Helping to make 'Left of Central' right

Since I last spoke to you I have had a very busy, exciting and exhausting few days...

Over the past week or so I have spent a lot of time at Central in preparation for 'Left of Central' which is a three week trial for an activation of Museum Street to make it the heart of the Central campus, like a university campus. The project is part of the greater city link project to re-connect the CBD with Northbridge. Over the three weeks Museum St will feature: bars, bands and international cuisine as well as showing of the student talent and courses on offer at Central.

In the week before the Launch Party to open the three week trial. I was busy helping the team out wherever I could. Mostly this involved either tasks to promote 'Left of Central' or tasks to ease the pressure from full time employees.

The amount to do in the lead up to 'Left of Central' was enormous and with the greater urgency of a looming deadline I found I was given more opportunities to do tasks unassisted by Mike or the rest of the team. For instance I sent out emails and/or communicated to a large number of websites and social media pages about the promotion of the Left of Central. This included Perth Now, We Love Perth On William and X-Press to name a few from a the media mailing list. For this task I had instructions at the beginning of the task and told where to find the resources but worked pretty well unsupervised throughout.

I found this task quite daunting seeing as though this was a hugely important part in promoting our event. I had never done a mail out before and since I did not have a Central email account I was concerned  my efforts might be ignored. Fortunately Mike allowed me to use his and after a long few hours I managed to mail out to all the relevant people on the list. The most daunting though was calling The West Australian Newspaper editor Stephen Bevan to pitch him a story. It was tempting to claim that I worked for Central for the sake of a better chance of the story being published, however I refrained from that ethically questionable option and instead told him I was doing an internship and I think we have a story for him. I'm glad I refrained because in the end he was happy to look at my story and soon sent it through.

I also got to try my hand at events both in planning and running an event. In the two days leading up to the launch party I worked with Leanne who was in charge of putting the event together. I assisted her in writing invitations and informing distinguished guests about the event, including Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, and planning how to use the space. The set up for the Launch Party was one exhausting day, transforming a largely unused street into a potential campus hub. I worked all day setting up marquees, bars, tables and chairs and basically putting it all together and by the end I was so tired I could hardly stay up for the party. I had a great time though and found it so rewarding seeing the space transformed and people enjoying it and knowing I helped to make this happen.

So far I am really enjoying the variety of work and experiences i can contribute to at Central and can't wait to see what the next few weeks hold.

talk again soon

THE BIG THING!!!!!!!

THE BIG THING!!!!!

I remember the first time I was introduced to my boss when he mentioned about me joining the team is the right timing as there will be a big event coming. I was excited as it could lead me to a better exposure and learn a lot from it.

The event I was a part of was the Mahathir Global Peace Award. Mahathir is a big name in Malaysia. He is an icon to many Malaysians for serving as Malaysia’s Prime Minister a few years back. He was the father of development. To top the exciting part, Jacob Zuma, South Africa President was also invited for the event. This may sound cliché, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime project.

The process of sending media invites prior to the event was hassle I must say. I had to make calls to hundreds of important people to confirm their attendance. Being those important people, they would have the personal assistant or people closely working with them to represent. I was transferred to so many calls and only managed to get a few yesses but many turned downs.

The office was chaotic and everyone was just so busy handling his or her own parts. The media team has to make sure the invites are sent out, the press kit is in order, the boss likes what he sees, approvals from the top management and that is just to name a few. It was a lot of stress for the media team as the event was approaching and there was just so little time.

I remember the day before the event where me and the other intern had to bring the press kit to the hall, which is a 15min drive from our campus. We finished work at around 9pm and rushed to the respective place. It was again, chaotic, as the big boss was around to make a last check regarding the preparation.

I had to stay until 12am to make sure that everything was in order and that the press kit is ready for tomorrow’s big event.

The next day was even worse. I had to deal with the media and the turned out was impressive. A lot of media houses came and show their support for the event. It was the real thing. The real deal. The event went smoothly but sadly I did not get the chance to have a picture with the VIPs. It was tiring, full of adrenaline but the good kind!

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

Spreading the Positivity Word

Hi everyone

Things really started to ramp up in about July, where I was set with the challenging task of finding an email address for all the schools around Australia and send them an email concerning the nominations for the ‘Young Positive Role Model of the Year’ awards. This was quite difficult as there are quite a lot of schools in Australia however after calling the Department of Education it became a bit easier as they gave me a list of emails from some of the states, the rest I found on a directory website. This task was not my favourite but I understood the importance and once I got into the zone it wasn’t too bad emailing thousands of schools.

One thing I really found useful and I really liked putting together was the Media Kit’s from PR Media in my second year of University. I decided to ask my manager Jess if it would be okay to create a media kit about the campaign and she agreed that it was a good idea. One of the other interns Adam and I learnt the importance of really tailoring a media release to your target areas. We tailored one media release to the area of Kalamunda by including the name of the local council candidate. I put my name as the contact person and soon received a call from a journalist from the Kalamunda Times and was extremely excited to organise a photo opportunity and interview. All the interns were even more excited when our story ended up being published.

