Goodbye Scitech

Last week I completed my work placement at Scitech.
I began my placement in February and have been there every Thursday and Friday since.
In the past week I have been finishing up my final report for PR393 and it has allowed me to reflect on my time with the organisation and what I have learnt.

Scitech conducts public relations in a very practical hands on way. I wrote countless drafts of media releases during my placement which helped me in honing my writing skills while promoting various events or Scitech services.

As Scitech is a not for profit organisation, funding and staffing are limited, which means the communications team that conducted all of the public relations work at Scitech had to be multi skilled.
Every day I would be doing something different. While people would have their specialities it seems in a small organisation it's crucial that anybody be able to complete a variety of different tasks in order to meet deadlines and keep stories that are going out timely.

I think it was beneficial for me to work in an organisation that conducts public relations in this way, rather than only specialising in one area. It allowed me to improve on a range of skills including media release writing, preparing for events, writing for social media, website management, communicating with stakeholders and planning promotions.

Now I feel well equipped to enter the workforce after graduation and ready to continue improving these skills, no matter where I end up working.

What makes writing so important?

Hi all, 

Looking back at my 20 days spent at Woodside, I’m realising how important the writing skills of a PR consultant are.

The Oxford dictionary defines writing as the activity or skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text.

Writing is therefore the vital means of communication within an organisation as it is the primary basis upon which our work is expressed.

Always paying attention to the grammatical errors, to the tense you use and make sure you use the active rather than the passive voice is essential.

I paid lots of attention and time proof reading my work when my mind was refreshed to make sure I didn’t left any basic errors behind.

Good style and quality writing is an essential PR job skill, as most of our tasks require writing convinced and effective documents. I’ve done a multitude of re-writing tasks, and found it quite hard sometimes to keep the meaning but change the structure of a sentence or paragraph. Use different words, find synonyms, keep the information and change the orientation of the sentence. That’s the magic skill of a good PR consultant.

I believe that experience and practice are the only way you can improve your writing skills, and I thank Woodside for the great experience opportunity I had.

Happy writing throughout your careers!

Cheers

Alice

DEVAHASDIN COMMUNICATIONS

Hey everyone,

I have completed four days of my work experience so far at Devahasdin Communications in West Perth, (Western Australia).
Devahasdin Communications is a PR consultancy and has worked for an extensive range of big and small businesses, locally, nationally and internationally, so it is interesting to see how they have built up their reputation and credentials over the 15 years since first established.

At first I was really interested in the fact that the owner and account director, Sandra Devahasdin had actually established the business with only event management and a little PR experience behind her, and no official training or education in either field. I suppose this would be a perfect example of a PR weakness - demonstrating how easily someone can become a PR professional with no background theoretical knowledge. However Devahasdin PR has attained and maintained an 'elite- ness' that is made evident in their testimonials and past clients, which demonstrates their work ethic, professionalism and attention to detail of client expectations.

Over the four days I have done so far, the admin girl has been away and therefore I have been mixing admin jobs with PR related work (I have decided admin isn't as fun or interesting).

I have managed to work on a few items, the first for example was a media release for shopping at Westfield Shopping Centre's for Father's Day. I'm not sure about anyone else, but the way I learnt to write a media release was slightly different to how David (one of Devahasdin's consultant's) expected me to write this one. Besides getting the '5 W's' and how' into the first paragraph, he wanted me to 'flower' it up with wording that was not succinct and concise. In the end it looked just like an advertorial, or even a short speech, instead of a release detailing just the facts. I think in the end he kept my first paragraph and a few lines elsewhere and added in quite a bit of alliteration and descriptive wording. After asking him about how differently I'd learnt in uni, he just said 'that's fashion for you'. So I'm confused now ...any advice?

Another piece I helped with, was a campaign that they recently received a brief on involving underage smoking in Indigenous communities in Queensland. Two consultants and myself brainstormed on PR involvement in the campaign and I offered some ideas that were acknowledged, accepted and recorded -good response I guess?

