is higher than in most sectors, which is a clear indication that I/O psychology will continue to play an important role in driving the growth of companies and organizations.

The only program in Northern Greece that’s accredited by NECHE, the accrediting body of the most prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Brown.

• Study at world class facilities on a true college campus.
• A program with a distinct international flavor with students from Greece, the U.S., Bulgaria, FYROM, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Russia, Germany, and Austria among others.
• A program that provides access to a network of over 10,000 Anatolia and ACT alumni that lead industry and government organizations across the world.
• The only program backed by 130 years of experience in education and the name Anatolia College.

Anatolia College is part of a consortium under the SPO – Sport, Action SCP - Collaborative Partnerships Proposal, Call for Proposals 2019 - EAC-A03-2018 titled: Basketball for Life Skills (BASKI). The proposal was approved in September 2019. Our network consists of seven partners from six different European countries (among which the Center for Social Innovation, Cyprus, co-founded by Dr. Sotiris Themistokleous (ACT'07)), with the Cyprus Basketball Federation as the leader of the consortium.

According to the Chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division at ACT, Dr. Maria Kyriakidou, who was part of the international team involved in the drafting of the BASKI proposal, the project envisions developing a training program for basketball coaches, sports educators, sports and education decision-makers on how to promote basketball among primary school students as a medium of life skills development, with emphasis on civic participation. The project outcomes will encourage young people to set the right foundations for a lifelong sports involvement, develop major life skills such as collaboration, empathy, leadership, decision making, planning, and visioning and eventually empower their active social contribution. 

To be considered for admission, candidates must:

• Hold a Bachelor's degree
• Demonstrate competency in the English language

For more in-depth information regarding your admission and further requirements, please

read more

The Career Office at ACT, under the direction of Mr. Dimitris Diamantis launched, in Fall 2019 it’s Research Program, conducting primary research for exploring career-related issues.

In the period of October to December 2019 the Career Office shared a questionnaire with Greek recruiters and HR executives, 53 of whom responded, exploring (at a high-level) the career readiness of college students and young professionals. Though the responses where limited in number and we should be cautious about generalizing the results, still the niche respondent profile provided us with some very interesting insights.

The respondents were asked to share their overall experience regarding the interaction they had with college student and recent graduates in the following areas:

• The quality of their resumes
• The quality of their cover letters
• Their ability present succinctly who they are (elevator pitch)
• Their ability to build and cultivate professional relationships (networking)
• Their ability to perform during a job interview
• Their ability to negotiate a job offer
• Their clarity with regards to what they want from a specific job
• Their clarity with regards to what they looking for in their career
• Their drive, spark and motivation
• Their overall preparedness & readiness for employment

In the interactive graph below you can explore their responses:

Additionally, the respondents shared the key challenges they are facing when recruiting and working with young professionals. Although they wording was different for each one, we grouped together those whose meaning was similar, creating a list of the most common themes:

• Lack of awareness and understanding of the world of work: they overestimate their abilities and have unrealistic expectations, they are impatient, unable or unwilling to adapt to the work environment, lacking perseverance
• Lack of relevant skills (both soft and hard)
• Lack of motivation, engagement or commitment
• Lack of clarity with regards to their career path and career goals
• Lack of professional attitude and behavior
• Lack of prior experience (paid, volunteer, internships, or extra-curricular activities)

Ο László Moholy-Nagy, σπουδαίος καλλιτέχνης και δάσκαλος του Bauhaus, έγραφε τη δεκαετία του 1920 πως στο τέλος του 20ου αιώνα αγράμματος θα είναι όχι αυτός που δεν ξέρει γραφή και ανάγνωση αλλά και εκείνος που δεν θα ξέρει να διαβάζει εικόνες. Κλείνοντας τη δεύτερη δεκαετία του 21ου αιώνα γνωρίζουμε πλέον πως η ρήση του έχει επαληθευτεί, καθώς μας περιβάλλει μια συνεχής ροή εικόνων τις οποίες απολαμβάνουμε ή οι οποίες σιωπηλά ζητούν από μας πράγματα χωρίς πάντα να μπορούμε να τις αναχαιτίσουμε, ούτε να τις κατανοήσουμε. Αυτό γιατί ενώ ο ανεπτυγμένος κόσμος έχει πλέον πολύ υψηλό δείκτη γραμματισμού, η εικόνα προβάλλει ως κυρίαρχη γλώσσα επικοινωνίας. Μπορούμε να κατανοήσουμε βασικές έννοιες από τη γραμματική και το συντακτικό της γλώσσας των εικόνων; Είναι η εικόνα μια διαφορετική μορφή κειμένου που μπορούμε να αρχίσουμε να διαβάζουμε;

Σε ποιους απευθύνεται

Το πρόγραμμα απευθύνεται σε σπουδαστές Φωτογραφίας, Καλών Τεχνών, Δημοσιογραφίας, σε φωτογράφους, φιλότεχνους, όσους οι σπουδές ή η επαγγελματική τους ενασχόληση εμπλέκει την επικοινωνία με εικόνες, το ευρύ κοινό. Δεν υπάρχει προαπαιτούμενο επίπεδο γνώσεων.

