Am I industry ready now? A reflection of industry placement

My time at Event and Conference Co. has come to a close and I feel like I have learnt a lot.

But do I feel ready to enter the Public Relations Industry?

Working for Event and Conference Co. as an intern was an eye opener into the way a small events businesses work. The business had minimal paid staff and quite a few interns. This posed it's own challenges and benefits.

While I felt comfortable knowing I could talk to the other interns and bounce ideas around, the owner of the business, however, having so many interns producing work meant everything needed to be proofed and reworked in more detail than, I think, if the work was produced by professionals. It meant I had less room to fail and I needed to learn to produce industry quality work quickly so she didn't need to review my work so much.

I learnt a lot from my industry placement that I only knew in theory before starting my placement. I have more confidence in myself and the skills I have learnt while at Curtin University. I now know for certain I chose to study a profession I will enjoy and excel at. I do not think small business event work is where I see my career path heading but working in that environment taught me a lot and gave me to tools, knowledge and experience to know where I want to head and know I will succeed in the Public Relations field.

How was your industry placement experience? Do you think the area you interned in is where you want your career to focus? Or, like me, did it show you you want to pursue other areas of public relations?

Over and Out,
Bridgette

Practice makes perfect: Perfecting a Media Release

Throughout my time at Event and Conference Co. I have had few chances to write media releases. One of the main reasons I chose an event based internship for this placement was because I presumed there would be many opportunities to work on my media release writing. While I've been busy enjoying completing lots of other work, the lack of media release writing has meant I haven't had the opportunity to gain confidence in my writing and my ability.

This week, Event and Conference Co. has been working with the City of Armadale and Perth Kilt Run to host the 2015 Perth's Largest Kilt Run. I've been researching prices for prizes, announcers, completing risk management plans and, I wrote a media release!

The core of a media release and important information is quite easy to write, but the headline and lead paragraph? I struggled. As a journalist, I struggled not to write it in an unbiased and 'newsy' way. I would then over compensate and it would come across selling the event too hard. I worked hard and eventually submitted a copy my supervisor was very impressed with.

I found this article quite handy to look over while writing the media release.
5 tips to follow when writing press releases

It's was very satisfying feeling when my supervisor is happy with the work I produced. Did you find that too? I'd feel proud that it was up to industry standard.

Did you have more opportunities to write media releases? Do you think it helped your confidence in writing them?

Bridgette

Day One: a glimpse into the 'Real World'

Hello everyone!

My name is Bridgette Stephens and this is the first of four blog instalments to reflect on my internship experiences at Networking WA/Event and Conference Co. I am studying a double degree in BArts Journalism and BCom Public Relations at the Curtin Bentley campus.

As I began searching for an internship to work at to complete this Industry Placement Unit, I thought about the sort of Public Relations work I wanted to gain experience in, and where I saw myself working in the future. As I reflected on previous work experience I had done and units I'd taken throughout my course, I realised event management and media based work had been my favourite. So, when I found Networking WA/Event and Conference Co. I thought I had found the perfect fit.

The interview with the owner was brief and I was nervous to start the following Monday. I so nervous to start, I arrived 30 minutes early and sat in my car waiting for 9am. I think I expected to be overwhelmed with information, but my first day was, really, just a step-by-step process of getting myself connected to the server, being shown by other interns where to find jobs to complete, who to send completed work to, and how to label it. I felt a little more comfortable knowing I would be interacting with other interns who were also at Curtin University.

The majority of the work I will complete for the duration of the internship will be done independently and sent through to my supervisor at the end of the day. With so many assignments at university completed as group tasks, I think it will be interesting to complete them independently.

Did everyone else have the same experience as me? Or did you have a more fast-paced first day?

Bridgette

I am ready, Hello big world!

As my time has come to an end in not only my internship, but my life as a public relations and marketing uni student I look back and see the huge levels of growth I have achieved. This has been academically and as a person. Three years ago I never thought that the end of my university life would have flown past so quickly. The study of public relations has given me a vision on what I want to achieve as a practitioner. During my internship this was just consolidated. These points were as follows:

·      Ethical practice is key. Some situations you are placed in are uncomfortable. The ethical handling of them may not be the easiest, but the long-term benefits outweigh the short run uncomfortable feeling you may have. In three years time will you remember that one Monday morning you were stuck in a sticky situation? You may however remember key ethical situations you handled well, helping your personal development as a public relations officer. Looking back at your career at 50 you would be proud of yourself if you upheld the highest ethical integrity you were able to achieve.

·      Do not write something you would not want your grandmother to read. Yes, as cheesy as this sounds it is a great principle to go by. Every single email you send, media release you write or newsletter publication is out in the public domain for anyone to read. It is stamped with your name on it. With the world becoming ever more tech savvy it is becoming easier for potential employers to find out what you’ve been up to. This goes for the world of social media as well!

·      Pick a career path you will enjoy. This is key to enjoying your job in a public relations role. I have found through my placement that government departments are where I would like my future to be. Health industry would be ideal, but depends what opportunities I am faced with. You will hold a higher level of passion for your work. This ultimately motivates you to put in those few extra hours or write a great strategy or media release.

