DET Organic Kids Get Their First Web Dev Experience

Typical Bring Your Kids to Work day schedule:
9 am:  Breakfast: Juice box and confetti-sprinkled donut
9:15 am Sticky face and fingers clean-up
9:30 am Sugar buzz while coloring on recycled office paper
10:30 am Steep sugar crash accompanied with complaints that all Dad does is "stare at a computer screen all day."

During this year's Bring Your Kids To Work Day, a group of Detroit Organics wanted to make sure that the 70+ visiting kids not only left understanding what mom and dad do at work all day, but that they had an interactive experience of their own. So, they set out to make sure every kid left with a personally designed website.  
 
First, all kids above third grade were asked to complete a profile and participated in a photo session to create an image of themselves for use on their site. Organic technology staff helped kids actually write code for their site to select their background color. Then, using the "Mad Libs" approach, kids worked one-on-one with an Organic writer to create content by filling-in-the-blanks of a pre-created paragraph. Finally, Organic designers helped kids accessorize a Dodge Ram with their choice of color, tires, and hood.
 
Kids below third grade were invited to design their own website with crayons - which was later uploaded as its own URL.
 
The day's activities also included guest speakers from Experience Architecture, Engagement Management, Technology, Quality Assurance and Creative to describe their jobs. Plus, a business card creation workshop was held, courtesy of HR.
 
In the end, Organic kids received a link to their own website and left with a fairly accurate representation of the cool place mom or dad work.  And, best of all, the talent acquisition team took advantage of the visit by scouting for future exceptional Organic hires - for sometime around 2024.
 
- Traci Armstrong