Πώς θα ωφεληθείτε

Τα μαθήματα προσφέρουν σε κάθε ενδιαφερόμενο βασικές γνώσεις στην ανάγνωση της γλώσσας των εικόνων, είτε πρόκειται για φωτογράφο, επαγγελματία στη δημιουργία ή την εμπορική προώθηση της εικόνας, φιλότεχνο ή κάποιον που επιθυμεί να πλοηγείται άνετα στον κόσμο των εικόνων.

Περιγραφή του προγράμματος

Aναλυτική Θεματολογία

Ημέρα 1^η : Εισαγωγή / Έννοιες της οπτικής αντίληψης  

• Εισαγωγή στην έννοια του οπτικού γραμματισμού.
• Ομοιότητες και διαφορές ανθρώπινης όρασης / φωτογρ. μηχανής.
• Θέματα και στοιχεία οπτικής αντίληψης και ψυχολογίας της όρασης (χρήση της γραμμής, ισορροπία, βάθος, σχέση θέματος-φόντου).
• Ο ρόλος της τεχνικής στην ανάγνωση μιας εικόνας.

Ημέρα 2^η : Τεχνική / Αισθητική / Η σχέση με την Ιστορία

• Η ανάγνωση στοιχείων αισθητικής της φωτογραφίας.
• Η σημασία του τρόπου παρουσίασης.
• Η φωτογραφία μέσα από τις Ιστορίες (της φωτογραφίας, της τέχνης, του πολιτισμού, των κοινωνιών). 
• Η φωτογραφία και ο λόγος . 

Ημέρα 3^η : Διαβάζοντας τη φωτογραφία 

• Η φωτογραφία ως καθρέφτης της πραγματικότητας (το reality effect).
• Η διαρκής επέκταση του βλέμματος / ο εκδημοκρατισμός της όρασης.
• Η φωτογραφία ως οικουμενική γλώσσα.
• Αλλάζοντας χρήση / αλλάζοντας νόημα. 
• Σύνθετα παραδείγματα εικόνων προς συζήτηση.

Μεθοδολογία του σεμιναρίου

Η ανάλυση εικόνων στο σεμινάριο θα γίνει με μια σύνθετη δέσμη εργαλείων, αξιοποιώντας στοιχεία από την τεχνική και την αισθητική της φωτογραφίας, την ιστορία και τη θεωρία του μέσου, τα ιστορικά και κοινωνικά συμφραζόμενα των εικόνων, την οπτική αντίληψη και την ψυχολογία της όρασης.
Θα χρησιμοποιηθούν παραδείγματα εικόνων από διάφορα πεδία και εφαρμογές του φωτογραφικού μέσου.

Εισηγητές

Ο Ηρακλής Παπαϊωάννου γεννήθηκε στη Θεσσαλονίκη το 1962. Σπούδασε Φυσική στο ΑΠΘ, φωτογραφία στο New York University (Master of Arts), ενώ είναι Διδάκτωρ Φωτογραφίας του Τμήματος Δημοσιογραφίας και Μέσων Μαζικής Ενημέρωσης του ΑΠΘ. Από το 1999 εργάζεται ως Επιμελητής του Μουσείου Φωτογραφίας Θεσσαλονίκης. Το διάστημα 1993-2006 υπήρξε οργανωτικό στέλεχος του ετήσιου διεθνούς φεστιβάλ φωτογραφίας Photosynkyria. Δημοσίευσε μεγάλο αριθμό κειμένων και δοκιμίων για τη φωτογραφία. Έχει επιμεληθεί μεγάλο αριθμό εκθέσεων, ενώ έχει διδάξει φωτογραφία για περισσότερα από 20 χρόνια. Μετέφρασε στα ελληνικά έργα για τη φωτογραφία των Susan Sontag, Ian Jeffrey, Villém Flusser, Julian Stallabrass. Έχουν εκδοθεί τα βιβλία του «Οι φωτογραφίες Marlboro και η χλιαρή Άγρια Δύση» (2009), «Η ελληνική φωτογραφία και η φωτογραφία στην Ελλάδα» (επιμ., 2013), «Η φωτογραφία του ελληνικού τοπίου, μεταξύ μύθου και ιδεολογίας» (2014), «Περί φύσεως και αληθινότητας» (2017). 

