The view from the eyes of the promoter

My internship is slowly coming to an end, and the last couple of days here I have been exposed to different activities which has been pretty awesome.

As we have recently begun festival season, one of my tasks I was given was to compile a publicity folder that required me to select photos from each Sunset Event from the 2011/12 season that could be used to showcase the event at any given time upon request. I found this activity quite fun and interesting, not only getting to look through some amazing photographs, but getting to select photos which grasped the feeling of the festival and really seeing how so many people are affected by music was intriguing. 

One of the main tasks that every practitioner will be exposed too within their career at some point is writing a media, or press release. Janelle gave me the task of constructing a media release for an upcoming Sunset activity. To be honest, it was quite a daunting task to be given as it had been a while since I had constructed a media release and not to mention Janelle is an excellent writer. This would be one of the tasks that I enjoyed the most, but I was a little disappointed with myself with some silly errors made through it. I guess it is a learning curve, and one lesson I learnt through this task was YOU MUST PROOF READ. Such small grammatical errors could have been avoided if I had proof red more efficiently than I did.

Southbound is one of the most popular music festivals held at the beginning the year and the Sunset team is hard at work at promoting the event. As Sunset is located in Fremantle, they formed a partnership with Notre dame student chapter. They joined forces were Notre Dame where they were launching their mezzanine area; this opened up the opportunity for Sunset to do a southbound promotion which gave the students who attended a chance to win tickets. It was my job to compile a music playlist that included 2 tracks from each artist performing to play at their launch. As I am not very familiar with many of the artists performing, I really enjoyed this task because it allowed me to listen and be exposed to a different genre of music and other artists that I am unfamiliar with. Once I had finished the playlist, Maddi (another sunset intern) and I were sent down to set up some promotional material around the mezzanine.

The next upcoming event that festivalgoers are anticipating is Stereosonic 2012. I was lucky enough to sit in with the whole Sunset team, including the directors to discuss the progress and Stereosonic issues. I took in every moment of this meeting because it was really interesting to see the different aspects of business and how they assist or affect the planning of a festival. Stereosonic would be one of my favourite festivals, where each year I have thoroughly enjoyed myself so it was great to view it from the opposite side of the fence; through the eyes of the promoters.

Until next time were I will be wrapping up my blog!

Tahlia

Festival Season is upon us!

I was very much looking forward to writing this blog entry. I am about a quarter way through my internship and have thoroughly been enjoying every minute. Since it’s been a while since my first blog, I thought it was about time to update you on my time here at Sunset.

There is one thing that I have learnt, the general public does not know how much work goes into organizing an event, and the volume and quality of work that is undergone through the planning period is incredible. Recently, the team at Sunset travelled up to Port Hedland to host the inaugural Northwest music Festival. This festival featured such artists such as the hilltop hoods, the Living End and the cat empire. The event was deemed highly successful! One of the tasks I was given was to construct a publicity report to be presented at a debriefing of the event. I was to compile all the pre and post event advertising regarding the festival, and to label it accordingly. Such advertising included newspaper articles, magazine articles and online advertising. This publicity report can give feedback to the amount of coverage it was given in the lead up to the event, and can give an adequate response to see how the event was perceived by all involved. 

With the Northwest Festival wrapped up, it was onto the next! As we are approaching the busiest time of the year, festival season; planning was in full force for Stereosonic and Southbound music festivals. As there were numerous artists playing at Southbound my task was to research the particular artists performing to enquire on they had any upcoming single or album releases. By having an artist having an upcoming release it could be intertwined with the promotional and marketing activities surrounding a particular event. 

As a lover of music festivals myself, I can safely say that I give credit and respect to the Sunset team and other similar promoters for the amount of time and effort placed into organizing a one day event. Working at an events company such as Sunset, it isn’t your ordinary 9-5-weekday job and what I’ve learnt is the work never stops even! The environment at Sunset is such an easy going and comfortable environment and like angel said, “it has to be for the amount of time that we spend here".

Until my next blog!

My first day at the Sunset!

It has finally come to the end, the final public relations unit before student life finishes forever! Before commencing my placement I can tell you I had a mixture of feelings. I mainly felt excited and nervous to see what my internship was going to bring, and what I new things I was going to learn.

I was Lucky enough to be accepted by the highly successful events company Sunset Events to complete my internship. Sunset events are a Perth based events management company.  Music, Culture, entertainment, arts and a good environment are the main attributes by such events are developed. Some of the major events executed by Sunset Events are Southbound, Stereosonic, Groovin the Moo, and Blues and Roots festival.  I had the opportunity to complete work experience previously with the company assisting with the event Creamfields, so It wasn’t completely unfamiliar territory I was stepping onto. My first day began at 10am and I met the lovely Angel who showed me around the workplace and introduced me to the small team of employees by which Sunset operates. To start with I was given a confidently agreement by which I needed to sign, something I had no problem with. I was not surprised to sign a document like this given the nature of the industry and the exclusive information that I could be entrusted with. It was then it hit me, this was the real world!

I was allocated my first task, Media Monitoring. To be quite honest I had absolutely no idea what this task entailed, which made me quite nervous and I started to think I was unprepared! However, Janelle put me at ease when she explained to me on what was expected. With Sunset events being responsible for many high profile national events, there would be a large amount of paid and non-paid for advertisements found in different print and online mediums. With scanning and monitoring different media for relevant events, it can give feedback on the publicity and coverage a particular festival or event currently has. PR, marketing and advertising play a huge role in generating ticket sales and overall knowledge of an event, and could be a detrimental effect on whether a event will be successful or not.  

As I have just started my internship I very much look forward to all my internship has to come in the future, and sharing my experiences of the “Real world” environment of the events industry!