Money Can’t Buy Experience

Throughout my time at the Fremantle Football Club (FCC) I have been fortunate enough to sit in on a number of meetings with the Corporate staff. The majority have been Pre-Game day meetings however, in addition there have also been meetings involving stakeholder relations initiatives and how events can support the following. One such initiative is the Dockers Live the Dream school camp. The Live the Dream school camp is a concept designed to give twenty Year 11 and 12 students (a mix of male and female) to experience a week in the life of a professional AFL football player at the FFC. Participants will spend the week with a select group of FFC staff, gaining an insight in to all aspects of an AFL footballers life including strength and conditioning training, nutrition planning, psychological training and a whole other range of meaningful and insightful activities. A money can’t buy experience, I was flabbergasted at the luck of the key target stakeholders: West Australian high school students aged between 16 and 17 years and their respective high schools across urban and regional centers.

A state brimming full of talented young sportspeople, so many students (or budding athletes if you prefer) should be jumping at the chance for such a rare opportunity. Thinking of the broader picture the experiences of the lucky participants could make such an amazing impact not only on the skills and confidence on them but also those within the communities in which they live; amazing potential! As a Marketing and PR student it was fantastic to see the planning and interdepartmental organisation of such an initiative to really understand what it takes to make these things happen. Often as a student I find that coming up with creative and sometimes wacky ideas is the easy part, it’s the putting into action part of the strategy that takes the hard work. Now having been given the template (in a sense) to action thoughts and ideas in to the physical application I am feeling confident and excited to take on whatever future workplaces throw at me! It’s having that understanding and practical application of tasks that this internship has given me to really drive home the meaning of Public Relations within professional organisations; brilliant! 

To see the practical application of PR theory and techniques was in invaluable experience, and just like they always say the pin finally dropped! I always thought I understood the concepts on paper and when push came to shove would be able to come up with a text book PR plan off the top of my head just like ‘hey presto’. After witnessing the application of a communications and PR plan by seasoned professionals I now understand that it is not only the PR theory that I need to understand, but also have the practical application of so many other business principles combined- finally I understand why I had to do my most hated subject of all time, Accounting 100!

Having come to the end of my placement at the FFC I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a unique mix of organisation. Unlike any other professional organisation that I have spent time at interning, I have found the FFC to have a great balance of corporate business and elite sports, both industries I have discovered to be passionate about. Getting to understand the complex relationship between a professional sporting organisation and its varied publics and seeing the fantastic potential for diversity within an organisation has seriously made me consider a career within the industry. Before understanding behind the scenes of this high profile club I had absolutely no idea of the opportunities available within. Now having made some fantastic contacts and experienced the hands on application of the elusive PR theory, I feel more than ready to enter in to the workforce; an exciting prospect after so many years that’s for sure!

So for all those that have been kind enough to read my blog posts, sayonara, and bon voyage. I wish you all the very best for what you have in store after graduation!  

Money Cannot Buy Experience

Throughout my time at the Fremantle Football Club (FCC) I have been fortunate enough to sit in on a number of meetings with the Corporate staff. The majority have been Pre-Game day meetings however, in addition there have also been meetings involving stakeholder relations initiatives and how events can support the following. One such initiative is the Dockers Live the Dream school camp. The Live the Dream school camp is a concept designed to give twenty Year 11 and 12 students (a mix of male and female) to experience a week in the life of a professional AFL football player at the FFC. Participants will spend the week with a select group of FFC staff, gaining an insight in to all aspects of an AFL footballers life including strength and conditioning training, nutrition planning, psychological training and a whole other range of meaningful and insightful activities. A money can’t buy experience, I was flabbergasted at the luck of the key target stakeholders: West Australian high school students aged between 16 and 17 years and their respective high schools across urban and regional centers.

A state brimming full of talented young sportspeople, so many students (or budding athletes if you prefer) should be jumping at the chance for such a rare opportunity. Thinking of the broader picture the experiences of the lucky participants could make such an amazing impact not only on the skills and confidence on them but also those within the communities in which they live; amazing potential! As a Marketing and PR student it was fantastic to see the planning and interdepartmental organisation of such an initiative to really understand what it takes to make these things happen. Often as a student I find that coming up with creative and sometimes wacky ideas is the easy part, it’s the putting into action part of the strategy that takes the hard work. Now having been given the template (in a sense) to action thoughts and ideas in to the physical application I am feeling confident and excited to take on whatever future workplaces throw at me! It’s having that understanding and practical application of tasks that this internship has given me to really drive home the meaning of Public Relations within professional organisations; brilliant! 

To see the practical application of PR theory and techniques was in invaluable experience, and just like they always say the pin finally dropped! I always thought I understood the concepts on paper and when push came to shove would be able to come up with a text book PR plan off the top of my head just like ‘hey presto’. After witnessing the application of a communications and PR plan by seasoned professionals I now understand that it is not only the PR theory that I need to understand, but also have the practical application of so many other business principles combined- finally I understand why I had to do my most hated subject of all time, Accounting 100!

