Mega Project Blog#2
And with that, we’ve come to the end of our Amal adventure. What an exhilarating ride! 😌
It seems like only yesterday that we received the acceptance email from Amal, welcoming me to the Amal family. We had no idea that we would end up with a family here. Still remember the first session, we all were so dazed and confused, but thanks to our remarkable facilitators ( Mam Huda Khan and Sir Zeeshan Ghazi) for their extraordinary support and firm belief in us all.
And it wasn’t Amal Academy alone — it was all of us. The whole batch 190 😍
Linking with the fellows and addressing our reflections was absolutely essential for us to relate to and understand each other on a deeper level. We all were in desperate need of it. To be honest, we have no clue how sad we all will be, saying goodbye to all amazing fellows.
Amal Academy also gave us a chance to develop entrepreneurial skills by assigning us with mega projects. We came up with the idea of Pak Artistry, an online selling platform for art and crafts, where we could empower artists and artisans and aim to connect the unconnected artists to the local and international market by not only providing them with a marketplace but also marketing them effectively.
Project status:
With all that our mega project also comes in its final stages. We have been able to provide our platform to nearly 20 people, and also had the opportunity to conduct an online exhibition which had an overwhelming response.
So far, we have been able to create a website for Pak Artistry project and been able to have an online exhibition where artists were able to portray their art to general public. Our immediate plans are to boost up our social media profiles in order to increase our customer traffic and to get more recognized.
The tasks were divided among all team members to ensure division of labor and not to over-burden any team member. Division of tasks also ensured qualitative and quantitative results.
What were the Challenges:
· We had planned to work on another project, but after discussing feasibility with our facilitators, had to abandon it in order to pursue another idea i.e., Pak Artistry.
· Because of the pandemic, capital investment and fund collection for megaprojects were extremely low. We had to put our own money into the project rather than collecting funds from others.
· Another challenge was team building, as one person cannot do everything. Starting with trust and developing strong team collaboration was also a major task.
· Another thing was technical knowledge. We wanted to start an online store but had no clue where to begin. But we all learned through trial and error.
· Finding customers is crucial part of any business and being established online, we had a really hard time connecting with the right people but Thank God, our stars matched and we got connected with some really nice people.
At first we were quite reluctant in getting a website for our business project, but then we decided to go for it anyway 😃
We believe that a website is going to help us with our goals and to reach out to more people. Also it will provide them a transparent platform where they can move around and see all the artwork at one place.
We are hoping to get approached by more people in the near future.
How many people were you able to impact?
We have reached a lot of people through social media (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook) and attracted as many as we could. As a result, our efforts attracted the people and their work got the attention of our platform which is in progress for all of them to show, sell and buy their handicrafts.
We made a google form in which we got responses of approximately 20 people and the total number of artwork received is 64. We also arranged an online Exhibition Event on Facebook in which all of their artwork/paintings were portrayed, so they could get exposure and be able to get in touch with potential buyers for selling purposes later on and yeah, we will be progressing to attract more people day and night by campaigns and advertising our page/website on social media.
We can all learn and improve our situations, that’s true. But sometimes life throws us curve balls that we don’t exactly know how to get ourselves out of. Just know, that even small tweaks are proof that you’re trying.
Were you able to meet goals?
Our Project goals:
1- Strengthen and build relationships with different artists.
2- Build a following through engaging and insightful pages and website.
3- Provide a platform to people so they can showcase art in an attractive and stylish way.
4- To invite opportunities to exhibit art quilts in new venues.
5- Promote local artwork and handicrafts.
All the above mentioned are our project goals and we are glad that we have been able to achieve them in beginner level. We have built relationship with different artists and handicraft makers with the help of arranging online exhibition, we have been reached out by 20 artists with their work and showcased their work to audience through online exhibition and also created bond with these people.
Using these heartwarming responses we took the initiative of developing the website for our business project, using that website artists and handicraft makers can easily create and list his/her products and services and interested buyer can conveniently buy product from them. Our next goal to focus on promotion of local handicraft maker and artists so, we are doing both paid and unpaid promotion using different digital marketing strategies.
Sustainability strategies:
We have a few sustainability strategies up our sleeves 😆
As we have already launched our website which is providing professional, safe and reliable environment ( all in one ) for both sellers and buyers, we are further planning to arrange an art exhibition just after the lockdown restrictions are lifted up. We are also planning to shift on paid promotions on social media and website boosting to increase our engagement and posts reach so that we can generate the interest of maximum people in the products we are advertising.
Moreover an open exhibition will prove to be really essential for our business and it will help in to grow and nurture it further.
To make most of our project we incorporated different business strategies such as Identifying our key performance indicators, Make specific goals for more effectiveness, to ensure we get more followers we have decided to boost our pages and would so that soon. Share valuable and informative content and engaging with audience is also part of our social media strategy. Organizing online exhibition on Facebook page. Planning our daily calendar and using technology to get most of our time.
We are proud of what we have achieved in this short period of time and we have always believed in delivering more than expected.
We believe art can be termed as the highest form of “hope”
The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it — Michelangelo
Team members:
Ayesha Siddiqa, Ridda Khan, Wasim Ahmed, Hamza Amjad , Abdul Basit, Huma Gul, Nazim Saeed, Shoaib Asghar, and Kainat Kiran.
