Oooooo! Sorry I have been so busy and lazy simultaneously for the last couple of months. 😂 I hope we're still friends. ❤️
I've been sitting on this blog post for ages and maaaaybe I'm a few months late, but I still wanted to a give a shout out to my coworkers for putting together our company's first ever "bazaar" to highlight employees' hobbies, interests, and talents!
In case anybody is interested in doing something similar at their company, my coworkers who headed up the little event reached out to everyone at the company to see who would be interested in showcasing their hobbies and talents. It was a great opportunity to sell goods and services and, in my case, share my passion and get more followers for my blog! They set up an area in the office with tables that they assigned to each of us and then set up some time before the event so that we could set up our little booths. The event was only an hour, which gave everybody else in the office the opportunity to walk around the booths to buy, view, ask questions, etc.
Bonus, we also had a clothing swap at the bazaar! Everybody in the office had the opportunity to bring in all the clothes they no longer use. We had one person responsible for the clothing swap who hung and laid everything out so everybody could come and grab what they liked. It's a great way to re/up-cycle! The remaining clothes were donated. I thought it was a great idea because we all have that pile of clothes in our closet that we aren't wearing anymore.
I learned so much about my coworkers and how talented they all are! One coworker makes his own beautiful pottery at home. He even sold a few pieces while at the bazaar. You can see some of his work here: https://www.instagram.com/terryilse/. Another coworker created a set of nail polish inspired by our company and named the different colors accordingly. Another coworker shared his passion for cycling and the book that he wrote about it. Yet another coworker actually takes photographs of inspirational or just plain awesome graffiti art all around the city (including in places like bathrooms) and then she'll print them on fabric that she embroiders to make the graffiti art pop. They end up being perfect art pieces to hang up on any wall. One coworker in particular has been collecting vintage items for as long as she can remember and her booth was quite full with tons of unique items for sale including some from other countries.
As for my booth, I had a small portion of my collection on display, a few Funko Pops for sale, a bunch of free goodies (from my time at comic conventions and Free Comic Book Day), and an iPad to display my Instagram page to encourage people to follow me! I got a few new follows. 😉🙌
I was pretty proud of my little booth. Very nerdy. In retrospect, I wish I took more photos especially of my coworkers' booths, but the hour went by so quickly and, before I knew it, everybody was cleaning up! I hope they make the event a bit longer next time.
Regardless, I hope the photos I did share give you a good idea of what our little work event looked like. Maybe this will inspire you to kick off something similar at your company. It's an amazing way to learn more about your coworkers who you may never see or talk to outside of the office. You never know what talents and passions your coworkers are hiding.
