“Creativity is intelligence having fun” - Albert Einstein

Why the quote you may ask? I will explain the logic behind the use of this quote shortly…  I decided to write this post upon reflection of the role creativity plays in business and in PR.

I thoroughly enjoy being given the opportunity to be creative. In fact, one of my primary motivations of pursuing a career in PR/Marketing is to be able to be creative whilst also business minded – the best of both worlds in my opinion. So, it was really exciting for me to be invited on a number of occasions to brainstorm ideas for clients and to contribute my own ideas to a number of client jobs.

For example, the strategy team got together to develop ideas for a rebrand of a not-for-profit. They were requesting ideas for a new name, claim (a slogan) and a call to action to be implemented before their upcoming campaign. So, we split into groups of 2 and devised a number of suggestions for the rebrand. Once coming together again we shared our ideas and agreed upon three to be submitted to the client. The brainstorm, although dependent on our creativity, also required intelligence (hence the use of Einstein’s quote). Why? Because when coming from a PR standpoint we needed to develop a new name that was politically correct, would not offend those it was helping and would make sense to those who were donating to the cause. So, it was a brainstorm that required not only creativity, but business savvy and an awareness of wider social and political issues too.

Therefore, although it is often argued that people can only be one: creative or business-minded, it is evident in the context of communications that it is vital that the two approaches be adopted together. Creative ideas need to be thought through logically to analyse the potential backlash, response or acceptance by publics. An idea for a campaign or rebrand could be tremendously unique and avant-garde, but if it is going to ruffle the feathers of your most important publics, it might just need to be backlogged for a more suitable client or time, or potentially not implemented at all.

Therefore, it has become evident to me that PR practitioners need to have both sides of the brain switched on, especially in this competitive market. Only the most creative AND commercially viable ideas (campaigns, brands, publicity stunts, events) will make it when revealed to an increasingly discerning public. In fact, PR practitioners could also be seen to play a ‘gatekeeper’ role between the creative departments (graphic designers etc.) and the finance department because not all great creative ideas will prove beneficial for the client (profits, reputation, customer sentiment). We need to be able to monitor what is released to the public domain, because as many organisations have learnt from experience, there will always be someone out there who will take your idea the wrong way. 

What do you think? Have you had the opportunity to contribute your own creative ideas during your internship? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

Candice

Time to Reflect and Getting Back in the Game!

Whilst it has been a long time in between my third and final blog post (this one), I've had a lot of time to think about my time at KCGM and how my internship went and I thought now would be a good time to post as I've been lucky enough to have been offered a position working for them again, despite the industry struggling earlier on in the year.

My time working at KCGM provided a lot of experience and helped me to apply things I've been taught in class, in a real life situation. Every time I go back, I learn something new and the company and the team make it in their best interests to help me better myself as a PR professional and continue to throw challenges at me, which I may not think I'm ready for, but they believe I'm perfectly capable of doing the job whilst still giving me guidance.

I have been told by the team that the Underground Tours I arranged earlier this year have been a great success (let's hope this is true!) and last week would have been the end of them.

Being able to apply everything I've learnt in Public Relations over the last few years, including writing techniques, event planning/management, issues management, crisis management, CSR and image management, has opened up my eyes and cemented my love and passion for Public Relations.

Whilst I know I should broaden my horizens, working in Community Relations is my dream job. It incorporates my love for PR with my belief in giving back to people into one, nice, challenging position. At the moment, largely thanks to my work placement with KCGM, there is no other area I'd rather work in. Ideally, given the opportunity, I would love to go back to Kalgoorlie to permenantly work for the organisation due to the broad range of responsibilities and opportunites presented to me.

Finally, I'd like to thank the team at KCGM for once again going out of their way to give this position for me in order to help with my course, despite industry struggles and as I've probably already stated way too many times, I can't thank them enough for the experiences they continue to give me. I feel extremely priveleged to be able to be a part of such a wonderful team of people and to feel as valued as I do when I work there.

As this is my final blog post, I'd like to wish all of you luck with your future endeavours and careers and hope all of you love whatever you end up doing with your degrees :)

Taneika

Just Do It

I am a perfectionist.

Guess what I discovered? I am also super creative.

During my internship I found that I could come up with great ideas in meetings and I really enjoyed working with themes for events. I got to design a logo and advertisement layout and people spoke highly of my ideas. I even pitched a few ideas to the team and had them taken on board. I gave everything a go. Sure, many things had to be edited or refined, but things got done-and with great results.

In the past I would let my ideas of perfectionism (and fear of failure) stop me from starting a project because I wasn’t sure I had the skills or knowledge to get the level of result I wanted. 

Now I’ve finished my internship and been offered a paid project. The nature of the project requires specialised knowledge-which I don’t have-but am confident I can easily learn.

