Goodbye Scitech

Last week I completed my work placement at Scitech.
I began my placement in February and have been there every Thursday and Friday since.
In the past week I have been finishing up my final report for PR393 and it has allowed me to reflect on my time with the organisation and what I have learnt.

Scitech conducts public relations in a very practical hands on way. I wrote countless drafts of media releases during my placement which helped me in honing my writing skills while promoting various events or Scitech services.

As Scitech is a not for profit organisation, funding and staffing are limited, which means the communications team that conducted all of the public relations work at Scitech had to be multi skilled.
Every day I would be doing something different. While people would have their specialities it seems in a small organisation it's crucial that anybody be able to complete a variety of different tasks in order to meet deadlines and keep stories that are going out timely.

I think it was beneficial for me to work in an organisation that conducts public relations in this way, rather than only specialising in one area. It allowed me to improve on a range of skills including media release writing, preparing for events, writing for social media, website management, communicating with stakeholders and planning promotions.

Now I feel well equipped to enter the workforce after graduation and ready to continue improving these skills, no matter where I end up working.

A form of crisis management

As the end of the university semester approaches so to does the end of my work placement at Scitech. Next week will be my last week with the Communications team so I am now in the process of wrapping up my final tasks.

After spending a couple of days each week here for almost 3 months it has come to be a part of my week I so look forward to and thoroughly enjoy, and its safe to say I will miss the girls that make up the Communications team a lot!

Over the past few weeks Scitech has appeared in the media many a time regarding the Liberal governments promise to move the centre to Burswood. This move has now been confirmed and if all goes to be planned the new centre will open in 2018. This is a huge announcement that has obviously caused some positive and some negative reactions amongst the public.

This has allowed me the experience of seeing Scitech almost go into a type of crisis management mode. Although not as severe as this there has still been a lot of discussion about how this information will be communicated to the public and what can be done to reassure people unhappy with the news.

I have been involved in preparing Facebook and Twitter posts as well as adding a comments section to the main Scitech webpage in order for people to share their thoughts on the move on the relevant article. I have also assisted with a mail out to all Scitrekkers (Scitech membership holders) asking for their thoughts and opinions on the matter directly.

I am glad this has happened before I’ve left Scitech as it has allowed me to witness firsthand how a company responds to a huge announcement that garners a lot of negative feedback. A number of people have posted on the Scitech Facebook page expressing that they are unhappy with the move of venue.

The way Scitech has responded has supported my learning about this area; you must be open and honest maintaining transparency with your stakeholders at all times. Announcements were made by Scitech to the public as soon as definite decisions had been made. You must make your stakeholders know that their thoughts and opinions are of importance to you and give them a channel to communicate this through.

As I write this blog Scitech are continuing to monitor the web as planning for the move to Burswood begins. The comments section on their web page is proving  to be a more effective outlet than Facebook, people are posting valuable and thoughtful insights as to how Scitech could improve by making changes to the set up and layout in the new building.

A taste of working in events

A couple of weeks ago I had a tremendously exciting time at my work placement attending and helping out at not one but two Scitech events! One was the adults only evening, Scitech After Dark, that I had done promotional work for. The other was a Rio Tinto Partnership Day where the collaboration between Rio Tinto and Scitech was celebrated.

Both events were a tremendous success with tickets for After Dark selling out and the Rio Tinto Partnership Day saw both Scitech and Rio Tinto families alike having a fantastic day out enjoying the range of exhibitions and shows that had been brought along to the Claremont Showgrounds. 
This event was planned after Rio Tinto’s declaration they would be renewing their partnership with Scitech for a further five years showing the decade long partnership is still going strong.

At the event I spent the morning with Scitech photographer Miles as he made his way through the venue setting up shots with children interacting with Scitech staff and exhibits. It was my job to assist with setting up shots as well as interviewing children’s parents. This involved ensuring photo release forms were signed as well as identifying what area families were from and discussing what parts of the day families were enjoying the most, in order to gather any quotes that could possibly be used in a post event press release.

This was fast paced and I had to work quickly but efficiently – ensuring that I didn’t miss collecting the details of any children before moving onto the next shot – but also making sure I was having calm and enjoyable interactions with the families rather than making them feel as though they were being rushed. I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable and valuable experience.

That evening it was time for the next event – After Dark. After seeing that a blurb I had sent off to the Weekend West had been published in the events listing of Seven Days I was feeling pretty positive about the heavy promotion that had gone into the night. And it definitely paid off!
Hundreds of science and sci-fi enthusiasts wandered the floor exploring the exhibitions – many of whom were dressed in their best impressions of various science fiction characters. It was incredible to see everything come together and all the visitors enjoying themselves and embracing the theme of the evening.

