Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Organising my first event: Reforming Environmental Regulation Industry Briefing Session

Hello again,

I know it hasn’t been very long since y’all heard from me. However, I feel as if it’s essential that I dedicate a whole blog post detailing one of the biggest tasks of my internship, organising the RER Industry Briefing Session.

I’d like to start off by explaining in further detail what the Department of Mines and Petroleum’s (DMP) Reforming Environmental Regulation (RER) initiative is all about. I will then show you where the Mining Proposal (MP) reform fits within the context of the RER initiative. So basically, RER is being implemented for a number of reasons. Firstly, these reforms will address community expectations of improved environmental outcomes. Secondly, these reforms will reduce duplication with other government agencies and hence reduce complexity. Complexity will also be reduced in other ways e.g. the introduction of online submissions. MP reform is just one of many reforms that’s part of this initiative.

As part of DMP’s stakeholder engagement concerning both the RER program and MP reform, the RER Industry Briefing Session was established to build awareness and deeper knowledge around the RER program. The event’s focus was to provide industry with an update on the reforms, as well as to encourage feedback and hence contribution to the reforms, particularly by industry and some government agencies. Industry is a critical stakeholder regarding these reforms, as they are essentially the end users. Government agencies are also very important. As these changes could also impact the way they do business.

I was responsible for organising the promotional material, venue and logistics for the event. Promotional materials included an email from the Executive Director of Environment to important stakeholders, an event registration page, an article in the DMP’s Environment eNewsletter, a media release, a listing in the events section of the DMP website and a number of other emails to event attendees. The event was promoted exceptionally well, as tickets sold out. It’s great to see that public relations works well in practice.

The venue I hired for the event was HBF Stadium. I was really pleased with this venue, as it was budget friendly and the facilities and services were exceptional. The logistics I organised for the event included reserved parking and seating for VIP participants, promotional banners, a camera, a video recorder, a lectern, roaming microphones, tables, chairs, nametags etc. The list goes on... You wouldn’t believe how much work and attention to detail goes into organising events, and I think organising the DMP’s event has given me a great taste of events management in practice. Which I really enjoyed!

Now to tell you a bit about the day... Everything went exceptionally well and the overall appearance of the event was very professional. I think we really impressed our guests! There were no muck ups whatsoever. The only thing that was a bit of a disappointment was the lack of tea/coffee stations at the morning tea break. The venue was supposed to supply two, however there was only one. I also think the use of RER and MP reform specific banners would’ve also contributed to the atmosphere of our event. However given that this was a last minute idea, there was not enough time to make them. Planning is the key to success with events. So remember to plan well ahead!

Thanks for reading my post!

Yours sincerely,


Sarah Koch

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