Showing posts with label #MassCommDegree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #MassCommDegree. Show all posts

Monday, April 18, 2016

The End of the Beginning

The End of the Beginning

By Alaine Bailey-Bentley Campus

Today was supposed to be my last day at Momentum Forum but unfortunately I was not able to complete it (although I had already completed by 20 required days previously). I had been up vomiting all night and had a fever. I had to call up Barbara regretfully and tell her I could not come to work as I still had a fever and abdominal pain. After going to the doctors he told me it was food poisoning. I wish I could have made up my last day but I begin work at my new internship next week so am unable to do it but I did thank Barbara sincerely for such a great opportunity-both on the phone and in email.

Working for Momentum Forum Events I learnt many things about how to form and maintain relationships with clients, advertise yourself to the public and companies, how to research and contact companies as well as other handy tools such as using Mail Chimp, designing a newspaper advert and writing media releases. It was definitely a worth while experience and I wish Barbara all the best for her next event, the Men in Black Ball which I know will be fabulous if the International Women’s Day Luncheon was anything to go by.

As for me and my future, I have gained another internship with a food blogger. After meeting with her, she promised to help me improve my written skills as well giving me the opportunity to manage her social media accounts (something I am very interested in as a Mass Communication student). She also mentioned that I will be involved in helping her created EDMs, a marketing calendar for her Crust pizza shop that she owns, as well as creating emails and contacting local sponsors for both her blog and her shop. I will always fondly remember Momentum Forum Events as a place that introduced me to the working environment and professional environment and for that I am eternally grateful. This internship has definitely been a worthwhile experience and my advice to future student of the unit is to choose somewhere that is in your desired field as you never know, but it may lead to a job opportunity after your internship completion!

Friday, March 25, 2016

Hello Darlink and Feedback.


Hello Darlink and Feedback
By Alaine Bailey-Bentley Campus

I arrived a little early to the Hello Darlink Talkshow shoot today incase there were any problems and also just so I could take in all the setup of media equipment. It was quite fascinating watching Rex and his son Matthew (the two camera men of the day) rearrange the Medaesthetics office into a space that they could film an interview. It took many small adjusts to get the cameras in different positions to ensure all desirable angles where captured.

When Barbara arrived she quickly went off with Doctor Ehsan Jadoon to go over the interview questions to ensure he was happy with all language that was being used. This left me to chat with Rex who I found to be very friendly and well informed of PR. He began explaining the best ways to interview people and gave me tips to use if I was ever working in a business that experienced a crisis and I were then required to address the media. He also explained the different reasons for setting up furniture and cameras in certain places-something I found interesting, as I had wanted to be a part of the media industry because I chose to pursue PR.

All went smoothly during the filming of the interview; Rex at one point did blatantly stop Barbara if she couldn't be understood or hesitated too long. Seeing the way Barbara was unfazed by his constructive criticism really impressed me because it showed me even someone as experienced as Barbara still needs direction some time, and she was more than willing to hear to Rex’s suggestions-and most importantly-listen to them.

Once the interview was finished and Ehsan had to leave to go to an appointment, we had to pack up as quickly as possible and go to our next location –Robbie’s bouquet in Subiaco where the second interview would be taking place. The moment we got there Barbara headed straight for the change rooms, inspiring Robbie to change his plain top to a black sparkly one. She came out in a completely different outfit (cream two piece) that looked amazing on her. She even found a handbag at the bouquet to match her outfit (while also giving Robbie some small bit of business as a token of respect and appreciation for allowing her to interview him). Barbara had asked if Robbie would like to run through the questions before hand just like Ehsan but he had opted to hear it while being filmed so it was raw and natural rather than staged if he had to answer the questions over and over.

The interview went uninterrupted, except when buses and motorbikes zoomed past the store and Rex had to call a halt to the interview until they passed so the sound levels wouldn't be interrupted.

The next few days at Momentum Forum were just comprised of more research. I must admit it has become a bit tedious and my research standards had begun to drop- something I had not picked up on. But as I went in on Tuesday after the public holiday Stacey sat down with me and addressed this with me. She told me my research has to be more specific as there were many gaps. I was confused by what she meant ‘gaps’ but as I asked, she clarified that some names were missing to contact. I then explained that I could not find those names and therefore that is why they weren’t listed. She quickly understood, nodding her head and told me to make sure to clarify and write ‘no name’ if I could not find any on their website.

I think I was still at the stage where I was thinking this was a university course where everything I do will be marked, and acknowledged but nothing would really come from it after completing it. Stacey’s talk with me definitely made me realize that everything I do must be clear and to a high standard. I can’t expect people to read my mind and understand that the missing information is due to me being unable to locate the information; they will instead interpret it as laziness and sloppiness.

Other tasks that I was asked to help complete included:
-       Double checking VIP guest names before they were printed
-       Writing an introduction for Barbara to read out when awarding Rabia Siddique the Most Inspiring Women of 2016 in the community category for International Women’s Day
-       Creating social media posts for different Facebook pages to celebrate Internationals Women’s Day
-       Helping edit and write an AV sheet for the event.

I am excited and nervous for the actual event, which is in three days time (on Friday)!

Friday, March 11, 2016

International Women's Day.

International Women's Day
By Alaine Bailey-Bentley Campus

The day has finally arrived! The Australian Trade Access International Women’s Day Luncheon was on today and it was a hit! Momentum Forum should be very proud of their achievements and I was honoured to be a part of it. Arriving at the venue early, the volunteers and helpers for the event were put to work to organise raffle tickets, displaying merchandise (t-shirts with Kiss Violence Against Women Goodbye logo on them), placing flyers of sponsors on tables as well as helping with any other setting up.

It was amazing to see how all the planning for the event, came together and even the simplest of elements helped to make the venue look impressive. Once the event started there was little time to think, and rather you just had to jump into the event. My main role of the event was to try and sell raffle tickets, going around to tables to make them aware of the prizes available and encourage them to buy some. One slight issue that was overlooked was the amount of raffle tickets purchased. They were sold out within minutes! And every time I went to a table people were asking if they could buy more even though we didn't have any left to give. I think this could have been an opportunity for Barbara to ask someone to go buy some more from a local shop, because it could have helped raise funds and satisfy her attendees who seemed a bit disgruntled by the lack of ticket availability. Other than that the event ran smoothly with the recipients winning their awards and presenting on stage.

Throughout it all Barbara was in her element, socializing and networking with all her guests and looked to be enjoying herself immensely. I had not realized the satisfaction you feel after all the weeks of planning lead to the event itself. And I was only there for a short amount of time in terms of planning so I can only imagine how Stacey and Barbara must have felt when the day finally arrived.

Photos of the event: