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

Xenia Kourtoglou serves on the Jury for the 3rd consecutive year

With remarkable success and an impressive turnout from top executives across every telecommunications specialization worldwide, the Antonio Meucci International Telco Awards ceremony took place in Madrid, organized annually by More than 160.  Xenia Kourtoglou of Focus Bari has been a member of the Jury since the launch of the awards in 2023, serving in the “Avant Garde Marketing” category. This year, she had the pleasure of presenting the award to the outstanding team of SAMA Telecom.

Focus Bari at the AIVolution Conference

Artificial Intelligence Found Its Voice at Aivolution:  an evening dedicated to AI Voice Agents.  Despite the summer heat, nearly 300 people — 200 attending in person and more than 100 online — joined the Aivolution event at Innovathens in Technopolis, an evening dedicated exclusively to AI Chat and Voice Agents. The event was an initiative of Voice Logica, highlighting how artificial intelligence is already reshaping the future of communication.  The evening opened with Xenia Kourtoglou of Focus Bari, who presented new research on how Greeks perceive interacting with a Voice Agent over the phone. Her key findings revealed that:

• The Greek public is evenly divided into three groups regarding their openness toward AI-driven phone conversations: the positive, the negative, and the “cautiously neutral.”
• Nevertheless, more than half of Greeks are already using AI tools, whether they fully realize it or not.
• Additionally, over one in two expect that voice-based AI will continue to evolve and will be able to handle telephone dialogues effectively, at least in simple scenarios.

See Xenia Kourtoglou’s full presentation here.

Xenia Kourtoglou, founder of Focus Bari, speaker at the BIG P. Conference

With tremendous success and an impressive turnout of representatives and executives from all sectors of business and communication, the first Total Business conference, titled "The BIG P", was held at the Athens Conservatory on May 16th. The event emphasized that the “big picture” lies in the vision of the future we are shaping together.  To capture the contemporary expectations of consumers towards the businesses of tomorrow, Focus Bari conducted a nationwide survey on behalf of TOTAL BUSINESS, titled: “(Re)Defined: What Greeks Expect from the Businesses of the Future.”  The findings were presented by Xenia Kourtoglou, revealing key messages from consumers to businesses, across the seven core pillars of modern entrepreneurship:

• A Voice with Substance: Citizens want businesses to engage meaningfully in socio-political challenges, free from hidden agendas.
• Ethics & Transparency as the Foundation of Trust: Society demands honesty, ethical values, and real social responsibility from future businesses — including job opportunities, inclusion, and accountability.
• Technology Is Not Enough: Customer experience, employee mental health, and inclusivity are now central to business evaluation.
• Innovation Is the Only Way Forward: Citizens support innovation, while also insisting on preserving human connection and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.
• Gen Z: Don’t create for the new generation — create with them.
• Focuson the Human Factor: With genuine support, empowerment, and care for employees, performance can double.

See the full presentation of the survey here.

With absolute success, the YES to SEApping Forum took place on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in Heraklion, Crete, as part of the Posidonia SEA Tourism exhibition. The event was honored by the presence of the Secretary General for the Aegean and Island Policy, Mr. Manolis Koutoulakis, who addressed the audience, emphasizing the importance of the maritime sector for island Greece and the new generation.  The Forum brought together 200 young participants from leading academic institutions across Crete — including the University of Crete, the Hellenic Mediterranean University, SAEK Rethymno, MBS College, the Metropolitan College, and the Merchant Marine Academy of Chania — offering a unique opportunity for dialogue and connection with the maritime world.

A central pillar of the event was the nationwide research conducted by Focus Bari, presented by the company’s founder, Xenia Kourtoglou. The study focused both on the views and career aspirations of young people interested in the maritime sector, as well as on the perspectives and expectations of potential employers, revealing key findings — most notably:  Young people perceive the maritime industry as an attractive sector full of opportunities, particularly within Greece. However, they often feel excluded, believing that access depends largely on “connections.” This perception leads to low self-confidence and drives many to consider a career abroad, even though their initial preference is to stay and work in their home country.

On the employers’ side, half of the companies surveyed expressed satisfaction with young professionals, while the other half voiced concerns, mainly related to preparedness and professional attitude.

At the same time, the research highlighted the significant role of the YES Forum itself. Young participants recognize it as a tool for empowerment, awareness, and inspiration, while companies view it as a valuable platform for talent discovery and meaningful connection with the next generation.  The event paved the way for deeper dialogue, mutual understanding, and strengthened trust between young people and the maritime industry — another step toward ensuring that shipping is not a closed club, but an open sea of opportunity for all.
XK VIDEO POSIDONIA MAY 2025

See the full research presentation here: