10 days into my Positivity journey!

So this is my first blog for my internship at the Australian Education and Leadership Centre!

10 Days into my internship and things seem to becoming more normal and less like my head is about to explode every few minutes from the overload of information!

I must admit I had no idea what to expect when I began at the Australian Education and Leadership Centre. I was a ball of nerves and full of anxiety. Having never had an office job before a million different questions were running through my head, ‘am I wearing the correct clothing?’ ‘Will the people be nice?’ ‘What will they expect of me’ and they just kept coming! 

As the days went by I begun to get my head around things, how the email system works and their internal server, I finally began to feel like I was getting the hang of things!

The people at the Australian Education and Leadership Centre, and the office vibe is really great, everyone is very supportive, friendly and helpful, from day one I felt like I was part of the team.

During my time here I will be helping work on a social campaign called the One Day of Positivity, which focuses on emphasising positive communication in all aspects of peoples everyday life. I will be helping to run the campaigns social media, recruit ambassadors, as well as run events throughout the campaign.

I’m really excited to see what will come with this internship, I’m excited to learn new skills and be able to express my ideas about the One Day of Positivity Campaign.

Until next time! 

Unforgettable experience in Government House

It is my last blog and it finally came to an end. For the past few weeks, I have been working on different posters design for the Global Good Foundation 5^th Birthday event. Tanya assigned me to work on a one-page brochure for all the programs that are ran by GGF. This will be a challenge, as I have to get the point across in one or two sentences, and use graphics to explain the situation.

The reason for writing this blog to the very last minute is because I would like to share an overall unforgettable experience to you.

I was given a chance to perform in the government house in front of 300 or more audiences as well as the governor. It was incredibly amazing and I would never forget this performance.

Why I have the chance to perform in the Government house?

I went to work as usual and I was chatting with Tanya, CEO of Global Good Foundation, in regards to my good news on the singing competition I enrolled and got into Grand Final, after that, she asked if I am interested to perform in the government house on 7^th October, which is the “Butterfly Effect” Event. I was shocked as well as excited as I did not know that I would have this chance to sing in front of the governor and perform in the government house.

Time flies, on the day on performance, I nervously arrived at the government’s house and prepared for the performance of my song – The Climb by Miley Cyrus. I was so nervous that I kept memorizing the lyrics. At the end, I did it! I got a lot of feedbacks from the audience as well as the governor! She was giving a speech and she said “Wylie you sang really well!” I was so surprised that she can remember my name. This was a fun-raising event that helps The Global Good Foundation to raise fund as well as awareness. Finally, Mrs McCusker have donated $20,000 to The Global Good kids Camp.

On top of that, I also prepared for the Global Good Foundation’s 5^th Birthday with my other colleagues. Many tasks have been given to me, and that includes sending out the guest lists, preparation for the catering, as well as ordering of beverages.

It was a great experience on learning how to plan an event and learning on the major concerns when holding an event. I do not only learn how to be organized, I also realized the importance of responsibility. During these days of my internship, it made me a better person for my future and I will never ever forget this journey.

Media Releases - What a Process! - Blog 2

Hi all,

It has been eight days now at the Heart Foundation and it certainly has been busy. The last few days I have been working alongside the media and communication manager to help promote the 2012 DoorKnock appeal. You may be familiar with this campaign; it entails an army of 120,000 volunteers (nationally) “Door-knocking” in order to raise 5 million dollars to help fund life saving research and promote community health.

The campaign begins in WA on the 3^rd of September and finishes on the 22^nd.

Last week I officially sent my first media release to a local community newspaper and it was a good experience. (I believe I have sent three or four now) I am glad I remembered what we were taught all those moons ago in the PR media techniques classes. It is surprising how your desk phone becomes an extension of your body, especially when calling journalists and gathering quotes from volunteers.

The whole process of sending out a media release can be quite time consuming as detailed below:

1)     Source a volunteer who is willing to interviewed and photographed for a local paper and has a personal connection with heart disease. (harder than it sounds)

2)     Interview them over the phone to generate quotes to incorporate within the release.

3)     Once typed, send the quotes back to the individual for approval, alongside a media exposure consent form.

4)     Call the local paper and find the appropriate journalist for the media release.

5)     Wait for the approval forms to come back, and then input them within the release.

6)     Send the completed media release to the journalist and hope it will be used to generate a story in the local newspaper.

That is roughly the process, however there is often a spanner thrown in the works somewhere along the lines.

Recently I was also lucky enough to sit in a PR meeting in West Perth within a firm named Devahasdin PR, regarding the ‘smarter than smoking campaign’ running this year. The meeting was conducted with a PR team who were certainly on the ball and very professional. It was great to escape the office for a little while and see how professional PR people conduct business behind closed doors.

If you anybody is interested in learning more about the DoorKnock Appeal or even donating!, Visit www.heartfoundation.org.au/doorknock

Thanks for reading, Miles

 

    

 

Observing the wild world of not-for-profit organistions.

Hi everyone!

My name is Prue Kraft and I am doing my placement at the Association for the  Blind of WA - Guide Dogs WA (Guide Dogs) in the Community Relations department. I have just finished my third day at my placement and already I appreciate the importance and benefits of this placement unit! I know we heard it all in the modules, unit outline and even from other students, but this unit has got to be THE MOST USEFUL experience for me as a budding Public Relations Practitioner.

During my first few days at the Guide Dogs it became very obvious that in this not-for-profit organisation, and I'd assume not-for-profit organisations in general, very few people do a huge mass of work, and staff within the team are thinnly spread between mutiple tasks. But what I did notice in this environment is that everyone is always more than happy to help out where ever they can and get involved in projects to help lighten the load. Further, everyone within the team is very considerate of one another, always making sure everyone has taken their lunch break etc. I think this contributes to the warm, friendly and inclusive atmosphere that exists within this team environment. Not to mention the Association's retired Guide Dog, Gidgie, who hangs out in our office and is always up for a cuddle or two!

Understanding the environment and nature of not-for-profit organisations really enabled me to see the bigger picture behind every task I do while on prac. For example, I spent most of my first day stuffing 500 quarterly Guide Dog News newsletters in envelopes to be distributed to their stakeholders. While the team were apologetic for giving me the task and reassured me that my time on prac wont consist entirely of stufifng envelopes, I was more than happy to help as I knew that 1. this was a vital part of their communications plan and 2. I was freeing up half a day of work for the team to do other equally important work.

My second day on prac saw me delve right into public relations at the Guide Dogs.  First off, I interviewed the Director of Corporate Development on an event he is taking part in. I then had to write the article up based on this interview to go on to the Association's website. At this point the advice of many of my tutors came rushing back to me, with one statement ringingly loudly: "ATTENTION TO DETAIL". While I have written many press releases in my time at uni, it was only now that I fully understood this! I needed this article to be complete, interesting, accurate, and most of all, fit within the style and tone of the rest of the organisation. With these points in mind, it took me longer than usual to write my article, but the hard work payed off because it went straight up onto the Association website!! This was probably the best feeling ... EVER! Compliments from the team and the Director also made me feel pretty happy with myself!

So, if there is anything I have learnt on my first week of prac, it would have to be one of two things. 1. ATTENTION TO DETAIL! and 2. Listen to what tutors say, they really do know what they are talking about!!!