First week at Dine for Life!

My internship has officially begun after my first full day at the Dine for Life headquarters. Before I get into what I got up to I’ll give you a little run down about what Dine for Life is all about. Basically the organisation is a non-for profit high profile dining event that give one hundred percent of funds to a different human trafficking charity each year. A truly special and unique idea that has been tremendously successful in the past and will hopefully continue to be this year with my help of course.

Dine for Life was founded by two talented ladies who wanted to use their business skills to give back something to the world. Essentially, it is an event of luxury dining at twenty of Perth’s finest restaurants, followed by a secret after party, for a number of Perth’s high calibre guests. My job as an events intern will involve various tasks to initiate and plan the event and assist with public relations duties to promote Dine for Life’s objectives, before and after the event.

This week was already exciting. First on the list was to develop a telephone pitch and gathered sponsorship ideas for the ‘foodie’ goodie bags, received by guests on the evening of the event. Putting this pitch into practice will be on next weeks agenda and to me is rather daunting, however I’m up for a challenge and will learn by doing! Today, I also sent out various emails with my co-intern Sonja, to various restaurants following up on their M.O.U’s (memorandum of understanding) or basically the contract outlining what was required of each restaurant sponsor and what they would receive in return.

This week I also attended a meeting at the secret after party location (of which I cannot divulge) while the founder Andjelka discussed ideas with the public relations person of the location. The day consisted of lighting and sound discussions, then MOU and contract talk.  Overall and extremely insightful and exciting week, I can’t wait until we next meet!

Chilly perks of the job

Being in an agency does have its ups and downs. I would say I am the type that would not favour sitting in the office for long hours as I am more of a hands-on individual. Being here at CROWD does allow me to do both work and play, and I truly enjoyed that. I feel blessed knowing that my colleagues are always up for some adventure and we would always make the best out of the littlest time we got off. 

I believe in the phrase - "Work hard, play harder" 

I was glad I got the chance to apply that here by working at CROWD. Some days when we go out for meetings, we would have small conversations about basically anything under the Sun. The best is when we can enjoy event perks! 

One of my most memorable one was the official launch of 2 Degree Ice Art 2013/2014 that I assisted one of my colleague, Cassaundra on. I remembered almost the entire office having a ball of a time going in the -15 degrees space built just for these Harbin ice sculptors to showcase their famous ice sculptures! Some of the featured ones were Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and even some other famous landmarks!

Above is a photo of me and my colleagues including one of the online magazine's journalist!

And here's the famous Eiffel tower in ice form! And completely touchable!

There was even an ice bar where guests could enjoy beers from an ice glass! Truly an amazing experience (:

I came back from the event feeling very thankful that I was blessed with friendly colleagues that I could both enjoy my work with and also have fun during events with! 

This journey have been nothing but enriching to me and I cant wait to share more!

Till the next time, 

Faizah.

16430457

Communication is Key!

Hi Guys!

So I am now a week and a half into my internship at PPR and I can’t believe how fast it’s going. If you’ve read my previous posts, you may know that I’ve come to realise how important internal relationships are in consultancies. Well since then after having chats around the ‘proverbial’ water cooler, I have attended a couple meetings and am being called upon to do more tasks for the consultants. Letting people know who you are and that you’re willing to do whatever is needed and on time is imperative in this industry. Communication really is key.

Lately, I have helped some of the consultants with the client, PTTEP, an oil and gas company who were responsible for the Montara oil spill in 2009. It’s interesting to see that PPR are still having to manage the issue of this spill 5 years after it actually happened. It really goes to show that issue and crisis management can be a long process that can span many years. PPR also helps PTTEP with other matters as well and I have been lucky enough to be involved in creating a research report outlining what the statistical findings were after the spill. I had to create a glossary of words that were primarily in environmental jargon as well as read and edit over parts of the report.

