Wow! FIRST Global Athens
- Nov 12, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 9
190 Nations, 4 Venues, and One Unforgettable Event
November 12, 2024
Even though it ended a month ago, the FIRST Global event was an amazing show for all attendees. We were able to provide a world-class, once-in-a-lifetime experience that literally changed students’ lives. 190 countries were in attendance, reflecting the possibility of the world.
With 4 venues in total and a dozen hotels, this truly was a citywide experience. The main venue, “Peace and Friendship Stadium,” may be more known in professional basketball circles as the house that Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA Champion and MVP, came from. It has been used for the Olympics and other major Greek sporting and concert events for many years.
You can feel the history in this venue as we spent more than a week making it our own prior to any attendees arriving!
We then went on to the original home of the modern-day Olympics, built in 1896, the Pan Athenaic Stadium for our opening ceremonies, which featured the teams marching proudly with their nation’s flag in their native attire, into the beautiful Athens evening. The event closed with a performance by the Black-Eyed Peas, which gave and took energy with 20,000 in attendance!
We also had an amazing evening at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, which should be on any tourist’s travel agenda when visiting Athens. We had the top, which is called the lighthouse, and it had views of the Aegean Sea and every inch of Athens, with the Parthenon in the distance. The teams were challenged by being given a piece of a puzzle upon arrival and then having to build a group puzzle of almost 200 pieces! I can still feel the positivity and fun generated by that beautiful evening.
In between, the students showcased their STEM prowess through their robots and had a great time! This event couldn’t have been done without the partnership with our amazing clients from FIRST Global- Vince, Stephanie, Khadijah, Jeff, Alvaro, Fareena, Tony, and Caitlin, as well as the great FIRST Global volunteers. Our local event contractors were key to our success. Sissi, Kleopatra, and the great team at AFEA Congress, Peter and his great team at Vision | Turn-key solutions for Exhibit and Event needs, Renos from Sound and Visual – Papathanasiou Konstantinos S.A., and our friends at Home – Yard. We also had some amazing production support with Jacob, Marc, and Josh from JK Productions. Way to go, all! We were also lucky to be blessed with the local planning committee from Mellon Lab, who helped us navigate, then re-navigate! Great team!
The impressions we were able to leave on these amazing technology leaders of tomorrow are felt by me too. This was definitely one of those event experiences that made me confirm what I already know- That I chose the right industry to be in, and I am lucky to do it with the most amazing people, my own team included! Mindy Skripsky and Kevin Kowalczyk assumed major leadership roles in their respective areas, making sure that all went well, big and small, which in this case…was hard! Thank you, Mindy and Kevin!!
Here is a highlight link to this amazing experience:
We remain busy this fall and winter at Show Ready Events….more to follow soon!