Time to Reflect and Getting Back in the Game!

Whilst it has been a long time in between my third and final blog post (this one), I've had a lot of time to think about my time at KCGM and how my internship went and I thought now would be a good time to post as I've been lucky enough to have been offered a position working for them again, despite the industry struggling earlier on in the year.

My time working at KCGM provided a lot of experience and helped me to apply things I've been taught in class, in a real life situation. Every time I go back, I learn something new and the company and the team make it in their best interests to help me better myself as a PR professional and continue to throw challenges at me, which I may not think I'm ready for, but they believe I'm perfectly capable of doing the job whilst still giving me guidance.

I have been told by the team that the Underground Tours I arranged earlier this year have been a great success (let's hope this is true!) and last week would have been the end of them.

Being able to apply everything I've learnt in Public Relations over the last few years, including writing techniques, event planning/management, issues management, crisis management, CSR and image management, has opened up my eyes and cemented my love and passion for Public Relations.

Whilst I know I should broaden my horizens, working in Community Relations is my dream job. It incorporates my love for PR with my belief in giving back to people into one, nice, challenging position. At the moment, largely thanks to my work placement with KCGM, there is no other area I'd rather work in. Ideally, given the opportunity, I would love to go back to Kalgoorlie to permenantly work for the organisation due to the broad range of responsibilities and opportunites presented to me.

Finally, I'd like to thank the team at KCGM for once again going out of their way to give this position for me in order to help with my course, despite industry struggles and as I've probably already stated way too many times, I can't thank them enough for the experiences they continue to give me. I feel extremely priveleged to be able to be a part of such a wonderful team of people and to feel as valued as I do when I work there.

As this is my final blog post, I'd like to wish all of you luck with your future endeavours and careers and hope all of you love whatever you end up doing with your degrees :)

Taneika

Fast paced and slow moving

When I helped coordinate my first ever event, and 1500 people ended up turning up, I remember being so incredibly stressed, yet the feeling when something went right was amazing. As stressful as organising and coordinating that Open Day was, it was one of the most rewarding and fun experiences of my life so far. I'm feeling the same way with the upcoming (possible) two month tour event.

As it still isn't a confirmed event due to waiting on approvals etc (we're keeping our fingers and toes crossed it can happen), it's been a little difficult to coordinate an event you don't know if you're having. Especially in the current financial situation - you don't exactly want to go ahead and spend so much money to be told it's not happening anymore. As a result, it's been stressful as there is so much work to do in regards to preparation and possibilities, however, nothing can go ahead yet officially. I've been spending my time doing as much as I possibly can to have everything organised to push and move forward when we get the go-ahead. I've also completed my script for the short film which will be edited this month for release in September.

Unfortunately, not much new has happened as of yet due to the mass workload of the two projects, however, I wrote my first article for the organisation's internal newsletter. This has helped me to try and hone my writing skills as the internal newsletter allows you to have a little fun, whilst I'm so used to writing formally.

I've unfortunately only got one more week left of my internship this time around, and once again I don't want to leave. Hopefully the project will have taken off when I write my final blog post next week.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic time at their work placements :)

Difficult times ahead but we're still moving forward

Since my last post a few weeks ago, a lot has been happening at KCGM. I've been making good progress on my projects for the Mt. Charlotte 50th anniversary so far and I thankfully haven't had too many struggles. I've definitely been kept on my toes and being at the forefront of organising logisitics, interviews and meetings has kept me busy.

The tours and the DVD I mentioned I was a part of are still underway and are still a major working progress, however things are going well and I felt like I really accomplished something today at work (which sounds like a silly thing to mention, but being on a large mine site, safety is #1 priority and last Friday I spent about 4 hours of my day in meetings and felt like I hadn't achieved much that day!). It has been difficult to get the ball rolling in regards to my projects as certain procedures were absolutely necessary before too much work was commenced, however after today's TBRA and visit to the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society, I definitely have plenty to do in the next couple of days.

One thing I have found interesting - and is something I wouldn't normally get to experience - is how my organisation is responding to the gold price plummet. Some people might have heard of the plummet in the price of gold earlier this year which sent the gold mining industry into dismay. As a result, KCGM has been reviewing budgets, however, this has sent the local media into a frenzy. I've now experienced firsthand how easy it can be to take advantage of these kinds of situations for a story. There have been some, shall we say, not so friendly articles produced over the past couple of weeks, however it's great to see how KCGM is dealing with the negative portrayal of the gold mining industry in general lately (mentions of possible redunancies etc). In addition to community engagement and employee relations, issue management is another topic I've found incredibly interesting during my studies. As budget is currently under review, there are currently no definite yes or no answers so nothing can be confirmed to the media, but whilst there has been a big focus on the low gold price at the moment (it's slowly starting to rise again - yay!) and how significant the impact on mining in WA, it's been relatively good timing as last weekend was the annual KBULG tree-planting day in which KCGM is a major sponsor. In addition to this lovely bit of positive media, KCGM has also had great coverage nation wide thanks to an article which was published in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week which reflects the journalist's experience of the Super Pit Tour.

