Hi everyone,
This is my second post since I started my internship, and I must say that the four weeks that I've worked here have been quite an eye-opening and educational experience. It's true when they say that there is only so much that you can learn from sitting in a classroom. In my second week, we had a major product launch for one of our clients. That meant booking a venue, making sure the press releases went out, double checking that the media houses had received them, and triple checking that the media houses had booked the event and were sending a reporter for the event. The launch would be done at a dinner hosted by our client at a city hotel.- The easiest part of the pre-event preparation was picking the menu! During the same week, the same client was having product activations at three different locations in the city throughout the week starting Tuesday. The product activation went pretty well. The night of the product launch went smoothly except for one 'minor' hitch with the room that we had booked for the venue. Another group of people that were using the venue before us stayed for longer than they were scheduled to, meaning we started to set up for our event late and our event ended up starting almost an hour later than scheduled! This meant that the guests (potential clients) who were all on time, were kept waiting. The journalists (who were as late as usual) were also kept waiting, and they were not shy about letting their displeasure about it being known! Other than that the food was good, and the guests and journalists seemed pleased in the end, so the night ended up being a success :)
Welcome to PR Internship - YOUR opportunity to put everything you have learned over the past years at university into practice and to get a thorough insight into what public relations is like "in the real world". This Blog allows you to reflect on your experiences, share insights with other students across campuses and to possibly give advice and support to fellow students. Please also see http://printernship-reflections.blogspot.com.au/ for more reflections
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
EVENTS: not so easy
Labels:
event 1,
liz blog 2,
Luct
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hi Liz,
Events are easy - on paper that is! They always seem relatively uncomplicated when we read the proposal in Powerpoint, but the execution is a whole different matter.
Like you described, an event is a long journey that starts from conceptual planning to ironing out the nitty-gritty details like what happens when the air-conditioner breaks down.
But I have to say that despite the hard work, nothing beats the satisfaction of seeing it all come together.
wow, i guess you enjoyed the event. I have also experienced similar event and like you saying it is not easy to prepare for the event, since you always have these in mind that what goes wrong the blame is on you and the client you representing will also slightly loose trust on you. Again the media is the most important aspect of the event, since you want your promotion or launch to be known, and in the proper way, so you have to brief the media what the event is all about, send invitations and as you were talking about the press release which is crucial. I also agree with you that you learn a lot out in the field than sitting in classroom. In a working environment you have to deliver what you have been learning in class, and you also work under supervision, so its totally different feeling.
I have been planning an event that is occuring on Wednesday- a product launch as well and I understand the pressure that is placed on you to perform. I am doing this for my other job and not my placement and no one there knows anything about PR or event planning- I wasn't even given a budget until 4 weeks ago!
I've been given free reign however if the event does not succeed it rests on my shoulders so I can see where you are coming from. GOOD LUCK
Post a Comment