In spite of the tense atmosphere and the justified fear of association following a latest upsurge in coronavirus cases, international participation at IENE’s latest annual conference, the 25th “Energy & Development” was strong. Out of 78 speakers, 23 came from outside Greece with 9 of them actually travelling in person to Athens in order to participate in the conference.In spite of the tense atmosphere and the justified fear of association following a latest upsurge in coronavirus cases, international participation at IENE’s latest annual conference, the 25th “Energy & Development” was strong. Out of 78 speakers, 23 came from outside Greece with 9 of them actually travelling in person to Athens in order to participate in the conference. The other 14 participated through teleconference using the zoom platform. Thanks to first class audiovisual support their messages came out clear with many of them supporting their addresses with power point presentations.
The group of overseas speakers who travelled to Athens comprised a strong Turkish delegation consisting of Gohan Yardim, an IENE partner and head of the Ankara based Anadolu Natural Gas Trade and Consultancy, Dr. Yurdakul Yigiguden, an independent energy consultant and long time Associate of the Institute and Ahmet Turkoglou the CEO of the Turkish Energy Exchange, (EXIST) but also a high level representation from Bulgaria which included Slavtcho Neykov, an IENE partner and chairman of the Sofia based Energy Management Institute (ΕΜΙ) and Konstantin Konstantinov, the CEO of IBEX, the Independent Bulgarian Energy Exchange. With Bulgaria and Turkey being two of Greece’s closest neighbors the presence of this select group of colleagues meant a lot to the organisers and helped cement further the excellent inter regional cooperation which has been established over the years within IENE.
Equally important was the participation of three other senior energy figures, who travelled from overseas to participate and speak in IENE’s annual event, and included Dr.Charles Ellinas, Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council and Research Fellow at IENE currently based in The Hague, Mr. Apostolos Petropoulos, senior modeller at the IEA in Paris who presented the World Energy Outlook 2021, Ms.Marianna Liakopoulou who is a Policy Associate at EFET based in Brussels and Dr. Gina Cohen, also an IENE Partner who is Lecturer and Consultant, Natural Gas Industry from Herzliya in Israel.
Several other speakers joined the event online and among them were Dr. James Watson, Secretary General of EUROGAS, from Brussels, William Polen, Senior Director, United States Energy Association, Prof. Andrey Konoplyanik, Advisor to the General Manager of Gazprom export LLC, Co-chair of the Russian side of the Stream 2 “Internal Markets” project of the Russia-EU Gas Advisory Council, Boyana Achovksi, Secretary General of Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) from Brussels, Dr. Bassam Fattouh, Director of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), Dr. Leo Drollas, Independent Energy Consultant, Tim Yeo, Chairman of The New Nuclear Watch Institute (NNWI) from the UK, Dr. Narsi Ghorban, Secretary to the Environment and Energy Commission of the ICC (Iran Committee) from Tehran, Milos Mladenovic, Managing Director, SEEPEX, Serbia, Aleksandar Mijušković, Advisor to the Executive Director, Coordinated Auction Office in South East Europe SEECAO, Fadil Ismajli, CEO, New Kosovo Electricity Company, Kosovo and Mihailo Mihailovic, Independent Energy Consultant, Serbia.
The Conference, which celebrated 25 years of continuing organization was held in hybrid form at the Divani Caravel Hotel in Athens, attracting a total of 430 delegates from Greece and abroad.
All Conference material including presentations, photos, and video, is now available through the conference’s micro site (here).