Once again, I'm still enjoying my internship and I really don't want it to end in two weeks. I love it too much!

I'll be back soon with another update and I'll let you know how my projects are coming along.

Back in the mining game

It has been a week since I started my internship at KCGM. Fortunately for me, this is my third time working for the organisation as a student. Every time I rejoin the Community Relations team at KCGM (which is a part of the Environment and Social Responsibility department), they welcome me with open arms and throw projects at me which are even more challenging than the last time.  The first time I worked there, I got to do a bit of everything, my second stint gave me the experience doing a bit of everything and more, including organising a community open day for the tourist mine, of which over 1500 people attended. This time around, I've been thrown into the deep end once more and I'm loving it.

As KCGM is a gold mine which is not only on the door step of the City of Kalgoorlie, but also has operations which are on the historical Golden Mile; catering to the needs of residents, local businesses and other stakeholders and celebrating the history of what made the city it is today, is very important. It is the 50th anniversary of continuous operations at Mt. Charlotte operations this year and I've been given responsibility to help organise the two months worth of celebration tours coming up later this year. Some of my responsibilities include: Assessing risks in Team Based Risk Assessments (TBRAs), figuring out a budget, organising logistics, tickets, ensuring the safety of others, writing tour notes, procedures and work instructions for tour participants and working out a media plan.

In addition to this, I am helping to produce and write a short film celebrating the history of Mt. Charlotte which will go straight to be sold in the Super Pit Shop on DVD. Some responsibilites include script writing, research, conducting interviews and piecing it altogether. As this comes under the same major Mt. Charlotte project, everything is coming together pretty nicely and I had the amazing opportunity to do my underground induction today in preparation for heading underground for filming and tours and I got to head about 600m underground which probably made me way too excited, all things considering.

Once again, I'm thoroughly enjoying my work placement so far and am fortunate enough to be able to do it for this the internship unit. I'm curious to see what happens over the next few weeks due to the gold price crisis which is a huge issue at the moment and one that affects KCGM greatly due to its sheer size, however I'll let you know how my projects are coming along shortly and how things start to pan out over the next few weeks in the mining industry. It's ever growing and always changing.

PR is not for the faint hearted.

Wow my second week has flown by in the blink of an eye and I can’t believe I’m already half way through my internship at PPR!

This week – as expected was also busy, in fact much busier than the last. My calendar on my desktop has quickly become my best friend and my saving grace, reminding me of all the things I need to do and when. This week’s tasks have primarily been public relations orientated which has given me a well-rounded and very real insight into the various duties that PR consultants do in their line of work.

One of these tasks was to write a profile on a mining company for a magazine that PPR produces. As someone who has little knowledge of and no experience in the mining industry, this was definitely a very daunting task. However, with a little of bit of research, professional guidance and a lot of trial and error, I managed to produce a piece of written work that I was proud of and so was the editor at PPR who is going to publish the article in the company’s publication. Needless to say, I was absolutely ecstatic and when offered to write a second piece, I gladly accepted! This task has taught me the importance of versatility in a PR consultancy as it is likely that you will have to write pieces on certain companies, events etc that you have little knowledge about. Research is therefore a very important factor and one that I’m glad is emphasized in all our PR Units at university.

One area that I felt I struggled with this week was working to a deadline. On Wednesday I was given the task of writing a response to a year 12 student regarding the impact of FIFO on rural communities. Again, with little existing knowledge of the industry, I researched previous documents to gain a good perspective of the issue and then set to work. However, because I only had a deadline of two hours to complete the task, I felt like my mind (and more so my ability to write) completely shut down on me under pressure. Although I did eventually get to work, what I produced, I can’t say I was completely happy with.  This ability to work to a deadline is certainly one of the most prominent aspects of the PR industry and one that I’m determined to tackle in the next six months before I graduate.  I’ll be seeking some good advice from the PPR team about what to do when those terrible nerves take over and how to focus when working to such a tight deadline. What are your tips for dealing with deadline stress?

