Kaimahi from across the Mt Albert campus left their offices last week to enjoy the sunshine, fresh air and connect over delicious food during two Block Parties organised by the Health and Wellbeing team in front of Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae and Mataaho.
But it wasn’t all about the food. Kaimahi put their thinking caps on for a game of social bingo, a fun ice-breaker activity which brought out the competitive spirit in some staff as they moved around to meet as many colleagues as possible to be the first to complete their bingo sheets!
Sustainability and Wellbeing Manager, Maja Zidov says the inspiration for the social bingo game came from last year’s ‘Your Whakaaro’ survey which identified ‘connection’ as one of the core themes.
“We wanted something that focused on cross-departmental mingling and would be short and sweet. People came between meetings or brought most of their team with them. It was great to see our senior leadership team making the time for this and encouraging people to come along,” said Maja.
Block parties invite people to leave their four walls behind and spend time with their neighbours face-to-face.
“It’s about celebrating what makes Unitec so unique – our diverse whānau,” Maja explains, adding that it also showed how good kaimahi were at multi-tasking. “It was interesting to see – paper and pen in one hand, cup and plate in the other. I was impressed we didn’t have any spills. But then again – we are quite good at juggling things.”
For those who missed out the first two Block Parties, the third and final one is set to be hosted at Unitec’s Waitākere Campus on Tuesday, 18 February on Level 5, Building 500 in the Staff Room at 2pm.