The People Pleaser

Hello everyone!

And welcome to my first blog!!

Wow, what a busy few days I've had learning about keeping people happy!!

I am doing an events management internship with the CinefestOZ Film Festival in the South West.

When I first secured the position I had flashbacks of Samantha's PR social life from Sex in the City, including movie stars, celebrities, wine, films and all that goes with the red carpet experience. 

But jeepers am I learning just how much goes on behind the scenes to get a party looking like that!

For those of you who are not aware, CinefestOZ is a non-for profit film festival packed into five days, showcasing red carpet premieres of feature films and events such as workshops, school involvement programmes, intimate film screenings in small bars and galleries, and many VIP events held at wineries such as a media brunch, directors lunch, jury brunch, the gala night and much more. This year is the 7th for the festival and it's bigger than ever. 

For the first 5 days my main job has been to look after the 40+ sponsors of the festival, and the many VIPS. The main reasons companies' sponsor us is because they have interest in supporting Australian and French films, and want to help boost tourism in the beautiful South West region. The festival significantly relies on the funding from these sponsors to the point of survival, and so in return we must show them their money has been spent well. I have learnt the importance of providing representatives from each sponsoring company with an unforgettable fun and culture packed 5 days, with the hope they will enjoy it SOOO MUCH, they will choose to sponsor us again next year and continue to be involved in the funding of the festival. 

Sponsors are given lanyards on the first day of the festival which gives them access to a number of events for free as a thank you for their support. Part of my job was to make sure I allocated each sponsor with the right number of lanyards (one for each person), depending on how much that company contributed to the festival. I found out which of the many locations they wanted their advertisement banners to be put up, what events each person wanted to go to, reserved tickets on the ticketing system if any wanted to bring their families to events too, which accommodation they preferred to stay at, booked flights and hire cars for their use in the region and any other requested they may have asked for in advance to the festival. 

VIPS included the movie talent, producers and directors from the Australian films of which we were showcasing their premieres, as well as others that came to enjoy the festival, the jury (including Margaret Pomeranz, Marta Dusseldorp and Bruce Beresford), members of the WA Parliament and City of Busselton, Bunbury and Margarent River and many others. 

I did the same thing for them, organising which events they wanted, flights etc as well as booked hair and make-up for their premieres and big events, organised drivers etc. It was stressed to me the importance of making the VIPs happy due to the prestige to many of their names. We hope that they will say lovely things about the festival in the future, as with the hope the sponsorship, ticket sales and general size of the festival can grow even more for next year. 

Overall - lesson learned. Keep the sponsors and VIPs happy and the festival will benefit immensely, and your hard work will be paid off!! 

Hope this help with your events internships :D