With particular succession, a plethora of people, and an extensive programme of proposals was presented on Wednesday 25 April 2018 at the branch of the H.I.C.D. at Patra. The event took place at the <<Kostis Stefanopoulos>> hall of the Association of Lawyers at Patra. The president of the Hellenic Instutute, Mr Peter Kapsaskis, the vice-president Mr
Dimitris Vaksevanakis , and the financial consultant of the Institute Mr Nikos Bais, attended the event at Patra and presented their philosophy and goals of the Institute. Representatives of other local branches travelled to Patra to attend this event.
Ms Anta Devve, the President of the Patra branch of the Institute, completed the initial introduction of the evening and after brief greetings, three central speeches followed: the speech of Ms Ntora Kotsonopoulou (Professor of Archaeology at Cornell University and President of research and excavations of Helike) titled << Cultural heritage and diplomacy: a two-way relationship>>, the speech of Mr Giorgos Nektarios (Professor of Theology, historical-slavicist, professor of Greece’s Open University) titled <<Cultural Diplomacy: Religious self-awareness and international relations>> and the speech of Ms Georgia Petropoulou-Conan (President of the French Institute of Patra) titled <<Gastronomy as a shaper of cultural identity>>.
At the second conference of the event, the nine members of the Institute at Patra were given the chance to present the various sectors of action, focusing on the individual components which make up the meaning of culture extending to the areas of practice in Cultural Diplomacy. Members of the Patra branch of the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy are the following: Dimitris Kompocholis, Vivi Loukopoulou, Aggeliki Moschopoulou, Spiridon Panagopoulos, Giannis Papadimitropoulos, Christina Papanikola, Panagiotis Tsalidis, Panagiotis Frantzis and Petros Psomas. The event which a plethora of people observed, with intense interest, until late at night, was completed with a musical programme in which the piano was played by Stamatis Lekas, the clarinet by Giorgos Mpourdopoulos and the soprano Maria Thoma. At the end of the event local products were offered to the public and everyone was given a chance to meet and discuss with the President of the Institute and the members of the branch of Patra.
