Public Relations at The Perth Royal Show

As part of my internship I volunteered with the Woodside Corporate Affairs team at The Perth Royal Show to develop my face-to-face communication skills when speaking directly to members of the Public. I spent 3-4 hours on Saturday 28 September, and Saturday 5 October at the show in the Shire of Roebourne exhibit, in which Woodside had a stand.

The stand consisted of some games put together by Woodside and various community investment partners such as Earth Science and the WA Museum and most were directed at younger members of the crowd. The Mangroves game taught children aged 4-9yrs of age about the animals inhabiting the mangroves that surround Karratha and other parts of the Shire, narrated by children from the area; it was a really valuable part of the stand.

The Earth Science quiz game was also a big hit and enabled some conversation more directly linked to Woodside operations with children between the ages of 10-14 yrs of age most commonly interacting with the game. The Earth Science quiz also got some parents involved and the information about Woodside operations displayed on the walls became useful to prompt members of the public through the oil and gas questions.

Although I was expecting to have to know everything about Woodside to adequately answer all the questions I might face, I actually found most people wanted to tell me about something or someone they knew, that had a connection with Woodside operations, particularly up north in the Shire of Roebourne.

Woodside organised some merchandise to give away to those who came and spoke with the staff at the stand, these were fishing lures of various kinds. The first day I volunteered I was troubled by the fact that children were taking them and many people failed to realise they had fishing hooks on them, and were not appropriate for children. This was remedied by giving a verbal warning to parents and others taking the lures. By the following Saturday Woodside had printed and stuck on warning stickers which removed the concern I had about people misunderstanding the use of the lure and giving it to their children.

I came up with an idea during the second day of volunteering to continue Woodside’s engagement with the members of the public that spoke to staff at the Royal Show. As I was handing out the lures, I’d often be in conversation with somebody asking ‘so what kind of fish do you think you could catch with this lure?’ or asking where they live up north and how experienced they were with fishing. It dawned on me there were opportunities to maybe include an email address on the paper backing of the lures where people could post pictures of their catch, or possibly engaging people in a competition for the biggest catch.

I believe this kind of ongoing engagement that prompts people to stay in touch, via the website and also by getting them to actually use the lures keeps the information they gathered at the stand more prominent in their memories, while encouraging a positive reflection on their experience with Woodside.

I found it particularly valuable for the public that the people manning the stand were Woodside Employees, from all areas rather than just people from Public Relations backgrounds. It made the stand more authentic and proved the credibility of the company by using some of the more technical minded staff to interact with the public.

I really enjoyed the two days I spent on the Woodside stand and was lucky enough to chat to some fantastic members of the public, and also some staff members I hadn’t met previously.

Unfortunately I was too busy chatting to the public to get any pictures of myself but I’ve included one of a Woodside staff member showing a ‘show goer’ the booklet that was available at the stand.

Regards,

Maddy