To top the evening off we had social photographer Cheyne Tillier-Daly respond to a media alert I sent out the week before who then came down and took photographs for the West Australian on the night. These were published in the Wednesday paper on 17 April.

Introduction to the world of PR at Scitech

Several weeks ago I began my professional placement within the Marketing Department at Scitech. I was tremendously excited about this as I have always perceived Scitech as a place that would have a fun and bubbly working environment – I was not wrong!

I was made to feel very welcome from the get go as I was taken around the building and introduced to all of the people that make up Scitech and greeted enthusiastically as a new addition to the team.

I was thrown right into work as I started in the middle of Toddlerfest which is a huge event aimed at children under 5 and brings brought in 15 000 people across the two weeks it ran. A photographer from The Sunday Times arrived at 10 and I assisted the girls in finding children and parents willing to be photographed for the paper, helping the photographer to stage shots and collecting details and quotes from those that were photographed.

I found it a little daunting to be doing this on my first day as soon as I had arrived but afterwards I felt pleased to have been apart of it. It was definitely a valuable experience because it allowed me to see what it is like to work with the outside media, not only the organisation itself.

After this it was straight onto my next task – promotions for the next big event – Scitech After Dark. After Dark is an 18+ event run for young adults where they can view the exhibitions and watch science and theatre shows while enjoying food and drinks. Scitech without the kids gives the adults a chance to interact and get involved in the learning themselves.

I was told by Sarah (my supervisor and the Communications Manager) that I would be in charge of organising a lot of the promotions, advertisements and social media buzz for After Dark. This was a scary thought but after week two and four days at Scitech I am looking forward to leaving my mark on the After Dark event. I am confident Sarah will guide me through the areas I require assistance with as she has already been so keen to show me new websites, programs and to let me take the reigns and try things for myself. 

Final Days

Final Days

Hi everyone,

I am now getting to the pointy end of my time at Scitech Discovery Centre as the semester is wrapping up and the report is due tomorrow!

I have enjoyed every minute of my time at Scitech and have decided to stay on and extend my time to one day a week until I get a job in the industry. I was advised from my supervisor that it looks good on a resume when applying for jobs to currently still be working at an internship, even only one day a week. I also thought about how I would be lost without my Wednesday and Thursday mid week Scitech fix.

I am very thankful the the whole team there and have learnt many skills that I can take out of this experience. I now have confidence in writing press releases, compiling media monitoring information and how to generally act in a professional work place.

I hope everyone enjoyed their time as much as I did and maybe some of you are also extending your placement for the fun of it..

Until next time!
Brooke
14275177

Beginning at the Beginning 

I started looking for placements way back in the winter holidays knowing we only had 4 weeks off, I thought I may as well start getting ahead before the pressure starts again in Semester 2. There were many things to look into before applying for placements and I knew I had to be sure about where I was going as I was going to have to write a long and important report at the end of it and if I was not interested in the place I would not do a good job.

The first question was if I wanted to work in a consultancy or in house operations. I had heard of the benefits of both through my three years in the PR degree but I have never actually done any placements so I could not be too sure of what I would prefer.

The second question was if my resume, references and interviewing skills were up to date. I had to go over my CV with a fine tooth comb and got a few proof readers before considering sending it out into the business world to reflect and represent myself.

The third question was how confident I was in the basics of most PR areas. I started re reading notes and lectures and going through the pre requisite information for this unit so I felt confident enough to interview for a PR position.

http://www.scitech.org.au/

After all of this, eight weeks ago I got a call back from my first choice of placements which is Scitech. A general background about the company is that it is a not for profit science education institution which gets almost 60% of its funding from the State Government and public and private sponsors. I was so excited and after a straight forward interview with my Supervisor and the Communications Manager I got the call back for the job! I soon found out that not only was I the Schools Marketing Assistant but also a Communications Assistant so I was going to be put straight to work and would be juggling a few different areas in the office.

I was so nervous for my first day but I was soon put at ease as I was told that I had to go and experience all that Scitech has to offer so I could get a proper feel for the work they do. I got to play with the toddlers in Discoverland, sit in on a puppet show with a school group, watch the Slime demonstrations in the Lotterywest Science Theatre and enjoy a show at the the Horizon Planetarium. After the exciting day I was excited to get into real work twice a week for the next few months.

My next posts will be on the exciting work I have been up to and looking forward to!
Until next time,

Brooke
14275177