Global Odyssey 5.0 was an amazing experience where different stalls for food, fun and photobooth are kept by grade 11 students by merging business and economics knowledge. I was the leader of the photobooth team alongside one more friend in this event and also had a booth with my team members on the day of the event. It helped me to showcase and refine my leadership, creativity and organization skills. Our primary aim was to make both the photobooth as beautiful and creative as possible so that the visitors can take a memorable photo with them.

LO 2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken,developing new skills in the process

This was a new, exciting and challenging experience. One challenge that I faced was coordinating with the other volunteers where sometimes they weren’t putting much effort and were not replying to the messages so coordinating with them was difficult. Additionally, thinking about different booth ideas that people like to have as a background is also a challenging task. We searched ideas on google, pinterests and amazon but ended up buying stuff from the shop as we had less time and the order won’t come so soon. On the day of the event, we has 2 polaroid cameras and 1 printer but when the event started and turned the camera on, it had some technical difficulty and it was not working which was one of the major problems as we were not able to keep up the demand because of one camera not working of the volunteer. After an hour or so passed by, we figured out that the cells were dead and we quickly went to the school store and replaced them and finally it worked. Facing all these challenges, I learned on how each and everything should be done by managing the time and priorly so that we don’t face any difficulties during the event. 

LO 3. Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Effective planning was required priorly including brainstorming the theme, photo booth ideas, number of films required to keep up the demand, organize props and setting prices such that the volunteers also make profits out of it. As a leader, I had to regularly update what has been already done till now and the planning for future events, make sure that volunteers are not facing any difficulties, they are getting the resources they need and are well planned with everything beforehand. We also didn’t have enough time to get along and discuss as pull outs were not possible and meeting with volunteers during free slots was clashing and hence I had to coordinate with them through chats which was also a difficult task. This experience taught me problem solving skills, time management and how important commitments were. 

LO 4. Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

Commitments were required throughout the process as a leader. Messaging and taking updates from every volunteer, planning about the decoration of the photobooth and spending time on the same really needed dedication and commitment. Additionally, on the day of the event we had to be there the whole time as there was a lot of demand for clicking pictures and I didn’t even have time to visit other stalls because always there used to be visitors for photobooth. As a leader, I had to be there all the time even if it was tiring as it was a 4-5 hours event (as volunteers did go to other stalls in between) and perseverance was really needed for this. 

LO 5. Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively

Collaboration was an essential skill required to be a leader. Coordinating with each volunteer, teacher and another leader was quite a difficult task as mentioned before. Additionally, coming up with one idea was also a difficult task. Each and every member had different ideas for photobooth and coming on the same page was a challenge. We had to consider each and everyone’s idea’s and after some discussion we combined different ideas and came up with the final one. The collaboration here was the key to the success of the photobooth.

In conclusion, despite many challenges faced throughout the process, the global odyssey was a successful, fun and enjoyable experience I had. Leading the photobooth team taught me a lot about the importance of  collaboration, creativity, leadership and teamwork.