Being Recognised for Your Strengths

Hey fellow PR kids!

I'm halfway through my internship at NXT  now and boy has it been one hell of a ride! I have been challenged and pushed in so many different ways and I feel like I am growing so much as a PR professional. My supervisor Natasha is an absolute star and I am so lucky to have her. As Managing Director she has such a wealth of knowledge and experience and genuinely takes an interest in setting me tasks that put me to work. After reading the documents I have produced for her she recognised that writing is one of my real strengths, giving me more challenging assignments as the days have gone on. I love that I have been trusted with this level of responsibility and I am really enjoying exploring different writing styles and dealing with different target audiences.

 As well as NXT, Natasha runs two other organisations- a style and branding firm called EGAMI and an anti human-trafficking charity called the Dine for Life Foundation. With only a few days left till their massive annual dining events in Perth and Melbourne Natasha was really struggling to write her Director's speech to deliver at the events. I do a lot of not-for-profit work and Tash knows that human rights is an area I am incredibly passionate about so last week she pulled me aside and asked for my help in writing her speech. I was delighted! Emotive and persuasive writing is definitely one of my strong points so I was excited to show her exactly what I could do.

Keeping the target audience and key messages in mind I spent the whole day researching and drafting up a speech with a call to action that would make them donate to the cause. This was really challenging because it is difficult to ask people to give you their money without being rude or, for lack of a better word, annoying. I had to play around with the wording quite a lot but think I nailed it in the end.

I have to say I was really proud of the end result and luckily Tash was too! I think receiving positive feedback and praise does so much for morale, especially when you're in a really serious environment where you're totally out of your comfort zone. There were a few things she tweeked and words she changed around to match the natural way she speaks but over all it was warm and fuzzies all round!

Here's my speech for anyone who wants to have a read :)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tjBH7DnX5YZALZPZx-nYHt3xhbAyqpE5VpyrDi6C7ZA/edit?usp=sharing

It's pretty crazy to think something I wrote is going to be delivered in front of hundreds of people in the next few days!

Until next time hombres!

Radhika Kayarat
15383945
Bentley Campus

Helping to make 'Left of Central' right

Since I last spoke to you I have had a very busy, exciting and exhausting few days...

Over the past week or so I have spent a lot of time at Central in preparation for 'Left of Central' which is a three week trial for an activation of Museum Street to make it the heart of the Central campus, like a university campus. The project is part of the greater city link project to re-connect the CBD with Northbridge. Over the three weeks Museum St will feature: bars, bands and international cuisine as well as showing of the student talent and courses on offer at Central.

In the week before the Launch Party to open the three week trial. I was busy helping the team out wherever I could. Mostly this involved either tasks to promote 'Left of Central' or tasks to ease the pressure from full time employees.

The amount to do in the lead up to 'Left of Central' was enormous and with the greater urgency of a looming deadline I found I was given more opportunities to do tasks unassisted by Mike or the rest of the team. For instance I sent out emails and/or communicated to a large number of websites and social media pages about the promotion of the Left of Central. This included Perth Now, We Love Perth On William and X-Press to name a few from a the media mailing list. For this task I had instructions at the beginning of the task and told where to find the resources but worked pretty well unsupervised throughout.

I found this task quite daunting seeing as though this was a hugely important part in promoting our event. I had never done a mail out before and since I did not have a Central email account I was concerned  my efforts might be ignored. Fortunately Mike allowed me to use his and after a long few hours I managed to mail out to all the relevant people on the list. The most daunting though was calling The West Australian Newspaper editor Stephen Bevan to pitch him a story. It was tempting to claim that I worked for Central for the sake of a better chance of the story being published, however I refrained from that ethically questionable option and instead told him I was doing an internship and I think we have a story for him. I'm glad I refrained because in the end he was happy to look at my story and soon sent it through.

I also got to try my hand at events both in planning and running an event. In the two days leading up to the launch party I worked with Leanne who was in charge of putting the event together. I assisted her in writing invitations and informing distinguished guests about the event, including Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, and planning how to use the space. The set up for the Launch Party was one exhausting day, transforming a largely unused street into a potential campus hub. I worked all day setting up marquees, bars, tables and chairs and basically putting it all together and by the end I was so tired I could hardly stay up for the party. I had a great time though and found it so rewarding seeing the space transformed and people enjoying it and knowing I helped to make this happen.

So far I am really enjoying the variety of work and experiences i can contribute to at Central and can't wait to see what the next few weeks hold.

talk again soon