Overall I feel that doing a public relations internship was the best thing for my future career ahead. It gave my guidance, assertiveness and motivation to what career path I would like to pursue. My confidence levels rose in my ability to implement public relations skills. Before my internship I was nervous to face the “big world”. Now I feel that I am ready for the next stage of my life, including the great career PR will bring.

Good luck to everyone and I hope that your internships were as helpful as mine!

Wrapping up my internship - consultancy

Hi everyone,

I have now officially finished my internship at Mills Wilson Communication Consultants, and what started out as a stressful experience (I'm a busy girl) ended up as a very enriching one.

I am relieved to now have two days a week free to sleep in and then work on my dreaded report! I have  written a complete framework of my report, and completed the summary of work and organisation background sections. I'm really struggling to incorporate what I learnt at university with what I did during my internship, but I am sure I will get there.

Here is a short summary of the key things I learnt during my time at Mills Wilson:

• Communication materials must be consistent down to the tiniest detail: e.g. the theme listed in the proposal must be carried throughout the event plan and noted in the budget, running order etc.
• Just because you are writing for corporate clients it does not mean your writing should be dry and boring
• Writing for different audiences (in my case, different housing estates under one company) should maintain the company image but also cater to specific needs and demographics of that audience
• Don't let your emails build up!

I also learnt an important thing about myself which is that working in a 9-5 office is perhaps not the place for me (though I kind of knew this already)! That said, I have learnt invaluable skills that I will take with me out of Curtin and into my next big adventure - Melbourne.

Thanks for reading,

Good luck with all your reports!

Darcy Rahn

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Event day goes by in a flash

On Sunday August 4 I arrived at Curtin bright and early, 7:30 am! Open Day was finally here and I was extremely excited to see everyone’s hard work come together but a little sad to end my time with Asha and University Marketing. The final week of my internship was a blur of meetings, final confirmation and what felt like hundreds of emails a day!

Many of the Fun Zone suppliers were arriving between 8 – 8:30 am and I had to be there to ensure they knew what to do and where to go, fortunately there were very few problems! A few days before Open Day I had compiled information packs for each supplier and sent them via email so they knew what was happening, how to access their area etc. Andi, our entertainment manager, was extremely helpful with handling the talent and activities on the day.

There were only a few small hiccups, such as St Johns Ambulance driving into the wrong area and having to drive all the way back around campus to the right area. I also had to direct Nova through heavy traffic and crowds up into John Curtin Forum, which was quite scary!

The Fun Zone was extremely popular, we ended up having a circus workshop alongside all our other activities which visitors of all ages absolutely loved! I also managed to book Vintage Photobooths at the last minute, their carnival themed booth was a huge hit. Coordinating and managing the Fun Zone definitely taught me the importance of through preparation and keeping a constant line of communication with external stakeholders – we had done so much preparation prior to Open Day that the Fun Zone basically ran itself.

Despite bad weather for the week leading up to Open Day, it was a very sunny and warm 23 degrees! It was a little annoying as we had invested so much time and effort into accounting for the possibility of rain, but we really could not have asked for better weather. The day came together very well and it was amazing to see the scale of the event and the huge number of people who attend.

Asha, my boss & the Open Day Project and Brand Consultant, was definitely the best boss I have ever had! She has taught the importance of time management as she definitely practices it on a daily basis. Asha is so organised, she is always on top of everything and aware of what’s going on which is an important part of why Open Day runs so smoothly. Despite the fact that the week prior to the event was busy, it was never stressful or difficult to deal with anything, which is something that Asha fostered within the work environment. I am definitely happy that I chose to complete my internship in corporate communications instead of consultancy, it was amazing to see how the marketing and public relations team behind such a big brand works and how smaller teams within Curtin came together to work on the Open Day project. 

(Written on August 10, 2013)

Public Relations in Parliament

So far I am ¾ of my way through my placement here at FHHS. Today I learnt an invaluable lesson from my supervisor. She briefed me on how to deal with contentious issues when raised in parliament. Contentious issues and the handling of them has not been touched hugely on in my studies at Curtin, so I found the information invaluable. I am hoping to work in a similar industry when I graduate, so for all I know in a year’s time I could be dealing with a similar issue.

A contentious issue is often based around a controversial topic. It is often a topic that people may fight over. Due to the industry of my placement this could be based around confidentiality, patient information, difference between public and private health systems or medical practice.