I have been told that many lobby and special interest groups are constantly attacking PTTEP after the oil spill and Public Positioning Papers (PPPs) which are contingency plans which have been authorised by PTTEP are constantly being created so that they are prepared for any situation. Sitting in on the daily WIP meetings for PTTEP which are “Work In Progress” meetings has really allowed me to immerse myself in how the consultancy operates and the importance of communication again. As PTTEP is the second largest client for PPR, it’s handled by five consultants who each take a different aspect of PTTEP’s public relations. This WIP meetings are important because they all have to know what’s happening as there is often cross over in the work and it also looks better in the clients eye, the more knowledgeable you are. I know I sound like a broken record right now but the biggest realisation I have had is about internal communication.

In other work I have undertaken, I have done work for LandCorp. I spoke about PTTEP being PPR’s second largest client; well, LandCorp are their largest. At any one time, LandCorp can have multiple projects running that need the assistance of PPR which can be confusing if not organised properly. The project I was helping with was one where LandCorp was redeveloping a school that would be used to house young people with a disability. As there are little facilities for young people, many of those disabled live in aged care facilities. My job was to develop a list of media contacts within the industry of assisted living to feature stories regarding this project. What I found interesting was that I had to start from scratch and that PPR did not have a centralised database that had media contacts in it. This meant every time someone needed a media contact, they would have to research it themselves. A couple of the consultants had asked me to look up media contacts for them and I found that on some occasions, I had to find the contacts of the same organisation for more than one person. Luckily, as a Curtin student, I still have access to Margaret Gee’s Media Guide and was able to locate many publications through this but when I asked, PPR didn’t subscribe to this which I think would be extremely beneficial to them considering the amount of times I was asked to find a media contact. Anyway, after doing this, I created a timeline in excel that showed when tasks needed to be completed for this project, much like the ones I have done in PR plans at uni.

After working on such a wide variety of clients at this point, it has really given me an insight into how a consultancy works. Every Friday, PPR has drinks at the end of the day where I was talking with one of the consultants. “How do you manage to stay organised and manage to keep all your clients happy at the same time?” I asked after finding out that each consultant had a portfolio of up to five or more clients. “You have to be really organised and sometimes you just have to prioritise what each client wants the most and give this to each of them first.” Hmm is consulting where I want to go after I graduate if I have to be so organised? I guess, I’ll have to wait and see how the rest of my internship goes first.

Until next time, Jamie ;)

The view from the eyes of the promoter

My internship is slowly coming to an end, and the last couple of days here I have been exposed to different activities which has been pretty awesome.

As we have recently begun festival season, one of my tasks I was given was to compile a publicity folder that required me to select photos from each Sunset Event from the 2011/12 season that could be used to showcase the event at any given time upon request. I found this activity quite fun and interesting, not only getting to look through some amazing photographs, but getting to select photos which grasped the feeling of the festival and really seeing how so many people are affected by music was intriguing. 

One of the main tasks that every practitioner will be exposed too within their career at some point is writing a media, or press release. Janelle gave me the task of constructing a media release for an upcoming Sunset activity. To be honest, it was quite a daunting task to be given as it had been a while since I had constructed a media release and not to mention Janelle is an excellent writer. This would be one of the tasks that I enjoyed the most, but I was a little disappointed with myself with some silly errors made through it. I guess it is a learning curve, and one lesson I learnt through this task was YOU MUST PROOF READ. Such small grammatical errors could have been avoided if I had proof red more efficiently than I did.

Southbound is one of the most popular music festivals held at the beginning the year and the Sunset team is hard at work at promoting the event. As Sunset is located in Fremantle, they formed a partnership with Notre dame student chapter. They joined forces were Notre Dame where they were launching their mezzanine area; this opened up the opportunity for Sunset to do a southbound promotion which gave the students who attended a chance to win tickets. It was my job to compile a music playlist that included 2 tracks from each artist performing to play at their launch. As I am not very familiar with many of the artists performing, I really enjoyed this task because it allowed me to listen and be exposed to a different genre of music and other artists that I am unfamiliar with. Once I had finished the playlist, Maddi (another sunset intern) and I were sent down to set up some promotional material around the mezzanine.

