Building Muscles During My Internship!

Hi everyone,

A few weeks on to my internship now and all I can say is that "I LOVE IT'.
As mentioned in my previous post I love social work and my PR department focuses on corporate social responsibility.. What is better than to get paid to help people!

Updates on my event. So, my event is around the corner, in a couple of days. The name of the event is called The After School Project: Step by Step with a slogan of 'Let us Preserve, Let us Give". The aim of this event is to allow our target audience the orphans from 3 different institutes to  partake in this educational session. 116 orphans will be learning about preserving nature, giving back to society and how to care for animals.

The 2 organisations invited to participate in educating the children include: Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) and Zero Strays Miri (ZSM).

Please visit their link for more information -

https://www.facebook.com/MiriMNS

https://www.facebook.com/ZeroStraysMiri

Preparing for this event is hectic as this is the largest event our company is organising. Moreover, there are many other events going on during the same month. 

TASK TO BE DONE IN ORDER TO PREPARE FOR THIS EVENT: 

1) Detailed Public Relations Plan 

(This includes contacting personnel from MNS and ZSM to set up a meet, several meetings, designing banners and flyers, budgeting, venue booking, catering, getting participants, participation forms, equipment rentals, transportation for the children, contacting volunteers and mentors etc).

2) Preperation of  press release to announce the event.

3) Faxing press advisory to invite journalist for the event.

4) Preperation of press release to be published after the event.

5) Preparing logistics needed for the event.

6) Designing and preparing a display board for Interhill's CSR Projects. 

(This display board had me printing pictures, then cutting papers, after that laminating the pictures and cut them again. I never knew all these details are time consuming and extremely tiring but I enjoy doing them.

I must say that I am glad to have the knowledge on writing excellent press releases and PR plans as these are exactly what was thought in our PR units. What I love about PR is that all the techniques we learnt from our units at the university allows us to apply them in real working environment. 

Attached below is a banner for my event, a group photo between Interhill Staff, MSN and ZSM for the press release and finally my display board (80% done). 

Flyer for After School Project; Step by Step

Group photo for press release

Display board for the event highlighting the past events from the CSR department

That is it for now! Going to continue working on my event. Till next time!

Best regards,

Sterwina Kho 

FASHION WEEK REFLECTION //

Telstra Perth Fashion Festival (TPFF) is Western Australia’s largest annual premier fashion event and this years will mark their 16th celebration. Founded in 1999, their mission is to celebrate, nurture and be an advocate for all aspects of the WA fashion industry. Such an event has helped nurture young designers as well as models and industry alike to become world renowned fashion icons. And to have been part of such a passionate and thriving industry is an invaluable experience to me. Truly an inspiration! 

To start.....Take it from me! Try not to wear those high heels shoes that look great at a week long event but rather wear something you can; run up and down with, carry crates of alcohol in, chase models in, find VIP's in, man media pit in, seat people in, dress models in, organise interviews in  and still look moderately well dressed. What I am trying to say is, an event will never be breezy, things come up unexpectedly and you will more than likely be doing three million jobs at once. So come prepared!

But to be honest, that's what I love about events! No matter how much you plan or look at every little details each an every single event will shape while the week unfolds and to be success you need to think quick and correct mistakes if they happen then and there but most of all stay cool. Tess and Alana my new mentors showed me a valuable lesson here. In all the hype and stressful moments they both remained focused and on task supporting one another with a single goal to wake up and see TPFF splashed all the media. 

At 9 am the morning of the festival each member of the TPFF team met at the Perth Concert Hall terrace. Let's just say we all didn't look 'great', we were completely exhausted from all the stress experienced in the lead up to the festival, but all that soon disappeared when we saw the campaign images glowing across the Fashion Paramount tent. It became clear to the team then that TPFF were about to stage Perth's most iconic fashion event and they were ready to make it happen. 

