After the robust success of our first virtual edition of Disrupt Symposium held online only a month ago, 1-5th May we are back with a physical event held 25th-26th June 2022 in Athens!
We believe that success leaves clues, therefore we bring to stage a hand-select group of impressive Greek and international speakers to unpack what until now was a taboo in our industry.
We talk about the Business of Architecture and learn how to do better business from the most successful practices there are!
Disrupt Athens welcomes to stage the very best of Greece.
All event content is co curated by the Design Ambassador & Archisearch.gr
Production Design by Vassilios Bartzokas of the Design Ambassador & ARCHISEARCH.gr & Sara Kolata founder of DisruptSymposium.
Saturday 25th June kicks off at 15:50 with an inauguration, where we celebrate the collaboration and beautiful partnership between Sara Kolata, founder and organiser of Disrupt Symposium and Vassilios Batzoukas, the founder and CEO of the Design Ambassador, a Berlin-based company undertaking a wide range of communication projects in the field of Architecture & Design. Vassilios is also the founder & editor of leading greek architecture magazine archisearch.gr with over 3 million unique page views and 80.000 social media followers!
Both parties are dedicated to elevating the Architects industry by brining to stage highly curated educational content and unforgettable experiences.
Sara Kolata is an architect and a digital transformation expert. Her mission is to raise the financial well being of architects. She is a host of an Arch Talk: Tank show which serves as a platform for industry specialists to talk about business, marketing and profitability in Architecture. Sara helps architects develop online businesses and create online courses. She also works as a business developer for medium to large size architecture firms, helping them manage their finances and implement better client attraction strategies.
Her work is a combination of personal coaching, group masterminds, public speaking, and organising and hosting virtual events, seminars, conferences and workshops all focused on helping architects propel their careers forward. Sara lives a nomadic lifestyle, travelling the world and pursuing her various passions for surfing, skydiving, sailing.
Vassilios Batzoukas has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of Communication, Consulting, Design, PR, and Event and Conference Production, Vassilios has the vision and expertise to fulfil the needs of the most demanding clientele.
He works with and consults some of the best architects and designers in Greece and abroad. He creates and facilitates high end, fully booked events such as;
Έσω [eso] Conference, the Architect Show, Green
Design Festival, Aluminium in Architecture, Hospitality
Atmospheres, Architecture & Tourism Conference,
Architects Talk and SizeMatters amongst others.
Design ← Ambassador is an Agency, founder and run by Vassilios, specialising in
Communication, Consulting, Design, PR, Events and Conferences in the field of Architecture and Design. The team at Design ← Ambassador are experts in professional matchmaking. They bring the best creatives in dialogue with the most extrovert and ambitious brands.
The event will be hosted in AKTO College, our venue sponsor.
The Athenian Artistic Technological Group (AKTO) is currently the largest educational institution in the field of Applied Fine Arts and Design in Greece. The institution has worked with experts and the public for the exceptional quality of studies, and collaborated with the British State University Middlesex since 1991, offering nine undergraduate and five graduate programs in Graphic Design, Decoration – Architecture, Photography, Fashion, Product Design, Visual Arts, Comics, Animation, Game Design. AKTO Greece operates in Athens & Thessaloniki. AKTO ATHENS where the event is held is located at the address EVELPIDON 11A, ATHENS, 113 62, GREECE
Right after the short event introduction and inauguration we deep-dive into the program kickstarting with a panel on: Managing Big Teams
Some of the topics covered within this panel are:
-How to grow and manage change
-How to get the projects you want
-How to organise teams while growing
-Managing Cash Flow & Profitability
-Biggest Challenges and how to overcome them
This panel will be presented by:
Maria Tsaftari from URBAN SOUL PROJECT (currently 85 Architects large), George Tsolakis – of TSOLAKIS ARCHITECTS, and hosted by the Archisearch team.
