Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.
As we move on to yet another Rotaract year relying on virtual platforms to continue with the brunt of the club activities, our first ever project may have started out just ordinary. However, the endless creative ideas that came dashing in a variety of forms fused together to bring out the most extraordinary first project for the year 2021-22, Creative Fusion.
Creative Fusion was organized by the Professional Development Avenue headed by our skilled professionals Sadushi and Susara, along with some of the other very newly appointed board of directors. It comprised of 5 workshops on video editing, public image & its importance, graphic designing, blogging & content writing and finally media coverage & digital presence. The main initiative of this project was to bring out into the limelight, the hidden talents of the new and already present members of the club.
As per the norm for any new project, a WhatsApp group was created with the relevant avenue directors along with the executive board on the 18th of May and after a quick brainstorming session through zoom, a basic timeline was developed. Hiruni and Sajani wasted no time in coming up with a PR plan while the IT peeps Asala, Ganeshiny, Malith and Yasas fell into the predominant process of creating a logo for the project. While this process was under work, all the relevant directors began planning the content and the activities to include in their respective workshops. After some rescheduling due to clashes with the conferences and training programs the newbie directors were undertaking, the next meeting for the project was held on the 23rd where each avenue gave an update on what they are going to cover in each workshop and how there are going to conduct competitions after each session.
Several logos, comments and heart and fire emojis later, we finally had a winning logo. It didn’t end there for our IT pros though as they were soon put to work in making the promotional videos, and posts while the Co-editors, Chalani, Sayagi and Thiruni worked on the relevant captions. Trial runs were held for each workshop and with a few tweaks here and there, it was time to take the show on the road.
The first workshop in line was the one on Video Editing conducted by our Premium Pro guru, Malith. The attendees were provided with the relevant software along with clear instructions as to how to download and install them onto their devices beforehand so that they can use this software at the workshop without any trouble. Following its immense success came the PR workshop one week later. The PR crew brought in the big guns with none other than our former vice president, Sithira Ayya, who enlightened and inspired the new members with his immeasurable knowledge on public image and building a brand.
This was followed by the Graphic designing workshop conducted by our top-drawer talents Asala and Ganeshiny who not only shared their exceptional skills and expertise but also inspired a lot of the attendees that it was never too late to start learning something new! The content writing and blogging workshop came with a blast the next week where the new members were introduced to the official RACFOSUOC blog and were not only enlightened regarding content writing but also given tips on how to come up with the perfect caption. The final workshop of the project was held on digital presence, where our experts Buwaneka and Ovin shared their knowledge on media coverage and provided the members with some basic skills in photography and live streaming along with a session for photo-editing on Adobe Lightroom as well. Although the respective avenue directors were given the upper hand in conducting these workshops, none of it would’ve been possible without the constant guidance and support from Sadushi and Susara along with Yasas, Bimsara, Dewmini, Oshadi and Pramudi. Every single one of them gave their fullest to the project both behind the scenes and during the workshops, attending each and everyone and actively taking part in all the activities and tasks.
Creative Fusion was held through the course of 5 weeks, each week focusing on a single avenue. The registered members were added to a WhatsApp group before each workshop, where they were engaged in some fun and interactive sessions to break the ice. These entertaining sessions continued onto the workshops as well, which made sure to crack everyone up! Each workshop concluded with a call to apply for the teams along with a competition where they were given an opportunity to show off their newly learned skills and put their understanding to the test and prove their capability. The submissions obtained from these competitions were later used in the process of selecting team members for the IT, DP, Editors and PR teams for the first quarter.
All the workshops although were mainly focused on sharing knowledge, didn’t fail to give the new members a little extra something as well. The senior members shared wisdom from their own experiences, the mistakes they made and how they learned from them, all along with an insight into what it will be like working together in future projects. The new members were encouraged to find their true potential, inspired to join the teams and participate in future projects through each and every single one of these workshops.
Overall Creative Fusion was an extremely successful one that paved the way for everyone to learn something new while having loads of fun. It provided an opportunity for the new members of the club to learn about the different activities they can do, improve their skills in several different avenues, learn new things and build fellowship, all the while developing the public image of the club and increasing the quality of the members creating a skilled and talented member base that is sure to take the club to greater heights.
By Rtr. Sayagi Asogan
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