The next upcoming event that festivalgoers are anticipating is Stereosonic 2012. I was lucky enough to sit in with the whole Sunset team, including the directors to discuss the progress and Stereosonic issues. I took in every moment of this meeting because it was really interesting to see the different aspects of business and how they assist or affect the planning of a festival. Stereosonic would be one of my favourite festivals, where each year I have thoroughly enjoyed myself so it was great to view it from the opposite side of the fence; through the eyes of the promoters.

Until next time were I will be wrapping up my blog!

Tahlia

Our Big Day has Arrived, as has the end of my Internship

Open Day was held on a beautiful sunny Sunday, and everything went better than we could have planned for. We got to the University about an hour and a half before people were due to arrive, as there were still things to be set up. On the day, everything went as planned, and my role was mainly to help manage any enquiries coming on through social media channels. Myself and another lady from the public relations team, were also tasked with managing the social media, in terms of raising awareness of events, taking photos, and we even managed to get #OpenDay trending.

The day was amazing, with each of the educational departments at Curtin having massive marquees, and entertainment everywhere. Nova arrived, as well as a petting zoo, 10 roving entertainers, two bands, a human soccer table, a human venus fly trap and food everywhere.

We managed to have more attendees at this year's Open Day, than any other previous event. We had 17,500 people arrive, and thankfully, there was no need for our emergency response action plan.

The week after the event, Asha and I attended meetings with many of the people/departments involved in Open Day. These were to note down any suggestions for the following year, to thank everyone for their effort, and to brainstorm ways we could out do ourselves next year.

The event was great, and it was amazing to see all our hard work come together. However, it did mark the final fortnight of my time with Curtin's Marketing and Public Relations team. I have had so much fun, and I found working within a big organisation, which include a huge number of people from different departments, coming together for the one project, really enjoyable and exciting. During my time here, Asha and I attended many meetings with people from Marketing, Public Relations and Media departments, and everyone was always encouraged to voice their ideas, including me. Asha was an amazing person to work with, and I can't thank her enough for giving me the opportunity to help her. She showed me how important being organised is, and just how much you can achieve when you are.Working with the Curtin team was so enjoyable, and everyone is so good at what they do. What I took from my time at Curtin was, how important good communication is within such a big organisation. It takes a lot longer to get things done, when you're working with so many people, but the end results, can be, and were great.

Nearing the end...but not before a few last tasks

Hi Guys!

So I have come to the last week of my placement, and I am so sad to be finishing up with the public affairs team at INPEX a worldwide oil and gas exploration and production company.

The last two weeks have seen me become involved with organising director discussions with the companies CEO whereby a handful of staff members are chosen to engage in a group discussion with the CEO where the conversation is free flowing and any question goes. The idea of the director discussions was bought about a couple of weeks ago in a team meeting and I was given the task of organising the very first discussion, the aim is to keep the channels of communication open within the company and allow free flowing discussion in an environment which is typically formal.

Having the responsibility of organising the meeting involved coordinating with the CEO's diary which is always full, booking a venue for the meeting, organising catering and from there carefully selecting guests to attend and then inviting them. What I once thought would be an easy task ended up consuming most of my week, it really helped me understand the value placed on even the most mundane of meetings as I began to realise how important open discussions are within large companies. Without the free flow of information between employees and higher ranked directors things go amiss and there are communication breakdowns which can cause future issues which become much more difficult to resolve.

I have never had so many emails in my inbox at once, employees asking questions, what would be discussed? do I need to prepare questions? etc. It seemed that everyone was nervous about this opportunity so it was my job to put them at ease and explain to them that there was no need to be nervous about talking to the CEO in an informal setting and rather that it would hopefully change the way they interacted with higher levels of authority and that lunch would be provided ( I have learnt that catering is always a way to get employees to attend meetings)

The meeting is schedueled to happen a week after my placement finishes but I have made sure that everything is under control and fingers crossed it all goes well!

Until next time,

Hope you are enjoying your placements.

