Ending an Eventful Journey

In three words, I'd sum my internship experience with Edelman Malaysia as An Eventful Journey. Being placed under the Corporate practice, my team members were telling me about how fortunate I was to get the chance to be a part of three clients' events and a few company events. But that's besides the point, I am also grateful for all the opportunities I was given; work I was assigned into doing, clients that I got to personally meet, events that I got to attend, as well as liaise with the media. There are things that we need to experience to appreciate, and I believe these are some of them. 

Throughout my internship period with Edelman, I didn't only get to see the theories I have learned in class come to life, but being exposed to the real world actually enhanced my personal growth. Albert Camus once said, "You cannot create experience. You must undergo it." I now know why a lot of people say that experience is a great teacher.

Great experience, great people - Corporate Team during Edelman's 2015 Trust Barometer Malaysia Results Release 

My very basic knowledge in media relations were put to good use when I had to deal with the media - not just when I had to talk to the editors and journalists, but to also have basic information about each publication. Always keep in mind that the media always think of rationales - why would this event matter to them, why should they publish your story? Does it benefit them or their readers? Prepare few key points before pitching anything to them. 

Media Interview with Datuk Zainal, CEO of InvestKL during one of InvestKL's events. 

Besides that, I was also privileged to have been given the opportunity to be a part of few brainstorming sessions for our clients' strategic development. Similar to what we have learned in class, each strategy has to be in line with the key messages we are sending across, as well as supported by strong and firm tactics. Also, always remember to state your rationales - how would this specific strategy help what the company wants to achieve? It may sound tedious in paper, but trust me, in real life, people actually want to know all these.

In short, it was a great placement experience. If I didn't take up the challenge to get out of my comfort zone and fly to KL, I probably wouldn't have had experienced any of these. But I'm glad that I did - it was a brief three months, but trust there's more to come in the future and I wouldn't replace this experience for any other!

Before I end, let me know about your experience and sum it up in three words - feel free to drop comments!

This is my last post,

Celeste.

3 things I learned

I believe we all learn a couple or more things from our internship programme. Be it a month or three, there are always things that will stick to you. Let me share with you, three important things I have learned from my internship period with Edelman Malaysia.

Be active. Yes, boys and girls. Whatever it is you do, be active. Well, I am not saying the get-your-gears-we-are-going-hiking kind of active. But more like me, encouraging you to engage in conversations with your colleagues. Scrap that "I am only an intern" mentality off and start talking to the people sitting next to your table. But remember, talk only when necessary. Oh, and another important point is speak your mind. These people love fresh ideas. Sky is the limit, so go crazy with your imagination, especially when you're called in for brainstorming sessions!

Ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask questions. It's not that it is expected of you to NOT know things, but it is OK to not know things. Interning in Edelman has taught me that everyone is still in the process of learning, and sharing various knowledge and insights with one another is one of the key steps to improving yourself as well as to grow together as a company. Trust me when I say ask questions. People appreciate questions rather than nods - because they're not sure whether you really understand what they are talking about... or not. 

Lend a hand. Similarly to being active, ask for more work. If you think you haven't done or learned enough, offer yourself to help your colleagues. It can be as small as clearing up the Christmas tree at the office, to doing manual media monitoring (yeah, going through newspapers can be tough!) or as big as developing strategies for your clients. At the end of the day, we are all working towards reaching the same goal. So, it is definitely important to keep the dynamism going in the team! 

That's it, boys and girls. I hope you enjoyed reading! Let me know what you think about my experience, and you can also share a couple of things you've learned from your internship! Do comment down below!

Til my next post,

Celeste 

Trust Barometer Malaysia Launch

"Communicate with integrity, engage with transparency"

Raymond Siva, Managing Director of Edelman Kuala Lumpur

If there is one thing I am truly grateful for throughout my internship programme, it is being a part of Edelman's Annual Trust Barometer launch. We hear and study about the Trust Barometer in class, but being able to witness the launch and participate in the event's preparation, it's an experience I can really talk about.

Here are some insights: 

Edelman's Trust Barometer 2015 revealed that there was a significant 9 points drop of trust to 45% in the Malaysian government. According to the survey, the diminishing trust in government is caused by the twin aviation accidents of MH370 and MH17, ebola pandemic, cybersecurity crimes, conflicts in the Middle East and Asia as well as the falling international crude oil prices. 

In short, NGOs still remain as the most trusted institution, followed by businesses, the media and the government. In Malaysia, there was also a big 13 points drop of trust in the media, of which search engine being the 'first used' tool to validate certain information. 8/10 Malaysians rely on search engines to be their source of information. Because "no one wakes up every morning checking the newspapers first, instead, we Google it." Global result showed that millenials are even more trusting of digital media compared to traditional media.  

Edelman's Trust Barometer launch was attended by over 100 clients, prospects and other guests, with four distinguished panelists - CEO of InvestKL, Head of Digital & Social Media Studies at University Malaya, Executive Director of Sisters In Islam (NGO) and MD of PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia. 

All in all, it was a good experience. Seeing the people who attended the launch was amazing. It's also interesting because people care about what impacts their institutions - trust. And it is not only about knowing the numbers - diminishing or increasing, but it's what they can do to improve or maintain it. 

The Edelman Trust Barometer 2015 Malaysia Results was announced by Iain Twine, CEO of Southeast and Australasia, Edelman Singapore and Raymond Siva, Managing Director of Edelman Kuala Lumpur.

The working team -  Corporate, Public Affairs & Crisis and Digital

Introducing the Corporate team :)

Til my next post,

Celeste

First Event: Linde launches first Remote Operating Centre in Malaysia

Before I go into the nitty-gritty of my first event, let me first introduce where am I currently undergoing my internship. I am interning at Edelman Kuala Lumpur, and placed under the corporate practice. In short, I get the opportunity to work with “formal” clients – government bodies, finance institutions, oil & gas companies and so on and so forth.

Moving forward, one of our clients is in-charge of bringing in multinational companies (MNCs) to set up their regional headquarters in Greater Kuala Lumpur by 2020. Linde, an MNC that was brought in  in 2013 were to launch its first Remote Operating Centre (ROC) in Shah Alam, Malaysia. So doing what PR practitioners do best, we were in-charged of helping our client to deal and liaise  with the media.

Here are some of the things I did –

Pre-event:

• Media invite dissemination – Our invitation was sent across to all types of dailies; English, Malay and Chinese as well as business magazines.
•  Media call downs – I was asked to check on the media invite’s receipt and follow-up on RSVPs (I was sort of frustrated that I only got to confirm two media attendance – ONE NIGHT BEFORE THE EVENT, and it was already 9pm!)

Event:

• Media registration – Our team was assigned to welcome and register the media. (Guess what, on the day of the event, another 4 media titles came so we had 6 media titles in total, covering the event! Huge relief!
• Mingle with the media – We did not really mingle with them, but I got the chance to speak to one of the journalists from The Malay Mail, which was cool – it was interesting how she has been writing for auto for the past few years and decided to change to business.
• Refreshments – Malaysians love food. And of course we had the majestic nasi lemak with rendang, curry and other kuih-muih as well.

Post-event:

• Press Release dissemination – We disseminated the event’s press release to all the media titles we have invited to get coverage.
• Media monitoring – The following day, we had to do a manual monitoring, which was to go through all the newspapers manually and check for coverage as well as do an online sweep to check if the news was picked-up by any online news portals.

Since this was my first event, of course I was ecstatic to see the coverage on the newspaper! So here are some of the coverage we've gotten from the event -

Til my next post,

Celeste