Alvin Fernandez 14 Collection 

The award winning Alvin Fernandez's Alvin Ae'lkemi returned to the Perth runway to open a full force couture collection which at the same time embodied modern elegance and grace Sheer French lace, heavily  embellished gowns and glittering beaded mesh sets left media and quests captivated. I was lucky enough to see the show front row while I was looking after the media pit. Opening night didn't disappoint with such a mesmerizing collection, leaving the crowd with a teaser of what was to come.

Intern Teams - Myself, Nonny and Karen

My main tasks was to help assist with the media desk. Each media representative was provided with a ticket and badge, some even came willing to wait for a spare seat even though not invited. I enjoyed this task although less hands on deck would have been much better. There were too many PR interns and I felt some people were left to do very little, so that was something I felt needed improving on. 

Perth Fashion Week came together extremely well and the reviews reflected all the hard work, dedication and passion each staff member and volunteer put in to make it happen. 

Speak soon. 

Cheb

Hi all,

So my internship has finally come to an end - I can now relate to the thousands of other Curtin PR students that have completed their mandatory placement!

Last night was the night of the big event that the majority of my placement has been centred around, and it was so amazing for it all to culminate in such a positive way. The evening ran seamlessly, and whilst there were a multitude of hiccups and (sometimes) major issues and concerns that felt like they were occurring every day along the way, we achieved our end result - corporate partnerships.

A few weeks ago I was so worried that I’d have nothing to show for my time at BCRC-WA, given that all I’d been doing was ringing corporates trying to find and entice attendees. It wasn’t until last week that I realised I have created an incredible contact database that I can give back to BCRC-WA to help them in the future, with names of CEOs, PAs, EAs, receptionists, marketing managers, and sponsorship managers, with phone numbers, email and postal addresses, and notes on how best to contact, what I had spoken to them about and so on. This database is also an amazing resource for myself for my future in the industry. 

Similarly, the subsequent proceedings from last night’s event also has a multitude of work attached to it, such as a follow-up proposal letter, a sponsorship proposal, and a PR plan I developed for BCRC-WA over the next twelve months. Whilst it might not be perfect, and in no means akin to something that a professional consultancy would produce, it is a step in the right direction for the organisation. And hey, they got it all for free! 

Whilst I have been faced with a number of significant adversities over the course of my placement, it has been an incredible learning curve that will stand me in good stead for my future as a PR consultant. I have also networked with a number of influential corporates, whether that be in person or on the phone. Whilst a lot of the people I have rung were not able to attend last night, I have spoken to them a number of times on the phone, and they now recognise my name and know who I am (one of the few benefits of having an unusual name!). 

Ultimately, I have learnt a lot from my time with BCRC-WA. For the most part, I have enjoyed it, and it has provided me with invaluable experience for the future, as well as a good network of people, and an even better contact database. One of the biggest things my placement has taught me is that you can know all the theory in the world, but it doesn’t make up for experience. What you learn when you’re actually practicing the theory is far more valuable, and I think this is one of the greatest lessons that can be taught.

Hope you all enjoyed, or at least learnt something from, your placements!

Ashni

Writing, Writing and more Writing

Hi Everyone!

It's Chloe again and this is my second blog post on my internship with graphic design and stationary company Shelan Creatives. Firstly let me say what a world wind these last couple of weeks have been! Between completing full time study and working as well as interning, the days are flying by and while at times it does feel slightly stressful, I'm having so much fun that it really is worth it.

Shelan Creatives has been busy as usual with a lot of projects been juggled at the one time, with a very exciting one being our work with online boutique Hello Parry and the fashion show they held yesterday as part of Telestra Perth Fashion Festival. Shelan Creatives designed and created the invitations for the event as well as an A5 print to go in the goody bags that were handed out on the day. For Shelan Creatives this was wonderful exposure as one our short term goals is to gain more awareness for the brand and the work that is produced.

Being a small boutique company, Shelan Creatives focus is on creating awareness through social media channels instead of traditional media as it currently a more feasible option and it also speaks true to the brand itself. The stationary side of the company has so far created several prints that are available for sale on the website and through creating relationships with both local bloggers and international bloggers, Shelan Creatives prints are now starting to be featured on blogs around the world! This is incredibly exciting for the team as this an area of the company which we are wanting to develop further.

