Monday, September 10, 2012

Perth Fashion Festival


Welcome to my Blog! My name is Laura Johns and I am in my final semester at Curtin University studying a Bachelor of Humanities majoring in Public Relations and Journalism.

I was very fortunate this year to be offered an internship as a project manager for the Perth Fashion Festival. I am one of three project managers for the Chic Model Search, a side project by PFF. I am currently three weeks into my internship, completing 3-4 days a week. The Chic Model Search presented by Student Edge is a model search looking for one model, male or female, aged between 15-21 years old to be signed to Chic Model Management and have an opportunity to fly to New York to meet with one of the world’s best modelling agencies. There are four events;

 
Sunday, 9thSeptember Model Registration and Heat #1 held at Garden City Shopping Centre

Sunday, 16thSeptember Model Registration and Heat #2 held at Karrinyup Shopping Centre

Saturday, 22ndSeptember Semi-Finals held at Wesley Quarter

Sunday, 23rdSeptember Model Search Final held at Forrest Place
*All events are free to the public

To begin with I felt like I had been thrown into the deep end, with so much working needing to be done as the events were due to commence in three weeks’ time. My first two weeks consisted of a lot of paper work (re-doing the event brief, running schedules, terms and conditions, judges and special guests itinerary, information’s guides for the contestants, judges sheets etc), meetings with the three centre managements, organising staging, sourcing judges, writing the MC's script, organising DJ's, photographers etc. It has been a very busy and stressful couple of weeks!

There are many perks that come with working with PFF, my second day at the internship I was invited to attend the 2012 Perth Fashion Festival Launch which was an amazing event and I was able to meet with people in the industry and network. We also booked Johnny Ruffo to attend at the final of the Chic Model Search, which was exciting being able to talk to him personally on the phone to organise him to attend.

 
One of the main challenges I have faced over the past two weeks is communication barriers. I have realised that absolutely everything needs to be done in emails, as proof later on down the track. It is quiet challenging liaising with two other people from different offices and sometimes it is difficult if one thing is confirmed and organised but then changed without your knowledge as you haven’t been CC’d into an email. I’ m very lucky to have an amazing mentor at PFF who encourgaes me to have my own voice and opinion and has helped me strengthen my event co-ordination skills.

 That’s all from me for now!

Until next time,

Laura Johns
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Laura,

Thanks for sharing your post. Wow sounds very full on yet exciting! I think it is many PR girls have the dream of working in the fashion industry and not to mention meeting Johnny Ruffo!! I am also in the process of organising a VIP industry event and wasn’t quite prepared for the amount of stress and preparation that goes in to it. Nonetheless enjoying it so far and can’t wait for the night to come! I’ve also found the same thing in regards to emails, such an important source of proof!!

Good luck with the rest of your placement.

Courtney

Unknown said...

Hi Courtney,

How is your planning for your VIP event going? I have just finished my last event for PFF. If I could recommend anything to you it would be to evaluate each week the progress you are doing in regards to planning your event and to write a list of everything you have left to do and work from that. Otherwise it can become quiet overwhelming!

Good luck!

Laura