The End of Something Special

Twelve weeks on from the beginning of my final semester at University, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I finished my final week of work experience one week ago, and have been busily putting the final touches on my final report since. This has given me the chance to reflect on my time at Metric Promotions and Pilerats, and what I have learnt over this period.

As a unit, PR301 gives such a great opportunity to learn in a real-life setting, and to grow confidence in your skills as a practitioner. Throughout my time at Metric & Pilerats, I feel that I have had a true life lesson, not only in public relations but in general life and business skills. I have been taught a wide range of skills relating to running an organisation in events and promotion, and even within journalism working up to the launch of a magazine.

Throughout the experience there have definitely been a number of hurdles to overcome, but these have been translated into valuable learning experiences. From the general time management of being a full-time student undertaking work experience and working at my part- time job, to being asked to write in a completely different way to that taught to me at university. It is clear to me now that there is no 'set rules' for public relations. Every student I have spoken to, or who has commented on my blog has noted that the difference between what we are taught, and real life practice is extraordinary. Every organisation is involved in different aspects of public relations, and has different procedures.

One of the disappointments of my placement was the set-back of the launch of Pilerats magazine. External factors out of the organisations control, have resulted in a slight delay of the launch of the magazine which is a shame. I feel as though I could have been involved in a really great project had I been able to assist in the launch. That being said, I have made some fantastic friends (and contacts) within Pilerats, who have offered to keep me involved if I am interested which is an amazing opportunity. Even though I am not planning to go straight into work when I finish university this gives me a chance to polish up my skills on the side if I wish, and is still great experience for my resume.

I look forward to what the future has to offer me in terms of a career in public relations, and I believe that this work experience has given me this chance to solidify my skills as an up-coming practitioner. Finally, I want to thank everyone involved with Metric Promotions and Pilerats Magazine, who welcomed me and taught me. I hope I get the chance to help them out and wish them all the very best in the future.

Anna Randrup
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Two completely different clients

 Throughout my work placement I have had the opportunity to work for two completely different clients, both of which are run by the same group of people. The two businesses Metric Promotions, and Pilerats differ greatly, and have allowed me to use a variety of skills that I have learnt over my studies.

Within Metric promotions, there are a number of events and promotional activities, which I have been able to assist in. One of the most notable aspects of the events industry is the amount of forward planning that goes into each event. For the monthly ‘Speakeasy’, an Australian musical act is brought to Perth to perform. One of my jobs has been to research bands or DJ’s that may be suitable for the event, and these acts are often booked up to six months in advance. This means that there is often a lot of research required to ensure that they will be suitable. For example, they may have recently released an album, or have gained media attention for playing at a festival. This research has also proved useful in preparing for another of Metric promotions annual events; Wonderland, a music festival that was run for the first time last year.

One of the more exciting projects that I have been working on is the launch and creation of Pilerats; an interactive iPad magazine. Pilerats is a relatively new project, and I have been lucky enough to be able to contribute ideas to assist in the promotion of the magazine. We are approaching the launch date for the magazine so there is a lot to be done in terms of promotion through many different avenues such as social media; which means refining the blog, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Content is also another area in which I have been able to help out, this is where I most notice the obvious crossover between public relations and journalistic skills. I have helped out in drafting interview questions for the magazine, which I did find a little daunting, as I have never conducted an interview before. Drafting questions for a real interview made me understand the importance of the sequence of the questions, as well as attempting to somewhat predict the answers before the interview takes place. After the interview was conducted, I was happy to hear that the subject of the interview enjoyed the questions, as they were things that he had not been asked before. I will keep you guys posted to the release of the iPad magazine and you will be able to see the interview that I helped draft when it is released.

Being able to work on both projects, which are completely different has almost given me the experience of working in a consultancy environment. I am lucky in the sense that the work I do in a day can be quite varied depending on the project I am working on. I think I prefer this variety in a work day in comparison to possibly working on the same client all day, although I have never exactly only worked for one client at a time. 

Formal Training vs On The Job Skills

Throughout my learning at university, I have often been advised that many public relations professionals have often not undergone university degrees, and have instead simply undertaken on-the-job training. Within my placement I have witnessed this first hand as all of my colleagues have been thrown into careers of promotions and events management, and have no university education in the area.

Now that I have been working for a few weeks, it is obvious to see how this is possible. My co-workers have all had to learn the importance of documents such as media releases, media kits, and event run sheets. When you are placed in a situation, where you learn through practice rather than theory, it becomes a necessity to learn quickly through practice. This is an area in which I feel I have been able to assist in my placement. Both Metric Promotions and Pilerats are relatively young businesses and I have been able to suggest the most appropriate and professional use of these documents for different aspects of the business.

In addition to this, I now fully understand the importance of writing at a professional level. On my first day, I was asked to write a blog post for the Pilerats blog. This was something I found somewhat challenging, even though I believe that I am a competent writer, I was now required to write in a less formal, more relaxed manner. I found this a contrast to the usual professional, formal manner in which I have experience in writing for university. I hope to be able to inject more personality into my blog posts I write in the future, and I think this will be a great chance to get more practice in writing.

Here is a link to my blog post if anyone would like to have a read!

http://pilerats.com/fashion/as-bad-as-i-guana-be

I have some exciting opportunities lately, which i will share with everyone in the next few posts.

A first look at exciting opportunities in events management and promotion.

Initially struggling to find a placement opportunity that excited me, I came across an opportunity with one of Perth’s most successful and popular promotions and events organisations. Metric Promotions is one of Perth’s leading events promoters, who aside from their highly successful weekly club nights, also run monthly music concerts and events, and have recently begun their own festival in Perth. As well as this, they manage two local Perth bands, Stillwater Giants and Shy Panther.

Luckily, I have been fortunate enough to begin my placement at a highly exciting time for the promotions company. Aside from their music and entertainment events within Metric Promotions, they have developed a highly exciting business opportunity known as Pilerats. Pilerats was partly developed from the opportunities presented through Metric Promotions; constantly being in contact with various Australian and international musicians and artists has provided fantastic business contacts and exciting original content. This collaboration of content, and creative ideas is currently being adapted into a highly interactive iPad and iPhone magazine.

The launch of this iPad magazine provides a great platform for me to contribute ideas for the promotion and launch of the upcoming first, and following issues. To be honest, the idea in itself is highly overwhelming as I have little real-life public relations experience, but at the same time it gives me a great platform to express my ideas, and potentially be successful in my promotional endeavours. 

If you would like to check out the blog for Pilerats head here, there is some great content:

http://pilerats.com/

One of the most interesting things I have found whilst participating in my placement, is that everyone I am working with is self-taught. After initial success in running their events, they were thrown into promotions and events management. Being self-taught, everyone around my is a massive advocate of on-the-job learning, and preaches the benefits of work experience. 

All in all, my first couple of weeks at Metric Promotions and Pilerats has been really exciting.  I have had the benefit of being able to swap between doing completely different tasks for both Metric Promotions and Pilerats. I believe this is giving me the chance to have a vast portfolio of skills and given some more time I will really be able to settle in and find my place. I look forward to keeping you updated on my progress and some of the exciting, (and currently confidential) plans that are in place.