Social Media Planning

One of my favourite tasks during my experience as an intern was to develop social media plans. I created one for the event Perth Kilt Run and one for the company itself, Event & Conference Co.

I loved how this task gave me some room to be creative in my work and I could see how my ideas were used in the future.

I also learnt a few things in this process about creating social media plans that I would like to share…

1. Choose your social media platforms: Decide which social media platforms you will use (or which already exist for your company that need improving) and plan your content accordingly.

2. Gather inspiration: From competitors, industry professionals or clients. Pinterest is also a great platform to gather inspiration from.

3. Create the plan in the form of a calendar: Ensure that your posts are regular and consistent. A calendar also assists in creating timely posts (I.e around certain times of the year such as Christmas)

A few articles that I found interesting on this topic:

(Article One) 

(Article Two) 

What were some of your favourite tasks as an intern?

-Kodee

Risk Management: A Necessity

Currently one of the major events that Event and Conference Co. is involved in is Homelessness Prevention Week . With Shelter WA as a client, Event and Conference Co. has been assisting with the event management for the week long event. 

This morning my first task of the day was to create a risk management plan, something I had not yet attempted. Throughout the event week, a car was to be driven into the city and parked each morning as a part of a display. My job was to develop a risk management plan for this simple activity. 

I found this task to be quite tedious as the likelihood for many of the risks to occur was relatively low. Although, as no one can predict what will happen in the future, it is extremely important for all organisations to have risk management plans in place in order to minimise or even eliminate negative impacts. Negative implications of risks can involve reputation, financial impacts or even health and safety concerns. Risk management plans are especially necessary in events as attendees and the general public could be affected.

Here are some more links that discuss the necessities of having risk management plans in place:
(Article One)
(Article Two)

Did anyone else complete tasks that they found to be tedious, but necessary? Let me know!

Until next time, 
Kodee

Day One: Expectations Vs. Reality

Hi everyone, welcome to my blog! My name is Kodee and I will be reflecting on my experiences at my internship; Networking WA/Event & Conference Co. 

As I searched for an internship to complete for this unit, I opted for an events management company. I am studying a double major of Events Management and Public Relations so I thought an internship focusing on events would complement my studies and interests.

I was feeling quite nervous leading up to my first day on the job, my interview with the director of the company was quite brief and I didn’t quite know what to expect. I was picturing fast paced, stressful and challenging work. Although after day one, reality seemed to be quite different from my expectations. 

At the company, there are several interns working at once, with only a couple of paid employees. In a way, I did feel a little more at ease as I was surrounded by others in the same boat, I even saw some familiar faces from class! As an intern at Networking WA you log in to a database each day, which has a list of tasks that need to be completed. Once finished, you simply email your work through to the supervisor and move on to your next task. This means that you have quite a lot of independence but also have to speak up if you want feedback or more instruction.

I’m thinking I will have to make the experience more challenging for myself by making sure that I am not just selecting tasks that I see as being ‘easy’. I will try to aim to attempt new things and receive as much feedback as I can.

How did everyone else feel on their first days?

Kodee

You can't get rid of me that easily!

Wednesday, 8^th May 2013 was my 20^th day at Via Appia NetworkingWA. It was extremely bittersweet. I must admit when I first began, I was so nervous and shy that I could not wait till my 20^th day there so that I could just say ‘bye’ and leave for good. The thought of waking up before 8am on the upcoming Mondays and Wednesdays were killing me.

Yet, 20 internship days or 11 weeks later, I found myself not wanted to leave just yet! If I went through and listed all of the memories and things that I’ve learnt through this journey, this blog post would never end.

Before I began my internship at NetworkingWA, I had no idea that they were an intern-focused organisation – meaning that they primarily “hire” interns who are looking for an internship either to gain additional work experience or, like me, are looking to complete a placement unit for university. During the time that I was there, I met and befriended eleven different amazing girls whom I never would’ve met if not for this.

I’ve also developed a newfound respect for my bosses, Rebecca and Adriana for always being able to constantly deal with everything – mainly the ability to professionally deal with difficult clients. In addition, their feedback and constructive criticism on every piece of work has helped me grow a lot as a potential PR consultant.

My favourite part (as I’m sure you guys already know), was the adrenaline and satisfaction I get when I see my contribution being a part of something big! 

What I learnt most, was the importance of time management. Evidently, in the event industry, datelines are set at least two days before the event is being held and the process to plan the event would've taken at least six months. That might seem like a long time, but when the creativity and resource juices start to run tight, time just flies by.

