Freshbrew Lecture Series

A student event series run by the Faculty of Architecture Student Union at the University of Manitoba. A student-driven lecture series consisting of coffee, heckling, and free more elucidation.

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In an effort to sustain student morale while keeping students interested in between studio sessions and busy workdays, the Freshbrew Lecture Series was born. The FLS was designed to give students a break from listening to academic presentations and instead provide them with opportunities to listen to creative, out-there presentations from their peers.

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Students that volunteered to be a presenter couldn't just present on any topic, they had to choose from a short list of diverse and bizarre topics. Everything ranging from being able to talk and present about velcro to Nicholas Cage.. You could speak about it in any way you wanted, but you needed to speak about it for 30 minutes.

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At the end of the Freshbrew Lecture Series which ran during the academic year, and with their being approx 2 lectures a month, students were too vote at the end of the year for their favourite. Favourite meaning different things to different people. The most creative, what made you laugh the most which one was the most bizarre, the list went on.

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The weirder, the better. Heckling and commentary from the audience was encouraged. I really wanted to give my presentation by sitting in an actual bathtub on stage but that proved to be more challenging than I had hoped for. I would have even loved to fill it up with bubbles and have a bath. A bubbles themed presentation would have to do - therefor I handed out bubble gum, and literal bubble containers and encouraged the audiences to pop and bubble during the lecture. Rubber duckies were given out to folks who participated in my inquiries.

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I first decided to enter into the FLS as a personal challenge because I didn't think I could do it. I ended up winning 1st place. Talk about a turn of events.