maria scordialos

Maria has an MBA from Southampton University, UK. She grew up in the international environment of the United Nations, living in Congo, Guinea, India, Nepal, and the United States. Maria’s work focuses on creating participatory processes that invite people from all backgrounds to have conversations that matter. She designs gatherings, trainings, and longer-term initiatives that provide the opportunity for public engagement, organizational development, systemic change with long-term impact. Her focus, at this time of world wide crisis, is on we are fundamentally reframing our leadership, governance and systems in order to create new ways of living and working. Maria has diverse experience such as working as a Corporate Director in Local Government in the UK, founded her own successful consulting company since 2002, co-initiated the Art of Hosting, and works worldwide & in Greece for European Institutions, local government, private and non profit organizations, as well as in local social innovation initiatives. www.the-lwi.org

VANESSA REID

Vanessa works with systems that are in transformation, and the dynamics that happen in, and emerge from, crisis, collapse and chaos. Vanessa builds practice grounds locally and internationally with leaders, organizations and networks combining participatory methods, living systems and Deep Democracy to create new pathways forward while tending to relationships and unprocessed history. She is the former executive director of Santropol Roulant, a vibrant non-profit in Montreal founded by young people where innovations with food, urban sustainability and inter-generational relationships act as catalysts for social change. As a co-founder of the Living Wholeness Institute, she works with citizens, teams, organizations and social movements around the globe on initiatives that are transforming broken systems and creating new, deeply sustainable social realities. Her focus is on creating cultures - personal, organizational, societal - that are diverse, alive and deeply aligned with all of life. This includes how we host all cycles of life, including conscious closure and the Wild Life of Dying. Vanessa is a writer, and former publisher of ascent magazine and brings reflective and awareness practice to develop the inner world of leaders and change agents. She has a Masters in Architecture and a Masters in Process-Oriented Psychology and is a co-founder of The Art of Hosting -Athens.

a. eren Öztürk

Eren is an environmental engineer by training and holds a master’s degree on Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability. He has currently been working for a sustainability advisory company based in Istanbul, and is helping any kind of organization to realize the transformation they need for a sustainable future. He typically designs learning processes by using participatory methods and tools. He has 10 years of experience in the field of sustainability and in last five years he has worked with more than three thousands people by hosting conversations. Eren is a person who is curious about systems and how they work. His aspiration is enabling systemic changes towards a flourishing society and nature, by using living systems thinking and nature-inspired leadership.  

Melinda varfi

Melinda believes in the power of communities and is passionate about helping them grow to contribute towards a sustainable society. Having worked in different sectors – from education to trade development – she has found that the closest topic to her heart is sustainability. She has co­founded Impact Hub Budapest, a global community ­based coworking office. She enjoys engaging with people in meaningful conversations about their environment and enabling them to recognize their own true power to make steps towards a more sustainable world. In the last 6 years she has been facilitating and designing such dialogues and processes for international NGOs, for innovative digital startups and also for larger corporates, who are interested in transforming the future of work.

Melinda is also a Warriors For The Human Spirit practitioner and embodied spirituality is very dear to her heart.

https://at.linkedin.com/in/melindavarfi 

Anna Dimitrova

Anna works at the intersection of business and social impact for over 10 years as a leader and consultant of ambitious projects in France, England, and Egypt. Anna applies the methods of participation in her work with large companies (PwC Egypt) and international organizations (GIZ, European Commission) as well as  with the start-up entrepreneurs and communities. Since 2013 she works with leading incubators for social entrepreneurs in London and Cairo on building better processes and services. She directly supported a total of over 20 start-up social entrepreneurs in their strategic development. Anna is a practitioner in the Art of Hosting network since 2012 and has actively contributed to the introduction of the practice in Bulgaria. Anna has a BA in Political science from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" and an MA in Social economics and entrepreneurship from the Université Lumière Lyon 2. She is a co founder of Open Space - a collective of practitioners in Bulgaria. www.linkedin.com/in/dimitrovaanna

Anton Valkov

Anton has 10 years of international experience as a consultant, entrepreneur and project manager in the fields of youth, sustainable development, and organizational change. Having lived and worked on various projects in Europe and Latin America, he contributes with a wide range of skills and perspectives related to organizational development, group dynamics, and strategic planning. He is a leading practitioner in the Art of Hosting community in Bulgaria, he is also an author, and host of a number of training formats. In 2014 he returned to live in his native Plovdiv, where he is one of the creators of Otsreshta - a social innovation space. Anton holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's degree in leadership towards sustainable development. He is a co founder of Open Space - a collective of practitioners in Bulgaria. www.linkedin.com/in/valkovanton

Atanas Genkov

Atanas has 10 years of international experience in designing and delivering learning experiences on personal development, participatory leadership and strategic sustainability. He has created more than 200 training courses in more than 20 countries around the world. Currently he is working on training projects in Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. Atanas deeply cares for people and their learning, thus his trainings are infused with passion and attention. His approach involves working with the bigger system and he aims at change and transformation at both personal and professional level. Atanas has been an Art of Hosting practitioner since 2014. He holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (BTH, Karlskrona, Sweden) and has a background in virtual and experiential learning. He loves writing, travelling and spending time in nature. www.linkedin.com/in/atanasgenkov

zlatina tsvetkova

Zlatina designs processes that help creators, impact makers and entrepreneurs to connect with the deeper purpose of what they do, to master their collaborative and learning skills, to grow and communicate authentically the purpose and mission of their organisations. In the last 8 years she has been using participatory learning, storytelling, dancing, design thinking, and Art of Hosting methodologies to create learning spaces, build communities and meaningful connections between people, fields and contexts.  Her experience in entrepreneurship and dancing, combined with her education in Business and Lifelong Learning, create her unique multidisciplinary approach towards communication, learning and innovation. Her mastery is her ability to empathically understand, strategically connect, and encourage people with ideas that need action. She believes that powerful relationships, authentic communication and collaborative work are at the heart of meaningful work and creation. www.linkedin.com/in/zlatinatsvetkova

Vihra Dincheva

Vihra grew up in Bulgaria and then moved to study in Germany. After her Bachelor she worked 6 years in Frankfurt as a management consultant. Her interest in sustainability lead her to the Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability in Sweden, which she graduated in 2015. This is where she encountered and co-organized her first Art of Hosting training. Since then she had been an active part of the Art of Hosting community with a strong interest in applying the methods and underlying world views in her everyday life. Vihra is working as self-employed designer and facilitator of participatory online spaces. Her vision is that everyone on this planet have access to spaces for meaningful conversations and connection, being them physical or digital.  Vihra is passionate about practicing and spreading practices for enlivening individuals and organisations. She is well connected in a number of international networks and loves weaving people, ideas and practices together. Vihra is radically honest to herself and others and you can expect her to ask sharp questions from the heart. https://www.linkedin.com/in/vihra-dincheva-3a214b8/