When my manager asked me to coordinate the baby shower planning for one of my teammates I thought I’d hit the project lotto at work :-) (If only this had taken the place of something else on the actual list. HA!) Sitting in the world headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company, the first thing that came to mind was going with what we know and embracing a Coca-Cola themed event!!
Since things at the office don’t happen if they aren’t on the outlook calendar, I only printed a couple of these for the baby book. For the invitees we simply attached the image to the calendar invitation.
I had two co-planners and we divvied up the things that needed to be brought in the day of. Now, keep in mind that we were stuck in your typical 1990 conference room with poor lighting, no windows, things like projectors nearly bolted to the table, and cloth rolling chairs. This was an exercise in making do with what you have. A wrapping paper table cover was a much better option than an actual table cloth given the odd sized table proportions. I picked up balloons the night before (but only half of them made it to the next morning), made a small flower arrangement for the mommy-to-be to take home afterwards, and set up the essentials in two vintage Coke crates.
Events like this around Coke are usually drop in and people mostly stand, chat, enjoy a treat and then head off to their next meeting. Coke floats and cake were the perfect solution and are a rare treat, even on North Avenue!
Instead of a coordinated game, we opted for a simple guessing game. People always seem to enjoy these and you should have seen some of the guesses coming in for the name.
I wanted to share these simple ideas because I know that planning little things like this at work happen frequently between new babies, weddings, retirements and even send-offs to new jobs. It was such a fun little hour break in the typical work day.
For the gift, we collected money ahead of time and were able to give her a generous gift card. Baby O has now safely arrived and mommy is home enjoying him for a couple more months!!
DIXIE DELIGHTS DELIVERED
[madmimi id=246857]