The most challenging aspect of the whole industry, is locating resources within the budget. It's true, what most people say about events - they don't bring in profits. This just emphasises on the importance of sponsorship from other companies. Till today, it still surprises me on how difficult this is to achieve.

I will never forget this journey, as it is the first time I’ve been able to experience what it’s like to work in an event management company.

I couldn’t bare to leave just yet so I’ve decided to continue on with my internship until the end of semester! - just when they thought they could get rid of me ;)

I hope that all of you enjoyed your internships as much as I did for mine.

Thank you all for reading my blog posts :)

Don't forget to keep a look out on their website for any events that you may be interested in!

Laura Ng

14865060

News Headline: Women take over the corporate world.

This topic has been numerously and vigorously discussed since before women had a right to do...well, anything really. Yet, women today are still trying to prove men wrong about this issue - that is, that we're as capable in the corporate sector.

If we think back and reflect on what women must have felt like then, the way they were ignored, mistreated and controlled, just because they were born on a girl. It's really saddening, isn't it?

When I was younger, my mum would constantly remind me of how lucky I am to be born in this time where women have their rights. Despite that, I can’t help but think, have women really come a long way? Have we really managed to gain respect yet?

To me, the answer is no. You must be thinking that I’m out of my mind - that we now have the freedom and rights to do what we want, say what we want etc. The way I see it, even though we do have rights, we still get constantly judged and criticised for everything we do.

I cannot tell you the number of times my driving has been criticised because I’m an 'Asian woman driver'. In the workforce, women who have higher-tiered positions are seen as heroes and it was no easy journey - to get up there to the top.

As NetworkingWA has an all-female team, we understand the importance of this topic and have had an increased interest in successful women in the workforce over the years. That's why, we have taken the initiative to celebrate and inspire other women to do the same.

Last year, NetworkingWA hosted “Women leading the way” where Non-Executive Director of Wesfarmers, Diane Smith-Gander provided us with an insight about her career journey and how she managed to juggle and prioritise in between family and managing one of Australia’s largest listed companies. The MC for the event, was Channel 10’s Co-Presenter, Narelda Jacobs is an idol whom many female look up to as she was the first indigenous female news anchor for a commercial channel.

Due to the success of this event, NetworkingWA has decided to re-create this event by making it bigger and better! This event is scheduled fr either June or July so everyone at NetworkingWA has been all hands on deck trying to locate the perfect venue and speaker. We can't wait for this event! 

Details about last year's event

Via Appia NetworkingWA

Laura Ng

14865060

Santa’s little helpers go to the ball

Ok, so it’s not exactly Christmas and I didn’t exactly attend the ball but on Saturday, April 6^th, I got to be behind the scenes at one of the most spectacular and breathtaking annual event; the Interpeople Charity Ball.

It was exactly what I have been waiting for. Finally. After so long, a nice reminder about my passion for events. Sometimes the effort and work that is demanded for a smoothly-ran event can get a little stressful and hectic but when I see it all come together; I know that it was all worth it.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me tell you guys a bit about the event and its cause. It’s an annual charity ball hosted by Interpeople and each year, they choose a different charity to donate 100% of the proceeds to. This year, Interpeople decided to raise awareness to Parkerville Children and Youth Care by showcasing the work that they do and some of the children whom they support. There was no better way to do it than to make the theme, glow in the dark! There’s no way you can turn down an event like this!

Of course an important day like this, calls for a lot of helpers. As NetworkingWA primarily hire interns, Rebecca [the founder] was able to split us into three shifts; 9am – 12pm, 12pm – 6pm and 6pm – 12am. I was asked to assist during the second shift so I managed to watch the entire set up! After placing flowers and jars filled with glow sticks as centerpieces and getting lighting all perfect, the venue was absolutely breathtaking!

Unfortunately, there were enough people to help assist during the actual ball so I didn’t get a chance to see the whole thing but Interpeople and NetworkingWA has received nothing but good feedback from the attendees. We can’t wait for next years!

I’ll make sure to volunteer for the night shift next time! It was evident that the people at Interpeople wanted to cater for everyone and they did not hold back with the details and prizes. Attendees got to experience Chris Nixon, paint right before their eyes, businessman whom enjoy golfing got to play in a Par3 golf stimulator, others got to enter in both live and silent auction that included eighty-nine different prizes including singing on stage with Australian rock legend Daryl Braithwaite. To add a little surprise, The Dance Collective put together a spontaneous flash mob routine – attendees were extremely shocked when the waiters suddenly jumped onto the dance floor!

If you don’t believe me, you can see for yourself!

