McConn’s anticipated Green House event took place last Friday as students flocked to McConn in search of fun drinks and entertainment.
Students filled the seating area as McConn baristas served drinks like the “Honey Bee”, “Bring on Spring”, and “Cherry Blossom.” McConn provided a cornhole play area, but many students brought games from home, a customary tradition for Public House events in the past.
Austin Protsman, the general manager of McConn, said, “We’ve always encouraged people to bring their own games to play, so often you will see some people who bring some sort of board game.”
Public House is often McConn’s most popular event.
Protsman said the first year they held Public House, 1,000 students attended, far beyond normal for the campus coffee shop. In subsequent years, that number has dropped to at least 500 students, which is still a large number.
A recent change made to the Public House event involves changing the name of the event to fit the theme of the event.
Protsman said it started last semester when the event took place in the fall. Instead of doing a common Halloween-themed event, they chose to partner with the Student Government Association to bring in many pumpkins to fit more of a harvest theme.
It was from this that Pumpkin House was born, and the start of naming Public House after its theme.
Much effort was put into the training for this event.
Kinsey Krieg, the business development manager at McConn, who worked the event, said, “Specifically at Public House, instead of being baristas, our staff have become waiters, and so they are going to every table instead of making the drinks behind the counter.”
Krieg said that all those who worked the event participated in a training night to prepare for the event, along with additional training leading up to the start.
Their work was displayed as workers moved from table to table, taking orders and delivering a complete drink a few minutes later. A popular drink at the event was the Honey Bee, an orange juice, lemonade, and Sprite combo drizzled with honey.
Some students were not informed that this event was the same as Public House, such as Noelle, a senior who attended the event with a group of her friends.
That did not dissuade her from coming, though, in fact, Noelle said, “I think it builds more character and community, and it just allows for more like a fun event to go to. Instead of just like Public House, it’s more like Green House or Pumpkin House, like you get to dress up and build like a certain kind of community in that area.”
Protsman said that the change in name has proven successful and fulfills students’ search for where and what the new things are.