Having come to the end of my placement at the FFC I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a unique mix of organisation. Unlike any other professional organisation that I have spent time at interning, I have found the FFC to have a great balance of corporate business and elite sports, both industries I have discovered to be passionate about. Getting to understand the complex relationship between a professional sporting organisation and its varied publics and seeing the fantastic potential for diversity within an organisation has seriously made me consider a career within the industry. Before understanding behind the scenes of this high profile club I had absolutely no idea of the opportunities available within. Now having made some fantastic contacts and experienced the hands on application of the elusive PR theory, I feel more than ready to enter in to the workforce; an exciting prospect after so many years that’s for sure!

So for all those that have been kind enough to read my blog posts, sayonara, and bon voyage. I wish you all the very best for what you have in store after graduation!  

Terrible Teeny Tiny Pamphlets

With over 150 employees housed at the Fremantle Dockers (FFC) headquarters, the place can get a little busy and crowded at times! It never ceases to amaze me how many different operations and agendas are occurring within each separate department (and that’s just the administration and operations side of things!). As explained previously the FFC is split in to three distinct organisational areas. These include Administration, Operations and Football. Being in the Marketing and Events department I am interning within the Operations area. The Operations area includes 3 distinct departments: Events/ Marketing, Communications and Community Development. Putting it simply Operations are the doers or the implementers of strategy, whilst the Administration are the planners of strategic PR goals.

Myself being classified as a ‘doer’ or as the Events Coordinator said in other words a ‘worker bee’, I have realised the Events/ Marketing department work extremely hard. As part of my experience I have done absolutely everything you could think of that an intern could possibly do, plus more! Stocking fridges UPSTAIRS (this involved strenuous traipsing up and down hills and stairs with cartons weighing in excess of 7 kg each, wearing a dress and blazer I might add- would not recommend this!), attending to 78 children plus their parents for afternoon tea at a children’s football clinic (not as easy as it sounds), visiting a Major flgjghk (honestly had the most complicated name in the world that I could not pronounce) at the Fremantle Army museum to provide him with hundreds of tickets for his members and much, much more. All and all a highly colorful array of tasks that have taught me the great importance of appreciating the lesson in every opportunity thrown your way. Positive thinking is key to this!

Following on from my colorful array of tasks a huge part of maintaining any role within Events includes being excellent at time management, highly organized and having very high self-confidence. As an Event Coordinator so many people in various different departments internally and externally are relying on your organisational skills and pro-activity and the pressure can become pretty pressure cooker high at times! The best way I can describe dealing with such pressure can be summed up in just a few words:  do not doubt yourself for a second. The second you doubt what time you have booked the venue or if you actually did order the 200 gluten free, vegetarian, low fat canapes for the function correctly, is the moment of your downfall. On my first few weeks at the FFC I was in charge of counting all of the marketing collaterol in the hundreds for the Game Day corporate dining rooms. Not listening to my own advice at all I immediately began to question myself on how many hundreds of teeny tiny little pamphlets that I had counted out for each room. Disastrous thinking set in and I ridiculously nearly convinced myself that all of my counting had been flawed and that the dining rooms in Patersons would not run with my poor numerical skills to blame! It’s safe to say that Patersons stadium survived my horrendous counting skills and overactive brain that Game Day and has continued to function on the consecutive Game Days where my counting became much more self-assured in the end.

So on that note a few words of wisdom. Trust yourself, trust your team and for peats sake trust your counting skills!

Corporate Collective- Dining With the Big Cheese

Day One of the Fremantle Dockers internship; and what a day it was. Coincidently on my first week of placement it so happened to be one of the Dockers largest home games of the year, the Starlight Children Foundation Purple Haze game (Fremantle vs. Essendon). For the past 11 years the Fremantle Dockers have had a partnership with The Starlight Children’s Foundation and in honour of this partnership host a home game dedicated to raising funds for the foundation and its worthy cause. Subsequently the Dockers host a pre game charity auction lunch involving all of the associated Dockers sponsors (Big Cheese) as well a few special individuals who have previously and continue to support both the Dockers and Starlight.

So back to my first day.. Waking up like a kid on Christmas I jumped out of bed and made sure I was ready for an action packed day with my Coordinator. Having been informed the night before that we were hosting a function I spent the morning pondering over breakfast what kind of function it would be. Again by coincidence the day before it had been announced that legendary Essendon coach James Hird had been accused of partaking in drug use, how very scandalous! Not such good news for Essendon, however potentially brilliant news for the Fremantle Dockers Marketing and PR team.

