Plan, Stress, Execute, Relax!

Cannings Purple has been working with the international agribusiness; Bunge who is involved in the wheat market, dedicated to grains trading and has been successful in combining with a network of key players in the domestic grain supply chain to facilitate exports to global customers.

Bunge left the important planning, deciding and executing for the official opening of its new grain export terminal in Bunbury and cocktail party in the hands of Cannings Purple.

I was asked to help source custom wine bags, blue carpet for a ‘red carpet affect’ and numerous other small tasks for both the launch and cocktail party.

The day finally arrived and all I can say was that it was a long day, I was up at 6:30, driving down to Bunbury and when arrived it was all systems go. I was given an information pack, which included:

           

-Contact details

            -Event checklist

            -Running time sheet

            -A mud map  

Threw out the day I was helping set up the launch event, shadowing the photographer and gathering names of those in each photo as well as ushering people attending the event onto the bus and providing them with valuable information.

Once the launch event was about to finish myself, Sophie and Danika raced over to the Bunbury BREC Centre where the cocktail party was to be held in 1.5 hours and started preparing the venue for the night ahead. The 1.5 hours we had felt like 10 minutes because soon enough it was 4:40pm and we were racing to our hotel to quickly get changed and we were back for 5:00pm for the cocktail party to start.

It truly was an amazing day and night and made me realize how much blood, sweat and tears go into an event like this. However you feel a sense of happiness and relief when the event all comes together and more importantly the client is extremely happy, that’s when you know you have done your job and now can relax! 

Being able to be apart of this event has allowed me to expand my experience in this work field. I was able to apply knowledge from the unit PR Techniques in relation to organising an event, event checklist and a running time sheet. 

I am excited what else the rest of my days at Cannings Purple have to offer me! 

Rebecca Uglow

16177767

Bentley Campus

Who said Pro Bonos weren’t rewarding?

Hello!!

This week has been exciting - and extremely satisfying.

It all happened after one of the Cannings Purple directors approached the Salvation Army’s women’s refuge centre, Graceville, which has been supporting Western Australian women and children in crisis for more than 130 years.

Graceville has two refuges providing safety for women and children, most of whom are homeless because of family and domestic violence.

Cannings Purple is helping Graceville source valuable donations and supplies and myself and another Intern were asked to work on tools, which could help the shelter in the future.

I was given the task of helping construct these tools, which so far include:

v Drafting a generic thank you letter

v Drafting a generic application for [donation] letter; and

v Drafting a profile for Graceville

I was lucky enough to go along with one of the CP directors and a couple of other colleagues to visit the Graceville shelter and interview Margaret MacDonald (Major) who gave us an amazing insight into what she and her staff do for these desperate and vulnerable women.

She also gave us examples of anonymous and shocking case studies and the programs the Salvos run to help these victims become independent again.

Walking around the shelter I could hear the laughter of children and parents who were peacefully and safely playing with toys and generally enjoying their time together. It dawned on me how important shelters such as Graceville are for women and children who, unfortunately, have been victims of domestic violence.

I was happy I was able to help in anyway I could towards this amazing cause.

My visit to Graceville made me realize how rewarding and satisfying pro bono work can be - not only for the not-for-profit organisations but also for those companies taking the time and effort to really help make a difference.

If I were asked to do it again I would jump at the chance!   

Until next time,

Rebecca Uglow

16177767

Curtin Bentley

Tutors didn’t lie about EDITING

 Hello fellow Interns!

One of the services Cannings Purple offers is investor relations, which is handled by a team that together has more than 100 years of combined experience across a wide range of industry sectors.  As part of my Internship duties I was asked to help the team with the ASX corporate summaries that are provided in CP’s  weekly newsletter, Purple Patch. 

Despite each brief summary only requiring 2-3 sentences, the level of detail, information and research contained in each article posed a degree of difficulty for me, as this was something I had no prior experience or exposure to. Thankfully, the team at Cannings Purple is very supportive and always provides me with feedback on the work I do, allowing me to better understand and grow in this field.

But wait – there’s more!

Around lunchtime I was given a deadline of around 1-2 hours to write a media release, which was going to be sent out that day. It was about the Kalgoorlie Member of Parliament, Wendy Duncan, who came on board with the Gold Royalties Response Group (GRRG) to help the gold sector oppose any increase in gold royalty rate.

To help me, I was given previous media releases that were sent out for GRRG to demonstrate structure, language, information and the way quotes were used.

However, it came as a bit of a shock to learn that not only did Cannings Purple actually write the release, they also made up the quotes on behalf of the client  - rather than vice versa. I always had the idea that clients would provide the quotes and the PR organisation would compose the media release around them.Once I had written a draft of the media release I sat in front of my computer and, remembering the wise words of our tutors, edited, edited and edited.

Once I was happy with the release I sent it to one of CP’s staffers, who edited the release and then passed it on to one of the Directors for further editing. Once she was satisfied with the release the Director gave it to a fresh set of eyes to triple check  - and then it was ready to be sent off to the targeted media. I knew editing was important, however this process made me realize you can never edit too much!    

So always remember - edit, edit and edit again!!

Until next time,

Rebecca Uglow

16177767

Curtin Bentley

Hit the Ground Running

Hi everyone!

My name is Rebecca Uglow and I’m currently in my last semester of a double major in Marketing and Public Relations - and like you I’m doing the unit PR internship. `I was lucky enough to score an internship at Cannings Purple in West Perth.

Cannings Purple is a well-recognised, strategic communications consultancy, providing high quality and personalized communication advice. 

Cannings Purples drive, work ethic, preparation and more importantly the success of landing a new client has taught me a lot in the five days I have been here, especially the fundamental importance of being prepared in order to succeed.

Some can describe a mailing list as ‘difficult to manage’ and is thrown into the ‘too hard basket.’ However the mailing list holds key stake and shareholders who are fundamental for the organisation.

On my first day I was asked to condense the agency’s four mailing lists into one master list. This wasn’t as easy as it may sound! I discovered there were more than 4500 contacts with some being repeated up to five times and some contacts missing either names or the business they were associated with. Over the period of two days - between other work I was given – I managed to cull the contact list down to 1532 and filled in as many names and businesses as possible. This mailing list is used for a number of purposes including Cannings Purple’s newsletter, so it was fundamental to their communication network to have one master list in order to contact all stakeholders and shareholders.

Another fundamental public relations task I performed was media monitoring. One of Cannings Purple’s current campaigns is for the Gold Royalties Response Group (GRRG). There has been numerous articles published online, print and on radio and it was my task to distinguish the various key themes from each media platform. Cannings was then able to provide this information to the client, along with other information relating to the success of the campaign.

Sadly, I didn’t earn a gold nugget for my work, but I’m really excited to see what the rest of my time at Cannings Purple has to offer!

Rebecca Uglow

16177767