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Who are we
Simply put, we are the first Panamanian firm focused on event organization. The Planners Firm is made up of experienced professionals who believe in putting together unique experiences for each of our clients. We are committed to excellence in ideas, creativity, technical knowledge, logistics, and responsibility. We seek to add unique value to the development, staging, and execution of every event we undertake.
Judy Amado
Expert in Weddings and Special Events
in Panama and Latin America.
Judy Amado is one of the most prominent Wedding and Special Events Experts in Panama and Latin America. Born in Panama, she founded the first organization dedicated to events in the capital 28 years ago. To cap a gleaming career in service, she was given the post of General Manager at the prestigious American Trade Hotel. For 4 years she has excelled at this position, managing all aspects of the Casco Antiguo boutique establishment and, through her efforts, elevating it above most, if not all event and lodging spaces in the country, all the while revolutionizing the Panamanian hotel industry in the process. She has fostered a rich professional life in the hotel and event business for forty decades.
On April 2019, she chooses to once more reinvent herself along two women prominent in the world of event planning: Vivian Viggiano and Cristina Alemán. All 3 expert planners found THE PLANNERS FIRM INC. with the sole purpose of creating a nexus of opportunity in both the local and international event-planning markets, focusing all members and their efforts in one place.
Judy’s professional life begins as a hotelier at the Hilton hotel chain in the year 1977. After having formed part of the Launch Team for the first Marriot hotel in Panama, she acquires a degree om Hotel Management at Klessheim Hotel Fachschule, a prestigious academy located in Salzburg, Austria. Once her studies are concluded, she returns to form part of the Management Team at Marriott Panama where, over the course of the next 10 years, she holds several diverse posts, most notably Banquet Maitre’d and Director of Security, both of which have never been held by a woman prior to her tenure.
These days she is active in all areas of event planning, focusing equally on local and destination events in all parts of the region. In recent years, she has become convinced of the power of social media and, at 63 years of age, takes great pride in her digital outreach and her numerous followers. Social responsibility forms a crucial part of her life. In order to satiate a philanthropic soul, she constantly lends her services to NGO’s, donating her knowledge and gifting a minimum of one free event a year for charity purposes. She also prioritizes teaching and sharing knowledge through mentorships, one-on-one internships, talks, and conferences. Judy believes that everything can be achieved if it is attempted with passion, and that the most important part of being successful is seeing through the client’s eyes.
“I’m a woman with the soul of a millennial, trapped in the body of a Baby Boomer.”
-Judy Amado
Cristina Alemán
Dedicated to the world of hospitality and events
for over 20 years.
Cristina Alemán Porras starts her career in Hotel Management in the year 1996. She obtains her Tourist and Hotel Business Administration degree in the year 1996 at Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencias y Tecnologías (ULACIT). As she wraps up her first round of studies, she decides to travel to Barcelona, Spain to further her already extensive education. While in Europe, she obtains a Master’s Degree in Hotel Management at Hotel Escuela EUHT, Sant Pol de Mar. Later in her life, she adds to her growing list of accolades with a Postgraduate Degree in Higher Learning.
Dedicated to the world of hotel management and event planning for the last 20 years, she has a history of working for prestigious hotel chains in the capital. Her posts include the Caesar’s Park Hotel, the Marriott Hotel, and the Courtyard Marriot, all located in Panama, where she worked within the Lodging Division as well as the Banquet Department. She taught at the Faculty of Hotel Management at Universidad Interamericana de Panamá from 2005 to 2011.
In the year 2008, she decides to strike out as an independent business owner and founds her first enterprise: an event planning venture aptly titled Cristina Aleman Events, where she focuses on organizing social and corporate projects.
After becoming a household name, she co-founds The Planners Firm as a Senior Planner and Partner. The firm specializes in events and is born of the creative union between her and two industry colleagues: Judy Amado and Vivian Viggiano.
Always a renaissance woman, Cristina compliments her daily work as an event organizer with the management of the famous restaurant Azafrán, a venture she leads hand in hand with her husband Chef Alvaro Perrino.
“I love to live my life in a certain way; it’s a setting I like to call ‘Be Relaxed.’ And it goes further than me simply being relaxed. It encompasses everything. Mainly, it’s about successfully connecting with my clients on a positive wavelength. They deserve to enter a stress-free atmosphere when they knock on our door.”
-Cristina Alemán
Vivian Viggiano
She has been organizing social events for several years
aimed at the Wedding and Events Guild.
Vivian’s professional trajectory begins 16 years ago. During 6 of them, she develops as a professional and holds various positions at the most important airline in the region. That company becomes a sort of preparatory school for her, opening doors into the business and corporate sector. This new direction forward is due, in no small part, to her experiences in the Passenger Service, Client Satisfaction, and Human Resources areas, as well as in the organization of social outreach programs.
In 2005 she launches her jewelry line to market, debuting as an entrepreneur. That same year, she organizes her first major event: the presentation of her own ELEMENTOS collection. By the time 2008 rolls around, she creates White Group, a Social, Corporate, and Public Relations Event Planning Organization. 8 years later, the business is running smoothly, organizing a large number of weddings a year, and gaining the trust of several important brands along the way. These include Panamá Pacífico, MEDTRONIC, Salvatore Ferragamo, OMEGA, BULOVA, Towerbank, Copa Airlines, Redbull, Farmacias Arrocha, BALLY, Salvatore Ferragamo, SEIKO, Dichter & Neira, The Service of the First Lady, MEDUCA, Agencias Motta, Franklin Panamá, among others. Vivian also excels as the PR Manager and Liaison in Panama for the renowned international brand MAC Cosmetics and consults at the International Congress of the Spanish Language in Panama for several months.
Vivian has developed, within her business, a program for socially constructive events, wherein she helps foundations, non-governmental entities, and special cases, any of which might require events sponsored by her company in order to successfully fundraise. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the Oir es Vivir Foundation, has recently started a project called Cuna de Cartón Panama to reach out to Panamanian children, and has, for years, organized social events for the Wedding and Events Guild with the purpose of bringing goal-oriented, education-driven industry professionals together.
She is a presenter on Save the Date’s third season, where she will have the opportunity to guide Panamanian brides to their dream wedding. This year, she comes into her own as a businesswoman, heading up various entrepreneurial projects, including Baby White, focused on maternity and baby products, and Dobe Amuleto, an accessory store. She is also a partner at Fun Spot, a place created for the development and entertainment of young children.
Last, but definitely not least, she partners up with 2 of the greatest Panamanian professionals, Judy Amado de Méndez and Cristina Alemán, and together they create an unprecedented concept in Panama: The Planners Firm, an organization focused on bringing all aspects of event planning and management to the forefront.
Vivian is a Social Communicator and a Radio and TV host. She is always focused on learning and staying current, a drive that has led her to several certificates in: Event Organization, Wedding Planning, Customer Service, Crisis Management, Public Relations, Speech, Effective Communication, Exceptional Service, Emotional Intelligence, Digital Marketing, among others.