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(Greek) Elena Papadopoulou: Last year,
when we asked Melissa Fleming

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to give a talk at TEDxThessaloniki 2015,

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we could not possibly
have imagined the role

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the refugee crisis
would be playing in our lives,

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not only in Greece and Europe
but in the whole world.

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Melissa’s talk, given 
at last year’s TEDxThessaloniki event,

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has been viewed over 1 million,
almost 1.5 million times on TED channel.

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Her talk helped most of us
see in the face of Doaa

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the faces of all the people
forced to flee their countries

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in the hope of being able
to lead an “ordinary life,”

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far away from the permanent threat of war.

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Doaa was a lucky and heroic young woman.

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She was among the few people
who survived a tragic shipwreck

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that happened
in the Mediterranean Sea in 2014.

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Fortunately, she managed
to survive and save a baby,

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despite not knowing how to swim.

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Melissa Fleming wished
to be here in person

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and share with us the rest of the story.

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That is to say: “What happened to Doaa?
Where is she today? What is she doing?”

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Due to her work with the United Nations,
Melissa couldn’t join us today.

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However, she has sent us a short video
that I would like us to watch.

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(Video) Melissa Fleming: Hello friends
at TEDxThessaloniki, hello Elena.

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Really great to be with you again
though only virtually.

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I wish I was there in person.

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Elena asked me to let you know
what has happened

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since I was on stage this time last year
delivering a talk about Doaa Al Zamal,

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the heroic Syrian refugee young woman

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who survived one of the worst shipwrecks
on the Mediterranean sea, 500 people died

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and she managed to save a baby girl
after 4 days on the water

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and watching the love of her life,

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her fiancé Bassam,
die in front of her eyes.

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This was a tragic yet very hopeful story,
a story that has inspired so many people.

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I am writing a book about her story.

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And one of the fellow speakers
at the conference last year,

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Alexis Pantazis,
of the company Hellas Direct,

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was also inspired by Doaa’s speech

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and he and his company awarded her
a very generous scholarship,

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which really helped her.

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She‘s now been resettled
with her family to Sweden

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and she is putting it
towards her education.

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It’s really helping her
to start her new life.

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I think it inspired his company
and also his clients as well

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not just to hear about the usual story

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of large numbers of Syrian refugees,

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other refugees arriving
on the shores of Greece.

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No other country
has received so many refugees

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but a single story, 
a single story that inspired him

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and inspired his fellow....
I admit, all of his company.

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I went to visit them in Athens,

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a wonderful group of people
who just said, "How can we help?"

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I really think this company
by doing so is showing

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that if you help one individual,
you are telling a larger story,

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you are helping that person a lot but
it also has an echo and a ripple effect.

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It shows that one person,
one company can do and influence a lot.

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Private sector is doing a lot
to help in the refugee crisis.

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This is a crisis
that is the worst since WWII.

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We have 60 million people
forcibly displaced.

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And no time since WWII have we had
so many people on the run.

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Governments can’t do it alone
and as you see

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-- you are sitting in Thessaloniki,
very close to the border of the FYROM --

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the countries are reacting in ways now

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which is shutting people off
rather than embracing them.

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We are seeing, hearing wonderful stories
of individual actions

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by local Greek citizens,
I can’t even tell - I read one a day.

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It really warms my heart.

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A baker in Ιdomeni who took in
families in his home

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because he couldn’t stand
to see them suffering in the cold.

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One after the other these kind of stories,

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private companies coming in
to provide food, shelter.

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Local NGOs filling in gaps of governments.

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I think we are a time right now
where the compassion is losing out

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over the fear that is taking over,

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the fear that is being
exploited by politicians

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who are really worried, more worried
about losing their power

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than they are about protecting people
who are fleeing from war and persecution.

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So all I wanted to say is thank you
for this opportunity to speak.

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Who would have known
last year at this time

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that Greece would become the center stage

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for the biggest refugee crisis
that the world has seen in a long time.

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It is really, really difficult,

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the humanitarian situation
right now in Greece

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and I really thank you all
for caring and for doing your part.

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Thanks and have
a great TEDxThessaloniki 2016.

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(Applause)

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(Greek) EP: Melissa really wished to be
here and share these few words with us.

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So, I considered this video
would be a unique opportunity

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for us to see what happens when
the lights of TEDxThessaloniki dim,

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after all these stories have been told.

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What do they leave us with?
What do they encourage us to do?

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What do they inspire us to do

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so that each one of us can contribute
to our world the way they can?

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Following Melissa,
we asked Alexis Pantazis,

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whom Melissa mentioned in the video,

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to give a talk at last year’s
TEDxThessaloniki.

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We approached him
in his capacity of an entrepreneur,

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namely, the founder of Hellas Direct.

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So when he came to speak and we started
talking about his presentation,

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we expected that he would
give a talk about entrepreneurship.