Hayley

Launching 2013

The week just passed saw the launch of WASO’s 2013 concert season and it was beneficial to see the many components of the company coming together from start to finish to ensure everything was ready to go on time for one of the year's biggest media opportunities.

This blog is dedicated to discussing some of the tasks I have been helping with in preparation for the 2013 season launch- and there are some great concerts to look forward to!

I sat in on a strategic marketing meeting for the 2013 season a few weeks back and it was interesting to see how ideas for promotion originate. Topics covered included social media, advertising and how to better engage with each target market. This is especially relevant as WASO has so many different types of concerts (for example, there is special popular events such as the Pirates of the Caribbean full feature film being played with live soundtrack accompaniment by WASO, as well as standard classic concerts featuring the works of Mozart, chamber music, kids concerts and more) I got to understand better how dynamic and targeted the marketing strategy for each concert series has to be.

A task that I recently undertook was putting together media kits consisting of a press release, season brochure, and media kit brochure. As media kits and press releases were a large focus of both the PR Media and Techniques units of my degree this task definitely was a reflection of university teaching and it was good to see how it is used in the real world effectively. 

Putting together 130 kits in two hours to make it for that day’s mail was a bit challenging (including during this time remembering how to put together the always tricky mail merge) but we got them all out on time! As I had also sat in on the media kit meeting between WASO’s Public Relations Coordinator and the Executive Manager, Artistic Planning (who heads the department which put together all the repertoire and artists for each concert) about how best to promote the 2013 season to the media a few weeks earlier, it was great to see the complete product and know prominent journalists around Perth would be receiving this to write their stories (such as The West’s seen here). 

I also helped proof read the season brochure and seeing that finished product is really nice. You can view it online here if you are interested. After working from the draft copy and using the pdf version as a reference when putting appropriate hyperlinks throughout the website in preparation for the online launch of the season it was lovely to see the brochure in print- nothing beats a hard copy!

Vanessa Costanzo.

Social Media Crisis Management

I can’t believe I’m already a week into my internship!  Its true when people say time fly’s when you’re having fun! I never thought I would have fun at work but I am really enjoying the working life. I am staying in Windsor (45minutes out of central London), even though I have been to London before but I have never experienced the working life in London. It is so hectic, with the amount of people around and the busy tube lines! But it’s so exciting at the same time to be amongst all the buzz and see the true WORKING London lifestyle!  I never thought I would be driving past Windsor castle every day to get to work, or working a few tube stops away from Buckingham palace, Hyde Park and Harrods but I absolutely love it!

This week was another interesting, hectic and exciting week. Throughout university we are constantly taught about ethics and what to do in crisis situations and how to prepare for them. On Monday morning, I started off my second week of work experience by attending a crisis insider club breakfast with two other colleagues at a private members club called The Hospital Club, in Covent Garden (central London). This was a very interesting experience as there were people from all different companies, who came together to listen to the founder and CEO from Seat wave- Joe’s experience in a crisis situation and also heard from a journalists point of view. Here is the link to seat wave website: http://www.seatwave.com/.

The way in which Joe handled the crisis, related back to what is learnt at uni, including having a crisis management team on hand 24/7, acting quickly but calmly and approaching the situation in an honest manner to keep consumers informed. In this situation, Joe used social media (Facebook and Twitter) to help communicate the situation to their audience.  By listening to Joe’s experience and the way in which he effectively used social media, such as Twitter and Facebook made me realise the true effect of social media and its  ability to communicate with thousands and millions of people at once and in such an efficient way. Joe was able to tweet and reply to Facebook posts whilst the crisis was unfolding- responding promptly and honestly. I was very glad to be asked to attend this meeting, as it showed me great insight into handling crisis situations and also allowed me to recognise the importance of preparing for all types of crisis situations, as we are regularly taught during university. At Chivas Brothers, there is a crisis management procedure and they also have constant emails from media databases which prompt the communications and public relations team when any important information on the business or industry is found. This is to keep up dated and well informed of what is happening within the alcohol industry.

