Electromechanics proudly presents SMEKitchen

I have already written about the ongoing campaign of my research group – Electromechanics at Aalto University – to gain more visibility and hopefully students too. For instance, see two of our videos with discussion here and here, or check out my random musings about social media marketing here. However, our latest exploit was something completely different  – we took part in the Restaurant day. Enter SMEKitchen!

Whatexactlywasitkitchen?

You know, Aalto University is located in Finland, and in Finland we obviously speak mostly Finnish. And electromechanics in Finnish is sähkömekaniikka, abbreviated SMEK.

Hence, SMEKitchen.

You know, electromechanics and food. What could be better?

Here’s a brief rundown of what we did and how it felt.

Ad campaign

For obvious reasons, we chose to organize the event on our campus, rather than in the center of Helsinki like most pop-up restaurants do. Thus, we couldn’t really rely on enough people finding our spot through chance and random passing-by only. Some ads were necessary.

Well, some people referred to out ads as spam, but never mind them. It was all with good taste and withing reasonable amounts. Ignorant, fools.

We focused our efforts on Facebook, setting up an, well, event for the event. Or should it be event for the event. Ah nevermind, that train of thought definitely left, and left me on the station.

That event page we also advertised on a total of three open Facebook groups for the campus itself, and for some electrical engineering student unions and guilds. One post for each group, so definitely not spam, right? Right?!

Anyways, we also printed some combined menu-ads and distributed them around our school building.

But that was it. Not a single euro spent.

Food preparation

Our research group is quite multi-cultural to say the least. We have people from all across the Europe, and South and South-East Asia alike. So, our menu just had to reflect that.On the other hand, we couldn’t realistically serve everything – we simply didn’t have the facilities to keep hot foods hot and cold ones cold. I mean, food-poisoning people is not very good publicity, is it?

In the end, we settled for some traditional Indian, Nepalese, and Finnish dishes, along with some burgers and coke. Everybody loves burgers and coke. And besides, they are practically a national dish in every country by now, along with pizza.

A few lucky ones of us were assigned a responsibility for one dish, and a couple of more-lucky souls to assist them. I, always being the benevolent dictator, assigned myself the Finnish pulla duty. Quite self-evident, really.

The big day

We started at noon on the big Saturday.

…

Well, I had intended for us to start at noon. But we really got everything ready to sell at around 13:00 or so. Not very surprising, on the other hand. There’s always some friction when doing something for the first time. (Don’t think of that. Just. Don’t.)

Well, matters not. We had very few customer in the first hour anyway.

However, that definitely changed once we got the grill hot and the burgers on it. That’s when the students-slash-customers started coming at a rate we could barely handle.

As a hindsight, that’s no wonder at all. I mean just look at them! LOOK!

I get hungry even now, just by the sight of them.

Needless to say, I had to buy one myself. My only regret is not buying several.

Debrief, and the future of SMEKitchen

I could say we were more than successful, selling out in two hours once we finally got properly going. More importantly, we met lots of people, among them some of our soon-to-be summer employees, enjoyed the surprisingly warm Finnish spring, and had lots of fun. See the pics on our page if you don’t believe.

The only downside was I managed to sun-burn my ears. Nordic genetics, yay.

And I can say we will definitely do this again! Nothing has been set yet, but I do have a coarse outline of a plan. I’m thinking of convincing my colleagues to invest some of our profits to a new grill, and then take part in some of the big campus events next Autumn. As to the remaining money…well, it’s going to be something awesome, because that’s what we do!

That’s all for now. We have an intensive course about permanent magnets starting next week, so I might be a bit busy then. If, for some reason, it is not next week by the time you are reading this, and you’d like to take part, you can enroll here. Just follow the link for instructions.

Electromechanics proudly presents SMEKitchen