The Fault, Dear Brutus, is Not in Our Stars: Event Planning and Our Role in Future Workplaces

Have you guys ever read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green? I haven’t personally, but I find one quote from it popping up on my Facebook and Tumblr feed more often then I’d probably like:

‘My thoughts are stars that I cannot fathom into constellations.’

I’d never thought of this quote as relating to Public Relations before, (it would often remind me more of my love of theatre and Shakespeare) however in the last few days of my placement I feel more and more like this relates to us, but more on that later...

TechnoTan is finally holding the seminar I proposed as strategy one in the customer relations campaign I wrote in my first few weeks. It’s all very exciting to finally be organising and actually running an event I have planned. My boss has conducted seminars before and was very keen to be the speaker however I got the feeling that he just plans to ‘wing it’. He’s not one for planning, as much as ‘feeling the moment’. However it’s hard to shake uni habits and I approached him with an extensive running sheet, a detailed to-do list and a schedule for everyone to follow until the event. Somewhat discouragingly his main comment was that I ‘plan too much’.  

I do get his reasoning; most of the running sheet I’d written probably would change before the day as the staff members attending hadn’t been confirmed yet. Also without his speech it was probably pointless to guess how long he would speak for. However this response hasn’t encouraged me to stop carefully planning events. That’s probably something you’re not supposed to say. Although one of the main goals of this placement is to help us understand that techniques and procedures in a ‘real-life’ workplace is not the same as at uni; I don’t plan to always just ignore techniques taught in university when I find they aren't already used in my workplace. 

I feel like in our placement we have an opportunity, not only to learn how to apply our degrees to the workplace, but also to learn what not to do, and to decide what kind of practitioners we want to become. For my part, as well as being effective and ethical, I want to be an organised, proactive PR practitioner, and if that means planning when no one else deems it necessary, then so be it. Adapting to the situation you are in is important, but that doesn’t mean settling for what has always been done. 

I know TechnoTan sometimes misses deadlines and runs overschedule, which unfortunately can say ‘unreliable’ to their publics. However, in this situation, I’m not going to relax my working style to match it; I’m going to attempt to improve the situation in the little ways I can. One way I am doing is asking the boss to give me a summary of what he will say, so I can put it on PowerPoint slides. This way I can ensure that branding in consistent, that the message presented to clients is clear and in-line with our key communication goals. It will also hopefully improve our company image by making the company appear organised and reliable. He can easily change it he wants but at least there’s something to start with.

So back to the anecdote in the introduction, in a way, it is my role to fathom my boss’s  (and the company’s) thoughts and actions in constellations for the clients. To ensure that our messages are clearly visible to all publics.

Was that metaphor too mixed? I’m sure you get the point!  

As PR practitioners it’s our job to mediate between the company and the publics and sometimes to do that effectively it might mean planning to much. In the end, finding resistance to proactive planning is not a heavy cross to bear, especially when it pays off in the end.

So now it’s time to say goodbye! (So Long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu). I’ve really enjoyed these blogs and the Office Manager promises me that I’ll be able to write for a company blog soon!

So good luck everyone! I’ll miss you guys :) 

Natasha Smith

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