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The Weekend Neos Kosmos : 30 June 2018
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18 THE WEEKEND NEOS KOSMOS | SATURDAY 30 JUNE 2018 DIGITAL.NEOSKOSMOS.COM Katerina Grant on performing on life’s A sunset soiree that garnered the biggest social media reach in the history of Tiffany & Co. Australia. A stately private home, rechristened The House of Love, where 150 guests toasted summer’s first night. A driveway edged with sharp-suited waiters, who’d later serve waffles and mini Waldorf salads between love-life fortune tellings. A spattering of picnic blankets in Tiffany blue; a cascading heart balloon sculpture reminiscent of Jeff Koons. To take home: a monogrammed Love Memento, personalised from within a giant Tiffany & Co. box. big stage Neos Kosmos speaks to Katerina Grant about a journey that has taken her from the stage performing for Opera Australia to being behind the scenes, as director of award-winning events company Kat & Co. Dita Von Teese for Cointreau (2010). CON STAMOCOSTAS Network 10 Survivor launch. Hermès’ Carnets D’equateur Soiree (2016). alking into the offices of Kat & Co's in Sydney, it's hard not to notice a large lifelike blue and purple gorilla standing in the middle of Katerina Grant's (nee Pitsikas) events company. The office where Neos Kosmos waits to speak to Katerina is full of eyecatching art, including a piece of graffitiinspired work of four astronauts that, while not quite a Banksy, could well be. It signifies that this award-winning events company Katerina founded in 2012 and whose clients include luxury houses Fendi, Hermès, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Tiffany & Co offers big and bold ideas. The Australian Event Awards certainly believe so; in 2015 they honoured Kat & Co's Prix de Marie Claire Fashion & Beauty Awards as the Best in Design and named the agency Australian Event Company of the Year. While she values the recognition and accolades, Grant is more focused on Kat & Co's next project. "It was really great to be recognised in such a forum amongst industry W colleagues," says the Greek Australian. "But I always think it's your work that is important and that's what gives you more business. We're only as good as our last event, so we have to keep delivering." Before her career in events planning, Katerina spent more time on the stage rather than working behind the scenes. During her childhood she performed in Porgy and Bess and The Pearlfishers for Opera Australia. She was also involved in ceremonial presentations that included dancing for Queen Elizabeth II, as well as singing the Greek national anthem at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Katerina believes having this creative background helped her gain a foothold in her current career. "I still love the arts and culture," she says. "When it really comes down to it, you're performing on a stage; all of the elements from the music, the lighting and the ideas behind it is to make a connection with the audience that is in front of you and that is really similar to what I'm now doing." While singing and dancing was always a part of her life, at some stage she realised that having a profession in that area was not going to get her very far. It was then that she switched to studying a Bachelor of Arts and Commerce degree, with the plan to get into "some form of business, but not knowing what that was". While she was unsure of where her future lay, that entrepreneurial spirit was being fostered by her late grandfather Peter Nick Manettas AM, who, after migrating to Australia as a 13-year-old orphan, went on to run a successful seafood business. Years later Manettas was made a member of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the community, as president of the Australian Crohn’s and Colitis Association. So it's understandable when Katerina says her pappou is one of her major inspirations. "He started the family business at the fish markets in Sydney," she says. "In addition to that, he did a lot of charity work and contributed greatly to the Greek community. He was a huge driving force in my life growing up. He was a huge influence on me, just having somebody like that who came to Australia, who achieved what he
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