Christmas comes to CCIWA with competitive spirit

09 January 2024

In December 2023, the CCIWA offices transformed into a Christmas wonderland, with the resurgence of its annual Festive Desk Decorating Competition themed ‘cheap and cheerful’.

The team-based competition saw people working on their decorations after hours, bringing supplies from home, pooling funds together for purchases and scouring the office for craft materials.

Tracy Al Saidi, Director of People and Culture, says she was “amazed with the transformation”.

“I am completely astonished by the creativity, team spirit and energy that has filled our office,” she says.

“Teams have worked hard even in their own time to create stunning decorations for their team area in the spirit of the season.”

However, Al Saidi says the overall impact on the office environment has been her favourite aspect.

“It’s wonderful to see the conversations, connection, laugher and collaboration that emerged across the teams through this activity,” she says.

Creativity shines bright

Some of the highlights across the teams included:

Finance: a handcrafted, full-size wooden Christmas tree and accompanying decorations.
Workplace Relations: a Christmas tree and fireplace constructed from law books.
Marketing and Content: a village complete with an archway, working train set and full-size Christmas tree.
Membership: a sweets buffet, beautifully crafted fireplace, cookies and milk for Santa, and a large train with lighting and sound effects.
Employee Relations and Advice Centre (ERAC): a recycling and budget-friendly approach led to decorations made from newspaper and various office supplies, a toilet paper Christmas tree and a festive nook.
Policy: an inflatable archway, train set with choo-choo sound effects and a quirky Christmas carol video featuring the team.
International Trade and Investment Centre (ITIC): a scene telling a story of delivering presents over Christmas from a trade perspective.
Construction Services: a welcome sign with festive construction tape and decorated hard hats.
Industry Capability Network (ICN): ICN branding made from baubles and a delicious fruit cake to share.
Women in Non-Traditional Trades: inflatable Santa and reindeer and ‘Santa, stop here!!’ sign.
Regional Albany Office: a site of ‘elf mayhem’ where it appears they got their hands on the hair clippers!
Customer Support and Payments: ‘Christmas is cancelled’ for this team thanks to mischievous elves. Evidence of their chaos included an elf raiding the advent calendar and other elves sleeping off the effects of too much alcohol.
Contracts and Client Engagement: a full-size Christmas tree at reception, and a winter wonderland with a ‘wooden’ fireplace and reindeer.

The judging process

CCIWA’s CEO Chris Rodwell and Receptionist/Office Coordinator Sandra Lim were the competition judges of the Perth CBD office, while Apprenticeship Support Australia – WA Manger Carly Waterfield and Administration Coordinator Louisa Lidington judged the Osborne Park office.

Judging was based on a five-point criteria, with each category worth 20%:

Creativity
Theme
Originality
Construction
Spirit

Lim says she enjoyed seeing everyone’s creative juices flow.

“We had to take judging seriously as many teams put in a lot of effort which didn’t go unnoticed,” she says.

“I enjoyed the festive feel of the office where it felt like stepping into a Christmas avenue; I was just waiting for a reindeer to pop up somewhere.”

And the winners are…

After 45 minutes of deliberating, the judges had a winner for CBD… well, sort of.

The judges awarded two winners for the CBD office: the Membership team and ERAC.

The Osborne Park judges were more decisive, choosing the Women in Non-Traditional Trades team as the winner for the office, and Brodie Storey from Albany was named the regional winner.

Workplace Relations was highly commended with CBD’s second place.

“It was not easy, but we had revised our points a few times, which still landed on the two winners for CBD. We are confident in our choice, Membership and ERAC are both worthy winners,” Lim says.