Last summer we launched an idea that just seemed like fun at the time. We put an office lunch date on the monthly calendar with the simple plan of giving our staff a forum for sharing any subject the employee finds interesting, cutting edge, new, or exciting. We call these brown bag lunches the Square.
The generator of the idea was a typical conversation between two co-workers. One of us had seen the amazing Youtube video of music composer JacobTV’s “The Body of Your Dreams” as performed by Andrew Russo. It was fantastic and so unbelievably “new”! The second person was already familiar with JacobTV’s work and agreed it was an experience that our co-workers might enjoy.
So with the mission of simply sharing whatever we’ve encountered that interests us, no matter what the field, we’ve hit on an interoffice gold mine. A typical agenda has included varying subjects such as Pencil Sculptures by Jennifer Maestre, Google Reader, a co-worker’s Cottage Garden (laid out in Revit of course), a boatload of Maritime Websites, a Robotic Guitar, Blu-ray technology, and Georgia Tech’s Buzz RPA style. Attendees have brought projects to share including little paintings incorporating recycled business cards and fabulous bows created with strips of recycled magazine ads.
We should have photographed the scene when several people tested “The End of the Chip Clip” method of securing an open potato chip bag. That session was tasty, instructive, green and fun.
Occasionally we’ve even veered toward topics that have a direct relationship to business at RPA. Twitter for Business, Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Ratio, and Saturday Night Live’s take on fiscal responsibility, “Don’t Buy Stuff”, have all hit the lunch screen.
In the Square spirit of sharing what’s on our minds we have begun highlighting some of our random but fascinating topics in our Facebook Fan Page “RPA at the Square” and Twitter feed at “RPAatTheSquare”. So join us at the Square – and by the way we still need volunteers for Sports Management and Macroeconomics!