Wrapping up my internship - consultancy

Hi everyone,

I have now officially finished my internship at Mills Wilson Communication Consultants, and what started out as a stressful experience (I'm a busy girl) ended up as a very enriching one.

I am relieved to now have two days a week free to sleep in and then work on my dreaded report! I have  written a complete framework of my report, and completed the summary of work and organisation background sections. I'm really struggling to incorporate what I learnt at university with what I did during my internship, but I am sure I will get there.

Here is a short summary of the key things I learnt during my time at Mills Wilson:

• Communication materials must be consistent down to the tiniest detail: e.g. the theme listed in the proposal must be carried throughout the event plan and noted in the budget, running order etc.
• Just because you are writing for corporate clients it does not mean your writing should be dry and boring
• Writing for different audiences (in my case, different housing estates under one company) should maintain the company image but also cater to specific needs and demographics of that audience
• Don't let your emails build up!

I also learnt an important thing about myself which is that working in a 9-5 office is perhaps not the place for me (though I kind of knew this already)! That said, I have learnt invaluable skills that I will take with me out of Curtin and into my next big adventure - Melbourne.

Thanks for reading,

Good luck with all your reports!

Darcy Rahn

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Business writing vs. music writing

Last week at my internship I produced a set of communications material for a community event: World Car Free day celebrations at The Village at Wellard markets (a Peet Limited estate). I produced a media release, EDM (electronically distributed mail) and photography brief for the event in October. After writing up the copy, which was targeted at local media and residents, I sent it off to be proof read and receive feedback from Bec. I wasn’t overly happy with the work I had produced because I thought it was a bit dry and boring.

World Car Free day is a national event and a really great initiative that gets a lot of people thinking about their carbon footprint and how they choose to travel. I tried to convey this in my writing, but at the same time was trying to be formal and write in a corporate fashion. After speaking with Bec and receiving feedback, I raised these concerns with her and said how I was finding it hard to write in a corporate style, but also keep my writing interesting. She asked me what I usually write, which is music reviews, press releases for tours, and social media for a small touring company I run with a friend. She said that I should try and bring this into my business writing by identifying what the audience would like to know about the event, for example if I, as a young person, was living at the Village at Wellard - I would love to know about all the money you can save riding a bike as opposed to driving.

I thought this was very interesting, finding similarities in what I thought were two completely different styles of writing. I reworked my press release and EDM - making it much more targeted towards the Wellard community. It was far too formal, for example I wrote “you are invited to attend this event,” but changed it to “come down to the Village markets”. Bec also gave me a lot of other useful advice about style, especially repetition which I tend to do when I run out of things to write. I was really pleased with the final result and have attached my draft EDM and the final copy.

DRAFT

World Car Free day celebrations at the Village Markets

You are invited to the Village Markets at Wellard on Sunday 13 October for a special community event celebrating World Car Free Day and National Ride2Work day.

The Village at Wellard is lucky enough to have its own train station right inside the community and residents should seize the opportunity to minimise car usage where possible.

Whether you can ride all the way to work or use a combination of cycling and public transport – the event on October 13 will provide all the information you need.

Come down from 9am to 1pm, where there will be a range of market stalls, a trackless train for the kids to enjoy and information from Bicycling WA, the Department of Transport and Bicycle WA.

This event is a great opportunity to learn how you can exercise and reduce your carbon footprint all at once.

You are welcome to bring your bikes down from 10am where WA Police will be providing free engraving and UV markings – an invaluable crime prevention tool.

There will also be an opportunity to sign up to a new residents’ cycling group.

This event is open to all community members and will take place at Pimlico Gardens, Pimlico Crescent, from 9am on Sunday 13 October.

FINAL

World Car Free day celebrations at the Village Markets

Come down to the Village Markets at Wellard on Sunday 13 October from 9am to 1pm for a special community event celebrating World Car Free Day and National Ride2Work day. Cycling is an excellent way to get fit and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time.