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However, Alexis surprised us,
thankfully in a pleasant way,

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and he focused on a different topic,

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which proved to be of great importance
in entrepreneurship

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and it has to do with one’s “mindset.”

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Alexis focused on the mentality
of refugees and immigrants,

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on creating opportunities

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and, why not, to make them
work to their benefit.

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So, last year, at TEDxThessaloniki,

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Alexis met Melissa and the other speakers

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and he decided to do something
to help or to contribute,

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in his own way and through his company.

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Alexis Pantazis is here with us today

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and I would like to invite him up on stage
to discuss a few things

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and share with you the way
they went on to work together

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or, if you prefer, what his contribution
to Doaa’s story has been.

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Alexis.
(Applause)

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Welcome! I am glad
that you are here with us.

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Most of us really wonder what is going on.

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We come in to this hall
- there are 700 of us in this building -

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we get to know each other,
listen to ideas, feel inspired,

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but what happens
when we leave this venue?

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(English) So would you like
to explain us briefly

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what happened when you met with Melissa

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and how this whole story
became related to Hellas Direct?

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Alexis Pantazis: Last year, the last
but one speaker was myself

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and the last one was Melissa.

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And as I was finishing my talk
and I started walking towards the back,

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Melissa who I spent
quite a bit of time with

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- clearly because we were the only ones
stuck there - we talked a lot about Doaa

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and as she started coming on to the stage
I could actually observe from the side

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- I didn’t manage to get to my seat -

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the facial expressions
of all the people in the audience.

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And I don’t know how many of you guys
were here last year

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but Melissa gave a very touching,
emotional speech about the story of Doaa.

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And what I‘ve realized

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in the one day more or less
that we spent together with Melissa

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is that the story of Doaa
represents a number of stories.

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I would say thousands or even
millions now of stories of refugees.

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And one of the things that I noticed

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as I was coming through
the curtain on the main room

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was that people were actually crying.

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And what I've realized is
that if we give an example

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which is a human person of a big tragedy
like the one we are going through now

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to normal people like myself, yourselves,
everybody who was in that room,

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then people can relate to it
and they can relate to it more.

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So, we spoke with Melissa
at the dinner afterwards

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and it was a pretty emotional moment

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because she gave
a really amazing presentation

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and I ask her,
“So what is going on with Doaa?”

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because that was last year, 
she survived 4 days into the sea,

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she saved one life,
she was granted the Award of bravery,

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if I remember well,
from the Athens Academy.

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And Melissa said that, well, unfortunately

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there was a lot of hype
when everything happened,

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there was a lot of headlines in the press.

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There was a lot of talk,
they invited her to different events

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and then slowly but steadily
as these things go, nobody really cared.

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Melissa and her team did an amazing job

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in trying to get her
to get some legal papers

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in order to go to Sweden
which was her end goal

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but Doaa was going through
a bit of a rough patch.

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She wasn’ t really feeling
positive about the future,

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the whole experience had sunk in.

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She couldn’t see opportunity for her
to be able to go abroad

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and continue what she set out to do

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with her fiancé at the time
who unfortunately died in the wreck,

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and that was to study.

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She wanted to study to be a lawyer

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in order to fight injustice
in the whole world.

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So, speaking with Melissa
I was trying to figure out,

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“Is there a way that I as an individual or
we as a company, we could help in this?”

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And we feel quite strongly about
giving scholarships and we've done so

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since the day that Emilios, my business
partner and I founded the company.

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But, "Is it possible that
we could get involved in this?"

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And Melissa was
very, very supportive in this.

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We started talking, the whole
process took about 6 months.

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Marilaura, who works with me, spent
a lot of time speaking with Melissa

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on what’s the best way to do it

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and then you stumble
into Greek bureaucracy,

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where in order to give money,
it’s even harder than to make money.

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(Laughter)

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So, we didn’t know whether
we should give the money to Melissa

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to give the money to Doaa;
Doaa didn’t have an account.

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So, we went through
a lot of back and forths

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but I think for us the bottom line was

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that we decided that we are going
to use Doaa’s story as a symbol,

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as a small gesture on our part

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to follow on from the spirit
of TEDxThessaloniki last year,

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grant her the scholarship for the degree
that she really wanted to do.

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As you heard from Melissa before,
Doaa is now in Sweden

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so that’s great news for everybody

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and we just wanted to signal to other
companies, individuals, organizations

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that if everybody
does their own little bit,

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then we can really make a difference.

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EP: So, your personal motive
or the motive of Hellas Direct

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was basically to make a difference in any
way that you thought would be possible?

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AP: I think for us it was
a combination of two things.

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The first one is: 
in what we do as a company,

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we are trying to change
the way our industry

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- which is insurance industry -
is being done.

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So, we are trying, as we say,
to rethink the whole chain.

