PSHS University Fair: Some Comments

I feel that the booth for the fair was successful, as we were able to attract a sufficient number of students to have run out of the stickers provided to signify that a student had visited and learned from the exhibit. On the minus side, the logistics of moving to and from the venue were somewhat complicated, unfortunately, by the offer of the college to provide vehicles for moving equipment, as these vehicles and equipment were available at inconvenient times (although the bulk of the movement and the setting up was done at 4AM on Friday) or they had less space than could be used (the truck that left 5PM on Thursday only had room for the formica boards that served as posting boards and dividers). It was a good gesture from the college, but some more consideration should be made for the next fair, which may be next semester.

Either way, faculty and students of the department both provided for the movement, the setting up, and the packing up of the booth for the fair. There was much more activity at the site in the morning, and I was there to eye the other exhibits. From first blush, it seems that the La Salle exhibits had the most preparation; however, one must note that both La Salle and Mapua have good marketing, and it showed. I still believe that it was a good idea to have students manning the booths, because it both gave a down-to-earth and an approachable set-up, as well as removing the veneer of marketing flash to show solid substance underneath, supported by the "customers" instead of pushed by the "vendors".

The venue lacked ventilation. Otherwise, with half a room, there was not much to complain about in terms of hosting.

The science colleges throughout had the sparsest exhibits, and thus had the least traffic (noting the exception being the Ateneo Math Department, which had puzzles to play with). The best draws for the exhibits were all the interactive ones - ones with robots, ones with ice cream, ones with games.

Talking to Sir Denoga about lunch, when the torrent of students became trickles, I heard that the UP booths were being criticized for booth attendants ignoring the students. I know that this is not the case for our booth, but I hope that more attention is given to the attendees. (I feel a little guilty, as most of the time I felt my job was to entertain whoever was keeping an eye on the booth.)

One fair down - two more to go.