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Colliers International | Pittsburgh welcomed three intelligent and creative children to the office for “Bring Your Son or Daughter to Work” day.

The day started with some tough ice breaker questions, such as: “if you could invent something for the future, what would it be?” and “if you could go anywhere on Earth where would you go?” Their vastly different, yet thought out answers was just the beginning of a wonderful work day.

Garrett, 7, wants to invent a robot suit, so that everyday people can be superheroes! He also wants to go to Florida to visit Legoland again. Ma’Noah, 8, wants to invent flying cars and go to Japan to eat sushi and meet the voices behind the Anime characters. Lizzie, 10, wants to find a way to end world hunger and dreams of going to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower.

The tables then turned when Garrett, Ma’Noah, and Lizzie got to ask the brokers and support staff questions in an office scavenger hunt. Next came a lesson in marketing from our Office Manager and mother of Lizzie, Lisa Mikolay. After discussing TV, digital and print forms of marketing, she showed the kids a brochure and asked them to draw their own versions and explain their reasoning.

After lunch several of the brokers presented their specialty in commercial real estate with the kids. Ed Lawrence, Principal, taught the kids the difference between a Tenant and a Landlord. Mamadou Balde, Vice President, walked them through the Tenant Representation process for finding a client new office space. Ray Orowetz, Vice President, discussed Industrial Brokerage and the different types of industrial product. Finally, Justin Kline, Vice President, gave pointers on how to sell a building. After each mini-presentation, the brokers quizzed the kids on their topic.

“My daughter, Lizzie has been coming to the office for Bring Your Son or Daughter to Work for the last 4 or 5 years, however this is the first year I heard her answering questions about commercial real estate,” Mikolay commented.  “She seems to have been paying close attention to the brokers that took the time to sit with the kids and give a brief overview of their different disciplines of commercial real estate.”

The last activity was to finally present the buildings they created to the office. Lizzie created a gymnastics studio with the slogan “Love our price, we’re so nice!” Ma’Noah drew a skyscraper with a “Lets Go Pens” banner. He also made it known that Spiderman lives there. Garrett designed a Mindcraft building with a giant cake as the roof. On top of the building you will find a very friendly Pikachu Batman character. Creativity is definitely a strong suit for all three kids!

“My son had an awesome day last week!” Exclaimed Lillian, Mom to Ma’Noah. “Our conversation on the way home from a long day at work was generally about the tall fascinating buildings downtown. Thank you to Gregg and Colliers International for allowing my son to have the experience.”