Συμμετοχή

Κόστος συμμετοχής: 240€

Εγγραφειτε εδω

Ειδικές τιμές

Super Early bird (έως 5 Μαρτίου 2020): -20%

Early bird (έως 10 Μαρτίου 2020): -10%

Απόφοιτοι Anatolia High School & ACT: -10%

Δικαίωμα αθροιστικής έκπτωσης μέχρι 20%, εφόσον τηρούνται οι παραπάνω προϋποθέσεις.

Το ποσό με την έκπτωση του 10% προσαρμόζεται στα 216€, ενώ με την έκπτωση του 20% στα 192€.

Μετά την αποστολή της αίτησης συμμετοχής, ένας εκπρόσωπος του Lifelong Learning Center του ACT θα επικοινωνήσει μαζί σας για τη διαδικασία της εγγραφής σας στο πρόγραμμα και την πληρωμή.

Μετά την ολοκλήρωση του προγράμματος, οι συμμετέχοντες θα λάβουν ένα πιστοποιητικό παρακολούθησης από το ACT.

Περισσότερες Πληροφορίες

Μπορείτε να επικοινωνείτε με το ACT Lifelong Learning Center στο τηλέφωνο 2310 398 430 ή μέσω email στο This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. με την ένδειξη "Οπτικός Γραμματισμός".

To visit the "Tourism of Tomorrow 2020 Conference" page click here.

Keynote Speaker

Hisham Zaazou

Hisham Zaazou began his career in the City Bank Group for five years in Cairo. Then he helped to establish a tourist agency in the US focusing on the Egyptian market and began to work in the tourism field. From 2004 to 2007, Zaazou served as the chair of the Egyptian Tourism Federation.
During the Hosni Mubarak era, in 2009, Zaazou served as the first deputy of the Minister of Tourism. After the Egyptian uprising, he served as senior assistant to former Tourism Minister, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour. On 2 August 2012, Zaazou began to serve as Tourism Minister during the presidency of Mohamed Morsi and continued with the current president Abdel Fattah el Sisi .
After his departure from public office in 2016, Zaazou returned to the private sector as a consultant working with a number of international and local prestigious organizations.
He holds a bachelor of arts degree in commerce from Ain Shams University (1976) . Besides his Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting from the University of Ain Shams in Cairo, Zaazou earned a specialized Certificate in PPP (Public Private Partnership) from Harvard Kennedy Business School, MBA in 2009 & PhD from the international business from IBRA, Delaware, USA in 2014.

Moderator

Sakis Papadopoulos

Sakis Papadopoulos was born in Thessaloniki where he completed his studies at the Aristotle’s University.
Journalism won him over from a young age. First in the student newspapers of the schools where he attended and then in the city's media. From the mid-eighties he was involved in sports reporting for «Thessaloniki newspaper», for «ERT radio», for «Antenna» (radio and television), for local TV channels in Thessaloniki and as a correspondent in several Athenian magazines.
In 1993 he quit journalism to set up his monitoring media company “Enimerosi - www.apo.gr”, which continues its activity to this day.
In 1997 he returned to journalism dealing with tourist reporting. Originally in “Radio Thessaloniki”, later in the newspaper “Agelioforos” where he created the weekly tourist insert, and since 2005 in the newspaper “MAKEDONIA” with which he collaborates to this day, editing the weekly tourist insert of the Sunday edition.
Alongside, he has been creating the “Omorfa Taxidia” web side with his team for the past 9 years. It is a page of tourist and travel content that consistently and continuously keeps up with current travel and tourism news with over 170,000 to follow and many thousands more to read.

Speakers

(in alphabetical order)

Georgios Drakopoulos

George Drakopoulos is the Founder & CEO of Tourism Generis, a consulting company that supports decision-makers in tourism, based in Athens, Greece. During the period 2014-2017, he served as a Special Adviser to the Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in PPP (Public Private Partnerships). As from 2018, he cooperates with the UNWTO as an Expert Consultant and as of 2019 he is SMEs Adviser at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
He holds a MSc in Tourism Studies from the University of Surrey, UK. He has also studied Tourism Management, Technological Educational Institute in Athens, GR and trained in Hotel Management in International Centre of Glion, CH.

