MIB Spirit - Made in Bangladesh sells a variety of environment-friendly products which are produced locally. Its weekly farmers market kicked off last year with a positive response from the crowd. MIB has been organizing meet-ups throughout the seasons since 2015.
MIB organizes events on consecutive seasons where it brings in local businesses and artists to promote local products and talents that are yet to be discovered by the mainstream market.
This season, the Spring Meet-Up was held on March 29-30 in the organization’s Dhanmondi premise.
The meet hosts outstanding businesses and artists. The gathering gives the sellers an opportunity to showcase their products, skills, and services. Alongside, it also gives an opportunity to the guests to get to know about the unique businesses around them.
“The response was amazing. We had more than a thousand visitors on the first day. We had to cut down on the number of stalls as we took a year gap in between. This year, we bought in very selective businesses. We charge a certain amount to the owners but we always try to prioritize people from the creative sector. We keep on adding new features bit by bit every season,” said Foysal Islam, Design and Media Coordinator at MIB Spirit.
At the event, the visitors, consumers, guests are invited to share a conversation and meet each other. Along with the buyers and sellers meet-up, MIB also organizes interactive sessions for young minds. The event brings in individuals who conduct workshops based on their specialty, which has been able to attract enormous huge attention, with all seats filled up in the sessions.
“I attend MIB often. I attended the winter meet-up, monsoon meet-up and am back this time as well. There are a lot of activities going on and they have tried to bring in new activities this time and the old ones are not here. I think each Spirit meet-up has its own specialty and this season’s one is very colorful, festive, and nicely decorated which gives the summer vibe and I like it,” said Taiara Farhana Tareque, Editor of Odesign.
This season featured a total of eighteen ventures and artists, each of them had their own unique products at the stalls. MIB Spirit showcased its own line of bags. MIB produces different types of bags which are made locally.
Some of the ventures were selling hand-made household products including jute products. A few were selling and promoting artworks, handloom, lifestyle products, shoes and so on. The event had four food stalls to serve the participants.
From vendors
“This was my first experience at the MIB meet-ups. It went well and I really enjoyed it. This experience was a good one for my company. As our company is new, MIB helped spreading the word. People got to know about us. They loved our products and their uniqueness and it was appealing to customers.”
- Anika Tasnim, Admin Officer, Bariq&CO.
“This was my first experience with MIB's meetups and it was amazing. I got to meet a lot of people who appreciate and follow my art. Also, showcasing alongside with other artists who I really love was amazing too. The best part was seeing the smiling faces of people after I finished drawing them. I believe this meet-up gave me a boost of self-confidence and it helped me realise what kind of market I'm dealing with here. I think I can make great use of what I've learned from here.”
- Adib Reza Rongon, ARTillery.
Photo: Pantho Sadik
Vendors like Something Fishy BD sells unique products that are not usually available in the market. Something Fishy BD, which sells fresh and saltwater aquarium, provides customers with the opportunity to dabble in underwater gardening. It also designs and install tanks and provides maintenance services.
Dhaka Comics were a part of this season’s meet-up where they had showcased their wide range of comics that revolve around the Bengali culture and tradition. Cartoonist Mehedi Haque conducted the jam-packed interactive session.
Till now, MIB Spirit has hosted a total of 52 brands and has had about 29,000 visitors.