Taking Over

Week Two! O hello!

Walking into Communicare this week was less daunting than last week. As I walked in, turned on my computer and began checking my emails (yes! I got work emails), I got called in to see Aimee (my manager). Going to see her, I was ready to get my tasks for the day, which I thought would be something like writing up a media release or putting some booklets together, but was I in for a surprise.

Aimee began telling me that the person in-charged of putting together events and looking after the Communicare address book had left, and she thought that I was right the person for the job. The right person to organise an event and look after the address book. She furthered explained my tasks and what I had to do, which I thought would be easy to do, but here is the shocking part, I had nothing to go by, because the person who had left had not left anything behind or even if she did it was all on her computer, which no one had any access to. After I found all this out, I realised no company is without drama not even a non for profit.

Upon all my instructions, here I went, starting to organise my first event ever! it was my baby to look after, to ensure the food was catered to be there on the specific date, participants had paid to attend the event, along with compiling a list of the attendees for the day and different days as this was an ongoing event. It was exciting putting together an event and all the work, but there was a problem I faced, seeing as I am only at Communicare once a week, I had to ensure that on the day I was not there, the other individuals I was working with, were able to do some the tasks I was doing, like if the venue rang, they knew the answers to the different questions they would ask.

Though I was excited about putting together an event and getting everything organised, I realised how much of a mission it was starting from scratch without having any information or any relevant details, having to call each venue where the events were being held to tell them I was taking over and wondering where the previous employee had left off with instructions, catering and even payment, and if that was not enough the missions to keep everyone informed of what was happening.

I never realised individuals could just pack up and leave their workplace and their responsibilities. It was something I had heard of, but had never experience. I could never imagine just packing up and leaving because of the repercussions for the company and the other employees I would be working with. Progress may have been made on the day, but at the end of the day I realised how much more work I had to do in order to get the upcoming event up and running, but it was something I was beginning to get excited about.

A Big Help. .

I know that I have now done one blog too many but I felt like there was so much more to share about my experiences in the 'real world'. 

Following the oZAPP Award Roadshow I checked off another step in the PR plan I established at the beginning of my placement. The 2012 oZAPP Awards is a competition following on from last years WApp Awards. Both competitions have the same concept, however the competition is now national and is open to all states throughout Australia. 

Following the launch of the winning concept from last years awards, I developed a media release and fact sheet and distributed it to all Western Australian media outlets. Tim and Leon, the winners from last years awards, were at the roadshow event and once again I was able to meet the people I had been writing about so often. Their app, the Big Help Mob, is a fun, creative approach to community service, attracting hundreds of people who had never volunteered their time before, to helping out causes throughout WA. The ABC news report on their app can be found here. For more information on the WApp Awards and the winning app click here. 

Official oZAPP's photo: Left to right: Leon Delpech, Bill Tai and Tim Kenworthy

Once the media release was completed and sent out, my next task was to update the national educational institution database and develop an information pack on the awards that could be distributed to all Universities and TAFE's around the state to generate awareness among university students. These information packs included a cover letter, fact sheet, media release, social media links and poster. 

I also had the chance to challenge myself by writing a package for a client. I spent a day researching and developing pages on the company, the experience of the team and the the proposed establishment. This experience taught me that my writing strength is in PR media and plans and it is a lot less natural for me to write documents of this calibre. Throughout my placement I had the chance to work on them twice and my supervisor sat down with me and went over the way she altered them for the client. I learnt that it is definitely a lot harder for me to get this work out but I definitely want to practice and learn how to do it for the future. 

Being my last week the work load was massive as I worked through to have everything completed! I took out the PR plan i developed at the beginning and had a meeting with my boss about the next steps and how the PR could be altered to attract a larger audience. I also had the opportunity to experience the planning, execution and aftermath of a radio interview that took place and how feedback is given to the client, and social media comments responded to. 

The experience working on this event has been amazing! It has taught me that you can't always anticipate the reaction of the media or the public and that sometimes your original plans need to be altered in order to gain greater success. The concept of the awards is incredible and it focuses in on a developing industry, however for some reason the public and media's interaction has been limited and hasn't taken off as anticipated. I have also learnt that every client is different and you have to speak and deal with them in a way that shows them how integral each part of the plan is without undermining them. On top of all these lessons, one of the biggest lessons I had was at our goodbye drinks. The social media coordinator was on Facebook and the alarms went off and within seconds all three people were on the phone and social media responding to the issue. The lesson: there is no weekend for social media and it is essential that you monitor it at all times. PR does not sleep and you never know what can happen out of the office! 

It may be the end of my placement but its not the end of my experiences at 32DSG. I am staying on a day a week to see how the oZAPP Awards pan out and have been assisting here and there, taking on every learning experience that I can!