e-nsights february-march 2013

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Spring is here…Easter is coming…together with the two weeks’ break!

Exams are coming as well… Take advantage of this break and revise the material, finish with your assign-ments… and of course, try to have some rest and spend time with your family and friends.

Spring is here!

Over 250 alumni joined the 1st Alumni Reunion that the International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, CITY College organised in Skopje on Friday, 1st March 2013 at ‘Arabesque lounge bar’.

The event presented our alumni - most of them already successful members of the corporate world - with the opportunity to meet with each other and with representa-tives from the International Faculty and enjoy a social evening full of fond memo-

1st Alumni Reunion in Skopje

The 3rd Hotel and Hospitality Management Conference

organised by the Business Administration & Economics Department (BAED) of the International Faculty CITY Col-lege took place with great success at the main campus of the Faculty in Thessaloniki on 21 March 2013. The confer-ence, dedicated to hotel and hospitality industry featured a broad range of topics such as the economic crisis, ser-vice quality and human resource management..

3rd Hotel & Hospitality Management Conference

EDITORIAL MORE on page 2

LATEST NEWS MORE on page 3

LATEST NEWS MORE on page 4

2 Editorial

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: FEBRUARY-MARCH 2013 -ISSUE 33

nsights E- Monthly e-Newsletter

by the Business Administration and Economics Department

3

“Alumni Reconnect” Lecture

in New Product Manage-

ment

1st Alumni Reunion in

Skopje

4

5

3rd Hotel & Hospitality Man-

agement Conference

Field trip to DETROP for

Postgraduate Students

5

6

7

BAED Postgraduate Stu-

dents visit NOESIS museum

Successful Business Semi-

nar on Leadership & Bucha-

rest

Seminar on Google contest

participation by CMC

Seminar on Green Supply

Chains in Belgrade

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8

8 CMC organized Seminar on

E-commerce & Social Media

9 High School students from

Bulgaria complete training

course at the International

Faculty

BAED students learn ice sculpt-

ing during EU programme in

Dresden

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10 Follow us on Facebook !

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Spring is here…Easter is coming…together with the two weeks’ break!

Exams are coming as well

Dear students,

Take advantage of this break and revise the material, finish with your assignments…and of course try to have some rest and spend time with your family and friends.

It is better to focus NOW on your studies than during your summer holidays. So, take a deep breath and don’t loose your direction. The semester has not finished yet!

On behalf of your lecturers and the administration, we are wishing you a nice and safe break!

Mrs. Aggeliki Papakonstantinou Academic Director of BAED Undergraduate Studies

Spring is here!

Newsletter Identity:

Published monthly by the Business Ad-

ministration and Economics Department,

CITY College.

Editor: Maria Zarkinou

Contributors: Chris Liassidis, Dimitrios

Nikolaidis, Aggeliki Papakonstantinou,

Olga Flora

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2013—ISSUE 33

Editorial

3 FEBRUARY - MARCH 2013—ISSUE 33

3rd Hotel & Hospitality Management Conference

The 3rd Hotel and Hospitality Management Conference organised by the Business Administration and Economics

Department (BAED) of the International Faculty CITY College took place with great success at the main campus of the Faculty in Thessaloniki on 21 March 2013. The conference, dedicated to hotel and hospitality industry featured a broad range of topics such as the economic crisis, service quality and human resource management.

The event featured a number of interesting presentations by professionals from the Industry of hospitality who gave their input on today’s business practice, advances and issues. Guest lecturers included Ms. Maria Arapoglou, Sales & Marketing Manager, Premier Luxury Resort, Mr. Konstantin Antonov, Food & Beverage manager, Kempinski Hotel Sofia, Mr. Giovanni Serafini, Human Resources Manager, Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki, Dr Konstantinos Alexandris, Assistant Professor, Aristotle University and Dr . Dimitrios Nikolaidis, Head of our Business Administration and Eco-nomic Department. The speakers, all successful executives and academics delivered interesting presentations on updated topics, using real-life cases from the hotel and hospitality industry.

Dr. Dimitrios Nikolaidis, Head of BAED commented “The Hotel and Hospitality Management Conference aims to be-come a tradition, since this is the 3rd consecutive year we are organising it. Our objective is to disseminate new practices and new directions in the Hotel and Hospitality industry and to help companies realize the developments and the opportunities arising in this specific sector. Companies need to realize that they must focus on service devel-opment; first to differentiate through ensuring a unique experience for the customer and second to deliver in an ex-clusive way so that the customer will be satisfied. And only by doing this we could achieve customer loyalty.” The Academic Director of our postgraduate programmes in our partner institute in Romania (SNSPA), Ms Malina Ciocea also attended the event.

