At the 11th edition of the Delphi Economic Forum (22–25 April, 2026), 28DIGITAL reaffirmed its position as a leading voice on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and Europe’s digital future. Drawing over 1,200 participants from across the worlds of politics, business, finance and technology, the Forum — held under the theme “The Shock of the New” — provided a powerful platform for confronting the most pressing challenges of our time, from geopolitical disruption and energy insecurity to the transformative implications of agentic AI.
28DIGITAL with offices in Athens and Thessalonki and numerous partners in Greece and the region is an avid supporter of the Delphi Economic Forum and open dialogue platforms.
At the Centre of the AI and Cybersecurity Debate
The centrepieces of 28DIGITAL’s presence were two panels that sat at the core of the Forum’s technology agenda, both held at the Amalia Hotel Delphi.
The first, “Data Security in the Era of Agentic AI” (Ermis Hall, Wednesday April 22nd), featured CEO Federico Menna speaking alongside Manolis Kontos, Group CEO of AUSTRIACARD Holdings; Yiannis Pavlosoglou, Vice Governor of the National Cybersecurity Authority of Greece; and representatives from DELL and IBM.
The session addressed one of the most urgent questions facing organisations and governments alike: how to govern AI systems that act autonomously, make decisions at scale and operate across interconnected infrastructure.
“Digital sovereignty does not mean owning everything. It means controlling what matters — building trusted capabilities in critical layers, while staying globally connected through strategic partnerships. The real risk is not openness, but dependency without control.”
– Federico Menna, CEO, 28DIGITAL
The second, “The Future of Cybersecurity: Trends, Tactics, and the Evolution of Digital Defense” (Phrynichos Hall, Thursday April 23rd), brought together leading voices from across the cybersecurity landscape, including Richard Meeus of Akamai, Yiannis Pavlosoglou of the National Cybersecurity Authority of Greece, and Marina Theodotou of the Center for Frontier AI Security.
The full 28DIGITAL delegation attended, reinforcing the organisation’s commitment to staying at the frontier of the policy and technical debate on digital security in Europe.
Together, the two panels reflected a clear and consistent message: the governance of AI and the future of cybersecurity are no longer separate conversations. As autonomous systems become embedded in critical infrastructure, public services and private enterprise, the question of security is inseparable from the question of how AI is designed, deployed and regulated. This is a conversation 28DIGITAL is uniquely positioned to advance — bridging the worlds of innovation, policy and European institutional action through multiple projects.
“Cybersecurity should not be a defensive afterthought; it has to be embedded as a layer of innovation itself. Protection and innovation have to advance together.”
– Federico Menna, CEO, 28DIGITAL
A Strategic Presence Across the Forum
Beyond the panels, the 28DIGITAL delegation engaged actively across the Forum’s four days, building bilateral relationships, attending side events and hosting an original evening gathering.
Notable engagements organized by the Communications and Stakeholder Engagement team included:
A bilateral meeting with Juhan Lepassaar, Executive Director of the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), at the Amalia Hotel on Thursday, April 23rd. The conversation touched on the evolving cybersecurity landscape, the scale and speed of emerging threats, and the role of organisations like 28DIGITAL in bridging policy ambition with operational reality. Lepassaar himself later told the Forum: “It’s not cybersecurity, it’s just security” — a framing that resonated deeply with 28DIGITAL’s own approach.
A Meet & Greet with Despina Spanou, Deputy Director-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology at the European Commission (DG CONNECT), and a bilateral meeting with Nicolas Mahler, Interim-CEO and CFO of Vantage Towers — both held on the margins of the cybersecurity panel on Thursday morning. The meeting with Mahler stood out as one of the most promising exchanges of the Forum. Vantage Towers, as one of Europe’s leading tower infrastructure companies, operates at the intersection of connectivity, digital sovereignty and the physical backbone of the continent’s digital transformation — themes that sit squarely within 28DIGITAL’s strategic agenda. The conversation opened concrete avenues for future collaboration, and both sides left with a shared sense of direction and momentum.