My last major task this week was to produce a media release for a recipient of a grant given by one of PPR’s clients. The idea of writing my very own media release, something I’ve done many times at Uni, really thrilled me but once again I struggled with the pressure of producing something that I expected to be of a high standard.  The media release that I produced was edited and tweaked a little by the consultant that I was doing the work for and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of disappointment that my media release had to be altered a little bit to flow better.  After all the experiences I’ve had writing media releases at Uni, I felt that I would know how to write these better than anything else – but the reality this week was different. Although the consultant assured me that I’d done a great job, I just couldn’t help but a feel that I’d let myself down.

One of the Account Managers reassured me further by saying that most media releases, even his, often get tweaked by more senior PR people and that it’s all part of the creative process.

Has anyone else had these experiences before?

I think I just need to remind myself that I am an intern and I still have a lot to learn instead of always being an over achiever and striving for perfection –  it’s simply not realistic or beneficial to my sense of self and self worth!

Despite the sounds of it, I have still had a great week, which has taught me just as much about myself as it has about PR consultancy.  I know now that PR is not an industry for the faint hearted and in order to succeed, you need to stay strong, focused and flexible to the demands of time, clients etc.

I’m grateful that I have had this insight this week into the areas of myself that I need to work on and I am glad for every experience that I have at PPR because it’s all part of a learning journey that I imagine will only continue throughout the rest of my degree and my career. 

Until next time…!

Taking Charge of a HSE Conference

Hi Guys!

I am in my third last week of my internship in the PR department at INPEX ( A worldwide gas and oil exploration company)

This week sees INPEX hosting a stand at the SPE/APPEA International Conference on Health, Safety and Environment in the Oil & Gas Exploration and Production sector. The conference is hosted by Chevron and is currently being held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Being a large company there is always a lot of health safety and environment issues that need to be adressed and monitored at all times so this conference gives INPEX a chance to share with other industry professionals the measures we take to ensure a smooth running of all our projects as well as updating them on the work we are currently doing and where our major projects are at.

The morning began with us setting up our stand with brochures, an interactive touch screen television that lets participants interact and immerse themselves in the Ichthys project both the off and onshore facilities as well as merchandise and give aways for conference visitors.

The conference got underway and I was beyond nervous, I had been put in the stall with 2 other girls who knew alot more about the project than I did and my supervisor had told me that I would be having to answer questions and talk visitors through our project!

Once the conference started getting busy we were under pressure to speak to everyone who was interested in INPEX and before I knew it I was talking to delegates and exhibitors from other companies like I knew exactly what i was talking about, it really is crazy how much I had retained from my previous weeks of work experience that just came straight back to me when I most needed it.

Having the opportunity to network with high profiled delegates from different companies and countries alike gave me a fantastic insight into just how important networking is within not only the world of public relations but also the business world. Establishing connections and forging friendships with people in these kind of situations can ultimately give you the extra leg up you need when pitching an idea or trying to get a company on board with your project. 

The end of the first day approached and my supervisor let me know just how impressed she was with me, she thought that i was a natural on the stand !

Being apart of a conference like this aswell as the preperation involved really gives me a greater appreciation for the bigger picture of Public Relations. I have two more days at the conference and I cant wait!

Until next time.

Hayley Sarre

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One step ahead at all times

It has been well over a week since I first walked through the doors of Platform Communications and started my internship. Like many before me who have been about to begin their internship, I was very nervous for my first day for two reasons: a) would I be able to put my skills and techniques that I have learned through my degree into practice and b) would I be able to do a good enough job. There was no need to have been nervous as the team at Platform were very friendly and welcoming.

Platform Communications is a consultancy firm specialising in the mining and resources industry. They have an impressive client list and their team is very talented comprising of marketing and communications consultants, and graphic designers.

My first day was overwhelming trying to understand everything about Platform and their processes. Every week they have a WIP meeting which is an update of all the jobs they are currently working on and new jobs that have come in for the consultants and the graphic design team. There were quite a lot of jobs going on and by the end my head was spinning.

 

It is a fast paced office which is intimidating at first but I found myself keeping up most of the time. I have seen improvements in my PR skills, organisational skills as well as my confidence as I often find myself using my initiative and taking on new challenges. From my experience so far, consultancy is often demanding and it is an art to juggle the different tasks and clients. I have completed a variety of tasks from researching a new client regarding their operations, their performance in the ASX, their competitors and any coverage in the media, managing the logistics of communication materials for clients, creating design and job briefs, and collating media lists. While my experience at Platform has been a positive one and I am really enjoying myself, I have learnt an important lesson already which is something I will carry through with me in my career as well as using the advice to drive myself to be a better consultant.

 Lesson 1 in my PR internship: I must be ahead of the director, senior consultant and our client at all times.