What could go wrong, will go wrong!

Busy busy busy! Next week my internship placement United Way WA are launching a new campaign caleld Paint the Swan REaD. We have collaborated with Dyslexia - Speld Foundation and Midland Clan to launch a early literacy program! And as what the tutors have taught us "What could possibly go wrong will go wrong".

So let me start with about the campaign. The idea is to create an awareness for the need of early literacy in children because recent studies have shown that young kids are coming to school without basic literacy skills. Children are needing from birth to be exposed to reading, singing and rhyming. To launch the campaign we have also created a 'learning trial' which is a trial that kids follow and use basic literacy skills. At the moment the campaign is focused in Middle Swan district and the launch which is September 6th is at Middle Swan Primary School.

 Part of the learning trial

Now the organisers of this campaign last minute have decided that they would like to have an 'egg' that travels to different locations in the weeks leading up to the campaign. The purpose of this is that the mascot 'Red the Super Reading Roo' has lost his egg. The kids will go and visit the egg over the weeks at its different locations and the egg will grow as the kids sing, read and rhyme to it and at the launch it will reach its full growth and Red the Roo will find it. This is to get people aware of the campaign and the ideas behind it. But this egg has caused a few problems.. The problems being that the egg has to be made, media erleases have to written, locations for it have to be found and advertising is needed. We only had a space of a couple of weeks to write releases and to get the local media to print weekly updates on the campaign (and beleive me it is difficult and journalists only want to be contacted via email). I had to then make flyers for shopping centres, Make colouring in sheets, create social media oportunities to advertise where the egg is going and also design the mascto and logos for banners.

Of course this was all done in a tight time frame and nothing worked out the way any of us wanted it to. But with persistence and time management we are now successfully on track to the launch next week. I have certainly learnt that to have a smooth sailing campaign, organisation is key!!

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.

Not Quite the end for me...yet!

Hi Guys,

So although my required 20days of interning is officially up, I have decided to stay on at Telethon to help out with the rest of the years events. As I'm sure many of you are aware the later half of the year is were most of the fun begins culminating with the Telethon weekend!!

Prior to that weekend i have the 92.9 kids appeal which sees Telethon raise funds specifically for much needed equipment at PMH. I will then be helping in the continued development of the Cole's Kids carnival held over Telethon weekend and will lend my hand to any other tasks required for the live 26hour broadcast. Offering my services a couple of days a week will really boost my experience within the not for profit industry and will in turn help me shape some vital contacts moving forward.

Hopefully i can aid in helping Telethon implement a viable PR relations plan to help further their organisation and its already broad reach.

I have to admit entering this unit at the start of the semester was a hassle!trying to find a placement and giving up work hours at my current job proved difficult obstacles to overcome. However, the experience and insight i have learnt from the placement program is beyond anything i could have every imagined. Not only has working at Telethon shaped my values and attitudes, but it has also provided me with a future direction for my career post studies and for that i will be eternally grateful.

Good luck to everyone in your future endeavors
Its been a pleasure interacting with all of you.

Until next time

Catie
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Events, Events, Events...

This week I was given a new task in addition to the project management for vendor of the month profiles. The Big Issue will be having a stall at Tropfest to raise awareness in an attempt to recruit new volunteers. As part of the plan for Tropfest – a competition is being run with the benefits including increased sales, exposure for the vendors and hopefully recruitment of volunteers. I was required to make a promotional flyer and was exposed to desktop publishing, copywriting, and aspects of advertising.

Additionally, I was lucky enough to attend the QANTAS and OzHarvest CEO cookout, which involved CEO’s, and celebrity chefs cooking dinner for homeless individuals in a bid to raise more awareness about the issue. Although I was not involved in organising the event, it was interesting to attend and see how it ran and the necessary work involved for such a large occasion to succeed.

Every fortnight The Big Issue Sydney hosts a ‘vendor café’ for the vendors. This involves the staff at the Sydney office providing breakfast, tea and coffee and officially releasing the next edition of the magazine. It also gives the vendors an opportunity to socialise and see if they met sales targets for the issue. Although a small-scale event this involved assisting in catering for roughly thirty people and buying all necessary food for the event and ensuring everything was ready to go first thing in the morning. I had also arranged media packs to hand out to the vendors who I will be writing profiles on for the newspaper which included a basic invitation, a media consent form and a copy of the newspaper so they could get an idea of what the end product would be like. In the end I was only able to give out a few and still need to follow up with some vendors. All in all, it has been a good week and I was able to experience the way low-budget events can function within a not-for-profit organisation.  

