Final Race Time of 26 Days

Well the day has arrived! All that planning will be paid off this morning, Sunday August 26! Been up at 4am may not seem the most ideal situation but it did not phase me at all. I could not wait to be at City Beach Oval! 

Watching people pass the finish line and listening to interviews conducted by the media to the winners felt like a huge achievement thinking ‘hey I helped put this all together.’ It was amazing to see all that planning come together on one day and it was also extremely rewarding, making all those hours worthwhile.

I have learnt so much and I cannot wait to get a job and show off what I have learnt and further extend my knowledge in the public relations industry.

A few valuable lessons I will take away from my internship are:

Planning

Without planning, you are just going to create a recipe for disaster. every little detail for the event was planned and had a team behind it that had worked on it and designed it to work in a certain way. Although during my internship some tasks I did, did not seem as important as others it was all a part of the ‘bigger picture’ Planning for anything and everything that will and could happen on the event day all works to ensure a smooth event to be enjoyed by the participants and the organisers. 

Time Management

The ability to meet deadlines and have a high level of organisation is all part of maintaining strong relationships with both stakeholders and colleagues. As the event was on August 26, there were a series of tasks that needed to be done months, weeks and days in advance and without the completion of those tasks the event would not have gone ahead and would have been terrible. 

Time management and organisation reflects highly on the industry you are in and a part of. 

Verbal Communication

The PR industry relies heavily on both written and verbal communication. Whether you are communicating with your colleagues, stakeholder groups, publics and other industries, communicating confidently, fluently and well is very important. PR is all about messages, 

As an intern it is pivotal that you have a excellent verbal communication to ensure you all a part of the planning and the organisation and your voice is getting heard.

Teamwork

PR heavily relies on working in teams. Who knew all those group assignments with good and not so good group members would be a reflection of the type of team work you would be doing in the industry. Especially working for such a huge event, it would be impossible for only one person to do this event all by themselves and have the same results as if a team were to organise it. 

CONFIDENCE

One priceless lesson I will be taking away from this unit is ‘confidence’. Over the 26 days of interning, I have grown confident in my ability to step into the ‘real world’ as they call it and apply for jobs knowing I can do it, and I’ll be able to do it well. 

I cannot begin to describe how much I enjoyed my time at Corporate Sports Australia and help organising the City to Surf and to be a part of such a great community event. I was given some great tasks and felt like I was providing a service to the event. All the little tasks that may seem not so important such as answering emails and phone calls was a huge learning curve as you were interacting with primary stakeholders and aware publics - the way you responded to their queries reflected on the practice of event management and the organisation itself.

I’m also glad to know that I will also be helping out with their next event, the inaugural Suncorp Bank Fremantle Fun Run that will be on November 11. 

I hope you all enjoyed your internship as much as I did and good luck with the final weeks of semester!

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco

Diffusing the Crisis

“In today’s world, it is not a question of if or whether an organisation will experience a crisis; it is only a matter of what type of crisis will occur, what form it will take, and how and when it will happen.”

Ian I. Mitroff

As Race Day comes closer and closer, things are starting to get more hectic around the office, making sure that the year of planning has not left anything out or not completed perfectly. Race Week mainly consisted of last minute planning and organisation with tasks such as booking a helicopter for event day for the production team, promoting Race Week events and spectator zones on Facebook, final newsletters to Team Captains and participants and final preparation for the press conference. 

One of my tasks during Race Week was to create media statements for crises that may happen on Race Day. This included a notification of fatality, an incident if a participant ran the wrong way and protestors against Chevron, as Chevron thought they may arrive at the City Beach Oval and protest at the presentations. The media manager and marketing coordinator explained that at last year’s event there was the unfortunate case of a participant collapsing at the finish line and passing away and a media statement needed to be released to inform the media what had happened and keep information controlled. She then continued to tell me that although it may seem morbid in writing these statements, it was an important detail in the planning of the event as they need to be prepared for everything and anything that could happen on the day and ensure that the organisers were not caught off guard. 

