Cool Things Club
What is Cool Things Club?
Cool Things Club is a show-and-tell gathering where Bowdoin staff - some of the coolest and most interesting people around - share about things they love, or topics they're knowledgeable about.
Ultimately, it's a chance to connect with fellow folks from departments, offices, and divisions around campus. We hope everyone leaves the gathering having met someone new who shares a common interest, or learns something new about a longtime colleague - and most importantly, we hope that the connections continue beyond Cool Things Club itself!
Get involved
If you're interested in presenting at a future Cool Things Club meeting, please fill out the submission form below. We ask that people keep their presentations to five minutes or less, bring some sort of visual aid (photos, powerpoint, physical object, etc.), and choose a work-appropriate topic.
If presenting isn't your speed, you're more than welcome to join as an audience member! If you'd like to be on the email list to hear about upcoming meetings, please email events@bowdoin.edu.
Present at Cool Things Club
How do we select who shares?
All Bowdoin staff (faculty members included) are welcome to submit.
The intention of Cool Things Club is to build community across campus. To that end, we will try to select a lineup that represents a broad range of people from different roles around campus. We will also try to pick a lineup with a variety of different things to share.Unfortunately, we only have time for 8 people to share at each event. If you are not selected, don't fear! We encourage you to submit again next round, and will prioritize those who have submitted multiple times.
What do presenters talk about?
Just about anything! It could be a hobby, an object that holds special meaning, a current passion, a favorite meal, a weirdly specific interest, etc. etc. etc. Our philosophy is that if it's something the presenter is excited to talk about, it'll be interesting to the audience.
Topics covered at previous meetings include:
- Taylor Swift
- Fiber arts
- Dog training
- Meeple
- Postcard collecting
- Gold prospecting
- Nancy Drew video games
- Wool spinning
- Bulgarian folk dance
- Dinosaurs
- A quest to see the sun rise every morning for a year
- The movie version of People We Meet on Vacation
- Self-published mini comics
- Food science
- Buhurt
- Rabbits
- Roller derby
- Seaglass collecting
- Bat houses