Past Athens WING events 2010    

Saturday, February 20th

"Female Entrepreneurship: Challenges & Opportunities"
presentation available in PDF here.

Many members and guests of Athens WING are already running their own business or try to start one. This event was organized to inform us about EU Programs for Women and Small and Medium Enterprises. The interest was overwhelming. We have never received so many women at a lecture, and the beautiful library of the Dutch Institute was almost too small for the audience!

Ioanna Tzika (i.tzika@mnec.gr), a EU commissioner at the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, shared with us information about the large variety of programs enhancing Women’s Entrepreneurship, programs in the SME sector,
the Leonardo da Vinci programme for lifelong learning, etc., etc..

Of course, there were many questions after the coffee break and remarks about personal experiences. It is clear that there is great need for information about these programs. For both speaker and audience it was a very instructive meeting on a subject that WING will certainly revisit in the future.


Saturday, March 27th

Once again it was interesting and, above all, very useful to hear other women talking about their activities and success in business. This Saturday morning the subject was Tourism and it's new possibilities.

Hetty Schupert, owner of Prescot Travel and associate of "S-Cape travel”, spoke about the history of her company and the type of vacations she offers to her public. She represents foreign tour operators and offers a large variety of activities for families, seniors etc. A new and growing market is agro-tourism. She emphasized that it is very important for a travel agency to know the products it offers. So, Hetty is traveling a lot trying to build up a large network of good hotels which can offer the activities people ask for: horse riding, biking, mountain excursions, wine trips, and so on.

Elena Papa-Zhilenkova, owner of Arion Travel tourist agency, started her company with an EU subsidy after three months of paperwork. She already had a good network from several years working in a hotel. She works with people from Russia and the Ukraine. Her public is very demanding for quality and service, sometimes missing in Greek hotels where the number of stars is not always a guarantee. Because of the long winters in their country, Russian tourists love Greece for the sun and the sea and are looking for a restful and luxurious vacation.

There were many questions concerning several details of the tourist business. Tourism offers foreign women many possibilities in Greece. Both speakers were optimistic about surviving the economical crisis in Greece.

Article on Tourism from Athens News (March 19-25)
Hetty's presentation - Incoming Tourism Business in Greece


Saturday, April 24th

On the 24th, we were pleased to welcome Artemis Alcalay, a well-known Greek artist of contemporary art. Artemis captivated us with a slideshow of some of her work, consisting of painting, weaving, and digital art. In her enthusiastic way, she gave us many illustrative stories of her work. She emphasized the importance of teamwork when time-consuming techniques such as weaving are used. The atmosphere was really warm and friendly. Valuable information was shared about the technicalities of making a living as an artist. After the talk we had a small workshop, which resulted in us setting up an artists’ networking group. Artemis has promised to invite us to her new exhibition opening next month. Finally, each went home not only with our spirits lifted, but also with a small tree donated by the NGO "Plant a Tree."


Tuesday, June 8th

Athens WING has many members who have already started their own, often small, business. Others are dreaming, thinking, and calculating about starting one. For both categories Christiane Pohl had a lot to tell us about The Entrepreneur Within and Starting a Business. She made a clear analysis of the flexible mentality, and open spirit, you need if you want to be successful and happy in your new business. She based her analysis on the ideas of Michael Gerber, one of the most prominent small business consultants in the world.

Many creative ideas came from the audience when Christiane invited us to talk about life long dreams and the possibilities of realizing them. This was the last event before summer, in the nice Spiropoulio villa in Neo Psychiko. We had some delicious pizzas, thanks to sponsorship from Pizza Fan. Those along with a glass of wine contributed to a lot of productive networking. Many business cards were exchanged together with a warm good bye and a promise to see each other again in September.

Click here for a copy of Christiane's presentation. 
NOTE: it's a very large PDF file, so may take a bit to download


Saturday, September 25th

This was our first meeting in Psyrri, a booming old district of Athens,
at Polychronos Spring People - a centre for creative and social events.

