Last Sunday, October 31 saw the 2010 WA Senior of the Year Award Ceremony take place. This award ceremony was run by the Community Relations Unit under the Department for Communities (DfC).
The event was held at Burswood Entertainment Centre in one of the ballrooms. Although the doors didn’t officially open till 10:00am, due to it concerning senior citizens – attendees started to arrive as early as 9:00am! If I learnt one thing from that day and senior’s events, it is that the elderly will ALWAYS turn up early!! For this reason if organising an event, preparations ought to be started well in advance and staff ready to greet attendees in the event that they might turn up early.
Two other interns and I were invited to assist with preparations on the day. I was very keen to help out, as it had the potential to offer more insight into the event management side of things and plus i had always wanted to see how a proper event like this unfolded.
The award ceremony involved the presentation of awards and the announcement of finalists to take place over a catered morning tea. It also commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Seniors Awards in WA. In which the majority of past recipients and their families were contacted and invited to attend. A beautiful presentation by the Coordinator Communications Services Officer Grant Hicks was produced to celebrate each of the past winners from 1985 – present. Finding these past winners was the responsibility of another intern at the department Shannon Kendall from UWA.
There were around 200 attendees and I was surprised at how well the proceedings went as nothing too major occurred. It just goes to show that if you prepare for an event well and stick to the prepared running schedule, things shouldn’t go too wrong. The main problem that occurred was people who sent their RSVPs too late, showed up and had to be included in the seating plan.
Zoe Vos who was the Community Relations Officer managing this event did a great job. Although a bit frazzled (as would be expected) she dealt with the situations in a timely manner, contributing to the overall success of the event. From her conduct on the day, I was able to pick up on how to deal with unplanned situations in the event they arise.
My involvement on the day was to greet attendees, help them find their name badge that had been made up for them, and to tell them what table they were being seated at. I was also given the role of being an usher, along with another Curtin intern Cherly Ess. Where our job was to guide and assist recipients if necessary when they were called to the stage.
Not only was I able to be exposed to and learn about event management proceedings, I also learnt more about the role the DfC undertakes in promoting community involvement and recognising (particularly in this case) the contribution seniors make to Western Australia. The finalists’ stories were astounding and so motivational! Despite their age, they are still making an enormous impact on the WA community and I am so pleased to see their efforts recognised.
The pictures below illustrate the:
Event set up before proceedings...
The event was held at Burswood Entertainment Centre in one of the ballrooms. Although the doors didn’t officially open till 10:00am, due to it concerning senior citizens – attendees started to arrive as early as 9:00am! If I learnt one thing from that day and senior’s events, it is that the elderly will ALWAYS turn up early!! For this reason if organising an event, preparations ought to be started well in advance and staff ready to greet attendees in the event that they might turn up early.
Two other interns and I were invited to assist with preparations on the day. I was very keen to help out, as it had the potential to offer more insight into the event management side of things and plus i had always wanted to see how a proper event like this unfolded.
The award ceremony involved the presentation of awards and the announcement of finalists to take place over a catered morning tea. It also commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Seniors Awards in WA. In which the majority of past recipients and their families were contacted and invited to attend. A beautiful presentation by the Coordinator Communications Services Officer Grant Hicks was produced to celebrate each of the past winners from 1985 – present. Finding these past winners was the responsibility of another intern at the department Shannon Kendall from UWA.
There were around 200 attendees and I was surprised at how well the proceedings went as nothing too major occurred. It just goes to show that if you prepare for an event well and stick to the prepared running schedule, things shouldn’t go too wrong. The main problem that occurred was people who sent their RSVPs too late, showed up and had to be included in the seating plan.
Zoe Vos who was the Community Relations Officer managing this event did a great job. Although a bit frazzled (as would be expected) she dealt with the situations in a timely manner, contributing to the overall success of the event. From her conduct on the day, I was able to pick up on how to deal with unplanned situations in the event they arise.
My involvement on the day was to greet attendees, help them find their name badge that had been made up for them, and to tell them what table they were being seated at. I was also given the role of being an usher, along with another Curtin intern Cherly Ess. Where our job was to guide and assist recipients if necessary when they were called to the stage.
Not only was I able to be exposed to and learn about event management proceedings, I also learnt more about the role the DfC undertakes in promoting community involvement and recognising (particularly in this case) the contribution seniors make to Western Australia. The finalists’ stories were astounding and so motivational! Despite their age, they are still making an enormous impact on the WA community and I am so pleased to see their efforts recognised.
The pictures below illustrate the:
Event set up before proceedings...
..The 2010 finalists and award winners..
..And the past WA Senior of the Year recipients with intern Shannon Kendal.
My internship is still ongoing and as mentioned in my previous blog I am continuing working on the operations manual for the promotion, recruitment and training of WIS volunteers as part of my placement project.
Even though I have not finished my placement yet, I can definitely say that I have learnt copious amounts of things throughout the weeks for example, about writing internal documents, organising events, and even how to take photos. Plus so much more! Throughout this placement I have learned I am not a big fan of working a 9-5 office job. This is probably the most valuable thing I have learnt for myself and in terms of the ideal career for me. However, in saying this I do really enjoy and appreciate the opportunity and ability to work within an environment that allows employees to undertaken multiple tasks throughout their days. I also appreciated my supervisor and the other staff within the CRU, as they allowed all of the interns to participate in activities they held and to undertake REAL tasks that had the chance to be posted on the staff intranet or externally for example in newspapers etc. This placement has been extremely beneficial to my education and my learning of the ‘real world’.
Thanks for everything,
Averil
Averil
1 comment:
Hello!
About the 9am - 5pm working hours, I know how you feel. I was an intern in an advertising agency once and I had to adopt to the office hours. It took me a while too get used to but eventually it felt normal to me.
Take Care!
Liyana
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