FOR BRIDAL EXPO 2022

IF YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED IN GREECE YOU SHOULD JOIN THE FIRST BRIDAL WORKSHOP BY ELLWED

*TEXT Repost from ELLWED

This December 2-4, Bridal Expo is celebrating their 10 years of operations! And we are honoured to host the first Bridal Workshop alongside the exhibition!

You can also secure your invitation for a free entrance over at our Instagram @ellwedm

What you can expect from the first Bridal Workshop by Ellwed?  

Firstly, you will be able to get your senses intrigued with the impressive installation designed by Dimitra Grigorea, the founder of The Event Operator. A unique installation to inspire you and kick start your wedding planning process for your upcoming wedding! Secondly, You will be able to get first hand information about wedding planning!

Join us in Athens this December 3 & 4 at the 10th Bridal Expo in Zappeion for the first Bridal Workshop dedicated to all couples! Moreover, all visitors of the exhibition will have the opportunity to receive personal advice and information from renowned wedding professionals on all the modern trends and organization of the wedding of their dreams.

The speakers will focus on various topics, such as makeup, hair styling, photography, video, bar catering, decoration and event planning. Above all, giving many useful tips to new prospective couples and answering all their questions live.

On Saturday, December 3, from 11.00 till 16.00 at the VIP room of Bridal Expo in Zappeion you will able to listen to:

• Sanya Percic, Editor of Ellwed Magazine, Speech on “Insta-Weddings” at 11:00    

• Markos Efthymiou, Award-winning Hair Stylist, Speech on “Perfect Bridal Hair for Each Wedding Style” at 11.45              

• Vangelis Beltzenitis, Destination Wedding Photographer, Speech on How to Select Your Photographer” at 13:00

• Dimitris Katsibokis, Award-Winning Wedding Cinematographer of Sky is The Limit, Speech on “Wedding Video or Cinematography?” at 13:45

• Panos Kanellopoulos, The Moving Spirits Co-Founder, Speech on “Bar Catering” at 15:00

And on Sunday, December 4, from 11.00-14.00 you can join the talks by:

• Dimitra Grigorea, Founder of The Event Operator, Speech on “Unconventional, Modern or Classic Wedding? All The New Trends for 2023” at 11:15

• Georgia Apostolidou, Founder of PomPon Story Events, Speech on “Wedding Planner or Designer? And What Are The Differences Between Them?” at 11:45

• Christina Vardali, Wedding Photographer, Speech on “The First Meeting With Your Wedding Photographer” at 12:30

• Freddy Kalobratsos, Award Winning Make-up Artist, Speech on “Perfect Bridal Makeup” at 13:30

The Workshop is organized and designed by Dimitra Grigorea from The Event Operator.

With support of:

Floral Installation , Felicia Floral Design

Audio Visual , Maestro

Event Rentals, Tore

Truck, Smart Moving Media

Photobooth, Kibeli

Logistics Support, The Moving Spirits & True Catering

Wedding Cake, Julianna’s cake

Neon installation for cages, The Letterco

Sous Plats & Napkins, White Lilac

Graphics, Alley Cat Design

Printings, Mougiakakos Graphic Arts

On desk with support by Poised One Events

Photos, Veil Figures

Conferences halls and event spaces: Tips to survive during the new era of social distancing.

New Article: “Hotel Conferences halls and event spaces: Tips to survive during the new era of social distancing.”

Author: The Event Operator - Dimitra Grigorea

Host : Hotelier Academy Greece

READ MORE:

https://www.hotelieracademy.gr/synedriakoi-xwroi-kai-aithouses-ekdilwsewn/?fbclid=IwAR2asgh9o7F5ElYLyWbc4tWViC_YojTAbCIw8DiqRMDBJOuvnakVlobgR7E

Hotelier Academy Publication

Can you inspire me? An inspection of my first year being an Event Management Lecturer

One year ago while searching online to find an event management course in Greece after a few days of research, I was too sad that I did not managed to find anything being offered locally. Except a few private seminars of maximum 24 hours, event planning was not a part of the studying fields offered within the country. While I could find many degrees in other countries like UK, Spain and Holland or even online courses coming from USA and Italy, Greece seemed to connect event management more to Banquet or Conference and MICE management.  Most of the local certificate programs could be found only as short – courses within Tourism and Hospitality degrees mainly in private colleges.

