WHAT?

Informal events with serving of coffee, presentation of a special topic, and time for questions and discussion.

WHY?

An easy way to help people meet like-minded, to learn more about chemicals together and share ideas and experiences in an informal way.

HOW?

The topic of the day could be presented in many ways – see some ideas below. The presentation is meant to inspire conversation. Serving coffee or other refreshments reinforces an including and informal atmosphere.

Mini-events: a playground for experimenting

Chemically clever coffee breakes or Cafés might come in different sizes and ambition levels, depending on the budget and other resources. They could be public, or they could be used as a way to connect with or activate the members in your own organisation. Either way, the point is both to offer something interesting, and to create an atmosphere encouraging conversation.

These are some of the coffee breaks Ålands Natur & Miljö arranged:

- In April, the CLEANING CUPBOARD was the topic of the month. We invited a woman running her own environmentally friendly cleaning business, to tell do’s and don’ts. A competition was held on Facebook and at the event: ”Best eco cleaning tip wins eco cleaning at home.”    

- In May the WARDROBE was the topic, focusing on the surprising amounts of different chemicals in clothes. We watched a film about toxic fashion together (free from Youtube: Really low budget!) and discussed it afterwards.

- In September the KITCHEN was in focus: both the food and all the containers we use for cooking and storing it. In addition to a little Powerpoint-presentation, we had prepared a special quiz: a basket with slips of paper, each slip presenting a table of contents picked from a real food package at the super market. Anybody could pick a slip and read it aloud, and the rest of the audience got to guess what food it described. This was not always easy, which was both funny and seriously eye-opening.