Category: Latest News

Xenia Kourtoglou as Keynote Speaker on e-Commerce

In the new era of commerce and marketing, everything converges toward a single destination: the Consumer. The journey is multidimensional and constantly evolving—beginning with physical stores and reaching its peak in the digital ecosystem that now defines trends, behaviours, and audience expectations.  This year’s e-commerce conference opened with a keynote by Xenia Kourtoglou, who presented the evolution of online shopping among Greek consumers from 2000 to today. She outlined their habits, preferences, and expectations within this increasingly complex market.  She concluded her presentation with authentic stories shared by Greek consumers about their experiences with online stores, drawn from the ongoing Focus Bari CX Stories research since 2017. She highlighted that positive experiences reward good business practices, while negative ones offer valuable insights for improvement.

See Xenia Kourtoglou’s full presentation here.

Focus Bari at the MINDS: SEDEA Market Research Forum 2025

On 27 November 2025, the first MINDS: SEDEA Market Research Forum took place at the historic Sarogleio Mansion, marking the launch of a new annual platform for dialogue on the future of Market Research in Greece. Focus Bari was represented by Valeria Tsamis, who delivered the conference’s opening keynote in her capacity as President of SEDEA, Katerina Moschandreou, as well as additional members of our team who attended the Forum.

Katerina presented, together with Mastercard, the joint case study “KYKLOI by Priceless: How a purposeful initiative came to life”, showcasing how a socially meaningful initiative can be designed and activated with real impact.

The Forum highlighted the vital role of research in today’s data-driven and AI-powered landscape, while exploring the opportunities and challenges emerging from technological advancement, evolving methodologies, and the growing importance of transparency and quality standards. Discussions also focused on the need for certified, accountable research practices that reinforce trust among citizens, clients and institutions.

MINDS 2025 set a strong foundation for a new institutional event—one that aims to bridge technology with human insight, and to reaffirm the role of Market Research as a driver of progress for businesses and society.

Xenia Kourtoglou Presented “30 Years of Internet in Greece”

With the heartfelt participation of leaders, executives, and companies across technology, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence, the 27th Infocom World Conference was held under the central theme “AI-Volution”—highlighting AI as both the natural next step in technological evolution and a force reshaping society and the business landscape.

The opening keynote was delivered by Xenia Kourtoglou, who presented “30 Years of Internet in Greece,” offering a historical overview of how Focus Bari began, as early as 1995, to independently measure Greeks’ relationship with technology. In her talk, she showcased the digital landscape of that era, the milestone events that fueled the expansion of internet use, and the journey leading to today, where Greeks have become fully-fledged “digital citizens.”   Xenia Kourtoglou concluded her keynote by presenting the Greek public’s current attitudes toward Artificial Intelligence—the fears, hesitations, and the audience typologies emerging even within business environments. She also offered guidance on how both technology-related anxieties and concerns around AI can be addressed and overcome.

See Xenia Kourtoglou’s full presentation here.

Focus Bari Keynote Speech

With the participation of representatives from all businesses involved in DIY and home renovation, the 16th DIY & Home Improvement Conference was held at the Benaki Museum on November 12th, 2025.

Xenia Kourtoglou of Focus Bari presented Greeks’ relationship with their homes and property, sharing insights on the profile of Greek households, the age of Greek residences, and the overall investment in home renovations—tracking the evolution of the entire market.

A particularly noteworthy trend is the increasing inclination of Greeks to renovate properties in order to offer them for short-term or long-term rental, demonstrating that this type of investment yields solid returns.

See  Xenia Kourtoglou’s full presentation here

Focus Bari – Research Sponsor of “The Smile of the Child” since 2017

With a remarkable turnout from the media, political and business leaders, state and institutional bodies, volunteers, partners, and friends, The Smile of the Child celebrated its 30th anniversary in Greece with a magnificent ceremony at the Athens Conservatory.  It all began with a 10-year-old boy, Andreas Giannopoulos, who—before losing his life—expressed one heartfelt wish: for all children in the world to be healthy and to smile. Faithful to fulfilling his son’s wish, his father, Kostas Giannopoulos, founded The Smile of the Child in 1995. Since then, the organization has helped millions of children in need and has developed leading services for child protection, healthcare, care provision and support—impacting not only children but society at large.