Here is what I suggest:

Start with creativity

Polish with perfectionism

Just doing it is a good start

It shows initiative and ability to take feedback.

It allows freedom to bring ideas to the table.

It makes work a lot more fun.

It helps you stand out from the crowd.

 

 

I would love to hear what you are learning about yourself through your internship.

 

Fast paced and slow moving

When I helped coordinate my first ever event, and 1500 people ended up turning up, I remember being so incredibly stressed, yet the feeling when something went right was amazing. As stressful as organising and coordinating that Open Day was, it was one of the most rewarding and fun experiences of my life so far. I'm feeling the same way with the upcoming (possible) two month tour event.

As it still isn't a confirmed event due to waiting on approvals etc (we're keeping our fingers and toes crossed it can happen), it's been a little difficult to coordinate an event you don't know if you're having. Especially in the current financial situation - you don't exactly want to go ahead and spend so much money to be told it's not happening anymore. As a result, it's been stressful as there is so much work to do in regards to preparation and possibilities, however, nothing can go ahead yet officially. I've been spending my time doing as much as I possibly can to have everything organised to push and move forward when we get the go-ahead. I've also completed my script for the short film which will be edited this month for release in September.

Unfortunately, not much new has happened as of yet due to the mass workload of the two projects, however, I wrote my first article for the organisation's internal newsletter. This has helped me to try and hone my writing skills as the internal newsletter allows you to have a little fun, whilst I'm so used to writing formally.

I've unfortunately only got one more week left of my internship this time around, and once again I don't want to leave. Hopefully the project will have taken off when I write my final blog post next week.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic time at their work placements :)

Difficult times ahead but we're still moving forward

Since my last post a few weeks ago, a lot has been happening at KCGM. I've been making good progress on my projects for the Mt. Charlotte 50th anniversary so far and I thankfully haven't had too many struggles. I've definitely been kept on my toes and being at the forefront of organising logisitics, interviews and meetings has kept me busy.

The tours and the DVD I mentioned I was a part of are still underway and are still a major working progress, however things are going well and I felt like I really accomplished something today at work (which sounds like a silly thing to mention, but being on a large mine site, safety is #1 priority and last Friday I spent about 4 hours of my day in meetings and felt like I hadn't achieved much that day!). It has been difficult to get the ball rolling in regards to my projects as certain procedures were absolutely necessary before too much work was commenced, however after today's TBRA and visit to the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society, I definitely have plenty to do in the next couple of days.

One thing I have found interesting - and is something I wouldn't normally get to experience - is how my organisation is responding to the gold price plummet. Some people might have heard of the plummet in the price of gold earlier this year which sent the gold mining industry into dismay. As a result, KCGM has been reviewing budgets, however, this has sent the local media into a frenzy. I've now experienced firsthand how easy it can be to take advantage of these kinds of situations for a story. There have been some, shall we say, not so friendly articles produced over the past couple of weeks, however it's great to see how KCGM is dealing with the negative portrayal of the gold mining industry in general lately (mentions of possible redunancies etc). In addition to community engagement and employee relations, issue management is another topic I've found incredibly interesting during my studies. As budget is currently under review, there are currently no definite yes or no answers so nothing can be confirmed to the media, but whilst there has been a big focus on the low gold price at the moment (it's slowly starting to rise again - yay!) and how significant the impact on mining in WA, it's been relatively good timing as last weekend was the annual KBULG tree-planting day in which KCGM is a major sponsor. In addition to this lovely bit of positive media, KCGM has also had great coverage nation wide thanks to an article which was published in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week which reflects the journalist's experience of the Super Pit Tour.

Once again, I'm still enjoying my internship and I really don't want it to end in two weeks. I love it too much!

I'll be back soon with another update and I'll let you know how my projects are coming along.

Back in the mining game

It has been a week since I started my internship at KCGM. Fortunately for me, this is my third time working for the organisation as a student. Every time I rejoin the Community Relations team at KCGM (which is a part of the Environment and Social Responsibility department), they welcome me with open arms and throw projects at me which are even more challenging than the last time.  The first time I worked there, I got to do a bit of everything, my second stint gave me the experience doing a bit of everything and more, including organising a community open day for the tourist mine, of which over 1500 people attended. This time around, I've been thrown into the deep end once more and I'm loving it.

As KCGM is a gold mine which is not only on the door step of the City of Kalgoorlie, but also has operations which are on the historical Golden Mile; catering to the needs of residents, local businesses and other stakeholders and celebrating the history of what made the city it is today, is very important. It is the 50th anniversary of continuous operations at Mt. Charlotte operations this year and I've been given responsibility to help organise the two months worth of celebration tours coming up later this year. Some of my responsibilities include: Assessing risks in Team Based Risk Assessments (TBRAs), figuring out a budget, organising logistics, tickets, ensuring the safety of others, writing tour notes, procedures and work instructions for tour participants and working out a media plan.