As previously mentioned in my last blog, we have created media kits which we have now sent out to not only bloggers but local businesses (we are now stocked on the Hello Parry website!) and also select magazines (once again Shelan Creatives photos have been published in The Collective Renegade!). To successfully measure our goal of increased brand awareness, we are hoping that if bloggers choose to feature the Shelan Creatives products on their blog, that we will then see an increase in sales on our website.

The focus on social media to create awareness instead of using traditional media is an exciting goal. Throughout the units that I have studied during my degree we have always looked at the benefits and disadvantages of using either traditional or social media channels and now I am getting to experience one side firsthand. I do believe that in the case of Shelan Creatives, social media is a wonderful tool for us to use as it as allowed us to connect to bloggers and other businesses and develop relationships with them that have had a positive effect.

I'm now more than half way through my internship and I'm loving every second of it. It has opened my eyes to the possibilities of social media being an real tool to help businesses grow and expand. While I don't doubt the power of traditional media at all, I think at this point in time social media might have to won me over.

I hope everyone is enjoying their internships and I look forward to talking to you again soon!

Chloe Walton.

Getting CREATIVE!

Hi Everyone,

My name is Chloe Walton and I am in my final semester of my PR and Marketing degree. These last couple of weeks I have been interning at Shelan Creatives, a bespoke graphic design and stationary company, which to date has been amazing! The company is incredibly creative (pun intended) and hands on with its approach to their clients and their work. Everything is handmade and completely unique to the customer, showcasing their fine eye to detail and also the level of effort they put in to every project. This is something that I find incredibly amazing to watch and a service that I too would like to offer for clients when I graduate.

The last couple of weeks have been busy as the company have been working on several upcoming projects from both the graphic design side in creating logos and slogans for other companies to creating stationary and print designs available for sale on their recently relaunched website. As well as these projects,Shelan Creatives has been working on events with Perth based online boutique Hello Parry on their forthcoming Telestra Perth Fashion Festival Event.

One of my main focuses has been running Shelan Creatives blog, helping create media kits to hand out to influential bloggers and media outlets (we've just had photos featured in The Collective Renegade Magazine!) assisting in tasks concerned with the upcoming events and creating a PR plan to focus on both short and long term goals.


If you are ever in need of some inspiration or want to just view some beautiful pictures, please check out Shelan Creatives Instagram and Website. It really is a site (sorry couldn't help myself) for sore eyes. 



Shelan Creatives website: http://www.shelancreatives.com/
Shelan Creatives Instagram: http://instagram.com/shelancreatives


I'll keep you all up to date over the next couple of weeks, but for now I have to go write a blog post about one of Shelan Creatives new projects!

Yours sincerely,

Chloe Walton.

Ready Set…. RAMBLE!

I am very excited to be starting at my internship with a non for profit organisation called the 'Rotary club' who every year do a fundraiser called 'Ramble'. Ramble is a charity that is run every year in October, with a mix of the amazing race and treasure hunt, teams are formed and the aim of the game is to answer questions while trying to find clues around Perth CBD. The fundraiser goes to telethon and other very meaningful charities.

Yesterday i Had the pleasure of meeting some of the people from the Ramble organisation. Myself and Rhian who is also doing the internship with me, got to sit and discuses how we were going make ramble more appealing to students at Curtin University and the general public. It was such a great feeling as i felt like i was part of the team, throwing ideas and answering questions, it made me have a fresh air of motivation to help this organisation really shine to its full potential.

The meeting duration went for 1 and a half hours, within that time Rhian and I gathered some great ideas and suggestions to start working on. We will be meeting tomorrow (30th August) to come up with a timeline and start planing how and what we are going to do to create awareness around Curtin students.

Next week we will be going to another meeting where we will be meeting other people that are also involved with Ramble. We will also be presenting what we have discussed and what moves we are going to do for the Ramble.

Stay tuned, very exciting stuff are coming up!