Residents have the luxury of the Wellard train station right inside the community and should seize the opportunity to minimise car usage where possible. Whether you can ride all the way to work or use a combination of cycling and public transport – this event in Pimlico Gardens, Pimlico Crescent will provide all the information you need.

Bring your family and enjoy a range of market stalls, a trackless train ride and free merchandise provided by Bicycling WA, the Department of Transport and Bicycle WA. Along with the usual goodies, food, pre-loved and handmade goods, the markets will have free information stalls on bike parking, cycle paths and the advantages of shopping by bike.

You are welcome to bring your bikes down from 10am where WA Police will be providing free engraving and UV markings – an invaluable crime prevention tool, and there is also an opportunity to sign up to a new residents’ cycling group.

CMYK, consistency and car-free day

I’ve now passed the ten-day mark of my internship at Mills Wilson Communication Consultants. I’ve done a myriad of different activities, including a big research brief for one of our client CEO’s; photo briefs, logging and captioning; a media release to send to the local paper; a letter drop around the CBD; and also went on a bit of an excursion to a printing factory which turned out to be incredibly interesting.

We visited the printing warehouse/factory in Osbourne Park to learn about the different printers they have and the advantages of each for various jobs. As I am doing a print production unit at the moment, where we edit, format and distribute the Western Independent newspaper – this was particularly informative for me. A particularly interesting fact was what CMYK means: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key, as my favourite artist James Blake has an EP called just that! Anyway, the factory had two types of printers: offset (very large older printers which use physical ink) and digital printers that use recyclable aerosol cans. I found it very interesting that the old printers are still used, as it costs around $500 just to print the templates for each job!

I’ve also been writing newsletter stories for some of the spring newsletters Mills Wilson writes for a client who develops housing estates. These have included community stories on Recycling Week, World Car Free day, tips for spring cleaning, and so on.

The feedback I am receiving from the girls in the office is proving very beneficial. I produced an event plan for the community launch of a new estate and gave it to Jess for proof reading. I learnt that there were a few inconsistencies in some of the different documents I produced and I was forgetting about critical small details needed for an event such as rubbish bins and fire extinguishers. This is something I need to work on in future.

I have been incredibly busy juggling my internship with my work and class commitments, but it’s been a great learning experience so far. I hope I will be able to successfully document it all in my report… !

The diverse environment of PR consultancy

Hello bloggers!

My name is Darcy and I am undertaking my placement at Mills Wilson, a relatively large consultancy that employs a number of PR staff. Each is responsible for portfolios of various high profile clients in Perth. From my first day I understood how diverse working in a consultancy is compared to previous work experience I have done for events and smaller organisations.  One of Mills Wilson’s key clients is a major developer of residential communities in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland.  I was surprised by the amount of work that has to go into managing the PR for such a company. 

The girls are constantly compiling information for newsletters, briefs for photo shoots, press releases for local newspapers (as well as logging the subsequent clippings each day) and a myriad of other activities: it is a constant work flow. Some of the activities I have done so far include logging media clippings, preparing EDM’s (electronic direct mail) for events at the estates and preparing an event plan for the launch of a new estate. The last one in particular was more difficult than I expected - there are lot of different facets to planning a real event than I had learnt in class, including how many bins and fire extinguishers you will need!

The consultancy environment is a diverse one and a lot of work goes into each and every client. I am enjoying my internship so far as it has also been my first experience in a real office environment. I have learnt in recent months that I want to pursue a career in music management and won’t be working in an office like the one I am in now. But I can already see that the skills I have learnt in my degree and am practising now are going to be very useful in the future. I am aware that I need to work on writing more concisely and to the point, as well as working on my tone to properly convey the information. The girls at my placement have been going over my work and giving me helpful feedback that I hope will get me on track. It has been a great experience so far and I hope to leave with a better grasp on my writing. I think I’ll also come out of this with some important time management skills as I’m already struggling with the work load for my other units! I'll keep you posted on how I go with all this, wish me luck!

Darcy Rahn