Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

March 30th 2015! Today marks the last day of my internship at Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad. It was bittersweet this morning at my placement. I had a heavy heart leaving SOPB but yet so excited for what's in store in the near future. I can't wait to work with others and dive into more interesting projects. 

So, to sum up my experience in the public relations unit in SOPB, I learned certain basic PR principles and PR tasks:-

• liaising with colleagues and key spokespeople;
• liaising with and answering enquiries from media, individuals and other organisations, often via telephone and email;
• researching, writing and distributing press releases to targeted media;
• collating and analysing media coverage;
• writing and editing newsletters, speeches;
• writing press releases;
• preparing and supervising the production of publicity brochures, handouts, direct mail leaflets, promotional videos, photographs, films and multimedia programmes;
• devising and coordinating photo opportunities;
• maintaining and updating information on the organisation's website;
• sourcing and managing speaking and sponsorship opportunities;
• fostering community relations through involvement in community initiatives;
• preparing and hosting internal and external corporate events.

3 months have passed by so quickly. I hope everyone has had a great experience during the placement and time to get cranking on that report!

Sabrina Lim
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Need some social goodness? You got it!

 I had the privilege of being involved with SOPB's corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and it was a broadening experience. When CSR is done properly and with a company that embraces the strategic and integrated nature of CSR, public relations is a vehicle of sharing with the world the progress the company is making, or what the world may not know about them.

There were two main CSR programs that the PR department handled; Young Achievers' Award (YAA), Student Adoption Program (SAP) and Mother's Day Blood Donation. 

YAA is a way for the company to recognize and reward high achievers from rural schools and for SAP, SOPB helps students from low income families. My task was to liaise with the rural school authorities, sorting out the students' qualifications for the awards and donation scheme, creating a floor layout, setting the dates as there were different regions involved, preparing school bags, students' name list, seating arrangements, the list goes on. The tasks delegated to me was not as simple as I thought. I had to minimize the mistakes made as we were representing the company's image. Being the "fresh, non-experienced" one, I did make a mistake or two but it was a learning experience and one I would always remember. The closing handover ceremony was held at SOP's Lambir Training Center a day before the blood drive. I was in charge of students' registration and ushering them to their seats. 

The working committee for the event. Yes, that's me on the right as I don't have a uniform.

 

Some pictures taken during the event. The hall was packed and look how cute the kids are!

SOPB's Group Plantation Controller handing over cash and school supplies to a young boy eligible for SAP, alongside Group Chief Executive Officer.

There was also a blood donation drive held in conjunction with Mother's Day last week! And it was SOPB's first external blood drive. Planning for the blood drive was not as tedious as YAA and SAP but still a very educational one indeed. We were in charge of asking for sponsors for banners and the venue, designing for promotion purposes, liaising with the Blood Bank with their available dates, liaising with administration department, getting ready goody bags that consisted of healthy snacks for successful blood donors etc. The event was a pretty successful one! We had 9 organ donor pledges and 93 pints of blood donated.

 

        Carnations and goody bags ready to be given to successful donors. 

All chairs were occupied from 10am-3pm!

Group photo consisting of SOPB staffs, Blood Bank, Miri Red Crescent Society and Permaisuri Imperial City Mall representatives. I'm the one on the bottom second right.

CSR is about smart business practices. It is about constant improvement and integrity. PR is about reporting on the events as they occur or showcasing a history of events and trending. The danger is when the showcasing precedes the actual work.

Hope all of you enjoyed your placements and drop a comment below if you'd like!

Best regards,
Sabrina Lim
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Public Relations - Not so "glamorous" after all

For the past few weeks, I was extremely busy with SOPB's Corporate Movie Night and the tasks that come with it are not so "glamorous" after all. Hence, the title. I never really realised how important the tiny details are when it comes to planning events. Every detail, big or small, should never be overlooked. I've learned a lot being here at SOPB and one of it is that there are a lot DIYs involved. 

What?! But we announced it already!

SOPB is hosting its first ever Corporate Movie Night next week and the PR department is in charge of handling and overseeing itt. Here's a poster that we created for the event!

 

 

Yeap! The Avengers - Age of Ultron! We had to liaise with TGV Cinemas and I've picked up a couple of do's and don'ts when planning and carrying out the tasks for this movie night.

One of the major do's I learned is to CONFIRM and CHECK anything before posting or releasing news of the event and the don't is to NOT PROCEED on an assumption.

What happened was TGV Cinemas stated that the screening time for the movie is set at 7.30pm with a remark saying the time is subjected to changes. We then proceeded, announcing the event by sending an email blast to all SOPB staffs and within the next 2 hours, all seats were sold. On the very next day, TGV Cinemas sent an email informing us the confirmed details with the time being changed to 8.45pm. And from then on, everything was a mess. Phone call after phone call, after endless liaising with TGV Cinemas, we finally managed to persuade and agree upon the initial time; 7.30pm. It was an eye opener for me to never take things for granted, to never act upon an assumption. Otherwise I would have to clean up the mess created by my own actions. 

  

Always always always remember to do so! It saves a lot of time and energy!

Cheers!

 

Sabrina Lim 

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To Understand is to Perceive Patterns.

I was a little overwhelmed during the first few weeks of my internship at Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad (SOPB) but it was an amazing feeling being able to learn and to grow as a person. I have yet to end my internship so here's what I was involved with during the second/third week of my internship and what I have learned so far.

Immediately after joining the PR Department at SOPB, I was trained to multitask. The clock is constantly ticking and time was on no one's side. You either get the job done or die trying (dramatically put). I had to learn fast and use whatever time I had extremely efficiently. I really learned how important managing time is here at SOPB.

One of the events that I had the opportunity to be involved in was SOPB's Family Day. The PR team was in charge of decorating the hall and also the blood donation drive to be held on the same day. Throughout my experience being involved with the event, the one major lesson that I have learned is this; understanding is no less important than planning.

As I was part of helping out during the blood donation drive, I witnessed that most SOPB staffs volunteered to donate blood which was really great BUT most failed to do so. Their heart rate was either elevated or they lack of rest. It is important to understand that to donate blood, the basic requirements is to be in a relaxed state, not to consume alcohol 24 hours prior to donating blood, have at least 8 hours of sleep and not to be involved in any vigorous activities beforehand. But as it is a Family Day, SOPB staffs joined games and activities which made them unfit to donate blood on that day which drove the blood donation drive to be a lackluster one. Not to mention SOPB hosted their annual dinner the night before the Family Day, contributing to the lack of rest.

It was a lesson well learnt to all and hopefully, there will be proper understanding of the "do's and don'ts" when planning and carrying out an event.

To end on a lighter note, here's a picture to share of me and my colleagues and the blood donation drive team on SOPB's Family Day! 

 

Me (top right) with my colleague (top left) with the blood donation drive team.

Till then, cheers! Have a great internship!
Sabrina Lim

p.s. Quote in title is by Isaiah Berlin.