Swappers stop is an event organized by the Business Management and Economics team. This event was based on the concept of a thrift store, where students were requested to donate certain items ranging from clothes to accessories and more, which then can be purchased by other students based on the points they receive from donating stuff in the event. My responsibility in this particular event was to handle the decorations sector of the event and organize the event.
LO 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
This experience helped me understand the innovation side of me and helped me understand the importance of decorations for an event, and pushed me to think of decorations related to the theme of a thrift store and sustainability, for which we created a chandelier out of waste bottles. This experience helped me identify my own strength to think creatively to finalize the decorations which would go on the day of the event. This event made me more aware of I somewhere lacking behind in communicating decoration ideas with the team, which led to differences in opinions.
LO 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
We had a huge team to work with, so this experience was already fairly difficult. And what became more difficult was deciding on the decorations, first within the team, then requesting approval from higher authorities as well, managing the resources required for the event, altering the decorations if the resources aren’t available, and repeating the process. Even though it was difficult to complete this project, I was able to maintain my calmness and collaborate with others to find solutions to any issues that might occur. Along with that, the experience helped me develop my communication and creative thinking skills as both were crucial to the process.
LO 3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
It was challenging to start the process and maintain organization throughout, but we succeeded thanks to effective communication and the fact that we had kept track of every activity performed in a Spreadsheet, which allowed us to stay on track and motivated to complete the work. It took a lot of time and effort to organize the decorations because there were several protocols that had to be followed. As a result, I now believe that, if I consider the mistakes made during this event, initiating and arranging future events or experiences will be simpler.
LO 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
It was quite difficult to commit to this event because of the numerous standards that had to be followed and the sustainability theme limits, such as the utilization of resources, but the entire team persisted and came up with the best possible decor. Additionally, communication with such a large team is never easy because one has to respect everyone’s perspectives and come to a decision. This took longer than we anticipated, but we all stuck around until the end and carried out a fantastic event. Another obstacle was the time we had to create our decorations, which was far less than we had requested. This caused stress and end-time changes in the decorations.
LO 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Working with a huge team is never easy for anyone but has its own benefits because each team member has a difference of opinion, they all have different skills, which led to creative and innovative ideas to generate and together we all planned appropriate decorations and executed it well as per the sustainable thrift store theme.
Overall, being a part of this event though was a rollercoaster ride, it had its ups and downs. We all showed commitment to this event, understood our capabilities and skills, and made the best use of our skills to execute this event successfully.