This week I also attended many meetings including:

• Meeting with agencies that were pitching their ideas for the brand 'Royal Salute'. I had to take notes and identify in a table format which agencies met the brief best and which agencies had creative strategies which are best suited to the Royal Salute product.
• Meeting with the head of internal communications to get an idea of how internal comms works in the Chivas Brothers office. I was also allocated to write an article on the Cannes Film Festival which Chivas Regal sponsors and this article will be published in their internal magazine.
• Attended key messages meetings, were they were identifying this year’s key messages for Chivas Regal, Beefeater gin and Ballantine’s whisky for marketing and PR purposes.
• Sat in on a conference call with John Doe, discussing ideas for this year’s Ballantine’s golf event.

I found most of these meetings interesting as I know all these brands and is intriguing to see how the marketing and PR works behind the scenes. Sometimes I felt the meetings weren't that relevant for me to listen to as I couldn't contribute much, however it was still useful to see how the meetings and conference calls take place and to hear some very creative and exciting ideas.

Next week I'll be working on my Cannes Film Festival article and evaluation on how the event went in comparison to previous years, which I am looking forward to. Until then! 

Gemma O'Hart

My Introduction to Chivas Regal, London Style!

Hi everyone,

I am writing this blog in London as I am doing my PR placement here at the Chivas Brothers office which is part of the parent company of Pernod Ricard. Pernod Ricard is the second largest wine and spirits company in the world, with brands such as Chivas Regal, Malibu and Absolut vodka. However the main brands which the PR and Marketing team work on at the Chivas Brothers office in London is on a global basis across all international  markets, looking after products such as Chivas Regal, Ballantine's, Royal Salute, Beefeater gin, The Glenlivet and Plymouth. The current leader in the market and clearly their major competitor is Diageo who is currently leading with brands such as Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff.

As I imagined, on my first day I was completely nervous and had no idea what to expect, but as soon as I walked into the office all the people were so friendly, warm and genuinely nice. I felt comfortable almost straight away and knew it was going to be a great experience! I am working in the PR team who work across all Chivas brothers’ brands, the team is made up of 10 people, including roles such as: Communications Director, The Head of PR, 2x International PR Managers, Internal Communications manager, Communications Executive, Graphic Designer, The Head of Sponsorship, Events Manager and a Personal Assistant for the Communications Director. However, I mostly work with Jennie who is the Head of PR.

Here are a few pictures- The Chivas Brothers office and view from the building at work!

This first week, mainly revolved around me learning the office facilities, each PR person’s role, collecting media coverage and sitting in on meetings. This was very interesting as I noticed that most tasks discussed in the meetings, could be related back to assignments I had done in the past at uni. For example the creation of key messages and objectives as an initial starting point for any task and the process involved in evaluating a PR campaigns effectiveness. As Chivas Brothers is such a large and global company, many meetings involved briefing PR consultancies such as John Doe about where a brand such as Ballantine’s is now, and where they want to be. Thus, expecting the PR agency to help them come up with creative ideas of how they can get the Ballantine’s brand to the position which they want to be in.

I have been given the task each week to collate all media coverage on Chivas Brothers, Pernod Ricard, any Chivas Brothers products and any competitor coverage. Once I have gathered the relevant and interesting articles, I create a document of them all which gets distributed to staff members working at Chivas Brothers offices in London and Scotland. This document is to be read by all staff in order to keep up to date with what is happening in the media in regards to how their products, company and competitors are doing within in the industry. This week I had help from Alicia, the Communications Director, to collate and forward to all staff; however from next week onwards I will be doing this by myself which is a little bit nerve racking as I will be emailing employees around the world this coverage. (I’m just hoping I remember every step of the process and email it to everyone correctly).

The 'event season' for most of the brands have just taken place and/or are coming up later in the year, so whilst I am here I will not be taking part in any specific events. However, Chivas Regal 25year old whisky has just sponsored the Cannes Film Festival for a fourth year during May. Since this event recently took place, I will be working on the evaluation for the event, and working through the process of evaluating each international market with the communications team and Chivas Regal marketing team!