Crisis Management has been spoken about right from the start in PR Principles to to PR Corporate and Consultancy. Doing the PR 393 Professional Placement unit can allow you to put all this theory into practice, just like I had to.

A crisis can be defined as an extraordinary event or series of events that adversely affects the integrity of the product; the reputation or financial stability of the organisation; or the health or well-being of employees, the community or the public at large. (Wilcox et al 1995, p. 222) 

Potential effects of a crisis can include a loss of reputation, decrease of sales, other financial loss in the terms of compensation and costs of products, management being distracted from regular business operations, loss of employee motivation and new political regulation imposing constraints for business.

However, the way a crisis is dealt with by the organisation can heavily impact the consequences that they are further dealt with. For example, comparing the Queensland floods with the Japanese tsunami is a great way to show good and bad crisis management. Although no one is accountable for a natural disaster, if your risk management is not well prepared for dealing with the potential impact of a natural disaster, then you will be accountable for its consequences. 

The Queensland floods was a terrible natural disaster but the way Premier Anna Bligh and her team dealt with it deserves recognition. Anna Bligh always spoke to the public and media, leaving nothing hidden with regular updates and information in regards to how the government and SES were dealing with the situation. She showed concern, consistency, confidence and competence and was not aggressive during and after the floods.

Looking at how the Japanese government dealt with the aftermath of the tsunami and the nuclear plants, it is evident that it was not dealt with as effective as it could have been. Not having a solid speaker until the Secretary took charge, did not allow information to be released as smoothly and the Japanese public felt as if they were alone in the middle of the crisis. There was no confidence, competency or consistency shown.

Although no crisis occurred on Race Day that needed a media statement to be released, there was that ease of having a statement ready and knowing that even organisers would not be caught off guard and would be able to have control over an unfortunate event. 

What crisis do you think was handled well or terrible? Have you had to do any crisis planning at your internship?

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco

And welcome to the City to Surf press conference!

I have been doing many tasks at my internship which include media releases, answering emails, official invitations to the event, schedules, newsletters, offline registrations and write ups for the City to Surf website (which you can have a look at here)

About a month into my internship I was then given my official role for event day - I would be the media assistant. This role would include helping out the Media Coordinator on the day, been at the finish line in the media tent, helping out the media with any queries they may have, making sure the athletes that place get an interview with them and organising the official pre-event press conference. 

To say I was excited about my role was an understatement. To be the organiser of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ press conference, their main media opportunity was amazing! About four weeks prior to the conference I started organising it, making sure I had athletes from each ‘field’: elite, human interest and interstate, writing out the MC Notes for event commentators Jon Kappler and Ray Boyd, the floor plan, working with the PR team from Chevron, the running sheet and the official invite.

Another first for the City to Surf is the attendance of two Japanese elite athletes, an agreement that was made with Japan and the Department of Sport and Recreation where Japan will send two of its elite athletes to compete in Perth’s top running events and some of WA’s elite athletes will compete over in Japan, further placing the Chevron City to Surf for Activ on the international running calendar. 

For the conference I secured the following speakers:

Elite Athletes: Kenyan athletes Luka Chelimo and David Kemboi and two Japanese elite athletes Chihiro Tanaka and Takeshi Niki.

Interstate Athlete: Sam Maxwell and Lauren Shelley

Human Interest Speakers: Monika Volpi and her guide dog Jonnie, Activ ambassador Beth Ebert and her family and Richy Bear, a man who will be running the Half Marathon in a bear suit. 

Working on the press conference made me think back to PR Media 250 when we discussed if media conferences still have a place in today’s industry, looking at the pros and cons. The positives of a media conference are that it gives journalists the ability to ask questions, relays on one key message, involve your employees (i.e. them attending), information is more controlled, able to personalise the story, gives the opportunity for simultaneous announcements and adds credibility. 

For example, a press conference that worked extremely well was during the Queensland floods when then Premier Anna Bligh used many press conferences to update the media with information about the floods and ensure that the people of Queensland were kept informed and understood the government knew what they were going through and that they were trying to fix it.

