Time for Reflection

Its not until reflecting on my internship that i really value understanding the history of the organisation. Perth Fashion Festival truly is a dynamic organisation which has adapted and reflected the changes in WA's, and mostly Perth's, society.

 A little bit of history....

Director and co founder Mariella Harvey-Hanrahan established Perth Fashion Festival in 1999. However, the festival originated as WA Bridal Awards in 1996. With the success of the awards, Mariella expanded to the event and renamed it the WA Fashion Awards in 1998. By 1999 the Fashion Awards was renamed WA Fashion Week. Mariella describes the development as, “It was a progression. I kept thinking that there was a gap in the market and that we needed to celebrate all the creativity going on,"(Martin 2010).

PFF isn't just about running a festival filled with glamour and fashion. Instead it is about showcasing the talent and beauty of Western Australia to the rest of the world. PFF has projected the success of many emerging and established designers, make up artists, stylists, models and photographers internationally. The festival also puts Perth on the map and calibre of fashion destinations such as Melbourne, Paris and London.  Economically PFF provides Perth with a large stimulus which can be felt over many retail, hospitality and tourism sectors. Last but not least, PFF contributes to the overall culture of WA as it reflects the importance of creativity within our society.

Now, i really am proud to have contributed to such an exciting and dynamic festival!

Thanks for reading x

Thrown in the Deep End

My internship at Perth Fashion Festival began very quickly when I saw the position advertised on the PR Internship blackboard page. As soon as I saw Perth Fashion Festival (PFF), I knew i had found an internship and an organisation which I would enjoy working in. There were two different positions offered; one a paid position as gift bad co-ordinator for the events and a two-week internship in the sponsorship department, both jobs started ASAP. Originally I was torn between which job I should apply for, but after considering what I wanted to get out of the internship I decided to apply for the sponsorship internship. After quickly writing a resume I sent off and email, and spent a very long night waiting for a reply. The next morning I received an email asking me to come in for an interview as soon as possible. Instead of being excited about the opportunity, i was so nervous because i had no idea what to wear, or what to say in an interview.

As you might have guessed the interview went well and I was asked to start two days later.  Walking into that office on Monday, I was so anxious because I had no idea of what was expected from me, all I knew was a that i was filling in for the sponsorship manage on leave.

For those of you who don’t know much about PFF I will elaborate for you:

Perth Fashion Festival is an annual fashion festival with over 30 runway, retail and offside events. The festival runs for 11^th- 16^th of September and has a range of free to public and ticketed events.  Founded in 1999, PFF’s mission is to celebrate, nurture and be an advocate for all aspects of the WA fashion industry. This year is PFF “Crystal” 15^th festival, that promises to be the most dynamic and inspirational yet.

During that first two weeks I was thrown into the deep end with proposal writing for potential sponsorships. As this was something I have never done before I found the marketing style of writing hard to master as I am used to factual PR writing. However, after many hours spent writing proposals for wineries, corporates and airlines (and everything inbetween), I picked up the skill of writing sponsorship proposals.  Other jobs included liasing with sponsors to ensure we were meeting there needs. Unfortunately, another job was to cold call wineries and entice them to sponsor PFF's runway and small events. Cold calling is something that I have absolutely loathed in the past so I was very nervous about doing it. However I found once I had a script and knew what I was talking about, I felt a bit more comfortable.

At the end of the two weeks I was so glad to have opportunity to experience public relations and business development at PFF. Even from the small jobs to the daunting, such as writing up contracts, I was relieved to see that all the theory and knowledge gained from uni has finally come into place. As it turned out my supervisor could do with some extra help so she offered for me to continue the internship until the festival!