alas, the end.

After completing my placement at Corporate Sports Australia i'm so glad i was given the opportunity to gain some practical experience in the real world of public relations - and to be able to this as part of my degree.

While hours spent stuffing envelopes and sifting through survey results wasn't exactly my idea of fun, you've got to start somewhere!

During my internship i was given some great opportunities to put my skills and knowledge of the Public Relations industry into practice through media release writing, producing business reports, media guides and stage managing on event day. I was able to build on this knowledge through attending a press conference, communicating with key stakeholders and working alongside industry professionals.

I've gained invaluable PR experience from interning at CSA, as well as some great insights into the world of Marketing and Event Management. Receiving great feedback from my supervisors has given me a great confidence boost and reinforced just how relevant everything i've learnt at Curtin really is.

And i think, just maybe, i am ready to enter the challenging and fast paced world of Public Relations. Look out.

Traditional Public Relations - So much more satisfying!

Over the course of my internship at Corporate Sports Australia i've spent a significant amount of time completing tasks generally thought of as 'traditional public relations' - such as media release production and distribution.

After writing a number or media releases on the city to surf, i am a firm believer that tradtional PR tools still have a place in today digitalised society.

Of the last four media releases i've produced, two have generated some excellent free publicity in The Sunday Times! yay! and some were also featured on the City to Surf website. In my opionion seeing some recognition of your hard work in print in the newspaper is so much more exciting and satisfying that simply maintaining a presence of Facebook.

Except when i told my mum and she couldn't understand why name wasn't on the article. 'No mum, i didn't actually write the article, i wrote the media release. Which the journalist then decided to write an article based on.' She definitely did not share my excitement.

Corporate sports are very into championing the notions of 'tragedy and triumph' within media release content. As interns we were pushed to seek proactive stories that will connect with the wider Perth community, tapping into emotions through, inspiring stories of everyday people - like them! And then hopefully encouraging them to get off the couch and run a marathon!

Earlier in my placement i wrote a media release on the cutest couple ever. Now in their 70's they have run every single City to Surf to date! And they were probabaly the nicest people i've ever met, they even sent me loads of old photos and media clippings from marathons they've competed in around the world.It was nice to be able to recognise their acheievement and give them something back through getting the story published.

Writing media releases at my internship gave me an opportunity to showcase some of the skills i've picked up over the last three years of studying and i now have some great pieces of work to include with my CV.

Underestimating the importance of good internal communication between employees

Corporate Sports Australia is a very small office. There would not be more than 15 full time staff squeezed into one floor of offices above bar 1907 – and a lot of the staff don’t even have an office. About 6 of them (plus the interns) work from adjoining cubicles.

In such a small office , when you are constantly within a metres distance from another colleague, you would think it would be easy to maintain good internal communication. Apparently it’s not.

During my 10 weeks at CSA I heard a few of the employees mention how bad internal communication was within the organisation and how much better it had been in previous years. As an intern I imagine I did not experience the full extent of where it was lacking, especially as I had no idea of what ‘good internal comms’ looked like.  

While there were 15 staff in the office, only five of these were really involved with the City to Surf. And despite them being in constant contact with each other (where it was essential to the management of the event) there seemed to be a lack of general support.

Over the course of my internship a few instances gave me an indication of just how bad there communication was – and it really impacted my view of the organisation as a place of work and my relationships with senior staff – which in turn affected my attitude to work and possibly my work ethic.

About 2 day before ‘event day’ i’d received no information on what I’d be doing at the City to Surf – so I assumed I would be assisting in the media tent with the majority of the interns. Nope. On the Friday before the City to Surf (Sunday) myself and another intern were walking down to a press conference when she said, ‘hey congratulations on getting the stage manager role for Sunday.’ Stage manager? I had no idea this role existed nor had my boss mentioned it to me. Ever.

Later that day, i was ‘briefed’ on the role by the intern. Having been put in this role at such late notice, made it feel as if I were simply thrown in there as an afterthought. The fact that my boss had not bothered to tell me herself made it feel like a really insignificant job – which was reinforced by being briefed by an intern. Having now fulfilled this role I know one thing:

There was A LOT of information that no one bothered to tell me.