Focus Bari has proudly served as the research sponsor of The Smile of the Child since 2017, having conducted 14 quantitative and qualitative studies exploring the perceptions, attitudes, image, and intentions of the Greek public toward this invaluable organization.  Xenia Kourtoglou of Focus Bari presented longitudinal findings that highlight the public’s deep affection and steadfast support for The Smile of the Child, along with heartfelt wishes for continued success and many more years of meaningful impact.

See Xenia Kourtoglou’s presentation here

Focus Bari at the IRIS Fall Meeting 2025 in Mexico City

From 16–19 October, IRIS partners from around the world gathered in Mexico City for the annual Fall Meeting, expertly hosted by Lexia, the IRIS member for Mexico.

Valeria Tsamis and Katerina Moschandreou represented Focus Bari at the event. The meeting included an immersive workshop on anthropology and ethnology, as well as two full conference days featuring inspiring presentations on AI applications in research, innovative methodologies, and agency growth strategies.

Katerina also delivered a well-received presentation titled “KYKLOI – How a purposeful initiative comes to life”, sharing insights into how meaningful initiatives can be designed and activated with impact.

It was an energizing and insightful gathering that reinforced the power of knowledge sharing and global collaboration within the IRIS network.

Xenia Kourtoglou as Keynote Speaker on How Failure Becomes a Springboard to Success

On 15 October 2025, at the Goulandris Museum, the EASE “Leadership Pathways” team successfully hosted the Leadership Summit | The Failure Paradox: Redefining Success through Setbacks—an event dedicated to the power of failure as a catalyst for growth and leadership. In a world evolving at rapid speed, the most remarkable leaders stand out not because they avoided failure, but because they leveraged it. The Summit highlighted the importance of managing failure as a foundation for development, innovation, and resilience.

The event opened with Xenia Kourtoglou of Focus Bari, who presented the findings of an extensive qualitative and quantitative study on how business leaders perceive and handle failure. In her keynote, she emphasized the essential “paradox”: while leaders theoretically acknowledge that failure can clearly become a springboard for growth and progress, in practice the very notion of failure still triggers fear—and remains insufficiently utilized.

See Xenia Kourtoglou’s full presentation here.

Focus Bari at the ESOMAR Congress 2025 in Prague

From 28 September to 1 October, the annual ESOMAR Congress 2025 – “Reimagine” took place in Prague, bringing together more than 1,300 professionals from over 80 countries, along with 200 speakers and 80 exhibiting companies. Valeria Tsamis represented Focus Bari, in her capacity as President of SEDEA and the association’s representative at the ESOMAR Associations Leader Summit.

This year’s congress, set against a backdrop of rapid technological change and evolving challenges for the research industry—particularly regarding automation and the fast pace of AI development—invited participants to “reimagine” how creativity, technology and bold ideas converge to reshape our field and the world around us. Discussions focused heavily on the role of AI across all stages of research, while also highlighting the continued importance of human expertise in generating meaningful and actionable insights.

The event also included the presentation of the new ICC/ESOMAR International Code for Market, Opinion and Social Research & Data Analytics, which will come into effect in 2025.

Xenia Kourtoglou – Keynote Speaker on Customer Experience in the AI Era

With an impressive turnout of institutional representatives and leaders of the local business community, the 11th Customer Service Conference of the Hellenic Institute of Customer Service (EIEP) took place in Thessaloniki on September 24th at the Electra Palace Hotel.

Xenia Kourtoglou of Focus Bari presented and substantiated the critical importance of customer experience for every organization, unveiling exclusive research findings that guide companies on how to position customer experience as the core mission of their business.

In her keynote, Xenia Kourtoglou also shared evolving insights into Greeks’ relationship with Artificial Intelligence and concluded with seven valuable recommendations on how every company can build the culture, structures, and processes needed to continuously elevate the experience it offers to its customers.

See the full presentation here