-Gina Soumelidis
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Lessons to Reality

I've finally crafted my first full PR commstrat. It was surprisingly easy considering it's the first time I'm doing it alone. But also considering the sheer number of times that we have crafted it in class, I think my manager was impressed with the speed I was working at. Before anything was said, I was already dishing out headings and sub headings, pounding him with questions so I could craft the right marketing messages.

I remembered once in class, that the lecturer mentioned that bosses don't necessarily understand or appreciate communications as much as it deserves to be understood or appreciated. With that one piece of information, I made sure to explain why I asked certain questions and why certain things were important to be set down and agreed upon. I felt like this really helped her understand my perspective and it put the both of us on mutually understanding level that we could both give and take. An example of something that didn't really make sense to her was my insistence on locking down on a one liner condensed tag line that would sum up the whole of what West Coast Swing was. In her point of view, West Coast Swing was something that was too complex to sum up in one sentence. My point of view, was that it had to be, if not how would you (1), tell people what the dance is all about, (2) have everyone in your organisation sing the same song? I did agree with her that there are definitely different things people appreciate about the dance, be it the music, or the moves, or the connection or the competitions; and that was perfectly fine, but to a new comer, having 5 different perspective of the dance would just throw me off.

If you had the chance of reading my previous post about "Asking the Right Questions", I recognized that what the community wanted was fun. At the end of a long discussion, we narrowed it down to this: "West Coast Swing is the super fun street partner dance that everyone needs to try!"

This was something that ran through the whole organisation and had everyone's approval. I put it through my commstrat and even created mini handphone wallpapers for everyone to use on their phone. It was pretty cool what having the whole organisation unified in their vision did. The whole atmosphere was different and everyone knew what to say to people that they met. I was pretty happy that something as simple as having one key message, did to the entire organisation.

One Big Step to the Society in Perth

I am very excited when I first enrolled the internship unit as I planned to work as a PR trainee at GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) Singapore. However, things did not go smoothly as I expected.  Most of the positions were either filled or unavailable.

Knowing that I am not able to find an internship position in GSK, I immediately did some research online and sent out my resume to as many companies in Perth as possible. As days passed by, least, if not, none reply were given. As an international student overseas, I have anticipated the difficulty of getting an internship position in Perth and I am not going to give up just yet.

Finally, lady luck smiled on me and I got an internship at Homes Property Management in Perth.

Homes Property Management Logo

On my first day to the workplace, I went with two of my friends, Su Jia and Yee Ting, which was their first day working there as well. Tris, who is the Managing Director of Homes Property Management, came to greet us, show us to our desks and provided us with working laptops.

Without any delay, Tris told us that her company has just getting started and wanted us to develop a complete PR plan for the company to get the company brand out. PR plan is what we have learnt every year in every PR units and it will be very easy once we paid full attention in class and work hard in every PR assignment.

We scrambled all the materials we need (company backgrounds, newspapers, magazine, etc.), and asked Tris for Homes Property Management’s current websites, promotional tools and strategies to see whether it needs improvement.

The most difficult part, which the part we spent most time on, is the media placement strategy. For that part, my colleagues and I spent almost a week to look through every article and evaluate the news angle from different print publications. Besides, we also need to state down the contact details (phone no., E-mail and address) of most of the editors to store it for future use and not all the contact details could be found. For those that their contact details were unclear, we did some research on the Internet to look for alternative publication options.

At the end of the week, we managed to get the PR plan done. However, Tris needed us to modify some of our plans as she wanted to focus on gaining free publications due to limited budget. We then change most of our strategies to collaborating with other businesses and finding sponsorship, which she seems satisfied with it.

It has been a busy week for us, not to mention that we worked from 9am to 4pm every day except weekend for the first week. By developing the PR plan, I have learnt more about the company and its cultures, as well as their existing and potential competitors. Moreover, I have also gain insights on how the company operates to maintain its effectiveness and efficiency and how our PR plan facilitates it. This is a whole new experience for me and I hope that our plans will be carried out successfully in Perth.

My colleagues and I (first from the right), Yee Ting (middle), Su Jia (second from the right) & Tris (third from the right).

Leong Chee Lek

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