My week in equipment manufacturing

Good morning to fellow PR bloggers,

This morning I am sitting in my office at home, it is far too wet to venture outside; so to take a break from exam preparation, I thought it would be a good time to post my first blog.

I have completed my first week as an intern with an equipment manufacturing organisation in Perth. Currently, I am working one day per week, then after exams will be doing three days per week.

The first day was taken up with safety and site inductions and meeting with marketing and communication managers. While the inductions were immensely boring and tedious, I can see the need for them and it was a nice way to ease me into my placement.

My second day was a lot busier and involved a brush with V8 stardom. Jamie Whincup was on site hosting a workshop for apprentices. My role was to assist the PR manager, who had flown in from Sydney to run the event. I was given a running schedule and was asked to meet media personnel arriving in the front office, arrange them a name tag, fluoro vest and safety glasses and then escort them to the event location. I met reporters from Channel 10 News, a journalist from the West Australian and a freelance photographer who wanted to shoot photos. In addition to this, there were people from Jamie's PR team and people from the Redbull team (who also sponsor Jamie Whincup). The media personnel had all arrived and were awaiting Jamie to arrive. Unfortunately, he was running late because he was stuck in what he called "The parking lot you call Reid Highway". Once he arrived, he was briefed and the event ran smoothly; photographs were taken, quotes were given and I then escorted the media back to their vehicles.

This event taught me valuable lessons about the planning and execution of events, and what to do if everything doesn't go to plan. It was unfortunate that the guest speaker was running late due to unforeseen circumstances, however, due to open communication with media personnel, there were no major issues. There were also a number of minor issues that were dealt with on the spot by the PR manager. It would be impossible to predict absolutely everything surrounding an event, it is therefore important to remain flexible and level headed and deal with issues as they arise, without panic.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement so far, and look forward to completing the many other tasks that have been set for me.

Best of luck for all students with exams.

Until next time,
Rebecca