Kate

The Big Board Room

Just a few weeks shy of graduating and I’m not ready to become CEO of a multimillion dollar company –surprise, surprise… 

All throughout university and even through high school, as students, we were always told we were in the process of getting groomed for “The Real World”.  There would be expectations set upon all of us and we were measured by a set of learned standards which we’re to uphold once we arrive in “The Real World”. 

A part of the journey to “The Real World” is viewing rubric after rubric which benchmarks our performance semester after semester, in the hopes to refine skills which we’ve developed in high school. These rubrics explicitly hint to us what’s expected of our output in the land of “The Real Word”, while we’re under the assumption that everyone in the workplace are all on par with the requirements of these rubrics.  

 “The Real World” is also apparently a place where there’s a lot more at stake and don’t forget the work rush and harsh climate conditions – is it just me or is the office aircond, much like the Robertson Library, always set to freezing?

What I have learned and experienced, within the five short months of being part of a truly hard working organisation, is a personally and professionally fresh outlook to take away and apply in the future, including a more original take on “The Real World”. 

I would like to happily share with you all –and here comes the kicker - that there really is no such thing as “The Real World”.  And I’d also be happy to break to you that we’re already living and breathing in “The Real World”, the only world that ever existed, really.   

What’s not real about the world we’re currently operating in? We, as people, have endured quite mature commitments thus far; we’ve committed to a four year degree, a double one at that, for some, watched Jaimie’s shows for better health, work part-time, full-time, all-the-time to fund our lives, meet deadlines for bills, assessments and yes, even for fines, we go on road trips for Mum’s day, Dad’s Day, cousin’s weddings, holidays, and the list goes on.  What’s not real about all of that?    

The workplace, as I have gathered, is a spatial area in which workers gather to develop new skills and refine our strengths with the hopes to stealth our weaknesses- the ones we hadn’t exterminated at university.  At times, it can also be a place where individual’s personal and professional weaknesses and strengths come into play to achieve organisational goals.  You can say it’s a little like unit group assignments, with more at stake, of course.  And the big Board Room– you really ought to negotiate and pre-book for available times- much like the Robertson Library meeting rooms, much like the Abacus Sun Room and any other meeting rooms we’ve encountered on campus.  Meetings in the big Board Rooms, I’ve experienced , is an opportunity to collectively share ideas, feedback, concerns and works; keeping much of the same essence with the meetings we’ve held on campus. 

We worry and brag that we haven’t been taught ‘this’ or ‘that’ at university and for good reason; if we had been taught everything we needed to know, we’d have to take up that position as CEO; the one with gigantic and unimaginable things at stake.  If that’s got you wide-eyed, like me, I’m sure you’d be more comfortable and ready to continue to apply ourselves the best we know how and to continuously learn then best way we can.   

Mila

The Power of Communications

Hello fellow interns, 

Welcome to my third blog for PR Professional Practice.  So far I’ve shared with you certain aspects of my role which includes creating a Marketing Plan in order to communicate the need and availability of Diabetes First Aid Kits.  

After several weeks of working at Diabetes WA,   I began noticing how vital communications between the different arms of the organisation was in achieving efficient and positive corporate representation. Members of the Heath Promotion to the members in the Finance department and everyone in between hold key vantage knowledge that may be compromised due to poorly constructed communication culture.

 

I have learned through personal experience and many conversations in the DWA office that there is so much information “at your fingertips”.  This was once a positive notion but nowadays, it has become more like a burden.  The overwhelming amount of communications and information are key reasons as to why members of various teams hesitate to share information so as to prevent further bombarding recipients with material.  Material which might be of use.   

Drawing from my own experience of being on university committees, cohesiveness between teams is key in funnelling topics that are newsworthy to members of the Marketing or Communications team. The various teams within an organisations or committees are resources of information which Communications members ought to tap into.  I say this with full realisation that there are serious barriers of communication which could lead to poorly constructed perceptions of the kinds of news updates us Communications reps are on the look-out for. 

I’ve learned the importance for Communication Officers to ensure colleagues understand the role you fill and vice versa.  Maintaining open and constant communication channels is also important.  While a majority of internal conversations take place via email, it’s often effective to approach other staff in person to get feedback on updates and progress of various projects.           

