People, planning and follow ups

Hi PR 393,

So I am only a short time into my internship, but I am going to offer some opening thoughts on my work experience so far. I am with an events management consultancy, that has recently been merged with another consultancy here in Perth (Lunchbox List with Exhibit). As it is only recently merged, the first part of my job has been focussed around helping to integrate the membership systems between the two businesses.

For my first few days, I was working on the membership database for events. This involved me going through and updating the Lunchbox List membership database to include those from the Exhibit. Membership database entry is a job that can be quite time consuming to update, especially if there are large numbers and so it often gets left far down a priority list. This is the background work behind the events that are run, as it is where we get a large number of attendees. So, keeping this up to date is actually really important for getting numbers at events. It wasn't a side of events that I had thought a lot about prior to my internship, I thought more about the marketing to get new people to attend events (which was done as well through the West Australian). However, the current members and subscribers to the newsletter are really important, because they are people that are already aware of what Lunchbox List events can offer and have shown an interest in going. It is easier to show the value to people on the membership list.

After this, I worked on an upcoming Careers Expo with the Exhibit Team. An email had been sent out asking schools to register for the annual event (its on next May) and I was put in charge of school follow ups while another person did past exhibitors to confirm placements and numbers. We were hoping to be able to better plan for the event and to ensure that it runs smoothly by doing this.

I also packed up the "events box" for an upcoming event and put it aside with all the equipment for an event on this week. So, we had to count and check banners, pack speaker gifts, ensure door prizes and all other materials were ready to go. We packed and labelled them into boxes so that they could all be easily found and collected to be taken to the event site for us to unpack and use next week. There was a final checklist of things that needed to be done, and a final check that I was able to do. I am helping with the event next week, and it was good to see the other end of the system and feel really prepared to deliver a successful event. Half an event is all about being organised it would seem, the rest is all the things that happen on the day that you just can't plan for.

Lastly, I have been put in charge of updating the event feedback system. Currently it is done by a simple survey that is put into a spreadsheet. However, the data summaries from this spreadsheet are not accurate (it doesn't measure things like the total number of surveys, the number of attendees, number of people that actually answered each question or provide accurate percentages for the results). I am really looking forward to being able to remake this, so that the feedback gathered can be used and events can be more accurately improved to suit what the attendees want to see.

I am working on an event with the team this week and more in the coming weeks, and look forward to being able to update you on that.

Best of luck with your internships!

Tonya.