DISCOVERING THE WORLD OF EVENT MANAGEMENT

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AD DISCOVERY — CREATIVITY Stories by ADandPRLAB

13 min readJun 30, 2021

Athens me up project

In the framework of the workshop “Event Management”, led by Professor Betty Tsakarestou and the Marketing & PR Manager Athina Fradelou, at the AD & PR LAB of the Department of Communication, Media and Culture of Panteion University, we were invited to organize an event for Athens. The event aims to make Athens one of the world’s top tourist destinations for the whole year.

Our event with moto ‘‘365 experiences in Athens’’ will be based on 6 pillars: contemporary culture, history-tradition, sustainability, wine and gastronomy, fashion, and the natural environment. Each pillar will be assigned a different activity in order to offer our visitors an experience they can ask for all year round. We are therefore emphasizing the experience, as we know that this is the new trend. We will organize our event for the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th of November 2021 with a number of 300 guests who will be hosted at “Elia Hotel” and the amount of money we will need is 325.500€. Our guests will be diplomatic envoys mainly from European countries, known travel offices from abroad, investors, and popular travel bloggers and influencers from abroad. Our event will be held in collaboration with our sponsors: Katrina Chantalis, Feel Famous.gr, Elia Ermou Athens Hotel, Hertz, All Senses Gastronomy-Multi sensory Restaurant, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Goulandris Natural History Museum, Municipality of Athens.

As far as the implementation of our idea is concerned, nothing went as easy as we thought since many obstacles were in our way. First of all, we had to consider that the dates of the event should not be in the summer season as we wanted to promote Athens as one of the best tourist destinations all year round. We also paid a lot of attention and did a lot of research to identify our competitors, so that we could target the people who are directly connected to tourism, investment, and the pillars mentioned above. The pillars created another obstacle, which we quickly overcame because at the beginning we did not know whether we had to refer to all the pillars in one day or each pillar would be implemented on a separate day. Finally, we felt that the time we had to organize the idea, the creation, and the presentation of our project was pressing, since we had a 3 weeks deadline, but we worked several hours a day and made it happen. Despite these problems, which of course we were not the only ones to face, we believe we produced a decent result and all our efforts paid off.

Behind our idea, it has been preceded by a complete analysis of other cities-competitors in order to find precisely the competitive advantage in comparison to them. This would help us create an innovative, peculiar and unique idea. We decided to conduct purposeful research, which relied on previous research concerning the most visited cities annually and on the search of the events that take place in those cities. Therefore, we end up in four different famous cities around the globe: Rome, Barcelona, Zagreb, and Constantinople. All of them promote their rich history and civilization through different events which take place during the whole year.

In particular, on the one hand, Rome is known as the “eternal city” and it’s considered as the first metropolis of mankind, beating heart of one of the most important ancient civilizations, which influenced society, culture, language, literature, art, architecture, philosophy, religion, law and customs of the following centuries. Furthermore, the city organizes a big range of events to cover all the references. Not to mention that it has one of the most popular cuisines and restaurants globally.

Barcelona, on the other hand, doesn’t differ heavily from Rome. It organizes equally events that cover a wide range of themes. The city offers plenty of must-visit cultural sights. In addition, it is considered to have one of the most admirable architecture with the famous square blocks with chamfered corners and wide avenues in between. Barcelona is a mix of entertainment, refreshment, enlightenment, and peacefulness.

Zagreb, which was developed rapidly in the last decades, is considered the city of international fairs, conventions, and business meetings (Zagreb Fair and congresses). In the city can be found more than 30 parks and green areas as well as pedestrian areas with many shops and malls around the city center. Last but not least, it is considered the principal industrial center of Croatia.

Last, our neighbor, Constantinople, a city with a rich and important history and civilization is equally admirable. It offers a succession of sightseeings that originate from its historical position as the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empire. One of the most widely known events is the “International Book Fair’’ which takes place successfully every year. Not to mention the “Grand Bazaar’’, one of the most unique markets in Europe. Assuming their currency, “Turkish lira”, it is one of the cheapest destinations, with low prices so to accommodation and entertainment as to airline tickets. Taking into consideration all the above, we perceive the high competition that we are about to face. However, we accept the challenge and we are prepared to host the event of the year, which will include a combination of activities for all preferences and will make Athens, a must-visit city at all seasons of the year.