The conference, jointly organised by Young Entrepreneurs of Thessaloniki, CITY Marketing Club, Interbalkan Insti-tute for Educational and Economic Development and Marketing Club of Technological Institute of Thessaloniki, ex-ceeded all expectations. It attracted approximately 150 participants and received substantial media coverage.

4 FEBRUARY –MARCH 2013—ISSUE 33

1st Alumni Reunion in Skopje

Over 250 alumni joined the 1st Alumni Reunion that the International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, CITY College organised in Skopje on Friday, 1st March 2013 at ‘Arabesque lounge bar’.

The event presented our alumni - most of them already successful members of the corporate world - with the op-portunity to meet with each other and with representatives from the International Faculty and enjoy a social eve-ning full of fond memories and good times. The get together turned out to be a nice and warm reunion with stu-dents sharing their experiences from their student life, noting how much their studies have helped them in their professional life.

Mr. Yiannis Ververidis, Principal of the Faculty, Mr. George Efstathiadis, Director of the Executive MBA pro-gramme, Dr Dimitrios Nikolaidis, Head of BAED Department, Mr. Chris Liassides, Academic Director of BAED Postgraduate Programmes, Ms. Maria Matiaki, Director of Student & Alumni Affairs Department, Dr. George Eleft-herakis, Senior Lecturer at the Computer Science Department and Ms. Heleni Malliadou, Head Course Administra-tor of the Executive MBA travelled to Skopje to meet with our graduates.

“We are very happy to organise this 1st Alumni Reunion in Skopje for all graduates of the University of Sheffield International Faculty. We hope that with this opportunity our graduates in Skopje will reunite and form a vibrant alumni community able to communicate, network and create opportunities for future collaboration. In cooperation with the Managers Academy, our representative office in the country, we aspire to organise many interesting events and activities in the future”- said Mr Yannis Ververidis, Principal of the International Faculty.

On the occasion of the reunion our graduates spoke about their studies at the University of Sheffield and, accord-ing to the general feedback, what they valued most is that the learning process does not offer ready-made solu-tions, but motivates future managers and professionals to think about creating new opportunities, accept chal-lenges and support the entrepreneurial spirit.

Talking about her studies at the International Faculty, one of our alumni, Donka Markovska, Assistant Director of Department at NLB Tutunska Bank said “The Executive MBA studies at the University of Sheffield in Thessaloniki represent one extremely valuable experience for me. After ten years of professional experience in the banking business, I accepted the challenge to finish a comprehensive programme designed for senior executives that from today's point of view for me, it has added great value and brought freshness to my professional development”.

Ms. Marija Nikovska, General Manager of the ‘Managers Academy’, that serves as the Faculty’s representative office in the country, expressed her content about the organisation of the reunion and said: I believe that the Alumni Reunion will become a tradition offering graduates and current students a way to strengthen their relation-ship and collaboration, to exchange practical ideas and experiences and as such to enable the development of a strong business network in the country”.

The International Faculty, CITY College is always happy to welcome its former students back and create opportu-nities for alumni to get together and spent some time networking and sharing their beautiful memories from their student life.

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Field trip to DETROP for Postgraduate Students

On Saturday 9th March 2013 a group of twenty postgraduate stu-dents from the Business Administration and Economic Depart-ment (BAED) made a field trip to DETROP, the 22nd International Exhibition of Food and Beverage, organized by HELEXPO in Thes-saloniki International Exhibition Center.

The field trip was an additional activity of the “Innovation and New product Development” module delivered by Dr. Dimitrios Niko-laidis , Head of BAED. During the visit the students had the opportu-nity to learn more about this International Exhibition, stroll around the various stands and even get to taste some of the products. The stu-dents were genuinely interested in the exhibition and that was the starting point for a vivid discussion among them and the representa-tive of DETROP.

The students enjoyed this field trip experience and had the opportu-nity to get first-hand information about one of the top events in the food and beverage industry. The International Faculty is always happy to give its students the opportunity to visit events like that and take a glimpse on real life business environments.

BAED Postgraduate students visit NOESIS Museum

On Wednesday 20th March 2013 a group of postgradu-ate students from the Business Administration and Economic Department (BAED) made a field trip to NO-ESIS, the Science Center and Technology Museum in Thessaloniki.

The visit took place as additional activity of the “Festivals and Events Management” module. Accompanied by the module leader, Dr Ana Cruz , the students met Dr. Tanya Kiriakidou, project manager for radio Awards at Noesis who shared insights into the organization of the Radio Awards in Greece. Radio Awards is a contest or-ganized by Noesis aiming at honouring the best radio station and presenter in Greece and Cyprus. Students contributed creative ideas that are considered to be im-plemented in next year's Awards. They also enjoyed the interactive exhibitions, the planetarium and a very thrill-ing ride in the simulator!

