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.

Traditional Public Relations - So much more satisfying!

Over the course of my internship at Corporate Sports Australia i've spent a significant amount of time completing tasks generally thought of as 'traditional public relations' - such as media release production and distribution.

After writing a number or media releases on the city to surf, i am a firm believer that tradtional PR tools still have a place in today digitalised society.

Of the last four media releases i've produced, two have generated some excellent free publicity in The Sunday Times! yay! and some were also featured on the City to Surf website. In my opionion seeing some recognition of your hard work in print in the newspaper is so much more exciting and satisfying that simply maintaining a presence of Facebook.

Except when i told my mum and she couldn't understand why name wasn't on the article. 'No mum, i didn't actually write the article, i wrote the media release. Which the journalist then decided to write an article based on.' She definitely did not share my excitement.

Corporate sports are very into championing the notions of 'tragedy and triumph' within media release content. As interns we were pushed to seek proactive stories that will connect with the wider Perth community, tapping into emotions through, inspiring stories of everyday people - like them! And then hopefully encouraging them to get off the couch and run a marathon!

Earlier in my placement i wrote a media release on the cutest couple ever. Now in their 70's they have run every single City to Surf to date! And they were probabaly the nicest people i've ever met, they even sent me loads of old photos and media clippings from marathons they've competed in around the world.It was nice to be able to recognise their acheievement and give them something back through getting the story published.

Writing media releases at my internship gave me an opportunity to showcase some of the skills i've picked up over the last three years of studying and i now have some great pieces of work to include with my CV.

My final week as a student

This will be my fourth and final blog and it feels like just yesterday I was searching for my placement. In this blog I will reflect on my internship and also point out the main things I have taken away. This placement opportunity has been a wonderful experience for me, in both learning and experiencing everything Public Relations has to offer. I have been able to fine tune the basic skills that are needed to work in the PR field. I have also had the opportunity to enrich my own personal knowledge about being in a practical field. I have learnt to differentiate between what I learnt at University and PR practiced in the real workplace, this has been very beneficial.

I will now be able to take away everything I have learnt and put it to practice in my next working adventure, I feel the most important thing I have experienced is my new found appreciation for what public relation can offer any organisation. When companies underestimate what PR can do for them they miss out on vital opportunities that could benefit them. I found this especially important in building a brand,  a brand can be see as the perceptions of consumers and its importance to any organisation, as it can make or break the success of a business.

Also PR can help the company build and maintain their relationship with their stakeholders, I understood the importance of having a good relationship with not just the public but also the internal and external stakeholders, it is important in building a brand that is known and trusted to continue being successful. Public Relation can offer any organisation so much opportunity and throughout my internship I have really experienced this first hand, the main thing I have realised is how interested I am about Public Relations. I am seeing the possibilities within any organisation, I am excited to graduate from Curtin University and begin the rest of my career, hopefully in a public relations field. 

"Stalking" for the Greater Good of Jazz

Hey Everyone!

So now that the big jazz event has been completed it's time to start getting prepared for next year. 2013 is going to be an amazing, jazzy, eventful, and busy year for WAYJO as it celebrates its 30th Anniversary!

As part of its anniversary WAYJO is hoping to encourage alumni to get involved in all aspects of its celebrations. For the projects we are undertaking WAYJO would love to showcase the success of past members and encourage many to get involved by attending and even performing at numerous events. Encouraging alumni to get involved will help strengthen and re-establish strong relationships.  

My job is to find WAYJO alumni that have been disconnected from the organisation. However it seems that information recording past WAYJO members has been lost! You can imagine the problems this has given me. 

So in order to find these "lost" alumni I have taken to the very useful and efficient resource called Google. I must admit the idea of Google "stalking" people was not something I would ever think I would be doing at WAYJO but hey it's for the greater good of jazz! But don't worry I use the word stalking very loosely; it's more searching through past WAYJO events and performances, looking through jazz sites, and reading through jazz musician bio's and other information. After determining if they are past members I then strategically search for ways in which to communicate with them, which has proved very tricky. Did you know that not many people are open to posting their details online for everyone to see? I definitely will still not post my details online but please past WAYJO members, just this once!

I can’t wait until I begin communicating with the alumni as due to my “stalking” I’ve learnt who the alumni are, what they’re doing, and what they’re about; this will be very rewarding in building strong relations with alumni. You could call this a silver lining.

I'm not sure my tutors really prepared me to find specific people within the public from scratch. However, I hope for the sake of all future and current PR students that they never have to learn or go through this process.

Bye for now,

Christina.

The Jazz Event of the Year!

Hello Again,

So after weeks of preparing for the Mike Stewart and Sarah McKenzie Concert with WAYJO it had finally arrived!

Since I've been at WAYJO I've been set tasks focused on the Mike Stewart and Sarah McKenzie concert. There are three events in which we had to prepare for: a schools excursion concert during the day, the big concert at night and the VIP's event before the show.

One of the major roles I was given was in regards to the Mike and Sarah for Schools Excursion. For this concert I spent my days liaising with teachers across the metropolitan Perth area. This was a very scary task for me as I was not yet use to calling up people I didn't know. It was soon after the first few phone calls that my confidence had sky rocketed as I found the most efficient ways to communicate with teachers. What I learnt was that teachers are very informal in communications, preferring a more relaxed environment. I also noticed that they’re not always on top of things, so they really appreciate reminders and direct communications such as phone calls. Many hadn’t even gotten round to checking their emails from the previous month!

Finding out about my audience was really helpful as I discovered what they wanted to hear and how they wanted to hear it. Talking to the teachers was actually quiet rewarding as they were very receptive to an open two way communication flow about the event. Now I understand the value in what my tutors and lecturers have taught me throughout my degree; that getting to know your audience in every aspect allows you to maintain and create a strong positive relationship with your stakeholders.

It was such a shame that I was unable to see the Mike and Sarah for Schools Concert and appreciate the results of my communications but the main concert needed all hands on deck! The day of the big concert was very manic, I spent most of the day updating the final guest list and creating the seating plan for the VIP’s. This was very exhilaration as my job was to make sure that every guest was accounted for, and I was still receiving new names up until the last minute! You could imagine my stress.

After the list was finally finalized I rushed to get ready and headed to the theatre where I was to give out name badges and tickets to the VIP's. If I thought handling the guest list was stressful then I was very much mistaken. Many tickets had not yet been put into each guest’s envelope, therefore tickets had to be manually found and accounted for in front of the guest which was not ideal. From this experience I realized that no amount of theory in the class room can prepare you for the stress and pressures of running an event.

I spent many days focusing on; sending out event information to websites, writing an editorial about Sarah McKenzie, designing flyers and other related tasks. Therefore, it was such a thrill to see the event come together and be a massive hit! I specifically remember hearing the words sold out at the box office whilst attending to our full VIP guest list. It was such an amazing feeling to know that all our hard work had paid off! Take a look at the following link for more information regarding the main event: http://wayjo.com/event/mike-stewart-sarah-mckenzie-with-wayjo/.

I now look forward to getting back into the office and gaining more experience in PR at WAYJO.

Goodbye for now!

Christina