Hello, here is me with some news. From job! Never fear, nothing terribly exciting about contracts and financial reports...
But! Contracts manager, preparing large conference (for beginning of December) has to have some fun. Productive and positive one, of course.
So! One of my additional tasks is to prepare stuff for participants. Educational conference, so they`ll have books, CDs, some promo materials, notepads, pens – that sort of things which require some sort of bag to put all the stuff in. So the last two weeks were devoted to package-thinking... Not a plastic bag as in previous years – we are ecologically responsible people. Not a textile bag – we used it once, it was quite an ecological touch and also involved additional activity for participants creating their own bags with special paint and patterns, but this time it is a more respectable event so not an option. And not a paper bag – because… Because there was a better idea. A real bag, simple and good enough to carry a notebook if necessary – and we are in IT education, so that makes sense.
And! Believe me, I wouldn`t just mention this quite a tedious work of searching the manufacturer and dealing with all sorts of questions from design to budget. Nothing special with that but searching for some extra sense and fun in that quite a routine task...
...The first idea was to avoid huge logos (usually people are not fond of them, to put it politely; nobody enjoyes to be a walking advertisment, let`s face it). So - just the name of the program. Plus! Quotations... And (here is my favorite part) what quotations?! The ones which are free from copyright of course. But - more importantly – the ones which are not widely known, at least not in Russia. (possible reasons are below). So reading something new and unknown should be at least interesting and search provoking, probably. Again, being "in education", the whole idea is not that stupid.
And now, no more intriguing! Perhaps it is already quite obvious what has happened. Knowing my soft spot for France... Well, yes! Written in silver color on black surface, in perfect Russian letters... Something which was originally in French! Well, they are preceded by Seneca who, thanks to the fact of being an ancient Roman can`t start any possible discussion (I mean his name is quite neutral). But I really love two others mentioned after him: Simone Weil and Sacha Guitry. And even if they are all so totally different... Well, they said something meaningful about education. And I was just making worthwhile bags :)
Now retranslated from Russian, what`s on the bags:
- Teaching others, learning ourselves (Seneca).
- The most important part of teaching is teaching what is to know (Simone Weil).
-
Avec tout ce que je sais, on pourrait faire un livre... il est vrai qu'avec tout ce que je ne sais pas, on pourrait faire une bibliothèque (Sacha Guitry). (Hehe, in English:
"With what I know it is possible to make a book... with what I do not know - a library").
Ready for any potential criticism of my choice: (1) good phrases anyway = keep thinking (2) make people interested who are Weil, Guitry etcetera = keep reading. Serving educatinal goals in total.
(Simone Weil and Sacha Guitry are not widely known in Russia - if at all - because both of them were quite unacceptable for Soviet times. Simone was too religious and soul-searching. Sacha was too bourgeois. And now it is also considered not to be the best time to promote their values as well, perhaps for the same reasons).
150 bags are made. Delivered this morning to the office. When locked you can`t see the inner color, just black.
Education for the future!
PS: Pictures made on a cell phone, and not even mine, because my camera successfully sank two months ago. Not just sank but in Geneva. Not simply in Geneva but in a toilette. In a public one. Near the lake to be precise. Amen :)