In order to have a complete and accurate marketing strategy, further to the brand, the tagline, and the logo, it is necessary to proceed to SWOT analysis for the city of Athens. SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique used for the analysis of the internal and external environment of an organization/ product or service when a business needs to make decisions regarding its goals or how to achieve them. In other words, it assists a person or organization to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition or project planning.

Implementing the analysis in the case of Athens, as for the Strengths of the city, it is observed that the city hosts millions of tourists yearly, who have the opportunity to experience its rich culture, tradition, and history. In addition, it is noteworthy that the city and the whole country, in general, has one of the most favorable climates globally. Who would resist the Mediterranean climate, with the warm, dry summers and the cool and wet winters? In Athens are found unlimited options, concerning food and entertainment. Options which cover even the most demanding preferences, from a small traditional tavern located in the city center, with traditional Greek food and live Greek music, to a restaurant located in the famous Athens Riviera, with a variety of food options and relaxing music. It is remarkable to mention the plenty of cultural and historical sights which are easily accessible and are located mainly around the city center. Last, “Greek Hospitality” wouldn’t be missing from the Strengths. All the tourist industry with its qualified personnel aim to make all the visitors experience the greek culture to the fullest and with “meraki”.

As for the Weaknesses, Athens seems to have a poor urban planning and road network, since there are more roads rather than avenues and as result, long traffic jams occur quite often. In addition, public cleaning seems deficient, according to the latest research, in which tourists graded with only 5.6 and declared disappointment. A serious weakness is the fact that Athens is not considered a “green city”. There are only a few parks located in the city center. Moreover, criminality displays high percentages in comparison to previous years as the financial discomfort. Those serious problems impede the development and advance of the city.

However, despite the weaknesses, Opportunities seem quite encouraging. First of all, a blooming rise of youthful entrepreneurship is observed lately. More and more young, open-minded people are choosing Athens to accomplish their ambitions. They start small businesses with the perspective to become bigger and change the image of Athenian entrepreneurship. Additionally, there is an improvement in public transport. Metro line is expanding as well as the tram line, bus routes are more often and the urban buses are replaced by electrical- buses. The last act constitutes a part of a bigger environmental plan, which is about to be performed and aims to protect the environment and raise empathy to society.

In the Threats, it appears that the financial crisis has come to stay. Uncertainty is rising and prevents people from investing and consuming and as a result businesses have less income, which provokes other problems such as unemployment. Following the financial crisis, there is also a big delay in implementing infrastructure. Consequently, some projects never come to fruition in action and others stay incomplete. Not to mention that, in the last two years, sudden crises are born and the most grievous one is the virus COVID-19. The virus has paralyzed the economy, causing a significant drop in income, and has changed the daily life we used to have. In general, SWOT analysis will make us better understand the environment in which we are going to invest our ideas and vision.

When it comes to our communication strategy, one thing is certain: Social media presence is essential. Our social media campaign is planned to run for two months and applications such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube will lead the way. In the first month, 1 or 2 posts will be posted per week on Facebook and Instagram, and as we get closer to the event, the posting will be more frequent. The same thing will happen with Instagram stories, starting from 2–3 times per week. We have also decided to post a promotion video with sponsored advertisements on YouTube 2 weeks before the event. It is important to mention that each one of our guests and sponsors has agreed to upload stories before and during the event using our hashtags #AthensMeUp, #365experiencesinathens, and #TheADrenaline. On our website, first, you can see who we are, the members of the team, and our common goal for the upcoming event. In addition, there is the option “365 experiences in Athens” where the full program of the event is posted, as well as the different posters for every day. You can also book your ticket from the website by writing your name, your email (required), and your phone number (optional). To be more efficient, we agreed on some further communication techniques, including outdoor marketing.

This campaign will run for one month before the event. We have planned for our posters to appear in all means of transportation (bus, train, metro stations) alongside the buildings of cultural foundations, such as museums and art spaces, and on the walls of our sponsored restaurants. To sum up, our team has estimated our campaign’s promotion rate up to 55.000€. To be more specific, our social media managers, who will create the content and run the campaign for 2 months will be paid 20.000€ and our graphic designers who will design the posters for the online and outdoor campaigns, the goodies bags, and the souvenirs will be paid 15.000€. Last but not least, our website designer, who will create the event’s web page and its content, will be paid 20.000€.

