Initial Meeting

So I didn't realise this has been sitting in the drafts bit for ages, meant to post it about a month ago. Silly me. Oh well, this post is about my first internship day, which was full of meetings and talking and narrowing down how I was going to spend my 20 days and what was expected of me/what they'd like to get out of having me there.

The first part of the meeting revolved around what AVHI does; audiovisual equipment hire (at the minute mostly to private functions) and how they would like to expand. For a pretty recent start-up business, they've had a lot of private interest, and are doing quite well, however would like to focus more on building up a good, solid reputation that will have people coming to them, which is where I come in.

I brought up going to local schools and not for profit groups - in our area north of the river there are about 10 schools in the immediate vicinity (more if you go further), a huge number of sporting organisations who have raffles, presentation nights, and similar events, and local surf clubs and charity organisations who hold events with relative frequency. My idea with these was to offer to do their events free of charge, as long as they mention AVHI in their newsletter, have a banner up or something like that.

So I've started creating a contact list divided based on areas (AVHI operates in all metro areas) starting with the one closest to where the owner lives. This has all the details of whoever is the point of contact for each organisation.

Also in the meeting we talked a little bit about making the company more professional looking and therefore bringing in clients who are willing to pay more. Part of this internship includes pitching in with marketing as well as managing AVHI's PR, but I've found it very interesting all the same. AVHI has some of the best equipment, does installations, and has very low prices. I'm currently researching the market around Perth for AV hire, as the owner would like to offer the lowest prices. I've just sent off proofs of the new website and business card design, and I'm about to go and revise some of the advertisements and discuss with the owner building a social media presence (which is an area of PR I'm very interested in).

Until next time!!

Task: Working as a PR trainee

The world of Public relations is not limited only to media releases as I previously talked about, that is publishing articles. It has other less enjoyable task like making contact list which is very long and tiring as we need to search but also call people so as to update the list. However it is not only boring but it can be a good to learn how to speak to people and send the right messages. Sometimes it is a thin line between having a successful campaign and a failure, as the better you know how to talk to people, the more you can do and appealing you can be. I am also making calls to have sponsorships for the next campaign that i am working on to make fund-raising for PILS hotline; Sida Info Maurice.


On my second week of work, some other task apart from making calls is to ensure that press clippings are well scanned and organised in order so as to make it easier to access. This is a slow but important task as if done regularly it won't become a hard task as it won't be piled up. The articles are kept in folders Date and months and each files scanned are classified by name-mediaoutlet-subject-date. It is very important so as to make it easier

I also wrote the sponsorship mails to send to the companies who can donate to make the next fundraising campaign a success. This is a process that takes time and a lot of patience. It can be very difficult when dealing with reluctant people who keeps on postponing your calls or ask you to call later. It is very reward when concluded for sponsors.

Connecting PR Professionals to the Media

Lachlan Abbott, Bentley Campus - Methodist Ladies' College

One of the most fascinating aspects of my time at Methodist Ladies' College (which is coming to an end very quickly!) is the relationships I've observed between our department and the local media, both in a personal and professional way.  We've been told quite frequently that PR professionals will often foot the bill for lunch with journalists in order to get stories printed, but I'd never seen it in action and was therefore a bit taken aback when it happened.

There is one person responsible for promoting the college in the local media, and they certainly have their favourite outlet.  They have a very close friendship with one journalist in particular who works for one of the local newspapers, and this friendship led to four articles concerning the college being published in the last edition.  There was quite legitimately a whole page devoted to MLC stories.

After studying journalism, there's a part of me that questions the ethics of this.  But on the other hand I believe that because the college operates in such a tight-knit community, these types of relationships would form the basis for a vast majority of the local media content.  Making contacts within the various media outlets and cultivating relationships is not only important, but necessary if an organisation such as MLC is to have a voice within it's community.  There's only so much newsletters and posters can achieve, and having regular media coverage within local papers is no doubt a real feather in the cap of our department.

On balance I believe relationships between PR professionals and the media must remain mutually beneficial, with the onus being primarily on PR practitioners to ensure they maintain these relationships in an ethical and professional manner.

THIS WORK IS TOO SIMPLE!!!!

An event if coming up for you!

è  A joint initiative between Ararfmi and GreenApple Respite Services (division of Workpower) to develop and facilitate a Peer Support Project.  The project will target Carer’s whose children are affected by a sibling’ mental illness; this can encompass Young Carers who care for a family member. The project aims to provide a peer support network for individuals where they can develop life skills, coping skills and a network of individuals in their life who share or have shared a similar experience in a warm and supportive environment. 

My Job has been to source a contact list for this event and explore costs for community newspapers. This has been completed efficiently – Just waiting on a response from the Community News Group; hopefully we will get a discount as we are non for profit!!

The most interesting part of this activity was discovering how many support and youth groups there are around Perth. Those who think they have no one to turn. This is completely untrue - there are about a 10 trillion people you can call! Here are just a few options:

Connect Groups - http://www.connectgroups.org.au/

Headspace - http://www.headspace.org.au/

Youth with a Mission Perth - http://www.ywamperth.org.au/

While creating another contact list for our stakeholder event coming up (so exciting!)  – you would think this would be simple if you give each division a template to follow, trust me it is not. People are useless!! Due to their carelessness I have to put hours of work into fixing it and chasing up names. I feel this activity is similar to the other Blog posted previously – doing these simple things really well and better than other people would ever do it is very important. Do not look down on tasks you have been given but take the opportunity to show how well you can do it – no matter the simplicity of the task.

Until Next time…

J.Shea 

Jessica Shea
Curtin Bentley

Consultancy Work

Heard about the Perth Fashion Festival? McHappy Day? If it wasn't for PPR (Professional Public Relations) you may not have! These are some of PPR's clients:

Note: these were taken after Friday drinks, I may not have been holding the camera steady.

Hi, I am Liam and I am doing my internship at (you guessed it) PPR - and 'I'm Lovin' It' (McDonalds is one of PPR's clients and yes we do get free burgers).

So far it has been most exciting. Lately I have been busying myself with database maintenance - oh and they made me sign something to say I won't steal any of their information so DON'T ASK!

I have been creating a media clippings file for the Perth Fashion Festival - and unfortunately Sarah Pauley, the 'Face of Perth Fashion Festival' (the hottest model in Perth) will not return my calls :(

I have also been updating contact lists (ie stalking journalists).

My main goal at PPR is to get an insight into the workings of both the consultancy and the industry as a whole.

At the moment I am looking for talent to appear in McDonalds stores for McHappy Day. We are contacting sporting types, politicians and minor celebrities (TV personalities, etc). Perth has hundreds of Z list celebrities, so if anyone can help me with contacts please send them my way!

P.S. On Monday 20 September, the winners of the PRIA campaign awards were announced. PPR won three. Go PPR!

Source: www.pria.com.au/news/id/1016

Felicity works in the office across from my desk. Nicole and Peter work upstairs. What an awesome bunch of people I work with!

Liam :)