Past Athens WING events 2011

Saturday, November 26th 

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‘Creative solutions during challenging times’.  2 speakers, 2 different examples

Myra Economides gave a short guide to how our daily actions affect the environment, and how we can make effective changes and a positive impact. The talk included tips on saving energy, reducing consumption, reducing waste and reusing our resources. Myra Economides has an MSc  in Environmental Engineering and several years of experience  ensuring new constructions meet environmental legal requirements.   She worked for Parsons Brinckerhoff focusing on  advising energy  suppliers.

Myra made a nice pp with a lot of tips and advice on how to save energy and be more aware what you can do in your daily life. See the attached PDF file.

 

Thalia Geladaki talked about her initiative, together with 2 other women, to set up Swap not Shop, a clothing exchange. What started as a friend’s initiative grew in 2 years into events where more than 1000 women and families visited the swap not shop events. She talked about the rewards it gave but also about the difficulties of organising such large events where sometimes not the nicest parts of people surface. It was inspiring to hear how their first idea turned out to be so succesfull. In the Q and A participants started to become very involved and a lot of tips were given how to organise such big events. The next swap and shop event is scheduled in January 2012.    

Thalia Geladaki has a Masters Degree on Modern and Contemporary Art from UCL in London, where she lived for 7 years. She worked at galleries, Saatchi Gallery being one of them. Currently she is working in Care Direct where she is Digital Account Manager specializing in social media campaigns.

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Wednesday, October 26th 

Judy, our key-note speaker, talked about the NO PROJECT, which she founded a couple of years ago, after she realised how much child abuse was still present in our western word. The NO PROJECT is an independent anti human trafficking initiative that focuses on demand and specifically targets awareness through the Arts, Music, Film, Education and Social Media. Her multi-media presentation  included as well documentary footage, video-journalism, movie segments, and art from FREE ME, the anti trafficking installation. 

Books say that slavery has been abolished. Wrong. It is illegal in every country but there are more slaves today than the entire 400 years of the trans- Atlantic slave trade. This market-driven industry of trade in humans is thriving, from Athens to Atlanta, London to DC. Enslaved men, women and children are probably closer to your neighbourhood than you realize. Time to challenge the attitudes and behaviour that perpetuates this barbaric crime. Be part of the solution, not the cause. A perfect place to start is with ...knowledge.

And that is what Judy provided us. With knowledge and awareness. Moreover she is an inspiring example of some-one who challenges awful practises in our society and really does something. In this project she devotes her energy and money. If anybody would like to support the NO PROJECT you can find information on the website or facebook page.

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Saturday, October 1st​

Topic: Marketing & Communication for Small Businesses - A Crash Course
presented by Arianna Nichogiannopou

Marketing and Communication for Small Businesses is for many Wing members a very helpful subject to learn about. Arianna Nichogiannopou gave us an interesting crash course. She is a freelance marketing and communication consultant based in Athens. She informed us that, of course, the way you present yourself is very important. She advised us to take a serious look in the mirror, it is a truthful friend. The way you, and everyone in your company, communicate to your customers/clients should be consistent with the concept you have chosen for the presentation of your new business.

One important piece of advice: make your business cards of quality paper and intelligent design with an understandable logo. She showed us many which were too colorful or enigmatic. Some of them were really funny.

Afterwards, we did a lot of networking while enjoying a good cup of coffee.

​Wednesday, June 15th 

As a festive conclusion of the season we organised a taverna night in new hot spot in Athens- the Kerameikos area.  To celebrate the beginning of summer, meet and greet old and new friends, enjoy nice food and have a good time together. We  booked a table at "Γκαζοχώρι"  Dekeléon 2 & Persefónis 61, Gkazi. two minutes walk from metro station: Kerameikos. Due to public transport strikes we had to postpone the event to Thursday June 16th. this had an effect on the number of participants, though the food and atmosphere were great.

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Saturday, May 14th

In these difficult times for Greece and for many of us, it is good to think about what it means that things are changing all the time, and so rapidly.

The seminar: "Change: flight, fight or …go for it" gave us the opportunity to work on that subject and to exchange a lot of experiences with other women.

Dimitra Karatolou is an excellent coach and founder of HR Passport a company specializing in career and executive coaching. She discussed with us the positive and negative changes in our daily life and in our career. She explained the stages of the cycle of grief as Elizabeth Kuebler-Ross described in her book The cycle of Grief. Many negative changes go together with fear. And there are the positive changes which often start with an unrealistic honeymoon feeling but can end in successful action.

While exchanging our experiences we also had lot of oppotunities for networking around the coffee table in the nice relaxing ambiance of the Spring People venue

Click here to see some pictures of the event on our Facebook group.

Saturday, April 9th

Topic : Speed Networking

At the request of members and participants we offered an inviting setting, where all participants had the opportunity to formally meet and follow up with 24 professional women and have fun at the same time. In short talks of 5 minutes we had the opportunity to meet face to face, present ourselves, our products, services and companies and then move on to engage in conversation with the rest of the people in the room.

It was an event with a lot of exchange in energy, cards and meetings. It was as speed networking needs to be - organised chaos – loud, energising and exhausting.

Some comments of partcipants:

• We had a grand time. It really was fun.We should do this twice a year in October & as now in the spring before Easter.....
• Yes, it was an intense couple of hours yesterday, but quite enjoyable
• The "speed networking" was lots of fun! Thanks for listening to our suggestions and putting it into action! 
• Thanks for the great event! Enjoyed it.

Tuesday, March 29th

We organised a free Members only event with a tour of the Acropolis Museum.  Georgina Heilig, a very experienced and inspirational guide, provided us a great story and with new and juicy details of ancient Greece.  The tour was followed by a dinner at restaurant Μάνη Μάνη, Φαλήρου 10, Μακρυγιάννη, at walking distance from the museum.  Dinner was open to any who wanted to join. The food was delicious and the atmosphere very nice.

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Saturday, February 5th

How to use the social media for business and self-marketing
was the topic of our first event in the New Year. We all know Linked In, Twitter, Blogs, Youtube and of course Facebook. Avra Lyraki had much to say about the new possibilities offered by the new social media - especially by Facebook – and how to use it in (a new) business. Consumers are more and more opting out of traditional marketing. They are looking for new and social, personal chosen channels.

Avra Lyraki is a Communication Trainer (www.lifeselfcoaching.gr) and member of the International Coach Federation (ICF). There were many experiences shared about doing business via using social media and many questions asked. Avra appeared to be an excellent discussion leader. You can download here, Avra's A Beginners Guide to Social Media e-book here (17MB file).

It was our first event in 2011, so we cut a large and beautiful pita together with the many guests who joined us on this Saturday morning at a sunny Psirri. It was literally a full house at Spring People.