Wednesday, August 17, 2016

42 Rival Universities coming to Perth this September!

It’s that wonderful time of year that only happens every four years, when everyone seems happier, everyone’s supporting their country and the news is full of mostly heartfelt and happy reports… Of course it’s the time of the Olympic Games.

I am undertaking my internship at Curtin Stadium and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Although my work will primarily be focused on the Australian Uni Games as it is held in Perth this year (for those of you who were unaware), I have been focusing majority of my time on the Olympics. There are several Curtin Students and Alumni over in Rio competing at the moment and it has been my task to keep up to date with their results and match/race times. Creating player profiles for each athlete along with their course of study and schedule for the games. All the results and current information has been uploaded to the Curtin Sports Facebook page along with daily updates and a weekly summary of the games that was synced to the Curtin website. It has been such a privilege to research and be involved with the competing athletes and watch their journey unfold at the 2016 Rio games. 

Apart from the Olympic focus the upcoming Uni Games will be the main focus of my time at Curtin Stadium. Having the games hosted in Perth is a massive deal for us as it hasn’t been here in six years! The event will run from the 25th-30th of September and attracts over 42 rival universities, competing in 29 different sports with over 7000 student athletes. I will be running majority of the social media channels, along with writing end of day wrap up reports from each sport and individual athlete and team articles. So if you haven't already figured out I will be putting in some long hours while the games are on.. (while you will all be in your study break!) Apart from the sport there is also social activities for all competitors throughout the week that gets students interacting with one another and meeting people from all across Australia.

Curtin Stadium runs various social media channels some of which were all very new to me, that were interesting to learn about. Team App was particularly interesting as it is the main source of communication we are using for uni games to connect to all the teams. Each team captain has the app and then any spectators or general public that is interested in uni games can also access it. This holds all the fixtures, ladders, results and information such as an introduction to uni games report I produced earlier last week that was submitted to the app.

Hoot suite, was another program I was very intrigued by. A program that allows the user to schedule posts across all the different media channels. I used this program to schedule posts over the weekend (when I wouldn’t be at work) and also things in advance like the 30, 20 and 10 day countdowns until uni games. This program is very efficient and I feel essential to all PR professionals as it allows you too remain active across all your social media channels, which is handy when things get too busy or you are unable to be on a smartphone/computer!

Lastly, Canva was another program I used which I was familiar with having engaged with this in a PR unit last year. Having already been familiar with this is made things a lot easier for me and I was able to produce work efficiently without having to ask so many questions. 

Uni Games is such a massive event on the Curtin calendar and especially this year at the Stadium being held in Perth. I am thoroughly looking forward to all the challenges and opportunities it will present to me and expanding my knowledge in the industry!


#UniGames2016 #carnthecarnabys

3 comments:

Unknown said...


Creating player profiles for Curtin students and Alumni over in Rio must have been so interesting; what a great experience!

It's great to hear that you will be involved with the 2016 Uni Games in Perth and keeping very busy! I volunteered at the Uni Games in Bunbury in July and saw just how much work goes into the games. You'll be a part of an excellent team and be a vital player in the games running efficiently.

Hootsuite sounds like a really valuable platform and something that could be really useful for students to learn about and engage with prior to interning. As you mentioned with Canva, having the knowledge and experience to confidently navigate a program and not have to ask too many questions can be a real relief.

All the best with Uni Games, it's going to be a fantastic event and there is no doubt that you will be able to put into action many of your skills and acquired learning.

Can't wait to hear all about it!

Unknown said...

Hey Olivia! Your internship sounds awesome, and getting to keep up to date with our Curtin Olympians in Rio would definitely bring some excitement to the work place :) I didn't realise that their information would be uploaded to Facebook, but I will definitely be checking that out - putting their results on Facebook is a great idea to keep everyone involved.

I've only ever heard great things about Uni Games, so I'm sure there will be lots of fun to come (maybe after that hectic week you have, though!!) The company I'm at currently uses hootsuite to schedule all of our Twitter posts, and plenty of our Instagrams. It's a pretty cool website, and will definitely be useful while you're juggling so many tasks!

Good luck with everything! I can't wait to hear all about uni games!

Unknown said...

Hi Olivia! Your internship sounds very fulfilling, and I'm sure that you're having fun while working hard! It must have been such an honor to work so closely with the Australian Olympic team, and to be so involved in a massive event that everyone worldwide is paying attention to.

The upcoming Uni Games sounds like there will be lots of fun things going on too! My housemate actually took part in it this year, and he came home saying he had such a blast. Hope to see tons of pictures and posts from the Curtin Stadium social media accounts!