Just thought i'd inform you all that today I had a brain wave and realised the importance of ethics in Public Relations Events Management. Looking back to my arrival in Busselton to begin my internship with CinefestOZ film festival, the first thing I was asked to do was to sign a Non-disclosure Agreement. Myself and all the other interns were then told about the importance of maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the sponsors, film producers, jury members as well as the actors, actresses and their families. To be honest, at the time it reminded me of a repetitive university lecture - of coarse i'm not going to sell their information to the newspapers! And i'm organising an event... I'll probably just be setting up marquees and printing our door lists, how could i breach copyright? But at the time, I didn't realise how exposed I would be to their personal information and whereabouts, as well as unreleased information about the Premiere films themselves.
As I was put in charge of the VIP's and sponsorship side of the festival, I was in charge of booking individuals accommodation, flights, tickets and anything else they required, as well as creating databases and Excel Masters as a record of all their individual details and plans. CinefestOZ has an agreement that they will no disclose information about these clients, especially to the media unless pre-arranged, or about the premiere films themselves. The copies of the films within the cinemas were kept under tight surveillance, and we had to organise security for the film premiere's, to ensure that no guest was filming within the cinema on their phones etc. They have certainly chucked me in the deep end for this internship, which is great! I feel like I have learnt so much!
Another ethical lesson I learnt was about unclassified films. We had a few screenings of children's films throughout the festival which were not yet officially released, so were not yet classified. Unfortunately despite trying to make it clear on our website, app and brochures, we were therefore not allowed entry of minors into the cinemas legally. Many people were upset as they had arrived and were denied entry, so I had to use my big smile and try to help them understand our reasonings. Not always easy!
But thats all for me today! Hope you're all having a fabulous time and learning as much as me!
Bye for now,
Verity
4 comments:
Hi Verity,
Wow - talk about an eye opener! Thank you for your post, I very much enjoyed it.
I've come to experience similar situations in my work in events and public relations. I'm working for a boutique PR consultancy delivering events at the moment. I can't tell you how many times I have been trusted with similar information to you. I access our clients' personal details multiple times throughout the day for use in similar ways to what you have described.
I think the most challenging ethical consideration for me is dealing with the media. It is often difficult to remember that everything is "on the record" and although you develop relationships with reporters, you still need to be mindful about how much you give away.
Thank you for sharing your experience and for getting me thinking - it's often easy to forget the subtlety that ethics plays in our every day events and public relations operations.
Thanks,
Sonja
Hello Verity,
Upholding ethics in media can be quite challenging because still it's about the business and sometimes the profit aim still comes into place. This might lead to "sacrificing" ethics though.
it's a good thing that there is a clear cut policy with reasons or else it might be quite a conflict to handle the people.
Thanks for sharing this experience!
Hi Verity,
CineFest Oz Film Festival must have been an unreal placement experience. It sounds like you were given lots of opportunities and that you took full advantage of them all. That would have been really hard turning people away. I work in a similar industry and have been in the same position. You can attract so much abuse over the “small print”. It sounds like you dealt with the situation really well and were extremely sympathetic but equally professional.
Thanks for posting about your placement. It really differs from my own.
Kait
Hi Verity,
Sounds like you handled this conflict very well! I think customer service can be very underrated, just showing people you understand their frustration and explaining the circumstances with patience and clarity can go a long way. Working in customer service myself for many years, I think much of the conflict resolution skills I have picked up are transferrable to PR - especially in an events situation!
As they say customers are more likely to spread negative experiences than good ones, so it's important to turn any situation around to prevent brand damage.
Thankfully I did not have to deal with this during my internship - I only went to one event and it was very quiet!
All the best for your report.
Whitney Slater
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