Week 2:
City Living

July 7, 2018

Projects

This week I continued working on projects from last week. This included figuring out how to format the Marketplace vendor profiles: what information is relevant and worth sharing with customers, and what information do we already have on the client which we can use? I began creating a survey to send to all of the Ventures clients to gather information. I also began researching what information I needed to start building a social media playbook, as I’ve never made one before.  While doing this, I researched Ventures’ past social media posts which allowed me to learn a lot about them; not only as an organization but also about their clients and their businesses. Reading about these individuals and their businesses has made me realize that there are so many people out there with great ideas, all they need is some support and guidance to become successful business owners!

The Marketplace

I’ve also been spending a bit of time this week at the Ventures Marketplace (the physical store which Ventures uses an incubation stage for clients to sell their goods at Pike Place Market). Through this, I have been able to get to know the vendors who sell there by becoming familiar with their products. While visiting the store, so many visitors echoed sentiments of praise for the diversity of the store’s goods and the unique feel which the store has. Ventures Marketplace is the only non-profit store in Pike Place Market and the people who come through the store are typically tourists visiting Seattle – often on a stop during a cruise, or there to visit one of the oldest Farmers Markets in the United States.  I am able to meet people from all across the country and even the world during my time at the store – it’s a really neat experience. And being in Pike Place Market is always a treat – the famous spectacle of fish being thrown from one person to another at one of the fish market stalls in the market is directly above where I get to work – how cool is that?

Seattle Impressions

I have also been exploring my new surroundings as much as possible. Last weekend I went camping two hours outside of Seattle, and this weekend I went to the Seattle Street Food Festival.  It’s exhilarating to be living in a city – there’s always something to do, and when I want to relax, sitting on my balcony after work with a view of the Seattle skyline and Mt. Rainier canvassing the backdrop is my go-to.

I also learned about some of the challenges of city living this week, including: trying to walk back from the grocery store with all of my heavy groceries in hand (including a 12 can pack of La Croix) and getting on the wrong bus and not realizing until I was way beyond anywhere I was familiar with. Learning to live in a city has been an exciting and challenging time, but I’m looking forward to exploring more in the coming weeks. I’m hoping to take advantage of the remarkable public transportation here and go out more — and hopefully not get on the wrong bus again!