The negatives of a press conference however can include the opportunity to make you vulnerable to negative questions.

In my opinion, having a press conference for the Chevron City to Surf for Activ worked successfully. This was their chance to showcase key participants to the media and release information such as ‘event organisers are expecting a record 45,000 participants to attend the event’. See here for the article published on PerthNow after the press conference with this information. After this experience I also agree with the fact that press conferences do have a place in the industry given that they are organised well and for the right reasons - there is no point holding a press conference to release information that is not valuable or would give your company the opportunity to be vulnerable to negative questions. 

So after getting minimal sleep the night before due to nerves, I couldn’t wait to show off what I had been working on for the past month. We went to the Chevron office to get ready to set up. We went to the conference room and started to put the media backdrop together. The thing is, no one knew how to put up the banner. That’s right no one knew how to do it. This was what I was fearing the most - something going terribly wrong. How could I hold a press conference without a media backdrop? You just can’t. At the same time, speakers started to turn out so it was fair to say the beginning of the conference was a bit of a nightmare. I had to go to a corner and calm down for a bit and work out what needed to be done. Thank goodness for my fellow intern Alanna and the Chevron girls who figured out how to set up the media backdrop whilst I briefed the speakers of how to the conference was to run. Once the conference started I could breathe and I must congratulate on the fantastic way Ray Boyd and JK did the event - the way they speak and engage with the media was amazing and so inspiring to hear, you can understand why they are the event commentators for the Race. 

The press conference didn’t run as smooth as I would have liked - but there was a lady with her guide dog, a man in a bear suit and a three year old toddler, so maybe next time I would think more about what kind of speakers will attend and the flow of movement a bit better. I also learnt a very valuable lesson that I should have thought about before - to test out the media banner.

Rob de Castella, Sam Maxwell and Lauren Shelley speak at the Chevron City to Surf for Activ press conference

Overall I loved having the trust of the event organisers to be the organiser of the press conference. Not many people get to take on such an important task as an intern! I felt very honoured that the people at Corporate Sports gave me this responsibility and it was a fantastic experience.  I learnt so much about planning all the little details and how important planning is to ensure that the event goes smoothly and nothing is left out. It is the little details that may not seem like a great deal but at the event you realise that without those little details it would all fall apart. I also grew confident in my ability to tackle tasks and work in the PR industry and with other people.

What are your thoughts on whether a press conference still has a place in today’s industry? And what amazing tasks have you taken on in your internship? Would love to hear them!

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco 

Putting the RAN in BRANDING

Throughout my internship at Corporate Sports Australia for the Chevron City to Surf for Activ, I have quickly realised the importance of branding. Throughout our degree the importance of branding has come up and although it seems straightforward, it is when you put it into practice in the ‘real world’ you see it all come together.

Branding is a distinguishing name and/or symbol such as a logo, trademark or package design, intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate those goods and services from those of competitors.

The diagram below looks at the positioning of the brand and understanding the link between a brand and its organisation, customers and competitors:

Based upon stakeholder evaluations of the strongest corporate reputation within different countries, they suggest that organisations with the strongest reputations are characterised by high levels of visibility, distinctiveness, authenticity, transparency and consistency. 

Every piece of documentation - media releases, official invitations, emails, newsletters and letters need to have the official Chevron City to Surf for Activ logo/brand on it and every time the event is written out, it needs to be ‘Chevron City to Surf for Activ’ not ‘Perth City to Surf’ or ‘City to Surf fun run’. In ensuring that all documents have this logo on it , event organisers are able to know, with confidence that its customers and competitors are familiar with the brand and can easily identify what the event logo is and are shown the same consistent logo that is distinctive from other events and organisations and is visible to them.