I’m looking forward to evaluating this huge event over the next few weeks and to see if it was a bigger success than last year and how the PR and marketing aspects contributed to the success. I'll keep you updated!

This week has been a very eye opening experience and has already shown me a great picture of how PR works in real life, including the in-house side and consultancy side, through the meetings with different agencies. I already feel very comfortable and a part of the team, I’m loving the work and I know this is a once in a lifetime experience and I wouldn’t be able to get this global experience in Perth, so I am very grateful for this opportunity and so excited for the next few weeks!

Bye for now,

Gemma O’Hart

A Fast Paced PR Lifestyle. .

I have loved everyday of my placement and I don't want it to end but the one thing I've realised during this placement is that there is always so much to do and too little time to do it when you have four jobs and uni! Luckily I work best when I'm under pressure and have a lot to do. I think thats why I have realised that this is the career I want to be in and one that I can be successful in.

Ive always known that the PR Industry is a fast paced industry that doesn't operate in the confinements of a 9-5 work day, but I think thats what has appealed to me as well.  

Since my last post my mentor has moved back to Paris and I have been communicating and working for her through emails and phone meetings. Although the last thing I expected to be doing was working for someone on the other side of the world, it has been an opportunity for me to establish communication and organisational skills and the ability to trust my instincts. This has allowed me to work more independently under the direction of the Company Director which has been a scary but amazing opportunity! Following Globcom I have now had two semesters practice constructing proposals through online means- but practice makes perfect right?! 

This placement has opened up the opportunity for me to let my creativity flow and make suggestions in all areas of the company, stretching from client proposals, to the company's image and uniformity throughout all official documents. At the beginning of my placement, I personally approached the Director and asked to redesign the media release template, along with numerous other small tasks to contribute to developing the company's image. Through doing so I have been asked to implement some of these ideas including designing media release layouts for all regular clients of 32dsg. Following this I am now asked to proof and edit all media releases before they are sent out to clients and the media. This has developed a uniform layout for all media releases distributed by the consultancy and has given me the chance to develop my media release writing skills, while also providing me with confidence in my ability to develop suitable media releases for numerous clients.

This placement has also given me the opportunity to think outside the square and have in put to company decisions. I have been asked to attend numerous meetings, have been given the opportunity to have input in all areas of PR in the business and have even made it to the website! My mentor even calls me the 'PR Guru'- thats got to mean I'm doing something right!

My experience at the DSR (part 3) - more media releases! and... burritos

This is it, the final stretch.

I have just four days left in my work experience at the Department of Sport and Recreation and I don't know what I will do when it is over (other than sleep in on Mondays again).  It has been a part of my life since January and it will be strange when it is gone.   

My main focus continues to be writing media releases but this is something I enjoy and I have a lot of freedom in what I do.  I get to identify a lot of story ideas myself and choose which ones I will work on.

Here is one story I wrote recently if you are interested.

I've begun to see a bit of my work showing up in newspapers and I find it very satisfying.  Sometimes it has very little in common with my initial media release, other times it is almost the original release word for word.  The journalist side of me might frown upon that but the PR side of me is proud that I can present a media release in such a newsworthy fashion that they run it with little changes.

We have been doing a bit of work towards getting local governments more involved and sharing any positive stories they come accross.  We have had some very good story ideas submitted and some of they are quite amazing.  We hear of kids with disabilities participating in sport for the very first time, participation rates doubling in certain areas through KidSport and even the creation of entirely new leagues to cater for the increase in demand.

One of the things I worked on recently was a few templates for local governments to use so they can easily create stories of their own when they come across something interesting without having to go through the department.  It should free up a lot of time for us as we cannot possible cover every good story idea that comes in.  Not every local government has a PR team and it is nice that they can now share some of the great results we are seeing with KidSport independently.

I also sat in on a few more meetings these past few weeks and have had an opportunity to voice some of my thoughts on KidSport and our co-operation with local participating governments.


Oh and I discovered the most awesome burrito shop ever.  Sadly I discovered it too late and there isn't possible enough time to sample all the possible combinations!

