A Learning Curve

Hi everyone! I hope those who have started their internships are enjoying it thus far.

The last two weeks of my internship at Cannings Purple have proven to be a learning curve. I have mostly been working on tasks for the client I mentioned in my first post - a property developer who wants to promote living in West Leederville. These have mostly been writing little blogs about cool places to go which includes lots of research on West Leederville and the surrounding suburbs. I have enjoyed writing these and I have been periodically checking the client's Facebook page - they have posted a few of the social media images I did up on Photoshop, which is exciting!

Another task I enjoyed was undertaken when I was working with my other supervisor. Her client is an oil and gas company which is trying to engage with the local community so that they are made aware of their operations. They will be holding an open day which will be really informative. My supervisor wanted me to look into ways to make it more fun and engaging, so that it is approachable for all members of the community rather than just those who really care about oil and gas operations. I was a little bit intimidated by this task at first, as it was very vague. My supervisor wanted me to be creative and look up best practice for making open days/informational conferences engaging. I drew on my last internship, which was at the Conservation Council of WA. My main project for that internship was Spring Eco Fest - a festival which promotes, educates, and encourages people to live a more sustainable life. Drawing inspiration from that was really helpful, as I came up with the following suggestions for the client's open day:

• Get local wildlife park to bring in some of the local wildlife which would be interactive and engaging for both adults and kids.This would also be great for optics - to show that the client cares about the environment and local wildlife
• Personally invite the local Indigenous community to attend the open day – shows inclusion and cooperation. It may also be a good idea to get some sort of talk/engaging activity from an Indigenous person showcasing their culture 
• A free sausage sizzle - people love free food! Going for a sausage sizzle rather than some sort of catering seems more laid back and 'community' based. This reinforces the 'community' feel we are trying to put forth
• Kids activities such as face painting and colouring in – get the Design & Digital team to draw up a truck/any other exploration-related images. 

My supervisor really liked these ideas and was particularly keen on the inclusion of the Indigenous community, the sausage sizzle, and face painting. It was great to get good feedback! 

Another experience I enjoyed was when I got to work with a senior consultant. Despite the name, she is actually quite young, and only a few years out of uni! It was good to get to know her, and we spoke for quite a while about how she got to Cannings Purple and her PR journey. I worked with her on two clients: TEDx and a local non-profit providing business advice. I wrote a media release (my first one at Cannings Purple!) and got some good feedback on it. I got to look at the PR plan they wrote up for the client and made a suggestion to utilise Snapchat as one of the tactics. I was a bit hesitant to suggest it, as I felt like it may seem out of line for me to come up with a tactic, but it went down better than expected. The consultant was really impressed with this idea and even forwarded it to the director of the Design & Digital team! It was really cool to have some recognition and I felt that I had made the right decision by coming forth and suggesting something they hadn't thought of. I also wrote up a few social media posts, which also got great feedback.  

Another experience which has proven to be educational is a new initiative Cannings Purple is undertaking in their morning catch ups. Every morning, a different consultant has to talk about something they are doing for 10-15 minutes. These are short presentations on whatever the consultants want to share. These presentations have actually been eye opening and very interesting. I think it's great as it allows everyone in the firm to know what everyone is getting up to, but it also encourages information sharing and collaboration. For example, the director of Design & Digital spoke about a social media monitoring website. Drawing back on my studies of PR Planning and Evaluation, I compared it to Radian6, and it proved to be a lot more sophisticated and show lots of useful information, both for clients, and the firm. Another interesting talk was about SEO. I learned the ins and outs of Search Engine Optimisation and the best ways to utilise it. These talks are things that I really value as an intern, as I am here to learn, and they enable me to learn even more! 

Sorry about the essay, I just had quite a bit to catch you all up on! 

Until next time,

Stav.