Funnily enough, my next task was to create a formal brief for the next intern who would be assigned the role of stage manager. How nice for them.

Following event day (Monday was one of my normal office days) I was ready to head in when I got a message from another intern making sure I knew we were not needed in the office until lunch time. Thankfully I got her message before I left, because all the senior staff had neglected to share this information with me.

On my last day of interning I spent 5 hours by myself in the office sifting through stats. The other staff had not bothered to mention they would all be out of the office until the afternoon.

These do seem like quite petty examples of bad internal comms and as an intern I never expected to be treated on the same level as senior staff, but as a result, it really changed my impression of the organisation and the people I was working with.

Until next time (hopefully with less whingeing)

Alanna

Welcome to the bottom of the food chain.

Hi everyone and welcome to my first blog post. Like many of you, I have recently completed an internship as part of the Curtin University unit, Public Relations 393 (Professional Practice). This blog will serve as a forum for reflection on the day to day experiences (good and bad) and musings of a third year Journalism and Public Relations students trying to get by in the ‘real’ and not always glamorous world of PR, marketing and event management.

So, where to start?

I have a serious problem with making decisions. When it came to applying for university, along with PR, I was tossing up between marine biology, environmental science, English literature, politics, history, archaeology and about a billion other things.  I feel exactly the same way when it comes to looking beyond my PR degree. Not-for-profit? Fashion? Events? Music? In house? Consultancy? Whatever Samantha does on Sex and the City?

So, when it came time to look for an internship – let’s be honest, I was lost.

When I saw that Corporate Sports Australia (CSA) was taking on PR interns, I thought why not? While sports was never an area I’d considered working in, I figured this would be a great opportunity to get some practical experience in a challenging environment – working behind the scenes on Western Australia’s largest community sporting event – the ‘City to Surf.’ 

Day 1 – ‘Lets feed the interns to the sharks’

I was pretty nervous about my first day – mostly because I have very little experience in the ‘real world’ of PR. While I have gained excellent knowledge of the industry through my studies, it is still a huge leap to go from assembling a communications plan for a client you have never met, to providing practical and feasible recommendations for someone who is actually asking for your assistance.

Nerves aside, my first day at the CSA office started off much as I expected. Myself and another intern were introduced the small team of about fifteen staff. Throughout the internship as a PR/Events intern I would primarily be working with three people at CSA; the Event Manager, the Marketing and Media Coordinator and the Volunteer Coordinator. While CSA is essentially a consultancy, for the duration of my internship I would be working solely on the City to Surf.

We were then given a DVD to watch as an introduction to the event. While I was able to gain an insight into what the event is and it’s history, I was left with no knowledge of the organisation itself, the vision and mission of CSA or the role of PR/Marketing/Advertising within the organisation.

With this in mind, I was giving my first major and completely unanticipated task.

Presumably, my supervisor had not intended to make my head explode on my first day. Or, maybe she had. Nonetheless after watching the DVD and perusing the City to Surf website, I was asked to create a ‘Marketing Operations Plan’ for a major sponsor.

I feigned some confidence and gratefully accepted a very brief document with a list of headings I was to include in this ‘plan.’ They included things like contra management, sponsorship details, services offered by CSA, volunteer coordination plus many, many, more. (cue head exploding)

Looking back now, the report seems relatively straightforward. Yet on my first day at a new organisation, I was absolutely lost. Ahem, Contra management? Yet by some miracle and after many questions, I managed to create an altogether not-too-shabby report!

To sum up my first day of interning:

•       I think it would have been beneficial to both the interns and CSA itself to conduct a formal briefing session before we commenced our internships. Looking back now, there are many things I would have done differently and possibly better, had I received some initial information. 
•       Being an intern was not as daunting as I had anticipated. The people were friendly and happy to answer any questions I had.
•       No one asked me to get coffee or collect their dry-cleaning. WIN
•       I LOVE having an excuse to dress corporate and power walk through the city with an air of self-importance like the other business people!

Alanna