I for one cannot believe how fast this semester has flown by. In fact it has nearly been an entire month since my version of 'the big day' arrived.
Just a brief summary on my event experiences,
The week started for me on Wednesday August 24, I was left all on my lonesome at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre as the first point of contact for al
l our vendors/sponsors the bump in for the event expo to be held over the next three days. Of course this was not always easy for me and I at times i felt quite overwhelmed having to ensure that I did all I could to satisfy some of our key stakeholders. The next three days I pretty much lived at the PCEC at our event expo help desk where I answered queries about registration and general event questions, whilst tens of thousands of people filed through to collect their race packs.
[24 trestle tables with boxes and boxes each with over 100 race packs in them]
On Sunday August 28 I joined Sarah, Georgia and the rest of the amazing City to Surf Event Crew at City Beach Oval. My day started at around 5am and ended at around 3.30pm.
[the sun just starting to rise on event day, with over 40000 bottles of powerade at the ready for all race participants]
I spent most of the day running around as the event manager's right hand women. Some tasks that I was involved with on the day included the fun stuff like holding the finish tape as the first winners came across the line, and escorting all the 'elite' athletes back to their hotel. Of course there was a lot of 'little' things I had to do as well - like marshalling finishers and basically yelling at everyone to keep moving down the course so no bottle neck was created. Whilst we had some unfortunate events occur, overall the City to Surf was successful and one of the biggest and best crowds the event has had in its history.
The next few days for me were spent in the office doing post-event work including analysing the post-event survey we launched for participants. I also organised prize packs, and attended the official event de-brief with the office crew.
In my experience at City to Surf, it was these little tasks that may have been over looked at the beginning that could of made things that little bit more comfortable and carefree at the end.
It really is an important relationship between time management, planning and attention to detail. If you know what you need to do and you can plan your time well, then it will make things a lot easier. A few days near the end of my internship were spent busily trying to get these little tasks done. The time it took to complete these tasks could of been better spent on other event details and sponsorship management, but yet a lack in planning and time management meant that the creation of parking passes (which could of been done months ago) was being left to the week before the event.
I'm sure nearly all of you may have spent some time in your positions answering the phone and emails, and you may have possibly thought that it was boring and a remedial task to be given. However, in the bigger picture, it is one of the most important tasks you can be given. These emails and phone calls are usually made by the general public or primary and aware stakeholder groups - therefore, it is their satisfaction with your responses that could have a vast effect on the event's success in the public eye. Also to put it in another light, not only does making the intern answer the queries educate them thoroughly on the event, it frees up some time for the event director or event manager to complete other tasks. So whilst it may seem like you are giving the same ordinary responses to the same questions, and you may feel like you're not really making a contribution.. at the end of the day, someone has to do that task, and whilst it may seem small, it really does have a large positive affect on the rest of the organisation and event.
To put it in some other relative context, everyone should currently be busy writing their final reports about their experiences. The little tasks like writing the company background should of be planned and completed earlier on. However, I'm sure there are many of you who overlooked this and decided to just do it at the end, and when it comes times to writing up your report, you may look back and wish you had of completed that little task a long time ago before you were swamped with more pressing work.
So whilst it may seem that little tasks don't matter as much, in the long run, the careful planning and completion of these little tasks makes the biggest difference.
I have taken away many educational and amazing experiences from my time as an intern and am very thankful for all the opportunities I received.
This has been my final post - now time to finish my report.
I hope you all enjoyed your individual experiences... good luck with the rest of your studies, and for some of you - i'll see you at graduation :D
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