The final day has come!

It’s the evening of Sunday the 3rd of August and the event we have been working on for the past few months has come to a close and what a success it was. This years Curtin Open Day attracted record numbers, the sun was shining and the day ran smoothly. 

When I arrived in the morning I felt immediately the positive vibe that would echo throughout the day. My role on the day itself was to over see the Fun Zone and be the first point of contact for any problems that may arise.

I arrived early and helped Andi and Chris Kelly - the entertainment contractors,  set up for the event. Soon enough the entertainment for the event arrived. I got to see everything I had booked for the area in the flesh and watch it all come together. On the day I had primarily an events manager role as I had to make sure everything ran smoothly in my area and help bump in and bump out the event.

I followed a running sheet like the ones we first learnt to use in PR techniques and I applied knowledge from this unit and previous work experience. Before I had assisted on large scale events but never been the primary contact. The day was exciting and I found ran exceptionally smoothly - I like to think this was because of our planning. I also think this was because of the committed nature and efficiency of the volunteers, without them an event such as this would not have ran as smoothly as it did.

The animal farm, the circus performers and the roving entertainers arrived. Upon reflection I can’t believe the variety of people this event allowed me to work with, as I walked around I got to see all the components we had booked come together and the satisfaction was intense. 

Here are some photos from the event:

Roving entertainers

Bucket basketball

A little pig from the animal farm

Markets Under The Pines

The Fun Zone

Seagulls interacting with characters

The event itself was the least stressful day of the internship, although there were small problems - team work and problem solving eliminated these easily. I had to make direct calls to the electrical and organise power for a variety of acts, along with helping to smooth out a few minor hiccups with the bouncy castle.

To see an event as large as this come together was an overwhelming feeling, it was like all the meetings, ideas and  bookings all merged as one. The day drew record numbers and the reception from the general public and Curtin staff was all positive.

I found that my internship was primarily an events and project management role, but on the day I can see how vital events are to the art of public relations. Curtin Open Day helps communicate to the public Curtins values and overall image, it involves strategic employee communication and team work, it is about creating and maintaining relationships with a variety of stakeholders - which is exactly about what the core of Public Relations is all about.

All systems go - for Curtin Open Day!

It has been a while since my first post and the Open Day activities are underway. I come in twice a week, and over the last few weeks I have been liaising with a variety of external suppliers to come the necessities for such a large scale event.

The vast majority of my position involves communicating with different suppliers, partners and colleagues. I have learnt to carefully construct formal emails and find this makes up a large part of my position here.

I also have been attending a lot of meetings, last week we met with David from Markets Under the Pines. These are markets that are every second sunday on the Edinburgh South Oval at Curtin, they are an external company that we have decided to incorporate into Open Day as they run on the same day. The meetings are a chance for a pitch, as we talk to David over coffee about the benefits of running the markets on this day and see where we can potentially use his suppliers for the day. The pitch is interesting and we manage to negotiate a plan which in the end will save us cost on extra food vans and entertainment.

Today I went over the quotes I had for first aid, water tanks and portaloos. I gained 3 quotes for each, then booked accordingly. The process is quick and easy after a variety of quotes have been looked at. I am learning there are so many parts to an event, each different piece is a small step towards completing the puzzle. An event such as Open Day is ran annually which meant that Curtin already has some solid relationships with external suppliers, this made my job easier as I spoke with Asha about what worked and what didn’t from last year and tried to improve on this with my bookings.

Last week I went along to a meeting with Asha which was all about post event reporting and analysing, this was interesting as I saw how beneficial this can be as assessing the success of an event. 

I noticed how important employee communication is at Curtin the staff all help each other out, we get emails in the afternoons about workshops to do with change, group sport activities and more. You can see how the company benefits by having this in place - there is an excellent vibe and you feel like part of a team that understands the values of Curtin. 

In PR Corporate I focused on Employee communication in times of strategic change, it was interesting to see that this was evident of Curtin. Curtin is going through a massive restructuring as they move forward toward the aim of “Greater Curtin” - there is change workshops, frequent meetings and the change is talked about openly and honestly between employees.

We have also been frequently editing the program for online/print release. The writers send it to Asha and I where we find errors in punctuation and spelling, each time so far we have found some errors - it’s amazing what a fresh pair of eyes can see. I have learnt that in Public Relations editing plays a vital role as how correct a document is can convey the professional or lack of professionalism for that company.

Here is a link to the must-see events for the day: http://openday.curtin.edu.au/must-see/

The next few weeks involve getting my hands dirty, as I will be sorting through signage and taking stock take. I look forward to checking in with you all closer to the date. Wish me luck!

The countdown to Curtin Open Day begins!

Hi everyone! I’m Lucy Quaggin.

As last semester drew to a close and I began to prepare for my final semester at university I knew it was time to start looking for a placement for PR 393. Over the years I had engaged in work experience from a variety of areas from fashion and event companies to boutique consultancies and I wanted to try my luck at something new.

I inquired about doing my placement at a university, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to surround myself with like minded individuals and work for an institution that I truly believe in.

Out of nowhere on the same day an opportunity for a position as Open Day intern arose, I thought it must be fate. I applied and had an interview and the next week I was delivered the news I would be spending the next few weeks at part of the team for Curtin Open Day 2014.

My first day lay ahead and I was both nervous and excited for the weeks that lay ahead.

As I arrived at the Future Students office at Curtin University I was greeted with a sea of friendly faces and introductions.  Each staff member seemed to assure me that on this internship I would be having a lot of fun, the office seemed scattered with past graduates who to had once been in my role.

Asha Selvendra, the project manager had interviewed me two weeks ago and today when I arrived I was keen to get stuck into the planning that lay ahead for Curtin’s largest recruitment event. First off I was set up as a staff member at Curtin; I had my own Open Day email and desk. After previous internships of coffee chasing and data entry, I was excited to have gained a hands on role for PR 393 as it already felt as if I was part of the organisation.

I was given a list of a variety of tasks which I was to organise on an online project management site called Trello. I set up this website and organised the tasks which I would be working on over the next few weeks I was interested to find out more about “Markets under the pines” and the Fun Zone.

Asha soon explained to me that one of my main tasks would be to organise the Fun Zone, I would have liaise with Andi Kelly from Spirit events to choose and book entertainment for Curtin Open Day – the Fun Zone is an area located on Alcoa Court which has previously had a petting zoo, bouncy castles and sumo suits. I spent the morning researching acts, games and activities which would put my own touch on the events at the Fun Zone.

Asha then detailed me on the meetings for the rest of the day; this would be an opportunity for me to network and learn about the workings of Curtin University and what goes in to planning an event such as Open Day. Already I can speculate that the department at Curtin seem to be quite like the bits of a puzzle they cross over and connect to make up a bigger picture. 

Organising of event of such scale is a massive job, it takes more than just the PR element. As I looked at the meetings that lay ahead I could see that the team came from across all departments from course advisors, to the marketing department, events and sponsorship management, site services and faculty heads.

By the end of the day I had a taster of the weeks that lay ahead and I looked forward to the tasks I would complete, the people I would meet and to see this event through from start to finish.

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Lucy Quaggin