Early this afternoon, the Greek broadcaster ERT hosted a press conference in a central hotel of Athens, presenting not only the official logo and the main idea of the visual identity of the contest, but also the two international sponsors of Athens 2006.
At the introductory part of the press conference George Chouliaras, managing director of ERT and the president, Mr. Panagopoulos, expressed their satisfaction that the national broadcaster has started already the preparations for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2006, relatively early comparing with the last few years. “It is really important the fact that we have so early reached an agreement for the international sponsorship and it is our honor to co-operate with Cosmote and Amstel”, Panagopoulos said. Then the representatives of the two giants in Greece displayed their great pleasure to be the major partners for the production of Eurovision Song Contest 2006.
Mr. Kyriakos, Amstel marketing manager in Greece, said that Amstel has already very important experience, since the last few years it has been the major sponsor of European Champions League. On behalf of Cosmote, Mr. Liamides expressed his certainty that the significant experience of being major sponsor of the 2004 Olympics will guarantee the result that everyone desires. Both of them agreed that they know how important the Eurovision Song Contest is for Greece and for all Europe and therefore they agreed to sign the agreement with EBU and ERT. Furthermore, they insisted on the significance for the international promotion of Greece, which will be the center of Europe for a couple of days.
The second part of the event was dedicated to the presentation of a brief film with the official logo and the main ideas, which were inspired by the design company Karamela. They emphasized at the history and the origins of Greece, starting from the ancient culture of Crete, of which the symbol, the disk of Phaistos, is one of the most important parts of the visual profile of the contest, along with the colours of the Greek nature adapted in a very modern way to the contemporary pop culture which the Eurovision Song Contest represents and gathers all the nations.
At the end of the press conference, Chouliaras confirmed that Sakis Rouvas will have an important role as one of the two hosts, without revealing the name of his female partner. Sakis attended the conference and he said that he was very thankful to the ERT officials and that this will be a great honor for him. Chouliaras added that Helena Paparizou might appear in the green room, as she wishes.
During the press conference, it appeared it was not sure if the Swedish lighting company Spectra+ will be involved again in the Eurovision Song Contest, as they were over the past four years.
We kindly thank our new Greek editor Vassilis Stavrakakis for being present at the press conference in Athens!