But lastly the other main item I've worked on is the plan for the Town of Bassendean's Multicultural Food Festival, which will be held in October of this year. The event was held last year and Devahasdin did the PR for it then as well, however the plan needed updating and so I worked on that for a day.

One exciting thing that I'm looking forward to, is the launch of the joining of The West with Yahoo. Devahasdin is managing the launch and I get to attend!

So far I feel like I need to just be handed something and be told 'do it' because whilst I appreciate being given items to work on, I don't feel like I'm achieving anything or displaying any real PR talent or knowledge in retyping, updating, highlighting etc. I realise I have to start somewhere but I think at the moment both the consultants are so busy with their workloads that they are handing me pieces of work that they'll fix up later just to keep me quiet...hm

Anyway they seem very professional, the business is very aesthetically pleasing and the consultants are relatively inviting and friendly, and i assume they are doing business ethically. This week I will ask to see how ethically they are completing their work...

bye!
CourtneyB

More Media Relations

There are many factors that contribute to a successful media relation, however I would like to focus on one particular event that I went to during my internship. The event was organized for Motorola to interact with some of the media that they had worked with previously. The event was a CNY dinner to show the media their appreciation and this opportunity was also used to introduce to the media some of the work that Motorola has been involved in terms of creativity, technological development and how it has survived the economic slump and what are the plans for the future.

Almost 50 media representatives attended and three top management members from Motorola attended along with the head of their communication Ms. Mei Ling, who was very pleasant. During the even we spread out amongst the media and spoke to them, interacting casually, yet strategically. There were times when some journalists and editors attempted to ask questions that were sensitive and we were not able to answer when this occurred we would politely refer them to one of the representatives of Motorola.

During media relationship building events, the PR agency’s purpose there is to be invisible in terms of taking credit or representing the agencies agenda, the aim is rather to promote the client, and allow them to be in the spot light. This is not always to the advantage of the PR agency as it is also a good opportunity for them to serve their own agenda and build a relationship with them. This would be a conflict of ethical practice as we are there to support the client in their work and not to serve our own company agenda. This may be a slight disadvantage but it is good practice and client management, in the long run it will gain the client’s trust and be to the agency’s advantage.

During media dinners and events, it is also a good chance to get to know some of the prominent journalists and recognize them. This will come in handy in future events where fake journalists will attempt to enter events using famous journalist’s names. This happened to me when I was registering the media as they came in, one journalist behaved inappropriately and I was shocked at his comments. I let my colleague know and he came to help me out and politely asked the “gate crasher” to show some ID or to leave.

However I must say media dinners and door gifts during events don’t simply seal the deal when it comes to media relations, they are simply a tool to allow a communication platform to be created. Media and journalists have certain expectations that should be fulfilled, which includes giving them news worthy news releases, inviting them to appropriate events relevant to them and much more that should be done on a professional level. Most of all, I learnt that if we expect anything from anybody, it pays to respect them and treat them as professionals and to me that is the core of any successful relationship.

Cheers
Anna
LUCT

Landing On My Paws

Welcome to my third blog while I'm working at the Guide Dogs WA! I have been quite busy with uni going back last week and sorting things out that I have had little time to stop and think.

Since my last blog 'Meeting the Children at Scitech' I have cut my days down at the Association to two days per week. This fits in better with my timetable and university and general helps me manage everything more effectively. My manager was happy for me to do this as I can see a wider range of areas and participate in a few more things.


I have recently been working on developing the online 'Puppy Club' for the Assocation. The puppy club is a club that sponsors the puppies currently being raised, follows their progress and updates members on what is happening within the Association. To begin with I completed an analysis of the opposing states and their puppy club websites. I got to search the sites and look at lots of cute puppy photos which was a nice change! Once I had completed this I then started looking at our own 'Puppy Club' and what could be improved. Identifying where the gaps were and the areas of improvement was a challenge I was most willing to take up as I was full of ideas since I had just compared this to other states.

