founder and CEO Nora Abousteit knows all about the special satisfaction that comes from making something with your own two hands.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e crafting with all these different materials and using your fine motor skills, it sets something off in your brain,鈥� says Abousteit. 鈥淚t makes people feel a lot better.鈥�
This simple idea has been the guiding principle of CraftJam, Abousteit鈥檚 New York-based crafting workshop company. In just three short years, CraftJam has shared the joy of crafting with over 20,000 students through public ticketed classes and corporate events, each taught by a passionate, highly trained 鈥淛amMaster.鈥澨�
In our fast-paced technological world, Abousteit and her team found there was a real hunger for hands-on crafting 鈥� and so the business grew month after month.听
Then the COVID-19 outbreak emerged, making in-person classes impossible for the time being. To continue spreading the joy of crafting, CraftJam would need to innovate and embrace the popular web-conferencing platform Zoom in order to launch online classes, or 鈥淲ebJams.鈥澨�
Bringing the class experience into homes
Once Abousteit and her team decided to teach online crafting classes, it was time to figure out how to bring the authentic workshop experience into people鈥檚 homes. After all, a successful crafting project requires quality materials, which people might not have lying around in their homes.
鈥淲e don’t want people to have to research materials, spend a fortune ordering them from different sites, and then accumulating those shipping costs,鈥� says Abousteit. So CraftJam makes it easy for participants by sending a curated collection of hand-picked supplies.
Shipping kits isn鈥檛 without its challenges. Abousteit has had to be creative in terms of figuring out postage, buying the right amount of materials from wholesalers, and ensuring the kits ship to students on time. But like many businesses right now, CraftJam is learning on the fly and quickly optimising the process.听
Using a platform that offers engagement and intimacy
Once students have their kits, the crafting can begin. Abousteit and her team are using 91制片厂鈥檚 Zoom integration to bring these classes to life 鈥� and they鈥檝e put a lot of thought into creating live-streams that feel intimate and engaging.听
鈥淒uring the class, we encourage students to share their video so other students can see them. We want people to feel like they鈥檙e getting to know each other,鈥� says Abousteit. So students can use Zoom鈥檚 gallery view to see each other, then pin the JamMaster鈥檚 screen so that they can follow their instructions.听
To encourage engagement, CraftJam invites all the students as 鈥減anelists鈥� so they can easily ask questions. And for Q&As at the end of class, they use Zoom鈥檚 chat feature, giving students a variety of ways to participate.
91制片厂鈥檚 integration with Zoom has made the entire process smoother. 鈥淚t’s hard to imagine doing this without 91制片厂,鈥� says Abousteit. Not only does 91制片厂 give them a clear list of the attendees joining the Zoom live-stream, but the 91制片厂 tickets also give CraftJam a way to communicate information to attendees.
鈥淗aving the additional information that we can put into the ticket is 鈥� especially now 鈥� super important because we need to make sure people are totally prepared technically,鈥� says Abousteit. For instance, if a WebJam requires students to use a sewing pattern, a downloadable PDF of that pattern can be included with the ticket, so everything crafters need is in one place.
Embracing conspicuous production听
The feedback for CraftJam鈥檚 online classes has been overwhelmingly positive. It鈥檚 clear that even in these difficult times people are eager to create. This enthusiasm fits with a mindset Abousteit calls 鈥渃onspicuous production.鈥澨�
While we might be used to the idea of conspicuous consumption, where buying things brings us happiness, Abousteit is seeing a shift. Now satisfaction comes from producing things. And during the time of COVID-19, this idea takes on even more power.听
鈥淲e鈥檙e learning that you don鈥檛 need much to be happy,鈥� says Abousteit. 鈥淪ometimes all you need are other people and a meaningful project that makes you feel better.”