Until next time,


Luke

My Experience at the DSR (Part 2) - More media releases, more coffee and an accidental runner

Hey guys,

It's been a few weeks since my last update.  Ok that is a lie, it's been more than a few weeks but it's time to fill you in on my experiences to date.

I've found myself continually drawing from my journalism studies in a lot of my work so far.  As I joined following the launch of KidSport the majority of my time has been dedicated to identifying positive stories and working on media releases to help raise awareness for the program.

In week two (aka day two) I began my first media releases about the program which were about a group of Aboriginal boys in Narrogin joining the gymnastics club for the first time with financial assistance from KidSport and a similar story about a boy who was able to join his local cricket club for the first time - something his family had not been able to afford in the past.  These stories were sent out to local media outlets in their respective areas.  For one story I was lucky enough to get an interview with via email which gave me some well thought out, clearly written quotes to use.  The second interview was a little trickier as it was over the phone.  I was able to get a couple of decent quotes jotted down but need to work on my shorthand to make the process easier in the future.  For those interested you can read my two media releases here and here

It turns out there were a ton of enquiries about the Nicky Winmar Carnival article I had written in the previous week.  The carnival received some positive press with most of the information included in my media release appearing in the articles I saw.

In weeks three and four I changed focus a little and worked on a series of media releases for the Department of Sport and Recreation's (DSR) Community Volunteer Grants program.  I completed three articles which can be seen here, here and here.

I attended my first full department meeting in week five.  This was an interesting experience as I was able to see what all the other teams were working on - PR and otherwise.  It provided an interesting overview of the department and where our small PR team fits into the overall picture.

Monday mornings are not getting any easier.  Working nights Tuesday to Saturday and then using Sunday to try and adjust my sleeping pattern in order to get up at 7am on Monday can be very hard and my morning coffee is becoming the cornerstone of my day.  Without a good morning coffee the rest of the day just crumbles!  To help with this I have invested in a proper coffee machine and am currently sitting here pumped full of caffeine and wondering how I ever drank instant coffee. Seriously, best investment EVER.

As I alluded to in the title there was also a small mishap involving accidentally doing a runner from a cafe during my lunch hour...  I had become so used to paying for food before eating it (students can't afford to go anywhere fancy enough to charge you AFTER you eat to be fair!) that I finished my meal and simply walked out, no one said a word or tried to stop me.  An hour or so later as I went to get a drink from the office vending machine I noticed that I still had cash in my wallet.  As this is an incredibly uncommon sight my mistake quickly dawned on me.  Embarrassed,  I made my way back to the restaurant and paid for my lunch.  The staff seemed shocked that I came back to pay and were very nice about it.  Luckily for me I avoided getting on any blacklists and have been able to enjoy lunch there many times since!

Until next time,

Luke

My Experience at the DSR (Part 1) - The First Media Release (and Coffee!)

Hello everyone,

It's been about six weeks (six days) since I started my internship and I figure this would be a good time to start blogging about my experience so far.

I had originally intended to do this unit in semester two of 2011 but came to the conclusion that I would be better off putting it off for the semester and starting early in the summer.  This would allow me to do it part-time (one day per week) instead of taking an extended leave from work.

I got into contact with the Department of Sport and Recreational and was excited to hear they were willing to take me on in the new year.  I quickly agreed and crossed my fingers that they would still remember when it got closer to 2012. Fortunately they did.

Fast forward to today and I find myself six weeks into my work experience and loving every minute of it - although Monday mornings aren't getting any easier after becoming used to working nights!

In this blog I will be bringing you some of the highlights of my experience to date.

Week 1 (AKA Day 1):

I knew I was going to like the place when I was offered coffee upon arrival (and liked it even more when I learned it was a daily 9.30am ritual).  Following this much needed caffeine hit I began my first day by sitting in on the weekly meeting for the PR/communications team.  It was daunting at first and a lot of it went over my head initially but as I became more informed about what the department does and some of the programs it manages it began to make a lot more sense.  I was asked where my strengths lie and was promptly given my first task upon answering that it was writing. That task was preparing my first ever real media release, no more preparing media releases for hypothetical scenarios or preparing media releases that would never actually be released - this was the real deal.