From this, I then had a meeting with my manager and was able to converse about what I had found and where we were able to go. Currently I am set about getting some of these changes in action and hopefully they will be implimented before the Guide Dog Open Day in April.

I have also attended a meeting at the Perth Art Gallery involving the 'Touch Tours' where patrons are able to put on gloves and feel certain pieces of art, discovering the difference in shape, texture and smoothness. The WA Art Gallery has approached the Association for the Blind WA in order to boost numbers and awareness of the program among the visually impaired.
Mutual benefits can be had by both parties in this scenario as both the Art Gallery and the Assocation will gain awareness of what they do and build on a lasting relationship for the future.

I have also attended another meeting involving our pro bono marketing company MarketForce and have seen the progressions on this project. I had the pleasure of sitting in on a conference call with the other Guide Dog states involving the coming campaign which was beneficial in seeing how each state relates with each other.

I look forward to keeping you all informed on how I am going!
Rachel

The Last Week of Internship

Greetings Everyone,

I'm Puspita from LUCT campus. I hope you all are doing fine with your work.. =) A'ways, this is my last week doing my internship. Even its tiring but alot of good things that I have been through since first time I came here which is making me so sad to leave.

All of my colleagues have been so nice to me and also i got use to with my works. I dont even feel as tiring as the 1st few weeks that i am here even lately the works are alot more..can u imagine? so thatz why i feel so sad that i have to leave it all...

Last Friday (23rd of Jan '09), i attended a Press Conference of World Halal Forum 2009 in Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur. It is organized by one of this company's clients called KasehDia. It is to achieve the global halal integrity. The event itself will be held on May 2009.

Two days before the Press Conference i did the Media Invitation, then after my mentor agree with it, i sent it (by fax) to about 74 medias in Malaysia including newspapers,magazines,electronics(TV & radio) and wire services. And some of the medias have changed their fax number, so i have to search for it on the internet or call the company itself to update. I know its an easy job but its really2 alot which made me so tired and came back home so late after that.

In the following day, i did the press calls to confirm the attendance. But this time, 3 other trainees helped me to did it. After we'd done, we prepared the Press Kit for the following day. On friday, The Press Conference day, i reached Mandarin Oriental on time at 9am. I and another trainee prepared the Press Kit and the gift from the sponsors on the front table. Then i took care of the Media Registrations Book. I had to make sure that all the media already registered. Then when the Press Conference started, i came inside and listen to it as well. Then it ended up with Q & A session which i had to listen carefully and typed it all. Its all finished at 2pm and i and my colleagues went back to the office. I typed all the Q & A that i wrote before and sent it to my mentor.

On that day as well, i did the News Release translation from English to Malaysia. It took abit long because i needed to check every single word in the dictionary to avoid the "So Indonesia News Release" hehehe.. (for those who read my 2nd blog must be know what i mean ;D ) well, i guess that was the last event that i attended before i leave coz this week we have no events etc. I am gonna miss all of this...

For all of u who are doin the last week as well or the last few weeks, all the best for all of you..show your best before u leave the company and give them a good impression. For all of u who had finished the internship, congratulation for doing such a great work for this past two months ;)

Cheers,
Puspita Wardani

Immersing into the world of digital PR

Hello, I'm Anna from LUCT and in my second post I would like to share another of my great experiences in FHKL, this experience is special and exclusive as it appears that there are currently less then 2 or 3 other agencies that do digital PR. Digital PR is not only new to FH but generally to the PR world, and if I could make a recommendation I would like to ask PR scholars out there to please include a little more on digital PR in text books. The boundaries of digital PR are endless and that in itself can be frightening at times and challenging to control.

My experience with digital PR began on the first week that I joined, first I was asked to sign confidentiality or a non-disclosure agreement, doing so prevents me (legally) from disclosing what I have seen, heard and done in FH. While it ensures security for the agency and the client, it is not ideally what I would want as it prevents me from disclosing what I have really been up to in the agency. However I was told that whatever was published in the media has already become secure and was ok for me to talk about.

So far I have been to two major events for Motorola, which I will talk about in my next post. The third event I attended to was something that I truly appreciated as it was the result of my efforts coming together after 2 months work, and it was a proud night for me. It was an event for MAS (Malaysian Airline System).

Let me tell you from the start, it all began in my fist week in the office when they assigned me to a new client with new demands, basically new territory for me, the agency and for PR in general. While I am not at liberty to fully discuss what we do for them but the basic objective is to do digital monitoring and brand recovery using digital media.

Using digital media we first research to find ideal bloggers that match MAS’ criteria, I was then asked to create a detailed list of bloggers that would be ideal for events that MAS had in mind. Once the list was created we then a chose a certain number of bloggers and began contacting them, my team was extremely busy with other clients so I was trusted with this task, which is the foundation of relationship building with each blogger. We also had to understand that the bloggers have their own friendship groups within the bloggers community, so it would not be right to invite one or speak to one without including another. There are also many more details that we had to watch out for, so I was asked to create a bloggers bible, where I would find out everything MAS needed to know about the bloggers through extensive research and contacts.


Soon the journey of relationship building began. We meet 8 bloggers, some in groups and some individually, we explained that we wanted their honest opinion about MAS and wanted this to be a trusted relationship. The bloggers showed their appreciation in the interest we took in them and how we didn’t simply try to convince them of how great MAS is. We in return accepted positive and negative comments with open arms and made sure they were noted back to MAS Communications Department. I must note here that I really respect MAS for its honest attempts in getting in touch with people and wanting to hear their side of the story rather then pushing for theirs, this is GOOD PRACTICE and its times like this that makes me proud to be in the industry.

Moving on, the event that was held last Saturday night may seem like any other media event where we give journalists and media door gifts, present them with a story about a product or service and they write an article on the client. No Bloggers night was far from this. The primary reason for bloggers and journalist being different is that bloggers are individual people, with opinions, choices and readers that respect them for their creativity, objectivity and individuality and it has been evident from past experience, once the readers feel that the blogger has now been bought over by a company or no longer holds original critical thoughts, the blogger immediately loses creditability and many of its readers. Furthermore they are not obliged to write because their editor told them to do so or how they must write, they have freedom to choose what angle and with what tone they write.

The Bloggers CNY dinner with MAS was a fantastic event and I got the chance to meet Malaysia’s top 25 blogger which was an honour for me. To find out more about the details of the event please to Redmummy’s blog and Rojaks, you can see pictures of my colleagues, MAS people and me 

http://redmummy.com/2009/01/18/cny-dinner-wt-malaysia-airlines/#comments

http://rojaks.blogspot.com/2009/01/lou-sang-with-mas.html

The bloggers were all wonderful people with great sense of humour and really a great bunch of people to have dinner with. Best of all I was treated with respect and some of the bloggers emailed me back to thank me as I had been in touch with them. Getting this and a thumbs up from MAS made all the late nights and hard work worth it, to be recognised for your hard work is really what makes it worth it, perhaps more so then the check at the end of the month. We will be meeting up with bloggers again for the real events, the dinner was just so everybody gets to know each other, the big juicy stuff is yet to come :)

Here is a group photo of the bloggers.

If anybody else is doing anything to do with digital PR then please let us know, it’s a whole new world of PR and what I have written here is merely a glimpse of it, I think its great if we share our experience on this and help each other out. I would also like to know if anybody has any questions regarding ethics of digital PR or any tips to help.


Happy Chinese New Year everybody and enjoy the holidays

Cheers

My 2nd Last Week :(

Hi everyone,

Im Puspita from LUCT campus. This is my 2nd blog.. Well, It is my 8th week doing my internship in AsiaPR and i'll be finishing it on 30th of Jan. I have done and learnt alot of stuffs.. Actually last December was nothing much to do bcoz mostly the client's companies closed their account in the end of the year. So what i did in December were doing the Research about the clients, Media Clippings, Manufactured News Releases (including making the news release, put the photo captions and put it all in the envelopes to be sent to the media), PR Value and Product Loans for one of the clients (VOIR galleries).

The biggest task was... the two mentors asked me (and another 2 trainees) to create our own PR company. And the mentors pretend to be the owner of 3 brands (Mornflakes, Pullman Hotel and SKODA). So, what we supposed to do were making a proposal for 6 months for the client including creating the activities to promote the brands, Situation Analysis, Objectives, Target group, Key message, and also PR Calendar. They gave me 2 weeks to finished it and then i had to presented it in front of all AsiaPR teams. I was so scared and nervous at the beginning because this time i had to present in front of the proffesionals, its not in front of my classmates as usual.. but thank God all went smooth..they just wanted to know my understanding so far.. they also helped me how to improve it.

In January, in the first week, we had "present exchange". This is AsiaPR ritual every year. (before this, they made the roll small papers and got the names inside. Any1 had to tk one and had to buy a gift for that name and juz need to put the name that the present is dedicated to. no need to write the sender). After we exchange the present..it continued with "lunch together" in the office.. One thing that i like from this company is all the members are close to each other and the warm feeling to each other is there :)

Day by day, the tasks are even more..it is getting more busy.. alot of Manufacturer News Releases must be done, translation News Release must be done. The funny thing is, i had to translate the English News Release to Bahasa Malaysia New Release, at first, i was abit confused because i am Indonesian and even the language is similar but actually there are alot of different words. So in the first News Release translation that i made, my colleague (the permanent staff) complained to me, she said the News Release was so Indonesia.. LOL.. eventho i already using the "English-Malaysian Dictionary".. then i redo it and thank God she said its correct :) yay! and the next news releases i could made it better :)

There were a Press Conference that i attended as well, it was the Olympus Press Conference to Introduce their new products. The preparations that i made were making the media calls and prepared for the press kit. Another event that i attended was the Talkshow in Astro(broadcast network in Malaysia) studio, in Bukit Jalil, Malaysia. Regarding to the talkshow from AsiaPR's client, Skali, about IT and the effect of technology in human's living. I was there to observe about how was the talkshow going.

I have learnt alot of things and i can feel that i am becoming better comparing to the 1st time i came here. In terms of the tasks itself and also the relationship that i've been building between the colleagues. I also cant believe its just 2 weeks left to finish this intership program.. I always try my best in doing my tasks even sumtimes miss-communication exist..that's why it is really important for us to improve our commucation skills to minimize the miss-communication..

Cheers,

Puspita Wardani

my experience

Dear all,

Happy new year in advance.

The last 2 weeks have been really busy for me. I've been involved in a whole week of different events in a row, involving 3 different clients. Although these are not my first event, it is my first time of having so many in the same week, which is quite exhausting.

I would not mention about my clients' names here because i think these are some confidential things of my company, so i would just talk about my experiences. Sorry if this causes any inconvenience.

Here, i will basically share my experience on the first event first. It was about my client celebrating its 50th anniversary. Prior to that, a week ago i need to accomapny my client to have media drops to distribute media gifts to many selected media outlets and give them a brief introduction about my client. Media drop means dropping by media outlets to pay them a visit. And so, i will have to call and arrange time with all the editors from selected media and section for the media drop. Getting to meet the editors and grabbing the chance to have a short conversation is important for my job as a PR person because it simply fosters the relationship between me and them, even if it is just a little bit. Then, after the media drop, i need to keep in touch with them by sending emails and giving them calls to invite them to the 50th anniversary press conference.

Besides, my client also wishes to have exclusive media interview, whereby, we will only invite one media of each language (English, Chinese and Malay) to interview my client. Basically, the interview is to share the 50 years of success and the company's direction in year 2009). In this case, i would have to email and call the first 3 selected media to see if they are interested to do the exclusive interview, if not, i would have to seek for second choice.

From here, i realise arranging time with the media(for media drop, 50th anniversary press conference and exclusive interview) is quite a tough job. I have to arrange the time based on their availabilties and slot into timetable accordingly. Most of the editors are busy, especially when it is in December, therefore, i will have to either persuade them to just spare out 15 minutes for me, or to let them send their representatives to meet up with my client and i.

Besides, arranging the media interview is also a difficult job. Editors will not be interested with any simply interviews that we offer. There must be certain level of news worthiness to get them agreed. Therefore, i tried really hard to persuade them to actually nod their heads and send their journalists for the exclusive interview.

The experience is new for me, especially the media drops because i get to see the editors that i have to call everyday, to follow up with all kinds of events that my company organizes. I feel weird at times because through the phone, we almost feel very close as we have spoken to each other for countless time, yet, we have not actually meet up with each other. The media drops actually bring me a little bit closer to the editors or media representatives because when i get to meet them personally, it makes things easier when i call them for future events.

The event itself is quite successful from my opinion as i get the number of journalists that i want to attend the press conference, and the media coverage is quite satisfying.

Post event work is not so difficult for me afterall because i will only have to follow up with those who have attended the function.

That's all about my experience for the first event of "that" week. There are more to come.

To be continue..

First Week At Weber

Hello ppl, i'm actually doing my PR internship in Weber Shandwick Malaysia and yeah kept saying i would post since last week but i've been caught up with the heavy workload from Weber.

for my first few days at Weber, it was quite interesting and yeah it is well known that PR is a women's world so yeah got this illustration on stepping in the office last monday.

anyway, from day 1 i got to experience the real PR world where i was asked to dratf a business proposal for a pitch for our health client, and i was asked to draft few media invitation letters and thank you note and i got to cover a big Press conference and Media Launch product for one of our consumer client.

my highlight would be, it was quite interesting how i could relate all the work i was given to what ive learnt from the previous PR modules when doing Business Proposals which dealt with Strategic PR as well as Campaign strategy and timeline, and also how Media relation operate.

My internship so far, i'm very satisfied, i love the job, and the more work am given and the better its is.

Internship is all about getting the best out of it so am trying to squeeze every drop i can.

i'll be back for more, i got some CSR campaign to work on for this week's event!

Take care people and luck for your internships as well.

Regards,

Laurent Decosse

Labels

A friendly reminder: please don't forget to label you posts. This is not only good practice but will also make it easier for other students to find relevant posts! - not to mention the time you will save when you are required to print off all your posts for submission alongside your final report.

My Working Experiences for This Past One Week

Hi everyone, i am Puspita wardani from LUCT campus. I started my internship on 1st of December 2008 in a local PR consultants company called AsiaPR consultants. It has been one week since 1st time i worked here. So far i enjoy working here. People in here are nice, helpful and friendly to me and it is making me even more enjoying this internship program.

They expect me to ask anything that i do not understand. I have the mentor to guide me to do the stuffs that i do not understand about. At the first day, they asked me (and the other two trainees) to joined their meeting about their client. They asked me to participate even abit in every single thing they do and they are so open because they said they trust the trainees.

My office hour is from 9am to 6pm. And so far it is always on time. Besides that, i did the research about clients and anything related to them, shared the idea about the road show and event plans and i did the drafts for the news releases.

I am so grateful that i have such opportunities to work in the real company before i graduate. Because as many people said, "the real work is not the same as what u learn in the theories". Big yes for it! I really hope that this opportunity will be useful for my future carreer.

Regards,

Puspita