Spyros Kouris

Having commenced his career at the emblematic Makedonia Palace Hotel in Thessaloniki, he has moved then to Athens having senior roles in corporate sales for Classical Hotels Headquarters before continuing to Grecotel across Luxury Hotels as the Deputy General Manager for the Amirandes Exclusive Resort, a Virtuoso Hotel in Crete and as the General Manager for the Cape Sounio Exclusive Resort, a Small Luxury Hotel of the World in Attica and the Baby Grand a Small Luxury Hotel of the World in Athens. Since, March 2016 he is the Operational Leader of Domes Resorts. His academic credentials include a Master of Science (Msc) in International Hospitality Management at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. a Post Graduate Diploma (PgD) in Tourism Management at Northumbria University Business School in Newcastle, U.K. and a Bachelor Degree (BA) in Tourism Management in the Department of Tourism Enterprises Management, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Fanis Krommidas

Fanis Krommidas is an accomplished marketing professional with more than 14 years’ experience in hospitality sector. With a proven track record with one of Europe’s leading resorts, Sani Resort, currently as Marketing Director he leads the marketing team and external partners across areas of both strategic planning and tactical execution. Fais Krommidas participated in the launch of the Sani green programme in 2006, which is the umbrella project of all sustainability initiatives at Sani Resort till today.

Georgios Matsigkos

Georgios Matsigkos is the General Manager of Atrium Hotel in Rhodes, managing the group's three luxury hotels since 2009. In the past, he held the manager position at Blue Horizon Hotel, Elizabeth Hotel and Atrium Palace.
He is a member of the Board at the Rhodes Hotel Managers Association since 1994, and its President for the last nine years. He is also the Vice President of The Hellenic Hoteliers Federation since 1996.
During his presidency, he organized many seminars and international tourism conferences focusing on quality and extending the tourism period and has participated in various tourism fora in Greece and abroad.
He has contributed to the growth of Rhodes as a tourism destination for the French, Russian and Ukrainian markets.

Sotiris Mylonas

Sotiris Milonas is a Civil Engineer with an MBA and recently has completed Business sustainability management program at Cambridge University. Sotiris is working on the field of environmental management since 1997 and sustainability in tourism since 2004. He working on sustainability and health and safety tourist related projects around the globe and he is a lead auditor for Travelife covering more than 20 countries.

Stefanos Papanikos

Stefanos is a Strategy, Analytics and M&A Manager in Deloitte Greece. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Finance & Accounting from the University of Macedonia, a Master of Science (MSc) in Finance from Warwick Business School and a Postgraduate Diploma in Managerial Accounting & Financial Control from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE). He has contributed to a significant number of projects in the areas of Strategy, Finance & Operations for major public and private sector firms, mainly in tourism, hospitality & leisure, consumer goods, education, manufacturing, media and telecommunications.

Spiros Pengas

Spiros Pengas is the CEO of Wise Ram SA since 2019, a company that activates tourism and hospitality growth, which has already signed a contract with the Municipality of Ioannina in order to promote the city and the region abroad.
Through the last nine years, he has been Deputy Mayor for Culture, Tourism and Education, Tourism, E-Governance and International Relations, responsible for the extroversion policies of the City of Thessaloniki. He is responsible for 'Cities Diplomacy', an awarded by 'Greek Hospitality Awards 2016' project and various 'spin offs', ideas and projects (Thessaloniki Food Festival, Thessaloniki Mystery City, WOMEX2012, ‘Study in Thessaloniki’) that significantly contributed to the visibility of the city. During this tenure, he has also been member of the board of Thessaloniki Tourism Organization, Thessaloniki Convention Bureau, Thessaloniki Film Festival and TIF Helexpo SA.
He is a graduate of the German School of Thessaloniki and studied Political Science and International Relations at the Universities of Freiburg and Munich.

Katerina Santikou

Katerina is a Greek hospitality entrepreneur; She has been heading the business development for the hospitality group Santikos Collection for the past five years and is leading the education and marketing efforts for the union of hoteliers of Skiathos. In 2017 she founded the award winning hospitality recruiting platform, Workathlon. She has been included in the 2019 lists for Forbes 30 under 30 and Fortune 40 under 40.

Eleni Sotiriou

Eleni Sotiriou is Managing Director of the Thessaloniki Convention Bureau. She has served as senior advisor to the Mayor of Thessaloniki (2011 – 2018) focusing on the city’s promotion as a prime destination. She was co-founder of Wine Plus, an innovative company specializing in wine promotion, gastronomy and oenotourism. She has occupied different positions in the private sector in Consulting, Marketing and Sales. She holds an MSc in Economic History from LSE and a BSc in Economics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Marina Spyridaki

Marina Spyridaki is a Corporate and Regulatory Affairs expert, with long term experience in advocacy lobbying, corporate communications and business representation across various industries.
She works as a Corporate Affairs Manager in AEGEAN, the largest airline in Greece and amongst the top regional carriers in Europe, working in the areas of corporate communications and public relations, sustainability policies and CSR, stakeholder engagement, advocacy lobbying for the aviation industry in Greece and EU, etc.
Marina has a strong academic background in Political Science (MA), Business Administration (MBA), Public Policies and European Policies (MSc), with a proven track record of successful management of interdisciplinary projects.