I was a little apprehensive, I hadn't actually written a media release in almost a year but I am happy to report that it all comes back to you very quickly. 

Fortunately, the release I was to write was for the Nicky Winmar Football Carnival, a sporting event for a sport I am very familiar with - AFL.  Getting to write about a sport I know and enjoy definitely made things easier and far more enjoyable when it came to writing the media release and researching some of the material. 

I found myself drawing heavily on the journalism aspect of my Mass Communication degree, in particular the semester I had spent as a sub-editor at the Western Independent. I am proud to say my supervisor (Amanda) found no errors when I sent her the story.  That isn't to say my PR studies played no role at all, they assisted me greatly when it came to the structure of the story and the distribution.  For those interested you can read the media release here.

Perhaps the hardest part when it came to my first media release was actually issuing it.  There was no real media list at my disposal so I had to create my own. To make distribution matters harder it is a story that could be of interest to media outlets all across the state. I spent quite a large chunk of time creating a mailing list of my own which should make any future media releases I do significantly easier to distribute.  We got a lot of responses to the release and generated some decent coverage in newspapers and regional TV.

Working for a government department which is primarily involved in positive initiatives and popular policy makes it much easier to do the job. I can't help feel that I was very lucky to end up in a department such as this considering how much negative publicity and public distrust or disinterest there are towards many other government departments. It is nice being able to work on promoting the initiatives the department is involved in without having to be constantly dealing with negative publicity or a crisis. That isn't to say they don't happen and to some extent they very much still do but they are much less common than the problems other departments would have to constantly deal with.

Wow, I didn't expect this first blog blog entry to drag on quite so much as it did.  For the sake of your sanity (and mine) I will stop here for now.  Keep an eye out for some of my other experiences and thoughts from these first few weeks in part two! (coming soon-ish)

Until next time,

Luke Howieson

#3: Picture talks

Hi guys,

As promised on my previous blog post, there will be more photos in this post. As pictures talks better than words, I decided to update you guys about the Councillor's monthly meeting and Meet-the-People session through photos I have taken using my camera phone. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures! 

Saw the standing lady in the picture? She is one of the officer in PR department. She was distributing meeting materials to the Councillors.

Now.. we are at the Councillors meeting room. Not everyone has the opportunity to sit in this room witnessing the progress of the Councillor's meeting you know! Do you noticed that everyone is wearing a blue tie? Do you know why is that? :)
The second man at the left is Miri's Mayor, Mr Lawrence Lai.

The standing man in the picture is my supervisor, Mr Tay. He was checking with the Mayor on the meeting materials before the meeting starts.

These are the Councillors of Miri. Look at their piles of meeting materials! The materials are prepared by PR department as well.

After the meeting has finished, the reporters from various media outlets took the chance to clarify their questions with the head of PR department and the Mayor.

The Meet-the-People session banner shows the details of when and where it will be held. It is hanged at the corridor of the One Stop Centre so the public can easily catch attention of the banner.

During the session, each department would allocate some representatives to receive complaints, suggestions and requests from the public. Each complaints would be taken care and the complainers will get update on their matters.

I am honour to be able to represent PR department and I have also recorded a citizen's request for help on his cracking wall due to the blocked drainage. He seemed so nervous and helpless while making the request that I can't help comfort him a bit by having a small chat while taking down his information. The man walked away with a satisfy smile on his face after he saw that I had record everything.

From the session, I have learnt that listening to your clients is very important. It helps you to build up good relationship as they feel that they are being listened and their voices are essential to the organisation. Apart from that, it helps to enhance an organisation's reputation as well. By listening carefully, you might get to learn an idea which can help to boost up the organisation's services that makes everyone satisfy, a win-win situation.

Have you ever experiencing the satisfaction of just listening to someone's complaints during your internship period? Let's share! =)

Cheers,

Keekee