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)!

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:

 

Websites and Research and Interviews… Oh My!

Websites and Research and Interviews… Oh My!

By Alaine Bailey-Bentley Campus

Coming into the office feels like a routine that I had been doing for months now. I have been fortunate enough to be asked to perform many tasks like writing/creating newsletters through MailChimp  (example can be found at the bottom of this blog post), helping write media releases and writing introductions and more questions for Barbara’s talk show HelloDarlink.

This week when I arrived to the office on Monday Stacey asked me to brainstorm ideas for the Pet Show Expo website that Momentum Forum Event manages. She wanted to update the website from last year as it seemed a bit too basic and wasn't very informative or eye-catching at first glance.  I looked at different competitors such as the Melbourne Pet & Animal Expo and Sydney Dog Lovers Show websites to compare the differences. I also looked on the Momentum Forum website to see what features and layouts they had in place. After analyzing them I suggested a different arrangement for the sponsors and different tabs to be included to provide information to user and surprisingly my suggestions were taken on board willingly. Stacey then drew up a mockup layout on paper and had to relay it to their website designers they work with.

Unfortunately after that I was back to researching sponsorship contacts for the rest of the day. I am running out of ideas of how many different ways there are to search for different companies. Stacey taught me a clever way to find new ones though. It is to pick a street that is situated in the CBD or in a busy area with many companies on it. You then Google this street on Google Maps and then a whole list of companies will come up that are on that particular street. It was definitely an interesting and effective way to find new companies.

On Tuesday Barbara came into the office very happy, as she had managed to secure an interview with Doctor Ehsan Jadoon, a cosmetic surgeon at Medaesthetics. He will be the surgeon performing on Robbie Anstruther-Burson. I was asked to create another set of interview questions for Barbara to ask Ehsan as well as to write an introduction for both Robbie and Ehsans’ interviews. This took up most of the day as it involved finding and including real statistics into the interview that would interest and shock her audience. My draft was then thoroughly edited by her husband Douglas and Stacey. Although there were many changes made (I understand I still have a long way to go to improve my script writing skills) I am still flattered that they trusted me and my work enough to use it. After the final copy was approved it was printed and stuck to cue cards ready for the interview on Thursday.

I normally work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but Barbara has asked me to come in Thursday instead to help her while she is interviewing Doctor Ehsan Jadoon where her and her camera crew will film it. This interview will then be edited and uploaded onto her YouTube channel HelloDarlink. This will be a very interesting and new experience for me, as I will get to be a part of the behind-the-scenes and backstage to a media production. Hopefully all will go well! I am told I will be helping Barbara by holding up the cue cards, making sure she doesn't miss anything important when interviewing her guest and of course making sure she remains looking flawless.

Newsletter:

http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=6cf376a6b0ffb9de42da84877&id=8fdcfa2430&e=