Promotion, exhaustion and getting closer!

Hi guys,

So Its getting very close to the event we have been working all year to make happen. The process has been enormous and quite a challenge. I was unaware there was this much involved with creating an event that only takes place over one night. I have recently been promoted to the role of Event Manager! This has been an extremely challenging task of which I was not sure I was capable of. The founders trusted my abilities and I felt as though they threw me into the deep end a little. Suddenly I was principally responsible for ensuring tasks were all completed each week, following up on the Dine for Life team and a lot of communication between the enourmity of sponsors involved.

At first I was completely overwhelmed. I had a huge amount of responsibility and large amount of tasks that needed to be completed each week, however I only had one day to do it in. Unfortunately this was the problem I felt. Although the event was only annual, one day a week was very difficult to coordinate or sometimes get anything done. However, I am pushing through and I hope I don't disappoint.

The experience of event manager has been quite practical. Creating several event run sheets, liaising with sponsors, allocating roles and tasks for others. Another thing that has been a shock to me was the amount of emails i now receive and send each day. My inbox is full to the brim with Dine for Life coordination, which can be very stressful and daunting at times. However, little celebrations need to be made when things go well or else you loose sight of why you are doing everything in the first place. Working in non-for-profit is, what I imagine, quite different to a paid position, but at the end of the day the outcome can be immensely rewarding.

Through the all the scramble and stress that is non-for-profit, I am still contributing to fighting human trafficking. A cause that is what is pushing me through this final month at my industry placement.

Hope everyone else is learning and loving!

Siobhan Herne xx

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!