RODOS PALACE AT THE EPICENTER
OF EUROPEAN CONVENTIONS
AND IMPORTANT EVENTS DURING 2003
The Rodos Palace became
the centre of European activities in the
first six months of 2003, organizing meetings
and inviting distinguished European figures,
in the framework of the Greek Presidency
of the European Union. The organization
of the European Conventions ensured wide
publicity for the island, while their complete
success established Rhodes as an internationally
acclaimed prestigious convention destination.
Furthermore, many important events of medical,
technological and generally scientific character
took place at the venue.
The supreme event, the 10th Informal Convention
of the Ministers of Public Administration
of the European Union, took place on the
5th and 6th of June 2003 under the presidency
of Mr Kostas Skandalidis, the Greek Minister
of the Interior, Public Administration and
Decentralization. During the conference,
the Ministers of Interior as well as numerous
delegations were hosted at the Rodos Palace,
since for the first time the state-members
that are going to be part of the Union participated
in the council, and distinguished members
of various European institutions, such as
Mr Al Bore, President of the Committee of
the Regions and Mr Neil Kinnock the Vice-President
of the Commission and former President of
the British Labour Party.
The proccedings of the Convention, which
focused on Electronic Government, the practices
of Public Administration and the Administrative
Convergence of the states-members of the
Union, commenced at the Conference Centre
of the Rodos Palace and continued at Kastello
where they had a working lunch with the
catering of the Rodos Palace. The Convention
was accompanied with two outstanding meetings
of European institutions the Conference
of the Presidency of the Committee of the
Regions on June 4th and 5th and the 40th
Convention of the General Directors of Public
Administration on June 7th and 8th 2003.
An important event, in the framework of
the Greek Presidency, was the "European
Forum of Local Development and Employment"
which took place on May 16th and 17th 2003
with the participation of 1,000 conventioneers
from the state-members of the Union. The
Forum, which was co-organized by the Ministry
of Labour and Social Affairs, the company
"Employment Observatory Research-Informatics
S.A." and the European Commission,
examined issues of social economy as well
as the development of employment on a local
level and its relation with the European
Employment Strategy, while Mr Dimitris Reppas,
the Minister of Labour, and Ms Anna Diamantopoulou,
the Greek Commissioner of the European Union,
attended the event.
As part of the events organized by "Nea
Dimokratia" regarding the Greek Presidency
a two day event entitled "The future
and the borders of the European Union"
which dealt with the expansion of the European
Union, took place at the Rodos Palace on
May 23rd and 24th. The main speaker was
Mr Kostas Karamanlis, the President of Nea
Dimokratia and Vice-President of the European
People's Party, while Mr A. Vidal-Quadras-Roca,
the vice-president of the European Parliament,
Mr Ioannis Varvitsiotis, Member of the Greek
Parliament and President of the Institute
for Democracy "Constantine Karamanlis",
the former Minister Mr Theodoros Pagalos
and many members of the European Parliament
joined the conference.
Among the numerous scientific conferences
hosted this year at the Rodos Palace the
most significant ones were the Conference
of the European Distance Education Network
which took place from June 15th to June
18th, where 200 distinguished scientists
participated, including the famous Greek
Professor at MIT Nikolas Negrepontis. From
June 30th to July 6th two conferences were
hosted simultaneously the World Economy
and Mathematics Convention and the International
Conference Positivity, both organised by
SAET "Society for the Advancement of
Economic Trends", the University Purdue
of the USA, the University of Athens and
the Technical University of Athens. Both
events were organised for the second time
at the Rodos Palace.
Regarding the field of medical conferences,
the 15th European Immunology Congress was
organized first in the period June 8th-12th
2003 with the participation of 900 conventioneers.
The more recent one took place in the period
September 26th-28th 2003, the Greek AIDS
Convention gathered 500 delegates, while
Luc-Antoine Montagnier, the French scientist
who discovered the virus of AIDS, was the
honorary guest. The 5th Congress of the
European Society of Gynecology gathered
the most distinguished gynecologists of
Europe in the period from October 9th to
October 11th 2003. The 5th European Congress
on Chemotherapy and Infection proved an
especially important organization in the
period from October 17th to October 20th
with the participation of 700 conventioneers
from 22 countries.
The Rodos Palace was selected for hosting
another series of scientific conferences
for example the "Mediterranean Conference
on Control and Automation", organized
by the University of Crete from June 17th
to June 20th, the "International Conference
on Computers and Advanced Technology in
Education" between June 30th and July
2nd 2003, the 13th Meeting of the "European
Fisheries & Acquaculture Research Organisations"
from June 2nd to June 6th under the auspices
of the National Centre for Marine Research,
the "Conference of the Association
of Engineers of Higher Education" which
lasted from June 30th to July 5th 2003 and
just before the end of the year, from October
23rd to October 26th the "5th Greek
Conference of Management of Health Services"
with the participation of 600 delegates.
The extremely succesful organisation of
the Conferences of the European institutions,
within the framework of the Greek Presidency
in the European Union, but in addition all
the other conferences, demonstrated to the
whole world the strong advantages of Rhodes
as a conference destination and utilised
creatively the 30-year experience of Rodos
Palace in hosting of high quality conferences.
The particularly successful review of the
2003 affirms the confirmation of our expectations
for a top-ranking conference year in 2004,
when the organization of the Olympic Games
in Athens will constitute the greatest assembly
of people from all over the world in Greece.
For
further information please contact the Marketing
& Public Relations Department of Rodos
Palace at:
