PR: the easy or the difficult?

"Why do you choose to work in a PR field?"

That's the question that I asked my supervisor on the last week of my internship.

For her, she chose to study PR because it's exciting and interesting especially on her practical assignment in one of a television company. With a mass communication education background, she likes to be involved with the media for example video shooting. 

The part that makes me slightly go "ohh" was when she said PR is easy but people are the ones that is hard to deal with. As a PR person in a company, you're like the central platform of all departments information and you need to communicate well to get things done. If you can't work with people well, then it is hard for you to be in the PR field.

I do agree on her opinion. 

Newspaper clipping, handling social media, writing media releases and photography etc, there are always somehow new events or agenda to write on. These can still be learned or practiced from PR professional tips / blogs / format or standard set over a period of time.

But dealing with people...

Being taught that to be a PR person, you have to be a people-people however for me striking a conversation with someone new in the cafeteria does need a little guts and courage! I did manage to have quite a long conversation with a HR personnel during lunch time and it was full of insight and experience sharing. Furthermore, running errands gets you to even meet more people and in fact, people can be or are friendly when you give your smile and be courteous.

It takes time to sharpen the people-relation skill as well as the technicalities in writing. This internship has build up my interest in venturing into a PR-related career, adding with the classes and assignments to prep up my knowledge and understanding of it.

I may not have the full grasp of PR in real life but I definitely have the interest to venture more into this exciting field!

Chung Yee Vun Elaine
16091427

Fouth and final blog

Hi everybody, This will be my fourth and final post. With my placement technically finished I have just two days next week to finish out my internship as the golf day I have been working on is next Tuesday I have decided to stay an extra couple of days.

I have found this to be a very worthwhile experience and have enjoyed my placement. I realize now that there is much more to working in Public Relations than what we can learn in the classroom and although the theory and practice is necessary there's nothing like getting pout there and doing it for yourself.

I would have to say coming to the end of my placement that I'm not entirely sure that a local not-for-profit is my desired job even though I have enjoyed working at Communicare. It has been useful though as I have had an opportunity to gain valuable work experience across a broad range of activities which has led me to work out which aspects I do and don't like about public relations.

I would like to finish by saying a big thank you to Communicare for taking me on board this student to gain some valuable work experience and I hope that my contribution has helped the organisation in some way as I believe they do a lot of great work for an important cause.

I don't have any imparting words of wisdom but I would like to wish everybody the best in their future pursuits in Public Relations!

Cheerio!

On The Road. .

So I'm nearing the end of my placement and after being sick for a very long time it was essential that I came back strong. Upon my return I was required to draw up the media releases for each state leading up to the national roadshow. These media releases detailed each states event and information on the oZAPP awards. The process of sending out the media releases was long but good practice in searching for the right information and resolving undelivered emails as you go. I spent the whole afternoon glued to my computer until each and every media release was sent.

One of the most important things I've learnt is that the traditional strategies, such as media releases, take a long time, especially updating the databases! But without these there would be a lot of missed out opportunities for promotion. 

During the roadshow week, the spokesperson Bill Tai visited Perth and presented at SpaceCubed. This event was really well organised and took a lot of cooperation and teamwork between staff in Perth and France. This event proved to be a great learning experience as, despite pre-planning, we were faced with communication issues and venue access problems on the day of the event. The person we were working with at the venue failed to assist us (a group of four girls in heels) as we carried six boxes of glasses and alcohol up from the basement. The event ran well and no guests had a clue about the stressful setup! 

Me and the other intern set up a table at the front to check in guests as they arrived and present them with name tags. A simple but essential job at an event. I actually enjoy tasks like that as it gives me the opportunity to organise all the information I have and give me a sense of control. Throughout the rest of the night I helped with tasks here and there and served drinks to the guests. The biggest challenge was packing up the event in time for one directly after when guests still had all our hired glasses! but we found a way around that eventually! 

Not everyone had arrived by the starting time of the event so I continued to check people in while Bill spoke. By the middle of his presentation I was able to listen in and get a feel for the content. This was an eye opening experience as I had been writing the content and working on things involving Bill for so long that it was great to finally have the chance to listen to what he had to say and add to my understanding of the oZAPP's event. There was one particular quote that resonated with me from the presentation. Bill took his passion of extreme sports to compare Lain's theory with a surfing analogy to illustrate why it is timing and not perfection that is the most important factor when developing a company. 

"Starting a company is a lot like surfing. 

There are three places you can be with respect to the wave, in front, on, or behind it. 

If you are behind, it is impossible to swim up the back and get in front to ride, being early feel a lot like being wrong, but if you hit it just right it just takes a couple of easy strokes and you are up and riding." Bill said.

I think this analogy can be applied to numerous life aspects including PR. In PR you have to be in the right place at the right time to be effective. If you let a crisis get out of control it can reach the point of no return and if you come in too early the campaign will not be effective, indeed timing is everything. 

At the end of the night I finally had the opportunity to meet the man I had been writing so much about over the last few months. Bill was a genuinely lovely guy who has immense knowledge in the social media and startup industry. It was a pleasure to meet him and it definitely added to the experience of working on the event! 

Official oZAPP image: Email signature and promo flyer 

Official oZAPP Photos taken by Maya Kavanagh

Bill Tai presenting at Spacecubed as part of the oZAPP's National Roadshow