We wanted the first day of AthensMeUp to be unique and create an engaging beginning. So we decided to include two different activities, which cover the most important aspects of our event and our country as well: history — tradition, and wine. Firstly, from 12.00 pm until 15.30 pm, a guided visit to the Acropolis Museum will be made, which will be followed by a walk to the Filopappou Hill. There also will be a half-hour break for some refreshments between those two visits. Our guests will have the opportunity to learn interesting historical facts about both of the sights.

Later in the evening, from 19.00 pm until 22.00 pm, we will take our guests to the “By The Glass” bar. At this magnificent wine-specialist place, they will attend a greek wine exhibition accompanied by a speech on wine’s history in Greece. Our main speaker will be Katrina Tsantali. After that, a wine tasting process will also take place at the bar. Last but not least, all of our guests will receive a custom-made goodies bag containing mini wine bottles of all colors and a mug with our logo on it, to remember this extraordinary experience. We will also have as a special guest the ‘‘Beautiful People’’, a company that operates in the Public Relations and Communication market, to cover and promote the event.

On the second day, we will host a ‘‘Glamour event’’ about fashion, sustainability, and the natural environment. On Friday 05/11 from 18.00 pm till 21.00 pm we will organize a runway called ‘‘Show Me Up’’ at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. We picked this location because of its particular architecture and environmental strategy that promotes green spaces, parks, sustainable mobility, energy canopy, water management, recycling, and other acts. Model and fashion expert Vicky Kaya will be the presenter for the evening, singer Eleni Foureira will be the performer, and Italian fashion designer and influencer Chiara Ferragni will be our special guest. The clothes on the catwalk will be designed by small Greek businesses using recycled materials. After the fashion show, there will be a bazaar with clothes from previous limited collections on sale, and the money earned will go to underwater cleanups to help the environment. Also, there will be a discussion with the designers and a buffet provided by the restaurant ‘‘Dipnosofistirion’’. To promote the event, we made a poster and some bracelets to give to the attendees to remember the experience.

On the third day, 06/11, we will have a photography exhibition at the Benaki Museum about Greek history and modern culture. The exhibition will last 2 hours, from 13:00 pm to 15:00, and it will contain photos that depict areas of Athens’ ancient times to today as a historical retrospective. The photo material taken by George Tatakis and Vassilis Rebapis will be shown on giant screens in animated form. The attendees will be able to walk between, it will be a walk inside experience. In addition, because we will organize a 4-day event, we wanted the 3rd day, since it will be a Saturday to leave a free program from the afternoon onwards, so we have some restaurant suggestions from which they will choose how to spend their afternoon. Some of them are Simul, Lime bistro(vegan), Nolan(partly vegan), Athénée, Dionysos Zonars & Daphne Restaurant.

The last and fourth day of our event is about gastronomy and the natural environment. The day will start with a guided visit to the Goulandri Museum of Natural History from 10:00 am till 12:00 pm. The attendants will have the opportunity to visit at first the Permanent Exhibition of Natural History and secondly the Gaia Exhibition. They will be separated into 3 groups and each group will be provided with a museum guide. In addition, they’re going to have a half-hour break for refreshments. Later, they will be able from 12:00 pm till 14:00 pm to taste the Greek Cuisine at “NATU” Restaurant, which is located within the site of the Museum.

Then, in the afternoon (18:00 -20:00 pm) the visitors will have dinner at the ‘‘All Senses Gastronomy — Multi-sensory Restaurant”. During dinner, there are going to be slides and animated material about Greek cuisine history. The “Michelin star” rated chef, Lefteris Lazarou, is responsible for preparing the food and giving a speech about gastronomy.

To thank our guests who preferred us, we organized a special after-party (at 20:00–22:00 pm), at ‘‘Moorings’’. There will be a live show performance from “Alcatrash the Band”, and after that, the visitors will get a USB Stick-keychain with all the footage from our 4-day event (professional videos and photos).

Our team will take all the necessary measures against Covid-19. All participants will have to get tested with a PCR before leaving their countries and after they arrive in Athens. Furthermore, we will provide self-tests to everyone for each day. We will divide the guided tours into groups of 100 people, so everyone can keep the necessary distances in each area, and provide and use masks at all times. Finally, all our partners will undergo PCR testing and have their temperature taken before entering each event.