In addition to this, I am helping to produce and write a short film celebrating the history of Mt. Charlotte which will go straight to be sold in the Super Pit Shop on DVD. Some responsibilites include script writing, research, conducting interviews and piecing it altogether. As this comes under the same major Mt. Charlotte project, everything is coming together pretty nicely and I had the amazing opportunity to do my underground induction today in preparation for heading underground for filming and tours and I got to head about 600m underground which probably made me way too excited, all things considering.

Once again, I'm thoroughly enjoying my work placement so far and am fortunate enough to be able to do it for this the internship unit. I'm curious to see what happens over the next few weeks due to the gold price crisis which is a huge issue at the moment and one that affects KCGM greatly due to its sheer size, however I'll let you know how my projects are coming along shortly and how things start to pan out over the next few weeks in the mining industry. It's ever growing and always changing.

Budget Constraints Inflates Creativity

Hello fellow interns,

Welcome to my second blog.  In this post I will share with you my experience on my first day at Diabetes WA (DWA) and also the work that was ahead of me.  

 The day began with the initial introduction to everyone in the office.  I had a tour of the different office areas and made the rounds to meet everyone introducing myself as the intern who’s here to help out a couple of days a week. 

My supervisor and I spent some time reviewing my duties and scope of work.  Together, we went through a current DWA project of marketing a first ever Diabetes First Aid Kit.  I was told this was to be my baby. I was to market the first aid kit from start to finish through what we all know as a Communications Plan, or rather what they call a Marketing Plan – it seems to be the term more people are familiar with, so we’ll go with that!- to be implemented in the near future. 

Budgeting was more flexible than I first anticipated.  I was able to make suggestions with costs attached but the more preferred tactics were the ones that are effective and cost-free. It was quite the challenge for me, going from outlandish and creative ideas that were suggested in previous university Communications Plans to suddenly being very mindful of spending and working from within financial constraints.

The more I brainstormed, the more I was confortable in pushing boundaries to ensure my ideas were as cost efficient as possible.  I consulted the internet, community events pages and other more traditional mediums to start shaping the plan.  And there has been no previous Diabetes First Aid Kits on the market, I was tasked with creating a marketing angle. I had my work cut out for me.

After spending the afternoon reviewing DWA’s past Marketing Plans and becoming familiar with the corporate style guide, corporate language and presentation of works, I consulted my own Communications Plans just for some more inspiration. 

Until next time!

Mila

The PR Journeyman: Ready, Set, Go!

Greetings fellow students!

For those who don't know me, my name is Blade Shaw and I'm currently in my final year of a Bachelor of Commerce - majoring in Public Relations. For a little insight to my background, I've had some previous experience acting within PR/Communications roles in two different businesses - Morris Computers and Pro Used Pty Ltd, both which are heavily interlinked with the IT industry.

As a student, I've just come off 2 years running on the Public Relations Student Chapter serving as both Secretary and Vice President respectively over 2011/2012. It was my decision at the end of the year to step down and concentrate on my final year, and PR Professional Practice was one of the many units I knew would require my full attention.

Over the University break, as I'm sure most of us did - I looked long and hard for an internship which I thought would best fit my interests, and contacted a number of organisations respectively. Luckily, I was contacted by Volunteering WA - who were very forthcoming and were quite interested in getting me on board after our initial contact.

Before I commenced my placement, I went into the offices and sat down with Felicity Stevens who is the IT Support Officer at VWA - and also a member of the services team of which I'm currently working as a part of. Our meeting went quite well, and after she had guided me through a run-down of the tasks that the service team required me to perform, and that they thought would best suit my skill set.

I started on the 25th of March, and immediately was set to task learning the ins and outs of the organisation so that I would have a significant amount of background knowledge to work off. My first thoughts immediately alerted me to start jotting down ideas in regards to social media, website content, promotional ideas - whatever appeared not to be on offer through their current communications, I was looking to establish a strategy to create it or improve upon their existing practices.

So far, I've still been trying to find my feet at the end of my second week - however it appears I'm slowly beginning to pick up some pretty good momentum, and VWA have been quite open to allowing me to take a great deal of creative licence with the ideas I have for their organisation. At the start of next week, I will be sending out a brief to a number of different University clubs regarding an exciting new service that VWA will be offering.

I will also be conducting some filming for their YouTube channel, documenting some of the exciting new features of their upcoming service.It's been my luck that I have been blessed with a number of very talented personal contacts at my disposal, and will be joined by Zak Norris - a Murdoch Screen Product student who recently was awarded 1st place in Reach Out's Film Crew competition. His winning video can be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aJWE42n-LZ0

Thanks everyone for reading my first post, I'm really glad to have been able to share some insight into my first week at the Volunteering WA office. Please continue to check back with my blog entries, as I continue to document my experiences over the course of my placement.

Blade Shaw
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