Two and a half months of organisation, forty enthusiastic volunteers and 2kg of bicarbonate of soda = a successful RSC stand at the Cambridge Science Festival!
In addition to our rotation work, the RSC graduates also have their own “grad projects”. Since I was in the Education team, I was appointed project manager for the task of organising the RSC stand at the
Cambridge Science Festival this year. This is the first time that I have managed people formally and it was definitely a daunting prospect at first!
Working with people you know well is a nice gentle introduction to project management – it means that you can make mistakes and learn from them in a friendly environment! It was also nice to have the freedom to make the stand our own, decide on the hands-on activities and work with the Design team to produce posters, hand outs and flyers to attract people to come along.
I would say that the most challenging part was making sure that we had thought of everything that needed to be organised – from booking enough t-shirts for the volunteers to designing stickers to record the number of people who got involved. I also learnt that it is impossible to plan for all eventualities – sometimes you just have to improvise!
When the day came, it was fantastic to see all of our hard work come together and everyone having a great time. It is also really satisfying to have been involved in something which has had so much positive feedback.
Amy Styring is a Graduate working on the Royal Society of Chemistry's Graduate Scheme. To see if there are any current vacancies go to RSC Latest Vacancies or subscribe to 'RSC: Latest Vacancies' by Email