The students enjoyed this field trip experience and had the opportunity to get first-hand information about the organization of the radio awards. The International Fac-ulty is always happy to give its students the opportunity to visit organizations and take a glimpse on real life busi-ness environments.

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Successful Business Seminar on Leadership in Bucharest

A successful business seminar under the title “A pathway to successful leadership: The SERVE leadership pro-gramme” was organized by the Business Administration and Economics Department (BAED) in Bucharest (Hilton Hotel) on 13th March 2013. The seminar was delivered in the context of the “Business Seminar Series” for the aca-demic year 2013-2014 and it was presented by four invited speakers from Chick Fil A Inc.

The speakers introduced the SERVE model to the participants by elaborating on the following basic elements which form the basis of successful leadership:

• Seeing and shaping the future. See an opportunity and pursue it aggressively.

• Engaging and developing others. Encourage participation and instill confidence.

• Reinventing continuously. Think creatively.

• Valuing results and relationships. Success is about both of these things.

• Embodying the values. True leadership is about building and maintaining trust

More than 150 Sheffield alumni and business executives and professionals attended the event. Participants had the opportunity to discuss with the Chick Fil A team concepts such as the new culture on serving, respect towards cus-tomers and the new model of innovation and creativity in building services. As Mr Sorin Curca, one of the partici-pants commented “the seminar was a revelation, and the team of Chick Fil A inspired all attendees by explaining how the S.E.R.V.E. concept works”.

The Chick Fil A team also delivered the seminar to our postgraduate students attending the MA in Marketing, Adver-tising & Public Relations in Bucharest.

Chick Fil A Inc. is the second largest quick service chicken restaurant chain in the US, with more than 1430 locations in 38 states and annual sales of more than 2,9 billion dollars. One of their projects is to promote the SERVE Leader-ship Model which is based on the book “The Secret” by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller.

It is the second time for the International Faculty to host the Chick Fil A leadership seminar since last year they deliv-ered this seminar at the Faculty’s main campus in Thessaloniki with great success.


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‘Alumni Reconnect’ Lecture on New Product Management Our alumna, Ms. Anka Gorgiev, found herself in the classroom again, but this time delivering a lecture to current students of the International Faculty on “Beating the odds in New product Man-agement: Developing Successful”. The event took place in the frame of ‘Alumni Reconnect’ project and was organised by the Business Administration and Economics Department (BAED) for the postgraduate students of the MA in Marketing, Advertising & Public Relations within the “Innovation and New Product Develop-ment” module of the programme. The lecture took place on 9th March 2013 at Leontos Sofou Building.

Anka lives in Belgrade and is former Brand Manager in Daily Edi-tions. During her lively presentation students had the opportunity to discuss with her about new product management and learn more about the process of developing successful products.

Anka Gorgiev, graduate of the “MA in Marketing, Advertising and Public Relation” programme, was invited to give this presentation, participating this way in the “Alumni Reconnect project” through which the International Faculty, CITY College wishes to bring back all its successful alumni, giving them the opportunity to share their experiences and success story and turn them into in-spiration for our current students.


Seminar on Green Supply Chains in Belgrade

A successful business seminar under the title “Development of Green Supply Chains. Trends, Barriers and Benefits. Introduction to the Supply Chain Environmental Analysis Tool (SCEnAT)” was organised in Bel-grade, by the International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, CITY College. The seminar was presented by Mr. Fotis Misopoulos, Senior Lecturer at the Business Administration and Economics Department, of the International Faculty, CITY College on 22 March 2013 at the premises of Zira Hotel, Belgrade.

During the presentation, the reduction of carbon emissions, one of the most contemporary issues nowadays for busi-nesses, consumers, and governments was discussed extensively. Mr. Misopoulos presented to the audience, SCe-Nat which is a revolutionary tool, enabling companies to adopt a balanced, green and efficient supply chain ap-proach. The participants had the chance to understand how this tool, by using the most advanced hybrid methodol-ogy on the market, maps an organisation’s supply chain, calculates the carbon hotspots and then suggests ways to reduce their impact.

During the event, participants had a chance to arrange for a free consultation on assessing the carbon emissions of specific production processes within their organisations. The seminar took place in the frame of the Executive MBA programme delivered in Belgrade.

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Seminar on Google contest participation by CMC

CITY’s Marketing Club (CMC) organized on the 15th March 2013, a seminar on “Preparing for a Successful en-trance at Google online marketing challenge”.

Our students, Menelaos Moustakas and Christy Gofa, participants in last year’s contest delivered a very interest-ing presentation on how to participate in this international competition and shared their experience. The seminar aimed at presenting all the steps for a successful entrance at the competition as well as key success factors.