It is the seemingly benign project updates and achievement of progressive mile stones that are of great importance to Communications reps, next to positive research outcomes. With these pieces of information, Communications teams will be able to device media releases and fresh social media content to constantly remind external publics of the wonderful work which had been crafted by the organisation.   

The team which acts as the face of an organisation is responsible for continuously refreshing the positive image of the organisation while the logistics of achieving a positive image is largely a whole organisational effort, or so I have learned.

Until next time!

Mila 

Budget Constraints Inflates Creativity

Hello fellow interns,

Welcome to my second blog.  In this post I will share with you my experience on my first day at Diabetes WA (DWA) and also the work that was ahead of me.  

 The day began with the initial introduction to everyone in the office.  I had a tour of the different office areas and made the rounds to meet everyone introducing myself as the intern who’s here to help out a couple of days a week. 

My supervisor and I spent some time reviewing my duties and scope of work.  Together, we went through a current DWA project of marketing a first ever Diabetes First Aid Kit.  I was told this was to be my baby. I was to market the first aid kit from start to finish through what we all know as a Communications Plan, or rather what they call a Marketing Plan – it seems to be the term more people are familiar with, so we’ll go with that!- to be implemented in the near future. 

Budgeting was more flexible than I first anticipated.  I was able to make suggestions with costs attached but the more preferred tactics were the ones that are effective and cost-free. It was quite the challenge for me, going from outlandish and creative ideas that were suggested in previous university Communications Plans to suddenly being very mindful of spending and working from within financial constraints.

The more I brainstormed, the more I was confortable in pushing boundaries to ensure my ideas were as cost efficient as possible.  I consulted the internet, community events pages and other more traditional mediums to start shaping the plan.  And there has been no previous Diabetes First Aid Kits on the market, I was tasked with creating a marketing angle. I had my work cut out for me.

After spending the afternoon reviewing DWA’s past Marketing Plans and becoming familiar with the corporate style guide, corporate language and presentation of works, I consulted my own Communications Plans just for some more inspiration. 

Until next time!

Mila

Opening the Door

Welcome to my very first blog post.  

My name is Mila and I will take you through a reflective journey of my experience interning at not-for-profit organisation, Diabetes WA (DWA) between September 2012 until February 2013. 

I have been studying at Curtin University for almost 4 years now but somehow managed to shy away from taking up the opportunity for hands on experience, despite the constant encouragements from teachers, lecturers and  fellow students to try it out. “They’re not paying you so they won’t expect too much from you” I recall some friends say and another popular one was “haven’t you applied for an internship yet, it’s so easy!”  The simple truth was that the thought of putting myself in a position where I was to be judged on my newly learned PR skills was one of the most daunting thoughts, second to none. I would have rather skydived.  It’s not that I thought I was incapable, I was worried to let anyone down  through my mistakes; “The Real World” high stakes got to me. This was true until one day a previous Accounting tutor of mine put me in contact with my then soon-to –be supervisor at Diabetes WA.

The opportunity was advertised and I was told “a few others” had gone for the position but that didn’t deter me, instead I began preparations to get an interview.  I revamped my CV and I researched the organisation; who is DWA? What do they do? Who are their audience? What events had they previously been involved in? What projects do they have in the works? What is Diabetes? How prevalent is it in our society? What makes DWA relevant? Is DWA on social media?

I followed up by reading plenty of fact sheets and online blogs and started following the organisation on Facebook and Twitter. I had become so fascinated with the work they carried out that I was ecstatic when I received a call for an interview.

I still had a few days to prepare some more, so after recalling a few casual in-class tales about how horribly unprofessional it was to be late, ever, I decided to prepare the best I can for this interview. I familiarised myself with the location of the office.  I made my way down a few days prior to the meeting and made sure I knew how long it took me to drive over and scouted the best parking spot for the big day.  Was I over doing it? Maybe, but with good reason; after forty-five minutes of two interviewers “get to know me” in a big Board Room, I was asked to join the team.

Not only that, I was also offered time to think the offer over.  My supervisor gave me the weekend before needing an official response– like I needed the weekend to think it over! Nevertheless, I took up the offer and called to express my interest first thing on the following Monday.