To be honest I was  introduced to event management 15 years ago via stage management. Gaining two scholarships one from the Greek National Bank and another one from the Athens Megaron of Music gave me the chance -on 2005- to travel at London to study stage management. Probably you are thinking now what  this has to do with events or even with wedding events. Actually it has a lot in common and now I realize how similar it is to wedding planning. Stage management is the job title that specifies the event manager of a cultural event related to arts like theatre, opera, dance or music.  Back to being a student at London, I learned during the 2 years of my studies at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts (part of Middlesex University) a lot about:  budget management, planning strategies, health and safety, design, vendors management, risk assessment, creativity, marketing, IT skills and project management.  Does all these remind you something? Well wedding planning actually involves the same content of general course topics.

Let me separate these two parts. Part 1 is Event Planning. Part 2 is Wedding Planning. Although they have more similarities the result in the education level makes the difference to the final status. While wedding coordinators do not need to hold a bachelor’s degree, event planners that are planning to work in Mega events should make sure that they will receive a certification validated by a university.  But if you do not get the chance to work for both industries you will not be able to understand that they are so similar to each other. Then you can rethink your plans about studies. If you try both then you will make yourself more flexible between more type of events that you can serve as a professional.

More to know about your job and the story – history behind it and  the traditions in other countries for that job, more you can make you understand for the different levels of service through packages that cover a range of budgets. A wedding (event) planner is the person with the vision. Usually has a design background. While the wedding (event) manager is the person who handles the budget, the event coordinator the person who handles the communication with the vendors. The event coordinator can be hired by the client alternatively for only a day- of-coordination. Additionally on these we can find a few people that can offer services as wedding consultants. These people usually guide the couple in the beginning of the process offering them consulting to help them move to the next steps, but most probably he will not participate in the actual wedding ceremony.

Of course based on the skills, experience and social media value of the professional his fee varies starting in Greece from 1000€ getting up to 15000 € for wedding planning. The event manager usually is an employee of the main event planner and his monthly salary starts from 1000€ getting up to 2000€ Euros. Finally the wedding coordinator usually works per project or per hour and his fee varies depending on the size of the production. Most event coordinators including me drafty charge 60-150 € per hour. By completing a certificate program though can give you a total overview of the job of the wedding planner helping you to understand more about the industry in a more balanced way and giving you qualifications to survive within the competition.

The last 9 months I’m working as an event management lecturer in a private college in Athens teaching a class related to events. The experience of being a tutor is unique and a lifesaver. The process helps me more than I help my students. While it can be tough –especially this period of coronavirus that I had to teach via zoom and WebEx-  and challenging it can be also a clever way to share the passion for your work by affecting positively other people. And due to the style of the job event management cannot or should not be an academic only subject. That’s why 9 to 10 event planning courses combine theory with practical training.

And there the magic always happens. This period my students are on the middle of compiling a practical assessment. They are actually creating their own event (an one day online conference about Green tourism during Covid-19 period with six top speakers) and the impact of how they work together as a team, is giving meaning to my personal development while I slowly help them to bring a subject like event production to life.

Long time ago I was teaching Lighting Design for Theatre to students that were studying to be sound technicians. My class was offered as a mandatory seminar to them. I feel proud for the fact that because of these seminars 4 students decided to follow the career of lighting designer and now all of them are A’ class professionals creating amazing lighting designs in the arts industry and winning many awards. And their progress is for sure the best win of my career. Hopefully same will happen with some of the event management students of this season and in a few years from now I will be able to see them grow and work in the industry having being given the first inspiration from this class that we did together -with me being their lecturer- back to 2020.

Can you teach me event management or in other words can you inspire me? Teaching can be inspiring because of a teacher, who managed to inspire the students.

NEW EVENT MANAGEMENT ONLINE COURSE STARTING SOON AT THE BLACK BOOK:

https://theblackbook.gr/event-management-elearning/

Can you inspire me?

An inspection of my first year being an Event Management Lecturer

Dimitra Grigorea

Event Management Lecturer AMC College & The Black Book