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is an exciting opportunity for students to experience and create online marketing campaigns using Google AdWords and Google+. Over 50,000 students and professors from almost 100 countries have participated in the past 5 years.

The seminar was a great opportunity, even for students that were not interested in entering the competition, be-cause it presented key facts of how to build successful Google Ad campaigns. Thus it provided participants with ways to enhance their practical skills for their future career.

CMC organized Seminar on E-commerce and Social Media

The students of CITY’s Marketing Club (CMC) organ-ized on the 29

th of March 2013, a seminar on “E-

commerce and Social Media” delivered by Mrs Aida Nika, Managing Director at A.I.D.A.

Participants had the opportunity to learn more about how social media can aid at promoting a business. Mrs. Nika elaborated on the most popular social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin) presenting at the same time a “dictionary” for the terms used at those social media. The importance of content was discussed as well as a comparison between personal and business profiles.

The event was well attended and it provided students with an interesting insight in the area of social com-merce and social media tools. A vivid discussion regard-ing the social media and their role in today’s business environment followed the presentation.


High school students from Bulgaria complete training course at the International Faculty

A group of 18 high school students from Banker School, Bulgaria, successfully attended a three-week training course, visiting the University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College, in Thessaloniki from 29th January to 17th February 2013. The course was offered in the framework of Leonardo Da Vinci training programme.

The theme of the course was the “Development of marketing managerial skills for effective product/market place-ment”. Mr. Chris Liassides, Director of the Postgraduate programmes at BAED Department, who led the course, organized a unique programme which entailed lectures, case studies, a marketing game and a company visit.

The programme was based on both theory and practice and proved a unique opportunity for the students to get acquainted with a top class marketing teaching at the International Faculty The students’ teacher Ms. Antoaneta Gogoucheva said “The organization of students’ practical training was impeccable- we had a thorough schedule which was followed and executed as planned with support for everything required.”

At the end of the course, the students were divided into groups and prepared a marketing plan for a product. Then they presented their work to three lecturers who made remarkable comments on the excellent quality of the stu-dents’ work. A student who participated in the project, Antonio Nikolaev Kotsev, pointed out “the importance of get-ting to know the practice and mechanisms of marketing games”.

Students loved the training programme and had a wonderful time at the University of Sheffield International Faculty in Thessaloniki. “It was a once in a lifetime experience” said Radoslav Slavchev Dishev, while Nikola Ilianov Neykov added that “this experience was an opportunity to get a glimpse on a students’ life, turning the visit into an important ‘lesson’ for the future”. Another student, Kristina Veselinova Geneva, said “It is an excellent university with great lecturers that gave us the opportunity to work on real-life projects”.

In the frame of this training programme students also had the opportunity to visit ISOMAT, and learn about the strat-egy and marketing efforts the company is practicing. The company visit was completed by a tour in the production and warehousing facilities. Also, Dr Dimitris Nikolaidis, Head of BAED, delivered to the students an interesting presentation entitled “Developing a Competitive Advantage through Service Optimisation”.


BAED students learn ice sculpting during EU programme in Dresden

Via the official page of BAED on Facebook, current students,

alumni, staff and many others have the opportunity to get in-

formed about seminars and events, keep pace with all the latest

developments taking place at the department, network with aca-

demics and business people, stay in touch with lecturers and

former classmates.

Join our new page today and become part of our

growing family!

www.facebook.com/www.citybaed.gr

Follow Us on Facebook!

Our BAED students George Mamourelis (1st year Bachelor’s student), Vachos Xantinidis (1st year Bachelor’s stu-dent) and our post graduate student George Gkevrekis had a unique experience representing Greece in an EU Youth Exchange Programme entitled “ICE WONDERS II”. The programme took place during early February (2 - 17 December 2012) in Dresden (Saxon Region, Germany) and used ice sculpture as a means of creative expression but also cultural interaction.

During this 8-day programme, students had the chance to interact with young people from other countries with a keen interest in fine arts and more specifically, in ice sculpture, gaining at the same time a useful intercultural ex-perience. The programme involved workshops based on non-formal learning, directed by professional and quali-fied leaders. These workshops aimed at introducing participants to the world of ice sculpture and enhance intercul-tural communication and interaction through handicraft. At the end of the project, an exhibition took place, in a cen-tral square of Dresden so that the local community had the opportunity to enjoy the outcome of the “ICE WON-DERS II” youth exchange programme.

Our students returned thrilled from Dresden and agreed that the Youth Exchange Programme was a once in a life-time experience. Apart from the workshops, free time activities (team building games, cultural evenings, group meetings, interactive games etc.) were keeping the students enthusiastic about the project.

e-nsights february-march 2013

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