The event organiser, explained to my fellow intern Alanna and I about how important branding is. Everything needs to get the tick of approval from Chevron, and both organisations have an understanding of the brand of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ which you can see at the beginning of my blog post. Although the white background in the logo may seem irrelevant and unimportant, it is a part of the brand. The event manager wanted to test out a black background for the banners that will be placed everywhere - in the Event Expo, all down St Georges Terrace, Adelaide Terrace and other streets in the City and at City Beach Oval. When a sample arrived at the office, we were shown the difference between the black and white banners and all agreed that not only did the white background look more effective and let the writing stand out more but was more reflective of the City to Surf ‘brand’. The event manager continued to tell us that Chevron may not have approved this logo as it was different to all the logos that were currently in use but was good to test it out and see the difference and make notes for next year’s event.

Above are the banners on St Georges Terrace, the City start line. Imagine them with white writing and black background, the design that wasn't put forward. 

Branding may just seem to be a part of the process and come as second nature to include the proper naming of the event and have the logo on everything but when the event manager explained in literally black and white how branding works and why the banners need to have a white background, it opened my eyes to see this little detail has such high importance and works with the organisation, its customers and competitors.

What are your thoughts on branding? Have you had an experience at your internship when the wrong or right brand has been put out to the public or know of any brands that have gone wrong or are successful? 

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco

Ready Set Race! and The Power of Social Media

I completed my internship at Corporate Sports Australia who are the event organisers for the Chevron City to Surf for Activ. The City to Surf is WA’s largest sporting community event and includes the 42km Marathon, 21km Half Marathon, 12km Run/Walk, 4km Run/Walk and 4km Wheelchair. I was both nervous and excited to start my placement - especially since this was the first work experience I would be doing in the PR industry.

In 2011, the event had close to 41,000, breaking participant records in the Marathon and Half Marathon field. It is the seventh year that Corporate Sports Australia have been the event organisers, before Activ, the event’s charity partner, organised the event in-house. 

To launch the event, and announce that Australia's greatest marathon runner Rob de Castella will again be the event ambassador, the organisers wanted to be creative instead of just using a media release or media announcement and give themselves a chance to interact with their stakeholders on Friday July 6. 

Developing a fun and creative idea can be a challenge that many PR professionals may face wih daily, making it not only an interesting and enjoyable experience for their publics but for themselves as well. This was the first time that this was going ahead.

They came up with a ‘Run with Rob’, a 5km run around Kings Park with event ambassador Rob de Castella. This was promoted through social media sites Facebook and Twitter. The City to Surf Facebook page has over 3,000 ‘likes’ and has almost 800 followers on Twitter. 

The launch was also published on PerthNow the morning of the run.

Organisers were expecting around 50-100 people to attend the ‘Run with Rob’ and media partners Channel Nine and The Sunday Times were notified to generate some media coverage that night/weekend.

The turn out was amazing with over 200 people arriving at Kings Park to partake in the ‘Run with Rob’. For something that was only published through social media sites and on a news website it reached enough people to exceed expectations and is a true example of how social media and the online world can benefit organisations and adapt with the public relations industry.

Rob de Castella in a Channel Nine media interview

A snap shot of some of the participants waiting for the run to start

Today, social media is a great opportunity in the ever growing business of public relations. Rather than the classic mode of communication professionals liaising with official news channels, blogs and social networking sites now offer content on organisations and these organisations can distribute their own information without any control from corporate communication professionals or the reliance of the media. 

The internet can be seen as a leading edge of what is a major communication revolution. The digital world has changed the way communication is produced and reaches a large audience. With Facebook reaching around 10 million Facebook uses, it is no wonder why so many companies are using it. 

Without the use of social media would this launch been as successful as it was? If organisers only chose to send out a media release would the media have picked it up and would the public have taken greater notice? 

Looking back on the event, it was evident that social media was an opportunity rather than a threat or weakness to the organisers. It is examples like this that are able to give us a first hand insight into what can be created from a short post on Facebook as long as it is presented in a professional and ethical manner. I do understand, however, the risks that could have arised from using Facebook and Twitter to announce an event which could have gone south with a small number of people attending. But when these risks are taken and have a successful outcome is what makes it all worth while. If they don't produce the expected outcome, many lessons are taken from it.

Screenshot of the Facebook post

Have an experience where social media has worked in your favour at your internship or perhaps the opposite? Please share! 

Thanks,

Steph Sbrocco