A bilateral meeting with Maka Botchorishvili, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, and a Meet & Greet with Natalia Gavrilița, former Prime Minister of Moldova, ahead of their session at Daphne Hall on Friday. The delegation also engaged with Herman Van Rompuy, Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Theophano Foundation and former President of the European Council, and Nicholas Vinocur, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for Europe at Politico, who moderated the session — conversations that spanned European geopolitical repositioning, the future of the transatlantic alliance and the strategic outlook for the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood.
Introductions on the margins of the EU Enlargement Western Balkans session to Ivan Ivanišević, Deputy Minister for EU Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Montenegro; Nemanja Starović, Minister of European Integration of Serbia; and Ferit Hoxha, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania — all of whom were central voices in the Forum’s enlargement debate. The delegation also held a dedicated meeting with the CEO and Co-CEO of Durana Tech Park (Albania), for a forward-looking exchange on digital infrastructure development and innovation ecosystems in the Western Balkans, a region the Forum identified as closer to EU accession than at any point in the past decade.
Participation in the Growthfund of Greece side event, held at the Amalia Hotel (Ermis Hall) on Thursday, April 23rd — an opportunity to engage with key actors in the Greek investment and innovation ecosystem and explore how public capital instruments are being deployed to support the country’s next phase of growth.
Bilateral exchanges with both new leads and established partners — reflecting 28DIGITAL's approach to major forums as strategic relationship-building moments. On the new partnerships front, a Meet & Greet with Elina Konstantinidou of Mastercard opened conversations at the intersection of digital payments, financial infrastructure and European competitiveness. Equally important was a dedicated exchange with Tasos Vasiliadis, CEO-President of JOIST Innovation Park — one of 28DIGITAL's established partners from the Greek ecosystem — to deepen the existing partnership, align on shared priorities and explore new avenues for collaboration within the broader European innovation landscape that 28DIGITAL supports.
Participation in the working dinners on globalisation, European economic resilience and societal preparedness which brought together senior figures including former EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, and Georgios Giannopoulos of the EU Joint Research Centre.
A press interview with Federico Menna, conducted by Loukas Velidakis, Senior Editor and journalist. The interview explored Federico’s perspective on Europe’s digital trajectory, 28DIGITAL’s strategic vision and the leadership questions raised by an era of accelerating technological and geopolitical change. It will be published in the coming weeks.
Hosting “Defence & Drinks”: A 28DIGITAL Original
On Friday evening, April 24th, 28DIGITAL hosted its own side event at the Forum: “Defence & Drinks: Closing Europe’s Defence Innovation Gap and the Role of Greece”, held at the Amalia Hotel Bar from 7:30 PM.
The event brought together conference attendees drawn from a deliberately diverse cross-section of the defence, technology, policy, research and media communities. Attendees included journalists from CNN Greece, representatives of the European Commission, IBM, the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS), the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), and Beyond Expo, alongside finance and investment professionals.
The gathering offered an informal but substantive space to examine Europe’s defence innovation deficit, the role of dual-use technologies in closing strategic capability gaps, and Greece’s emerging position within European security architecture — a conversation that gained particular resonance against the backdrop of the Iran conflict and the Forum’s broader discussions on European strategic autonomy.
The Forum’s Defining Themes — and Where 28DIGITAL Stands
Across four days and more than 1,200 participants, the Delphi Economic Forum XI was defined by a set of interlinked challenges: the geopolitical shock of the Iran conflict and its economic consequences; the acceleration of AI and the governance questions it raises; Europe’s need to move from recovery to productive, resilience-driven growth; and the urgency of closing the continent’s defence innovation gap.
28DIGITAL’s presence — spanning two CEO-level panels on agentic AI and cybersecurity, bilateral meetings with ENISA and DG CONNECT, high-level engagements with ministers from Georgia, Moldova, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, connections with Western Balkans innovation actors, participation in the Greek investment ecosystem through the Growthfund side event and the JOIST Innovation Park partnership, a press interview and an original hosted side event bringing together some of Europe’s leading defence and security research institutions — placed the organisation at the intersection of all of these conversations. As Europe navigates what the Forum called “the shock of the new”, 28DIGITAL’s role as a connector between innovation ecosystems, public institutions and policy frameworks has never been more relevant.
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