Whilst organising all the media side of the campaign we also had to go shopping for the treasure hunt which was close approaching. Imogen and I had a good time going to cash and carry and picking out lollies for the lolly bags and buying toys for the treasure hunt.  

 

Half Done or Half Through?

 The halfway point is always bittersweet. I have been interning four days a week in attempt to catch up since I started my internship so late. My workload at work has increased since I keep asking for more things to do! I want to be able to do as much as I can during this internship because I want to experience as much as possible and to have more to show at the end of it all.

I have done more than just transcribing and planning interview questions and writing articles since the first quarter. I can only say things are definitely getting more exciting now and I am looking forward to the second half of the internship.

I had a taste of some advertisement-writing and sending out of internal emails to promote anti-poverty week. One thing I really like about Baptistcare is their desire to give back to society whenever they can. They support many initiatives and Anti-Poverty Week is just one of them. We held a food donation drive for Foodbank WA and I was glad to see many people respond to the email sent out. It warms the heart to see people caring for the less fortunate in society because we often get so caught up in our lives, we forget there are others out there who need help.

I have also started attending team meetings Monday mornings and nothing makes you feel more welcomed than knowing you are part of a team that works so cohesively.

I got to go out for interviews during the second week and I also got to see some of the aged care facilities. Some of the interviews really moved me and I was just amazed at how strong some people are and what amazing lives they lead. It makes me question what I am doing with my own life and they have inspired and motivated me.

I definitely enjoy the human interaction aspect of my job. I never thought I could work in a desk job but this may have changed my mind because I reckon I have found a good balance between both.

The start of the Agricultural shows

Making progressive steps in my internship! Half way through my internship and I’m understanding how the business operates and where I fit in as an intern.  I was a bit lost for a while and didn’t know if what I was doing was right. With the agricultural show season upon us, I didn’t know if events really fitted into the whole public relations area, but handing in my 10 day update I was reassured that it was all apart of the job and to make the most of what I was doing. 

Finally being able to finish the companies facebook page and getting full approval to get that up and running, I was feeling positive about the impact I was having on the business. The facebook page was a lot harder then I thought because BAJV doesn’t have a policy that covers social media. Meaning there needed to be an alternative email created and used for the facebook page, to ensure it didn’t link with personal accounts. So I was pretty excited about it all when it was finally functioning!

I’ve also been able to participate and learn about all the efforts that go into organising events. BAJV participates in a number of agricultural shows and I was able to help set up their stand in Northam. It involved making site maps to show where everything was going to be located within their designated area, as well as a trip to their warehouse to organise and make a stock list for everything that would be needed over the weekend. I really enjoyed the set up as it was efficient and fun. You learn that the maps made are more guidelines then strictly needing to be followed. I very much enjoyed this and cannot wait until I’m able to participate in both the set up and the running of their next agricultural show in Toodyay in October.

So far I’ve very much enjoyed having some freedom to do my own thing but have also been stuck with odd jobs that need to be done. This includes tidying up work sheets, websites and spreadsheets. But it all adds to the job and to the experience!

Stay tuned! Hopefully next blog will update you about the agricultural shows! Or at least the lead up and preparation for them. 

Getting your foot in the door

Since starting my internship at Lamont’s I have come to realise (more than I did before) how important first impressions are, when it comes to the working world. Most people always remember meeting you and if you don’t impress them straight away then they won’t be calling you when a new position is available for a young graduate. Because Lamont’s is such a small family business I realise that I most likely won’t be getting offered a casual or full time position after completing my internship. However I am ok with that and I am still on my best behaviour to impress Lamont’s, with my somewhat knowledge of PR in conjunction with small businesses. All I need is a good recommendation from someone working at Lamont’s to get my foot in the door. Working in the food industry is incredibly interesting and I would love to extend this further, in the sense continue to intern at food industries and slowly make my way up in the PR food chain.

Recently Lamont’s was a part of the Wedding Expo at Xanadu winery in Margaret River, where 50 plus wineries were invited to set up a stall to “sell” their weddings to potential couples looking to wed in the near future. I was in charge of collating information packages about the weddings you can have at Lamont’s Smiths Beach. This involved various documents outlining the food packages, drink packages, seating arrangements, costs, staff and images of the venue. The information packages turned out surprisingly well and looked very professional. The two PR girls went down on the weekend and took 100 of the packages. Only 25 were given out, which was a bit disappointing as we hoped to hand out many more in the hope of securing weddings for the upcoming wedding seasons. This is the first time Lamont’s were a part of the wedding expo and many people who visited the expo were not aware of who Lamont’s were and that they had a restaurant down south. Therefore this expo helped to gain exposure for the Lamont’s brand and put their “foot in the door”. People may choose to have lunch at Lamont’s next time they are the region which will definitely impact positively for Lamont’s.

Overall I have learnt some valuable lessons at Lamont’s and have realised how important it is to make a good first impression as they relate directly to the future and how people perceive you.