MOCKTAIL MAKING
WORKSHOP
The idea for the Mocktail Making Workshop emerged during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. A fellow leader and I, Olivia Coutts, conceived the workshop as a means to engage and connect with other students during the pandemic, providing them with an enjoyable and interactive activity that could be undertaken from the comfort of their own homes. We found and adapted recipes with basic ingredients that created colourful concoctions, and ended up with a rainbow themed selection of mocktails.
Red – Shirley Temple
Orange – Orange Sunrise
Yellow – Passionfruit Mocktail
Green – Mojito Mocktail
Blue – Blue Lagoon
Indigo – Magic Butterfly
Violet – Lavender Lemonade
To support the workshop we designed a user-friendly website that hosted the mocktail recipes and method instructions (https://occoutts7.wixsite.com/mocktailmakingnight). The first workshop took place via a Zoom session in September 2021. Our initial excitement was met with disappointment due to low attendance, as only two participants attended out of the 15 who had registered. Despite the small turnout we persevered and delivered the workshop with enthusiasm, engaging our participants and ensuring they had a positive experience.
Although deterred by the initial setback, we were invited by the Deakin University Student Association (DUSA) to run the workshop again during the 2022 T2 O'Week. By this time we were out of lockdowns, and so the T2 O’Week presented an opportunity to conduct an in-person session on the Deakin Burwood campus. I was apprehensive to try again, but we were hopeful that a face-to-face session would improve attendance which was proven correct as approximately 20 students attended. As Olivia and I took turns making the mocktails, the leader not making them would walk around and assist students with the process. This was a great opportunity to speak with students individually, and for them to ask questions not just about the mocktails but about University life in general.
DUSA requested that we conduct the workshop session at both the Burwood and Geelong Deakin University campuses during the T1 O'Week in 2023. This time we opted for an open-door approach, allowing students to attend without formal registration, and the response exceeded our expectations. In Geelong around 40 students attended, leading to a spontaneous rearrangement of the space to accommodate the crowd. Although the engagement was strong, the additional students (to what we had expected) presented unexpected challenges. We had to improvise, pulling tables and chairs from another area to create more seats and dividing up the ingredients to create more work stations. We were unprepared to demonstrate the mocktails in front of so many students, and the number of people created a lot of noise and movement within the space. We adapted by running through the process more slowly than in the previous session, spoke louder, and repeated ourselves so that everyone could hear and see what we were doing. The energy and enthusiasm of the participants pushed us to successfully conduct the session, and it was really fun engaging with not just first years (as we had expected given it was an O’Week activity) but also other year levels who had read about the program and wanted to attend.
A similar situation followed at the Burwood campus, where we ran the workshop again on the same day. We had somewhere between 90-100 students attend, which was really overwhelming. There wasn't enough space for everyone to make the mocktails, and there were too many people in the space to suggest that people could stand and watch. We had roughly 25 mocktail making stations, so we decided to organise the group to give everyone the opportunity to make at least one mocktail. A silver lining to not everyone being able to make every mocktail was students having the chance to speak the people around them while they waited, which encouraged students to find people studying the same course or possibly even undertaking the same units. This was true for at least one student, who spoke to me after the event and told me that she had attended the workshop alone hoping to connect with other students. The opportunity to engage with others in a social setting allowed her to meet new people, which she was hopeful would lead to the formation of new friendships and enhance her university experience.
The next Mocktail Making Workshop we ran was in April 2023 for Pride Week at Deakin University. The rainbow coloured mocktails were perfectly on theme, and we again ran the workshop in both Geelong and Burwood. It was great to connect with a different group of students, as those that attended were mostly from the LGBTIQA+ community. This offered a valuable opportunity to engage with diverse perspectives and foster inclusivity, creating an intimate environment where attendees felt comfortable sharing their stories and experiences. DUSA asked Olivia and I to run the workshop again in T2 O'Week, but unfortunately I wasn't able to attend as I was in Malaysia completing an internship. The workshop's achievements extended beyond my direct involvement, as Olivia led the event during T2 O'Week in my absence. Before I left I helped Olivia choose new mocktails for a 'winter wonderland' theme, and was pleased to hear afterwards that the workshop was once again a success.
One of the most impactful aspects of the workshop was the personal connections we formed with the participants. Walking around to assist during the mocktail making process allowed for meaningful conversations, creating a sense of community and shared experience. These interactions extended beyond the event, fostering connections between students who might have otherwise remained strangers and also connections between students and myself, some of whom I have remained in contact with. The creation and implementation of the Mocktail Making Workshop showcased the qualities required of a leader to make a positive impact, from the initial conception during lockdown to the various adaptations and improvements. The journey embodied our commitment to creating a positive environment through creativity, adaptability, and a genuine desire to connect, and had a widespread impact on the Deakin community with diverse participants engaging and connecting through the experience. It was also a testament to the ability to plan, organise, and evaluate a program while empowering others to participate.
