The Beginning...

Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy reading all about my PR work placement and what I get up to over the next 20 days!

So to begin, I have found my placement with Tennis West, which is Western Australia's governing tennis body. The organisation operate out of the State Tennis Centre in Burswood and is also part of Tennis Australia. I am writing this post on my sixth day as an intern because I thought it best to wait until I actually has some things to write about and properly discuss. For my first post however I will just relay the basics...

I began my placement in December 6 and throughout December will be working for 2 days a week as I have to maintain a balance between this work, my actual paid job and a social life. Already I am learning about a work-life balance! At the moment I look set to finish my placement towards the end of January, but as I am already having fun and learning so much about the real world of public relations and marketing I hope that this date doesn't approach too soon.

My first week (2 days) at Tennis West were a lot easier than I first expected, with everyone being really friendly and eager to help me out and feel welcome. I have been placed in the marketing/media/PR/events part of the organisation with the marketing and events manager, but as is the way (I have learned) with smaller organisations, everyone/every department has something that needs doing that relates to the marketing department and as such I have had contact with just about everyone in each department (including; community tennis, member services, competitions, league...etc) which is great.

December/January is a busy time for tennis, especially in Perth where the Hyundai Hopman Cup is happening from the 1st to the 8th of January as well as numerous other local tournaments and programs that are constant throughout the year. This in itself means that it is important for each department to communicate with each other in order to ensure that everyone has the same information and understands exactly what is going on at a particular time. As far as I can tell, email is the main form of contact between staff, followed closely by phone. There is also a Tennis West e-newsletter that is distributed bi-monthly containing important information about the different programs and their progress, as well as the main media releases that have been distributed in the time-frame and that everyone needs to be aware of in case contacted (just like what we have been taught for the last 2-3 years...communication is the key!).

The busy time of year means that I will be exposed to quite a few different aspects of PR which I am looking forward to, such as events, media releases and dealing with the media as well as organising communication and evaluation of events and initiatives that are to take place. So far I am already involved in the Legends Breakfast which is to be held during the Hyundai Hopman Cup week and will feature tennis legends Liz Smiley and Alicia Molik. I will also be participating in aspects of the Hyundai Hopman Cup and Tennis West's involvement in the event which I have spent the last two days helping out with.

Anyway, this post seems to be getting quite long, so I'll leave it there and in my next post will give more information about my involvement in the Legends Breakfast and the Hyundai Hopman Cup!