Due to confidentiality reasons and not being able to release specific details, the lessons I have learnt will be broadly summarised as followed:

• Generally the Opposition Leader will raise the issue in parliament. This leaves the General Leader caught off guard, especially if have not being informed by the Department of Health of the issue. The leaders assistant will then contact the Hospital directly requesting information. At this point as a PR Officer you need to do all that is in your power to fix the issue and fix it fast. In most instances this is drafting a response to the allegations.
• TIME IS PRECIOUS. In some cases you have a matter of minutes to draft a response. If a local newspaper has been tipped and is going to print immediately on the story, you need to respond accordingly.  In most instances the journalist has written the story before contacting you (if on a tight deadline). A PR person’s worst nightmare is the local papers blowing the issue out of proportion and including a statement saying you had no response. This causes community panic. Whether the allegation is true or not, it makes the community think it is. Community members begin to doubt what other controversies have they not been informed on. This brings doubt to the health service and what is provides.
• Responses are vital into creating a point of view the journalist writes by. It enables you as a PR professional to angle the story as much in your favour as possible. You can state in your response the facts, then followed by a statement saying “In no circumstances were the initial claims true.” (If viable of course). This dulls down the hype of the article, as the journalist cannot report on confirmed incorrect information.
• Briefing notes are a key tool used by the Parliament Leader. Obviously the situation is not ideal when to leader is caught off guard in session. You must provide as much detail as possible. This is so the leader can report directly on the facts, leaving no details to the imagination of others. Parliament is not the media, and all facts can be supplied to them in as much detail necessary.

• LESS IS MORE. When responding directly to an allegation the media has obtained, it is best to keep your response to minimum detail. Back the claim up with “legal jargon” if possible. Give them official reasoning to why you cannot provide them all the information they are requesting. This way the reporter understands you are not doing this to be difficult, but due to being legally bound. It is not worth breaking a confidentiality agreement purely to give the reporter the information they want.

When being briefed on this topic, I was overwhelmed with information. I never knew that such a small issue could be blown so far out of proportion, to the point where it is raised in Parliament. Whether it is true or false, that has no relation to me as a Public Relations Professional. You need to do the same amount of work, backing up the response to address the claim. I look forward to my last few weeks here at FHHS, to then walk away with a brain full of new knowledge. 

PR is more than just media release after media release

During the semester break I was spending three days a week interning at University Marketing and it was very busy! 

(Written on July 29, 2013)

Open Day is starting to come together but everyone is busy meeting deadlines for various elements of Open Day, the most stressful deadline for University Marketing staff has been the Open Day program.

The program is integral to Open Day as it is the document that visitors receive to find out what’s going on and where it’s happening. This year it caused a huge headache for the staff members involved, as there were so many venue clashes and staff from faculties/ departments at Curtin who were unwilling to change their plans. Asha and I later discovered that several venues would be closed on Open Day due to construction works around campus – yet another issue to consider! All of the problems with the program made me realise how important effective team work and communication are in a place like Curtin, the University Marketing staff worked extremely well together to edit the program and ensure they made it to print. Asha and I realised that there definitely needed to be an easier way of putting together the program in the initial stages, something which I'm sure will come up in the evaluation phase of the project. 

Halfway through my internship, the Fun Zone is final coming together! Asha and I have decided on a ‘Carnival’ theme for the Fun Zone. The aim is to have a Carnival Marquee with activities such as a laughing clown sideshow game, face painters, balloon twisters, a storyteller, petting zoo, free popcorn and much more! There will also be a separate craft marquee complete with a REmida carnival mask making workshop which uses materials made from recycled bits and pieces.

For an event like Open Day you have to consider so many things, including the risks involved with running such a large-scale event. Whilst I was confirming activities for the Fun Zone, I was tasked with writing up a risk assessment for each activity in the Fun Zone.  This was a time consuming task but part of my role was to ensure that we were aware of potential risks and had appropriate measures in place if any of the potential risks/ hazards were to occur. Completing the risk assessments definitely affirmed the importance of practicing ethically, something that is reiterated heavily in all public relations units. There are so many important stakeholders on campus - employees, students, potential students and their families, so ensuring that Curtin maintained a safe environment and had considered all the risks was highly important, not only for safety but to ensure we had a strategy if anything did go wrong. 

I have also learnt about paid and unpaid media strategies Curtin is using to promote Open Day. University Marketing is in charge of the paid media strategy which has focused on broadcast advertising on radio stations such as Nova and print advertisements on buses, bus stops and billboards outside the university and advertisements in newspapers. Curtin has rebranded Open Day as 'Open Day Catalyst' (i.e. a catalyst for change) so all the merchandise and print advertisements have changed from previous years. The idea of the print ads is for them to look like a festival poster, like a Big Day Out or Groovin' The Moo ad, in order to attract the attention of a younger demographic. 

A Open Day Catalyst advertisement in The Weekend West

The public relations department at Curtin works on the unpaid media side, mostly targeting local newspapers due to the 'community' feel of the event, and they achieved coverage in the Canning Times in the lead up to Open Day. We also worked with Future Students to inform high schools and students about Open Day through their newsletters and I also wrote a short piece for Curtin Wire, which is Curtin’s e-newsletter for high school students. This taught me that public relations is so much more than writing media releases – although this is an integral part to media relations there are many other ways to communicate with your key stakeholders. Coming into my internship I had (wrongly) assumed that PR mostly involved writing media releases, although I have been writing a lot my job has involved many other public relations tasks. 

During the last few weeks of my internship it was my 21^st birthday – Asha very kindly agreed to let me have the day off and also went to the effort of buying me a birthday cake and a small gift! It was a lovely pre-birthday and during my time at University Marketing Asha has made me realise that although we are working on a high pressure project, it doesn't need to be fast paced and stressful all the time. The office environment is still really warm and fun even though everyone is working hard to achieve their deadlines.