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We heard a lot of good stories before

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whether it is from Alex Loizou

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to talk about the buy-in
of the whole company behind a culture.

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So for us it is almost what we do
in all other aspects of our lives,

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so this was just an extension on
the corporate social responsibility side.

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Now, on that one, from the day
we started the company

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we've given a number of scholarships.

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We gave two scholarships to people

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to go and study in London
at the City University.

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We gave two scholarships
to kids of policemen

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because we felt that that as a group
were not rewarded enough

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for the contribution that they did

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at least I road accidents which
is what we really care about.

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We've given a number
of research grants so the fact

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that we managed to divert some
of these efforts onto Doaa in this case,

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I think it sends an extra message of maybe

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we can think of it a bit 
differently as an organization.

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EP: Do you believe
that the appropriate attitude

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for either companies
or for civil society actors,

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in crisis of such magnitude 
as we are going through at the moment -

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what do you think would be the right
or more appropriate kind of mindset

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that we would need to maybe adopt or try?

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AP: I think as a mindset everybody
has to react in the way that they see fit

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and everybody’s values differ,
whether it is on ethical levels

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or on ideological levels
or financial levels or any other way.

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I think one of the things
that we are realizing now,

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especially in the European Union,

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is that we cannot expect
things to be done by the state

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or by the European Union as a Union.

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And everybody has different agendas,

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everybody has different capabilities,
different political beliefs,

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so individuals and companies have
a much more important role to play.

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Unfortunately, in this part of the world

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and in Cyprus where I am from
it's exactly the same,

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we tend to rely a lot
on the role of the state,

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that this is not my problem,
they will do it,

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and this day and age
this does not seem to work.

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So, I think any contribution on that

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is at least changing gradually
the mentality of people.

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EP: Going back to your talk
and actually the message of your talk,

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you basically concentrated saying

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that what it takes is
a different kind of mindset

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that usually refugees
or immigrants tend to have

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and that has a positive effect
on the economy of a country

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and maybe in evolving
the society of a country.

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Do you think that we are actually
going through a same kind of situation

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either in Greece or in Europe,

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because basically we are
more or less under the same terms?

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I mean, we have
a lot of immigrants and refugees

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that are going through our countries.

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Is this a same kind of opportunity
that we may be facing with?

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AP: I think it’s a huge opportunity,

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but one thing we need to do
as Europeans and as global citizens is,

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“How you turn what is
now a humanitarian crisis

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into a full integration 
of these people into society?”

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And I am not talking
about a flattening of cultures,

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religion and all that and languages.

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I am really talking about how
can we get these Syrian people coming in

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and integrate them in a way
that they are productive,

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that there is social cohesion
that actually works.

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When you look at the demographics
of the European Union

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and compare them to the immigrants
coming in, they are very different.

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We are an aging, dying continent

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and suddenly you have an influx
of very young capable people.

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And clearly some of them
are poor and uneducated,

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some of them are doctors and whatever.

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So, I think there is a lot of value
these people can bring.

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You will always have
xenophobia in these situations.

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Out of interest, I was looking
at what was the reaction of people

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when the Vietnamese refugees
in the 1970s came into the US

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and what happened
when the Jewish population

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after the 2nd World War,
they went into Cyprus of all places

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at that time for holding camps similar
to the ones you have in Ιdomeni now,

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before they went
to the newly formed Israel,

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and when you a look at some
of the headlines of the papers

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they're the same as they are now,

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people like Donald Trump
saying, "I am going to build a wall,"

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it’s exactly that reaction.

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So, I think to your point, I think
some of these reactions are very natural,

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some of them you could even argue
that some of them are justified,

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but yeah, in the middle to long-term,

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I think I am very optimistic
about what is happening now.

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EP: OK. One last question.

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What would you respond to any criticism

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that these kinds of initiatives like
you took through your company,

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some say that it is sheer marketing.

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What would you respond to such a response?

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(Laughter)

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AP: I wish it wasn’t [UNCLEAR]
I think there are two angles here.

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The first one is that I think you can see
the culture of a company just from...

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in this day and age you cannot lie

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about what your culture is as a company,

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whether it’s TOMS shoes giving things out
as you purchase their products,

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whether it’s a coffee
or a bread manufacturing in Kenya.

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I think you can see through
both the entrepreneurs

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and the culture of the overall company.

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So, I think on this one people
can judge for themselves, I think.

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At the same time though,
in a very cynical way,

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if efforts like this one are driven by
marketing dynamics for different companies

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and that means that companies do much more

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because they believe
that it helps their image

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it’s something that unless they do
the competition will get in front of them

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and all that then, by all means.

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I mean, it ends up in a broader good.

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So, on this one that is
what I would answer.

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EP: Thank you very much.
(Greek) Thank you Alex.

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AP: Thank you.

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(Applause)