I can’t believe it has taken me this long...

I am well and truly over the half way mark of my placement and, believe it or not, this is my first blog entry. I know what you all must be thinking - this girl is not taking the importance of blogging her experiences seriously or she is just too lazy to get round to it. But to be honest I have been putting off this task because I have found writing a blog to be quite daunting.

I began my placement at Sunset Events at the beginning of the semester. I’m sure most of you would be familiar with this organisation which plays host to some of our favourite festivals such as Southbound and Blues ‘n’ roots, among other great music events. I started my placement with such high spirits because I had been given the opportunity to work for an organisation that incorporates music, arts, the environment and events management - everything I am most passionate about. I quickly got a reality check on my expectations at my first days in the office when some of my key roles were fetching coffee, doing the shopping and ordering stationary.

As the next few weeks of my placement passed I was filled with questions. What will I talk about in my reflective blog? Am I gaining the experience I need in the field of public relations to be able to survive in the real world? What added to my apprehensiveness to share my experiences at Sunsets was reading through other students blogs that had been posted so far. I was overwhelmed with the hands on tasks students had been given to tackle and the amount of responsibility that had been bestowed upon them.

This morning, as my stress levels began to build because I was yet to write a reflective blog, I decided to go for a run to clear my head and reflect on what I have learnt from Sunsets thus far. I came to the realisation that I had gained so much more from my placement than I had first realised.

So far I have been given the opportunity to work with a range of people in all areas of the organisation and each task I was given to complete related to public relations practices in some way.

I have worked with people within the marketing and communications department carrying out key public relations tasks in regards to media relations such as uploading photos to the website, conducting research, media monitoring, compiling and organising the media into a file and contributing artists and photos to the master artist database.

I have worked with the Artist Liaison and assisted in putting together a timetable in the form of an excel spreadsheet of operating hours and performance schedules for Southbound. I have also run errands for the project manager and researched equipment, venues for events and accommodation for clients during events. These tasks can be contributed to areas of public relations such as stakeholder relations and issues management.

Public relations is intertwined into all aspects of the organisation and practiced by everyone involved. Although there are no clearly defined policies and guidelines for public relations there is no doubt the important role it plays in the smooth running of events and the organisation.
The challenge for me has been to realise that being an intern is not always glamorous but every job given to me, although it may seem insignificant, is important and can be learnt from. In the field of events management every small detail is critical to the success of the event.

This weekend Sunsets is hosting the One Movement for Music Festival which is being held at ... I am so excited to be part of the staff team. My job description for the event is Backstage Band Equipment and Artist Registration. I can’t wait to see what goes on behind the scenes of an event of this scale and what my role within it will entail. Now that I have overcome my fear of blogging I am actually looking forward to my next blog entry and sharing my experiences from the event.

Till next time!

Zoe