Panos Valambous-Koundouras from Plant a Tree presented us his ideas about personal environmental responsibility. As we know Greece lost a big part of its forests due to mega fires in 2007. The whole ecosystem was destroyed. The losses in human lives and income were huge. This disaster motivated Valambous and his friends to start Plant a Tree. He gave many examples of projects aiming to improve our environment. Of course there are the Plant-a-Tree actions to restore the countryside hurt by the fires. But there is also a lot to do to improve the urban environment, and his organization is providing products which can be helpful. In Exarchia you can find a park created by the inhabitants themselves, an example of the so called “guerilla gardening”. And what do you think of special Street Panthertickers for cars parked on the footpath, or special ash trays for the beach distributed by Planet? 

For information: www.plant-a-tree.gr / Email: Athens@plant-a-tree.gr

Click here to see Panos' presentation (pdf file).

During the coffee break we had the occasion to meet and talk to each other. There was a lot to discuss after a long summer apart!

Then Ellen Vriniotis took the floor and talked with much enthusiasm about a project she started in Lepreo, a village in Ileia which was burned in the summer fires of 2007. A teacher at the American Community School of Athens, she started to help the village school with a group of students from her own school. They have been very successful in fundraising and practical help. New olive trees were planted and the village has now two totally renovated classrooms. She emphasized that through these actions (volunteering, community outreach/assistance) we expand the human capacity for growth and positive change. If you want to participate as a volunteer you can contact Ellen for a volunteer list: vriniotise@acs.gr


Saturday, October 23rd

The useful subject of "How to make a Business plan" was the presentation topic of this meeting given by economist Dimitris Diamantatos BA, MSC. An expert in reviewing requests for loans, Dimitris explained to us the steps for creating a strong, strategic business plan. A bank always asks for such a plan and many of our members, who have already their own business, need a loan. In addition to his presentation, he also provided the group a sample business plan. He also offered to help any of our members who might have problems in writing their own business plan. 

More inforamtion: ddiamantatos@yahoo.gr

After a lively networking break we talked in small groups about our experiences in keeping things going in these difficult times. It is always good to hear about other plans and receive advice from more experienced friends.


Saturday, November 20th

Three speakers had interesting talks about women's health.

Vasilis Pitsinis from the Cambridge Breast Clinic in Athens delivered a talk on Breast Health Services: How women can benefit from a special Breast Unit. Today 1 on 9 women gets breast cancer. But thanks to an early diagnosis, and more efficient treatment, the mortality rate is decreasing.

Vassiliki Papadimitriou, a specialized Breast Unit nurse, told us how we can protect ourselves against breast cancer. Of course there were many questions about their information. We all know this problem from our own experience, or from friends close to us.

After the break Mary Woodward told us about constitutional homeopathic remedies for women. She just published a book in Greek Omoiopathitikos Odigos proton Boithion. (Homeopathitic Guide on first Aid). She had an animated interactive presentation about the several profiles of people in relation to the homeopathic medication. As an example of a first aid medicine she gave us a small bottle with arnica. She also shared with the title of a book she highly recommends to all women, by Catherine Northrup, "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom".

Psirri was a nice place to be on a sunny Saturday morning. Many women went for shopping in the neighborhood after this meeting.


Saturday, December 11th

"Internet security concerns everyone." 
28.7% of the world population has access to the internet and in some countries like Norway it is more than 90% of the population. You have to realize that if you go online you are connected with millions of people, who do not always have good intentions. So it was a good idea to have a seminar on internet security. Andrea Huber, managing director of 1AGR Ltd. was the speaker on this subject. She has her own company for internet services and offers an interesting program for computer training & workshops - www.1agr.com.

It is important to protect your computer against evil attackers. Over the course of her nearly 2 hour presentation, Andrea gave us a clear and useful explanation about the many ways you can avoid viruses being downloaded on your computer. She showed us also a safe way to open potentially harmful emails as well as advising the safest way to make online purchases. See this pdf doc for a summary of the information Andrea provided.

It was a very informative morning, but certainly the coldest of this autumn!