Upon reflection, this was the beginning of quite an incredible professional and personal journey where I became an employed Marketing  Assistant.  I was also where I was fortunate enough to meet some brilliant people along the way, including my to-be supervisor in another organisation.  It was all happening.    

I look forward to sharing my experience and also getting some insights from all of you.

 Until next time!

Mila Basiman

Not Quite Text Book PR!

The hours go by so fast during my days on prac! I always worried about whether full time work would drag on, but I'm generally busy doing so many different tasks during the day, that the full day actually goes by pretty fast! It wasn't however, until yesterday at the Colosoul office, did I truly experienced a busy day! A day when you feel stressed, and completely disregard the clock, then finally notice that you have missed your lunch break and will still have to stay back late to get something done. But I felt it was all worth it, because I am starting to get more responsibility, and feel like I'm actually contributing to something.

Yesterday, I had the responsibility of helping with the production of a novel that was written by the Colosoul director and would be sold to raise money for the charity, Child Wise. I had been working with her from the beginning on this project, everything from; editing the chapters as she emailed them to me (all 14,000 words!), kindly, but sternly reminding her keep up to date with her writing and send me a chapter every week or so as well as keeping the corresponding blog up-to-date. My job yesterday was to work to create an aesthetically pleasing novel, so I worked with a Colosoul designer and illustrator to compile the illustrations and text together on Adobe InDesign. Trish, the director, very willingly put her trust in me working on this with the two girls while she stepped out of the office for the day. She hoped to have the book almost complete and ready to send to print, right down to choosing what goes on each page and using the right attributions, and corresponding illustration for each part of the story.

While a lot of these tasks aren't exactly what one would list as a duty for a PR practitioner, I can definitely say I learnt the values of time management, communication and a professional employer-employee and colleague relationship. It may be something that I DIDN'T specifically learn in one of my PR units, but know I will most definitely need.

I am so proud this project is nearly complete, it's been great to see the progress and be involved with it it from start to finish, how she was inspired through her blogging, to writing the chapters, to a complete picture novel with amazing illustrations.

Until next time,

Holly

Cresting the Hill - The PR Journeyman Part II

Hey fellow interns,

Since I last blogged there's been a number of exciting things happening at my placement at Volunteering WA.  As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I was getting some help from a friend of mine at Murdoch who's studying Screen Production to film a video for YouTube.

Needless to say, it was a highly interesting experience. I've previously been involved in stage productions in high school, and have recently started pod-casting for a page I run on Facebook - but this was the first time I've sat by myself and essentially monologued to a camera. It was really unnerving to be perfectly honest, and we ended up shooting for an hour to come up with about 3 minutes worth of edited footage - Zak was quick to inform me that I was not cut out for a career in acting, and I think I would have to highly agree!

The final product was really well put together though, and I will provide a link on my last post when it has been put up on YouTube - so there's something to look forward to!

Besides that, I have been working very closely with the Services Team at VWA as we gear up towards the launch of their currently undisclosed new feature that will be launched at their Gala Dinner and Awards Night on the 15th of this month. I'm really excited, as not only were my partner and I offered tickets to attend - but I think it's going to be amazing to see all the work our team has been putting in unfold in a night of celebration, and to see how that translates over the early life of the launch.

I took part in helping write for their monthly newsletter for GoVolunteer, which was really quite helpful in brushing up on my skills - I used to write for a number of other newsletters, but hadn't done so for quite some time. I always find it's easier to say more than say less, and the art of writing a newsletter piece has to obviously be quite succinct. Thankfully there wasn't a great deal of editing, so the newsletter went out on time and I was able to add another piece to my portfolio which is always a great thing too!

My main focus this week has been writing up a Communications Plan for VWA and the other state peak bodies which should hopefully be getting sent out tomorrow. It has been exhausting work, and the research has been quite extensive - but I'm so thankful for all the study that I've done so far, it really has been nothing but a permanent state of reflection as I look back to reference what I've learned and apply it relevantly to my current scenario.

I've really enjoyed my time so far at VWA - and I think it's been an experience for both myself and the services team in working together. It's quite sad to think that my last day is only a little over 2 weeks away, but what I've taken away from this has been invaluable to me and I think will aid me greatly for when I seek my next internship.

Once again, thank you to those who have taken the time to read about my experiences at VWA. Please make sure to read my next post, which will hopefully be the night after the Gala dinner - plenty of photos and stories to share!

Good luck to all - and I look forward to reading about you!

Blade
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