Feel the burn!

Well folks, I’ve just had my first experience in organising an event!

On the 23^rd of September, I was charged with holding an employee relations event, which was the Global Goals: Health and Wellbeing Workout. This event consisted of a cardio workout for the staff members within Interhill Headquarters, and was inspired and held in conjunction with the Global Goals #3, which was Health and Wellbeing. In this event, we encouraged our staff to adopt a healthier and more active lifestyle in their daily lives.

There were, of course, quite a few challenges and lessons learned in the organising of this event. I’ll just jump straight to them.

Challenges:

1. Talking to people outside of the organisation

-          I had to talk to ACE Fitness Gym, in Miri, and somehow confirm with them that we would be using their gym and attending a cardio class for FREE. It took persuasion and a formal proposal letter but we managed to assure them that the amount of publicity they would receive from the media coverage of our event would be more than enough.

2.   I had to convince employees to attend.

You would think this wouldn’t be a challenge…but you would be wrong. Employee cooperation is a hard thing to come by, and I had to market this event to many employees simply to get a handful of people to attend the event, that was designed entirely for them. No one tells you how complicated and redundant this can seem, but really it is a necessary evil because without events like these, employees feel less included in the company.

Lessons learned:

1. Be confident in yourself, and others will be confident in you. For those people within ACE Fitness Gym, I wasn’t ‘the intern’, I was a public relations officer, not because I misrepresented myself but because I behaved in a way that showed that I wasn’t scared to be frank with them and to do my duty for the organisation without being pushed around by my ‘elders’.

2. Be friendly! The whole reason for the event was for employee relations, and though I am only temporary asset to the group, I still felt as though I was a part of them. Employees want to feel like they are accepted within their organisation, not simply utilized. Therefore we helped to bridge the gap between departments and employees with this event, where we all got together and practiced healthier lifestyle habits together.

At the end of the day, we really DID feel the burn of that cardio workout, but we walked away better and closer together as an organisation, so it truly was a worthwhile experience for me.

Introductions and catch-ups

Hi Everyone!

My name is Tahlia Manners, I'm a Mass Communications student majoring in PR and Web Communications and, like all of you, am completing my 20 day PR internship at a company called Savvy Creations who specialize in Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle, Health and Fitness and Travel PR. I started the process to finding a placement way back in January of this year and secured the role as a PR (and now marketing) intern in February...so technically have done a few more than 20 days! The experience so far has been fantastic and have learnt so much on the way.

To get you up to speed, the past 7 months has been focusing on the total re-branding of Savvy Creations. When i first started, my roles included copy-writing for the new SC website to make it sound sophisticated and modern and RESEARCH, research and more research in to what makes a great PR company- from aesthetics to their practices (which is why Savvy Creations later decided to include marketing as part of their services. Clients want a one-stop shop). For this, I spent hours researching many different PR websites, media kits, logos and branding which acted as inspiration. During this time, I helped in providing images for the new website, the content, colour schemes, PR and Marketing packages for businesses and decisions on logo designs. The final logo decision is the one below which embodies the way in which the company wanted to be perceived: contemporary and sophisticated

Now that you are all up to speed on some of the highlights thus far, my last meeting with my boss (meetings occur roughly every 2 weeks where we are assigned the work) I was asked to;

1. Write 2 Press Releases:  
2. Come up with an innovative publicity stunt for a client**
3. Write and draft an advertising campaign for a client**
4. Come up with 30-40 Web Development companies in Perth and write up a generic email to send to them to inform on our services and how we can help
5. Look over a Perth photographer's website and write up some possible content changes.

I'm currently completing all of these tasks with an upcoming meeting this week, which I will update you all on the end results

What i have learnt so far from my internship (in particular this week)

1. Organisation is key: with uni work, part time job and assignments, prioritize and get all the work done before the due date as in the past couple of weeks, my intern boss has needed the work early. That way, you'll never get caught off guard. 
2. Always ask questions: the more you know about a task and the company the better you can complete it. Background research is also vital, so have a look at the company website, their vision and missions.
3. Be enthusiastic and eager: ultimately one of the main reasons I was originally hired was due to my enthusiasm, which as my boss says is something you cant teach. I will always ask my intern boss if there is any more work she is willing to give me to build up my experience and make a lasting impression.

I promise the next post will be shorter..7 months of catch up (in a nutshell) is now done. 

Tahlia