After the holiday week, I officially started at my new company.
My first assignment was to plan a joint winter market spanning three blocks in the Old Town Quarter.
The budget was limited, and most of the participating business owners were ordinary people who had run their small shops for more than a decade.
I spent 2 weeks visiting them one by one, then replaced the original plan for a single stage show with a coordinated program across the shops.
The shoe repair shop taught children to sew key pouches. The used bookstore opened an after-hours exchange corner. The pasta shop cleaned the window into its kitchen so customers could watch fresh pasta being made by hand.
At the pitch meeting, my supervisor asked only three questions.
Was the budget sufficient? Had the business owners ag