The ball was held at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre

Entrance / Registration

Entrance to BelleVue Ballroom

Cocktail Area - before set up

Stage view from the side

Tables with flower centrepieces

Tables with glow stick centrepieces

Par3 golf simulator

Blank canvas for Chris Nixon

Silent auction prizes include signed jersey by the Eagles and Dockers team

Videos; I apologise in advance for the shakiness and poor quality of this video as it was filmed live on an iPhone

Ballroom during light check

The Dance Collective flash mob
Via Appia NetworkingWA

The smile and excitement shown on the team's faces were absolutely priceless!

Laura Ng

14865060

Putting My Game Face On!

Sunday the 31st of March was the first home game for the West Coast Fever!
After spending every Wednesday in the office for the past 5 weeks I was itching to see everyone’s hard work pay off and finally be a part of such an exciting large scale sporting event.

I arrived fresh and ready for action at 8.30am on Sunday morning. The game didn’t commence until 11.10am but there was so much to do prior to the game. The first thing we needed to organise and set up was the ‘Business club. The West Coast Fever Business Club is a new initiative for 2013 which has been designed as an exclusive corporate networking club allowing business members and sponsors the chance to network and enjoy exclusive parking and catering at the exclusive pre match function. In preparation for this I helped Denise (Marketing Coordinator) and Daniel (Marketing Manager) set up signage around the stadium and in our Business Club room. The majority if this included setting up tear drop banners and pull up banners as well as making sure the PowerPoint presentation and microphone were ready to go!

At 10.00am business club members started to turn up, I stood at the door and greeted the members as the came in and ushered them into the room. At around 10.15 speeches were made by the coach, Norma Plummer and also the business club ambassador and previous player, Susan Fuhrman. As members mingled and enjoyed food and drinks I went around and collected business cards for the business card raffle. I managed to speak to the chairman of Netball WA, the Chief Executive Officer of the Water Corporation and other representatives from our sponsors including Rosendorff, Nova, Telstra and the Sunday times. I also did a quick head count to see how many people attended the event for our reference and for future comparison.

After an hour of mingling and eating the business club members made their way down to their seats to watch the game. The business club had been a success! It ran very smoothly and we received some good feedback from people. What a relief! But the work for me and the marketing team had only just begun. I then helped pack up all the signage and clean up the business club room.

We then made our way down to the courtside and managed to watch the second half of the game. I felt very privileged to be sitting courtside, watching what unfolded to be a fantastic game of netball! The West coast Fever won 80-53 over the Northern Mystics. It was Fever's highest ever score in the ANZ Championship, beating their previous best of 67. Everyone was on high and so happy with such a big win, what a great start to the season!!

After the game the players came over to the stands to sign posters and other merchandise Denise and myself made sure that all the players had a permanent marker, and that they distributed themselves round the stadium evenly, we didn’t want any fans to miss out! Whilst this was going on, I also kept an eye out for Emily (Media and Communications Manager) who signaled me to send players over for interviews with FOX Sports and SBS. I then assisted in packing up the remaining signage and making sure everything was collected, tidy and in our storage container which is located out the back of challenge stadium.

 After the game the players and netball WA members as well as fans are all invited down to the boulevard in Floreat for post-game drinks and socialising. After everything was packed up and done at challenge stadium I made my way down to The Boulevard for some well-deserved down time. Daniel, The marketing Manager (and my boss) bought me a drink for all my hard work for the day, but I made sure I only had one and kept things professional. Finishing up, I left the boulevard around 3.00pm and went straight home for a nap, I was exhausted! What a day!

Today’s game day experience allowed me to realise the importance of networking and building relationships with an organisation’s members and its sponsors. Being a part of the business club has already given me a chance to make some valuable industry contacts and I am looking forward to developing my relationships with these individuals as the season goes on.

Today’s game also made me appreciate the amount of organisation, preparation and hard work it takes to pull off a sporting event like today’s game. It really requires a dedicated team of individuals pulling together to make everything run smoothly. Bring on the next home game for the fever! Let’s hope they can make it another home game win!

Rebecca

PS: If anyone is interested in coming to the games, you can find tickets and fixture information at

http://www.westcoastfever.com.au/index.cfm?fuseaction=Main

First day as a Networker

Before I begin my story about my first day at my brand new internship, I must first tell you a story. After emailing (and getting rejected or no replies) by at least ten different event management companies, I decided to email two final companies before moving on to look at different areas of PR.

By now, I’m 3 weeks away before the commencement of Semester 1, 2013 and I am desperately trying to land a placement so that I can get one step closer to graduation. Now, let me just mention that I emailed a specific lady for Company A (I managed to get her direct email) whereas the second company (Company B) only provided a general email account (no name was provided).