Thinking back to my essential PR planning tools I immediately came to see the good and bad of the situation. A wise lecturer once told me that an issue that arises that may at first seem potentially damaging to your organisation, however if interpreted correctly could be utilised to a fantastic competitive advantage. So number one first lesson in media damage control; do not associate yourself with another’s problems when it is not directly connected to your organisation. Given we as the Events/ Marketing department would be directly communicating with the MC and media trained players to attend the event it was to be made very clear that absolutely no comments would be made in regards to the Essendon incident.  

Now you can guess at why we were told to disassociate ourselves from Essendon’s unfortunate series of events. Do not make comment, stay out of the frenzied media debate, simple. However, the other side of the story is not so clear. How does Essendon’s woes work at a competitive advantage for Fremantle? In terms of Marketing and PR function the media frenzied whipped up by national and state would direct what was predicted to be one of the highest rating games in the Southern Hemisphere apart from the Grand Final of course- In other words the whole of Australia would be watching the game on Friday anticipating what James Hirds’ next move would be. Would he crack under the pressure or would he rise to the occasion?

But I digress, back to the pre-game function. All and all the function was a huge success. A charity auction was held with all proceeds going to the Starlight Foundation and a very worthy cause. Players auctioned the items with a special mention going out to Chris Mayne, the auctioneer extraordinaire! Our MC was very entertaining keeping up the witty banter throughout the two hours that the function was held for and I must say the food was delicious once I figured out it was actually ok to be the intern and eat just like the other guests, phew! And finally you would be pleased to know that no mention of the Essendon debacle left our MC’s lips. Well maybe just once, but that can be our little secret right?! 

On a bit of a sour note Essendon defeated the Dockers, so yes James Hird held up quite well in fact. Oh well you can’t win them all, great game I say! 

First World Issues: Chocolate or Vanilla?!

My journey throughout my University life has not always gone quite as smoothly as I may have hoped. As a young, wide eyed, impressionable 17 year old I actually commenced my studies at Notre Dame University destined to be a high school teacher. Needless to say the Gen Y stereotype well and truly kicked in, as I decided to leave that course of study as of a week of experiencing exhilarating explanations of lesson plans, “basic IT” (how to put together a PowerPoint- seriously?!) and the joys of marking hundreds of student exam papers; nooo thank you! 

As a result of my very definite decision not to pursue teaching (funnily enough I know teach adults Pilates- go figure) I chose to pursue what many of my friends considered the safe vanilla option- Business. Lovely, not so excitable (or so it seemed), safe business. Being a bit of a chatty Kathy I immediately chose Marketing then later on PR to major in for my degree and for that I am extremely grateful.

Having finally reached that almost Mount Everest like challenge of ACTUALLY getting to the last semester at University, marketing and PR has served my overactive brain well. A degree that requires a certain amount of drive and dedication seeing as you do only spend around a maximum of 12 hours at Uni, has taught me the integral lessons of absolutely never giving up. Which brings me to my internship. Me being quite the busy lass, I did like so many other students before commit the cardinal sin of leaving the organisation of my internship to the last minute, that’s a big fat woops! My advice to all youngins out there yet to embark on their placement journey; please, please organise yourself early or better yet as one of my class mates did, even complete your placement in the Uni holidays. Shock, horror I know. Completing a placement within the one time period of forced rest and relaxation- seems like another sin. But I digress, back to my mistake. .

I was vey very lucky to have emailed one of my first choice boutique consultancies and hear back from them within the space of a week; they had a position available, brilliant!  However dun dun dun, enter option number two. As Perth people often do, and you will understand this if you are a local, I employed the age-old key PR tactic of networking. Temptingly easy in the place where everyone knows absolutely everyone and I am not exaggerating this (unless you are separated by the river north and south- like separate countries I’m telling you), I managed to secure an interview at the Fremantle Dockers Football Club.  Massive dilemma! It was like choosing from chocolate and vanilla, peanut M&M’s and Crispy, carrot cake and chocolate cake. Both such delicious options but which one to choose?!

In the end my love of fitness and sport tipped the scales and I chose to commence my internship with the Dockers in the Events department as of two weeks ago. So far my experience of the Club has been fascinating. Seeing the inner workings of such a well-known organisation and being to apply the hard earned skills of many years of “back breaking” study (12 loong hours a week…) and endless internships (actually back breaking) has been very rewarding so far. As an AFL Club the Dockers have an endless list of events to execute ranging from the major bi-weekly home game matches, a huge scale operation in itself, to that of sponsorship/ stakeholder lunch functions, the scope and scale of events and PR activities on every level. In saying this the Dockers players have a large list of responsibilities, with a select group of individuals assigned to several off field duties. PR and events involving stakeholder and media management, a daunting task I assure you. That being said it is safe to say that there is never a dull moment interning at the offices! And on that note I will leave you to ponder the mysterious nature of an AFL footballers responsibilities off the field when I discuss my first day on the job; the pre game Starlight Children Foundation stakeholder lunch..   

Until next time,

Lauren