Greek American Leaders to Gather in Chicago for the "National Innovative Conference"

Leading the ever-changing conversation in the Greek American community, the Greek America Foundation organizes the first-ever National Innovation Conference (NIC) on June 12th in Chicago.

The idea behind NIC, according to the GAF’s founder Gregory Pappas, is to gather “global thinkers, leaders, innovators and doers in a room to share their amazing stories with an audience thirsty for knowledge.”

The daylong conference will include 15-minute-long presentations by each presenter, several breaks for networking and opportunities to meet and mingle with industry leaders from film to fashion, from philanthropy to finance—all of whom incorporate innovation into what they do.

Speaking about NIC and the motivation behind organizing the conference, Pappas noted that “Two and a half thousand years ago, Socrates taught us that the unexamined life wasn’t worth living. On June 12th, we encourage people to come to NIC, to examine… and to live.”

NIC is modeled after the hugely successful TED and TEDMED conferences, which bring together world-class speakers who discuss projects and themes they are passionate about to an audience thirsty for knowledge. NIC presenters are high-profile business executives, entrepreneurs, performers, artists and successful leaders in diverse disciplines. The theme of “innovation” will be prevalent in everyone’s presentation.
Presenters will discuss various topics that are relevant to the global conversations going on today throughout the world– philanthropy, technology, social issues, health and medical innovations, education and more. The presentations will be dynamic and interesting and many will incorporate the use of multimedia (video, photography, etc…) that will be masterfully interconnected with each presentation.

NIC will be held in an exciting digital studio space with ample staging and seating for 400 people. Given the expertise of the presenters, we expect a national audience of participants who will travel to Chicago for this unique event. Our target audience includes leaders in business, education, technology, government, philanthropy, the arts and other disciplines– who incorporate innovation in their work.

Confirmed to participate at NIC are some of the world’s leaders in their respective fields who will speak about various topics. The list, as of March 30th includes:

Kary Antholis
President, HBO Miniseries & Oscar-winning filmmaker

Cat Cora
Celebrity Chef & TV personality

Peter Diamandis
Founder & Chairman of the X Prize Foundation

Jim Gianopulos
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Fox Filmed Entertainment

Chris Hondros
Pulitzer-nominated Photographer

Danialle Karmanos
Philanthropist & Founder
Danialle Karmanos’ Work It Out

Nikos Koumettis
President, Coca Cola Canada

Niki Leondakis
Chief Operating Officer, Kimpton Hotels

Kostas Mallios
General Manager, Strategy & Business Development, Microsoft

William Margaritis
Vice President Global Communications & Investor Relations
FedEx Corporation

Natasha Tsakos
Visual and performing artist


For More info visit: www.greekamerica.org