Within 2 hours of sending the emails, I got a reply requesting for an interview. I was ecstatic! At this point in time, I was completely unaware that I was emailing two ladies who had the same name!

So it’s Monday afternoon, I arrive ten minutes before my appointed time and I walk through Company A’s doors requesting to see this lady. I was shocked when she said that she was unaware about our meeting and requested to see the emails that we had apparently been exchanging. I guess I was too excited about actually landing an interview that I completely forgot to even see which company was emailing me.

It’s a hot summer day, by now I’m a few minutes late to meet the lady at Company B and to make matters worse, I get lost.

After 5-10 minutes of running up and down the same street, staring at every single building number, I arrive at the doors of Company B. The moment I stepped inside, I knew that it was the perfect environment for me.

Rebecca (the Founder of Via Appia NetworkingWA) interviewed me and after a few questions, I was given the opportunity to intern for them and was given a tour of their cozy office.

On the first day, all interns are required to write a blog post about who they are and why they wanted to be an intern at NetworkingWA. After submitting my blog post, Adriana (Event & Marketing Manager) introduced me to Highrise and DropBox, websites that they frequently use so that all documents could be easily accessible.

My first task that was I was assigned to, was a really fun one! In the upcoming weeks, NetworkingWA is hosting a conference in Bali and the event programme included an “Amazing Race” challenge for all the attendees. Rebecca and Adriana wanted me to create all the activities for them and research about what a nearby orphanage desperately required as the prizes that the winners receives, would ultimately be donated to their children.

Planning the Amazing Race challenge definitely took longer than expected so I did not manage to complete until the end of my second day but it was definitely something new that I had never gotten the opportunity to do before so I was glad that I was given this task on my first day.

What I learnt in PR Techniques definitely helped me complete this task, as I was able to refresh what I had learnt from 2 years ago and actually apply it at work. It’s the first time that I have been giving the opportunity to do this and I cannot wait to experience more of this.

Via Appia NetworkingWA
My internship blog post

Laura Ng

14865060

The End is Nigh

My 20-day internship is soon coming to an end. With only one day left after two and a half months of interning, I thought I would use my last blog post as a reflection of what I've learnt. I've worked on four major events, and a couple of small-scale events. One of the most interesting aspects of the internship was the research component. I really enjoyed researching the different topics that I wasn't familiar with before.
As my internship progressed, I noticed how different PR is at Uni and how different it is at 'work'. This was slightly relieving and slightly annoying. So much of what I have learnt at Uni is relevant to the professional practicing world but the aspect of Social Media has not been taught extensively, I realise this might be because it doesn't need to be.. Young adults already have the knowledge and drive to use Social Media professionally. But this might not be the case for mature students.
Writing in the professional world is also slightly different, for example the media release is taught as short, concise and a succinct piece of writing but this is not how I was taught to write in my work placement. I was told to write a story... develop an idea.. and provide a solution to an existing problem.
Overall, my internship was very insightful and I realised how much it makes a difference if you are learning and growing in a comfortable environment with lovely, talented and fun team members!
Even though events is an area that I am not looking to work in, this was a great experience and I look forward the windows of opportunity that await me!

Thanks for reading!
- Sarah Awan, Bentley Campus

The Resource Panel

Yesterday, Networking WA held their annual 'Resource Panel' event. The Resource Panel brings together key industry leaders, opinion leaders and experts to provide up to date information on issues currently surrounding the resource sector within WA and it's lasting impact on the state economy. This information is for all those involved in, interested in or acting within the mining and resource sector.

This is the event I have been extensively working on throughout my internship so far. The event showcased four panel speakers who discussed the key challenges and risks facing the resource sector, this led to a topical discussion of the skills shortage within the mining sector.

Our panel speakers this year included Denise Goldsworthy, Managing Director of Dampier Salt Limited and Hlsmelt, Jason Waller CSC, General Manager Capital Planning and Programs at QR National, Jeffrey May, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Alison Morley, CEO at Brumby Resources. All speakers had some really interesting insight to share and all were very experienced and capable in their field.

The event was a luncheon - with a delicious three-course-meal at the West Grand Ballroom at the Pan Pacific Hotel which was so beautiful!

The event was a huge success with close to 200 attendees with lovely prizes to give away and I met some really interesting industry professionals! It was so exciting to see an event you've been working extensively on for a couple of months come together.

This week my tasks were mainly involved with last minute errands and check ups for the Resource Panel event, such as finalising the press kit, writing and printing flyers and booklets, blogging about the event and ensuring all logistics are taken care of- it was such a relief to have it over and done with - and done so well!

Thanks for reading,

- Sarah Awan, Bentley