Jazzed About the Outcome!

After working with WAYJO for the past three months, my time has come to a sad end.

Throughout my time I was able to undertake a wide variety of tasks, and experience the daily workings of a public relations employee in the not for profit industry. This provided me with a true understanding of the importance of the public relations role and enabled me to develop my PR skills. Some of the main tasks I undertook included: compiling media and other stakeholder contact lists; event organisation, planning and promoting; updating and proofing of the website; supplying an e-newsletter, communicating and liaising with school contacts; and sourcing relevant information regarding possible sponsors and past alumni.

All of the tasks I have completed, even if tedious, have proved to be very beneficial to my studies as I've been able to put all my classroom knowledge into practice. I have also been very lucky to have gained a placement at WAYJO as I've been able to contribute to their inspiring cause and meet an array of people dedicated to the arts. 

After completing my placement what I feel I will miss the most is the staff. The ladies in the office have been there throughout my placement and have each shared with me their experiences and advice about the industry. This has provided me with invaluable information about what the future can hold. I was astounded with how friendly and available they made themselves to me and how they were always there to inspire, listen, and guide me throughout the process. I am internally grateful for their patience and dedication.

Reflecting on my placement I've been able to grow both professionally and personally. I cannot stress how rewarding this experience has been as it has taught me about the PR profession and prepared me for the workplace after graduation. I know I still have a lot to learn and experience but I now feel confident with attacking any task and role given to me head on. I can't wait to see what next year brings for me!

I hope everyone has enjoyed and learnt as much as I have from their placements!

Christina

"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

A Toe Tapping Start to Work Experience

Hello!

So I've finally decided to write my first blog about my internship at the one and only Western Australia Jazz Youth Orchestra (WAYJO). WAYJO is a not-for-profit organisation that provides unique opportunities for the top jazz musicians in WA. It's a very tough organisation to get into but once accepted students are rewarded with career-defining experiences including touring, training, recording and performing with world-class guest artists.

As this is my first work experience position I had no idea what to expect! As soon as I walked in I felt very comfortable and ready to get to work! I work in a small office with about four other ladies all of whom are very kind and facilitating.

WAYJO at the moment is very busy as its due to celebrate its 40th anniversary next year! This means gaining sponsor and alumni support is even more important as they plan for the numerous events and programs in the next coming months. This is wonderful for me as there's a lot for me to do!

Due to WAYJO being a not-for-profit organisation I've been given a variety of tasks. These tasks include; creating a media contact list, updating and adding to sponsor and school contact lists, written an editorial on an upcoming jazz artist, designed event flyer's, contributed to the format of the new website, created a list of free web event listing sites, published WAYJO event details to event listing websites, and resolved returned emails.

I'm very much appreciative of my unit coordinators as they've always covered material that is associated with non-for-profit organisations. It is only now I understand the true differences of PR roles in profit and non-for-profit organisations that I've been taught throughout my degree. The skills I've learnt from my PR units have been vital in my role at WAYJO and additionally give me the confidence to attack the new tasks assigned.

So far I have learnt so much and have really enjoyed my placement! I'm looking forward to learning and experiencing more at WAYJO! 

Bye for now,

Christina