In the Spotlight

• Bringing Greece into the future: Creating new ideas with TEDxAthens
• What do you see through the Prism? New media experiment documents Greece from every angle
• Greece must push ahead with reforms: An interview with two international relations experts
• New ideas are getting started: An interview with the team bringing STARTup Live to Athens
• Head of Hellenic Bank Association expresses hope in the euro and Greece
• Openfund’s Georgios Kasselakis, and the future for Greek entrepreneurs
• Talking with an angel investor: An interview with Aristos Doxiadis

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  Bringing Greece into the future: Creating new ideas with TEDxAthens

  An interview with Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou, the founder and curator of TEDxAthens which he believes can bring hope and inspiration to the Greek people. “There are many multimedia empires shooting pictures of Greece with riots, protests, fire, fights, blood, etc.,” said Kalavros-Gousia in an interview with Reinventing Greece. “We believe there is another part of Greece full of doers and people waiting for a chance to show their potential. They want to create, not to destroy.”

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  What do you see through the Prism? New media experiment documents Greece from every angle

  Alexis Georgiadis meets with a co-founder of “the Prism” – a new media experiment launched in the winter of 2011 with 14 photojournalists and videographers. Their challenge: construct a new narrative highlighting “quintessential Greece.” The result: a collection of 27 riveting short films with surprising views of Greece — from two young entrepreneurs who’ve just sold an app to Google, to a Cretan mountain musician, a centenarian from Ikaria, and the figures behind Athens’ grafitti.

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  Greece must push ahead with reforms: An interview with two international relations experts

  In the midst of Greece’s continuing debt crisis, Reinventing Greece talks with Charalambos Papasotiriou, the deputy director at the Institute of International Relations and Andreas Gofas, a lecturer at Panteion and research fellow at the Institute, to discuss the debt crisis and the prospects of public policy reform. They remain optimistic about Greece’s potential to rise from the ashes, but emphasize the state’s responsibility in pushing forward with reforms and accepting the consequences.

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  New ideas are getting started: An interview with the team bringing STARTup Live to Athens

  “Our country needs young people, their fresh ideas and creativity, their courage,” says STARTup Live Athens team member Irini Nissiriou, in Reinventing Greece’s exclusive interview with the dynamic team bringing STARTup to Greece. “These people are the future of Greece and should be supported in order to help the country go forward. So for us that are here, we have to make our best in our entrepreneurial activities, but also we have to co-operate more and support each other.”

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  Head of Hellenic Bank Association expresses hope in the euro and Greece

  Will the euro survive the current crisis in its present form, will it disappear—or will some countries, like Greece, have to abandon it? Christos Gortsos, Secretary General of the Hellenic Bank Association, for one, strongly believes the euro is not going anywhere despite the ongoing debate about whether Greece will default on its debts or not. “It is my strong belief that the euro will survive,” he tells Reinventing Greece.

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  Openfund’s Georgios Kasselakis, and the future for Greek entrepreneurs

  In a stale economy, filled with cynicism, Openfund — a new seed capital fund in Athens — is a refreshing concept. “The goal is simple and straightforward: to form a number of stellar teams, help them turn their innovative ideas into globally-aimed, disruptive start-ups, and make them succeed... The goal of Openfund is to change this part of the world, to create impact; to help people believe they can create their own companies, instead of running dad’s shop.”

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  Talking with an angel investor: An interview with Aristos Doxiadis

  “I think that the best way to connect people, and to produce joint results, is if one accepts that it’s very hard in Greece to work the way you work in Boston; and therefore, I would say rather try and say to the local people: “What do you need from us? How can I help you? I understand that you cannot change your work habits very easily, but I would still like to work with you and make some money together.” — An interview with Aristos Doxiadis