After we wrap up a 10 min Q&A session, we will deep dive into our second topic of the day:
RECRUITING & EMPLOYMENT RETENTION
-How to recruit according to your office culture
-How to keep people motivated
-How to create leaders committed to stay
-Incentives
-The Importance of Employer Branding
This topic is extremely important for Architects as recruitment is expensive and team retention one of the hardest things to maintain within office operations!
Globally, we see architects struggle with this therefore we bring you the very best experts to unpack this topic and give you first hand advice.
For this panel we welcome:
Aristides Dallas, AD Architects, Sotiris Tsergas, Block722, and Maria Papafigou – Co-founder of OOAK ARCHITECTS
The panel will be hosted by Archisearch and wrapped up with a 10- minute Q&A session.
At exactly 18:00 we welcome to stage Dimitris Manolas
Dimitris is the founder of Precise International and he dedicates himself to all finance related matters especially for the Architecture, Engineering and Design Industry, therefore I am especially excited for this presentation!
His topic will be: FINANCIAL CONTROLLING FOR ARCHITECTS
And some of the things covered:
-How to price your services
-Knowing and Understanding your cost base and how this changes on a monthly basis
-Monitoring of Financial Performance.
-Employee Assessment
Dimitris will be joined by Michael Mavroleon / A&M ARCHITECTS (65 Architects- large) in discussion, as the two experts present different perspectives on the same matter.
Following Dimitris’s and Michaels presentation and Q&A session I will present on Succession Planning for Architecture firms.
This topic is close to my heart and I will speak specifically about:
-How to plan for success with an exit strategy in mind.
-Building Teams for Legacy
-How to grow your practice
-How to promote and sell yourself
After a 3-way Q&A with the Archisearch team we will welcome:
Vassilios Bartzokas or / and Danai Makri Design Ambassador to speak about:
-Public Relations & Communication for Architects
-Creating the right message
-Position yourself for success
-How to differentiate from your competition
The evening will be wrapped up with first day closing remarks and an OPEN AIR NETWORKING EVENT WITH STREET FOOD & WINE.
Day 2 is titled: Practice Operations: into the future
We kickstart the day with an international guest from London: Harry Ibbs- Gensler’s Director of Technology, presenting on the topic of: The evolution of Digital Tools within the Design process.
Harry’s talk is dedicated to technology in Architecture Practice and about adaptation into the best future practice operations.
Harry Ibbs is Gensler Europe Design Technology Director – Design Technology Studio Co-Ceo Hub fostering innovation, research, data-driven design, resilience and design impact with human experience focus. Formerly he was the global head of Design Technology for Zaha Hadid Architects where he Built the BIM & Workflows departments, creating a platform-agnostic environment to foster ArchTech and Design Talent.
What we will learn:
-How Technology can Help you
-How specific Research can position you and differentiate you in the market
-How to enhance your value proposition
After a 10-minute Q&A session hosted by Sara Kolata (me) we will welcome to stage our second international guest: Simone de Gale from Simone de Gale Architects, Belgravia London.
Simone will speak to: Streamlining your client acquisition process
A talk dedicated to client acquisition and sales processes for architecture firms. Leverage Digital Transformation tools for attracting better clients and projects.
Simone’s talk will be followed by a short Q&A.
Right after Simone’s session we will welcome to stage yet another powerful Greek discussion panel, dedicated to Practice Growth.
Stay Small or Grow? What is the best number ? How do you manage Change ? Which are the biggest challenges and architectural practice has to face while growing?
In this panel we will be joined by: Aspasia Taka of TAKA +PARTNERS, and Rigas Potiropoulos of POTIROPOULOS+PARTNERS ARCHITECTURE
The panel will be wrapped up with a 10 min Q&A enabling the audience participation, after which we will move into an event wrap up, hosted by Danai Makri.
We will dedicate this time to event outcomes, and closing remarks.
And, just like the first day speakers, organisers and participants will proceed to a networking session where we all enjoy a glass of wine and establishing new partnerships.
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