San Diego is not only known for its beautiful weather, beaches and beer but also is known for one of its more famous annual conventions – Comic Con. I was lucky enough that the time I was interning at the Hotel covered the weekend that Comic Con was on.
Comic Con for those of you, who don’t know, is an international convention that celebrates and showcases comics and related art forms. The connection that Hard Rock Hotel has with the convention is that the hotel is located directly across from the center and therefore hosts most of the parties, interviews, TV broadcasts and most excitingly is home to all the celebrities throughout the weekend. This year, 207 which is the lobby bar was bought out by Samsung and Suicide Squad who completely transformed the bar into a mock up set from the film – featuring all different kinds of simulations filled with the latest technology; Samsung did a great job of making you feel like you were a part of the movie. The TV series, The Walking Dead rented all the elevators, which were wrapped with their logo as well as fake blood on the floor. They also had actors walking around the hotel as zombies, which was such a great idea!
Throughout all the Comic Con craziness my job as the intern was to liaise with the celebrity photographer – Hew, making sure he got great shots of all the A-listers. This also included organizing over 10 000 photos of costumes, the hotel and of course all the celebrities. In the process making sure to pick out the best celebrity photos to send to the press. My supervisor Rana, sent Celebuzz the photos I chose which were published on their website. The feature can be seen through this link - https://mailtrack.io/trace/link/3158440d7c7e47c0466c207c43ab27c07977e07c?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.celebuzz.com%2Fphotos%2Fceleb-snaps-hottest-star-sightings-friday-july-22-2016%2Fcelebrity-sightings-photos-3-07222016-01%2F&signature=d60882ce0b000b2a
Ensuring that these photos get to the press is an important part of public relations at the hotel as it allows images to be distributed on online forums that have a large reach, showing viewers that Hard Rock Hotel is the hottest place to be as well as a great place to sight celebrities.
My second job this weekend as an intern was to ‘man’ the VIP lounge that was used as a waiting area for talent and media for them to have a snack and relax. The spread that was served was supplied by sponsors, therefore my job was to take special note of who was eating what, to then report back to the sponsors.
As I mentioned in my title, throughout Comic Con I was faced with the topic of confidentiality and therefore was my first brush with ethics in real life practice. As part of the marketing department I was given all different types of information on which celebrities were staying at the hotel and where they were going to be, which I had to keep confidential. This ethical issue came into play throughout my Comic Con experience as I met lots of celebrities, including standing about a meter away from Justin Timberlake and as I was a member of staff and in a private lounge I therefore had to engage in a professional manner.
During Comic Con all the local TV broadcasts use Hard Rock Hotel to film their segments on Comic Con. I assisted Rana my supervisor, with the coordination and execution of a live broadcast that promoted Float, the Hotels’ rooftop bar and lounge. The segment featured a bartender from Snake Oil cocktail company who made 3 Comic Con – inspired cocktails that would be available at FLOAT for the duration of the convention.
Once Comic Con was complete I was asked to pick my favorite celebrity photos and write a blog to be shared by the Hotel’s social media sites, the blog I wrote can be seen through the link below. http://www.hardrockhotelsd.com/events/top-celebrity-comic-con-sightings-at-hard-rock-hotel-san-diego/
3 comments:
That sounds absolutely incredible. What a great experience! Ethics is such an important aspect of professional practice and the only way you can truly learn to handle it is through real life experience. Best of luck.
What a fantastic opportunity Chanelle! The ability to adapt to your audience and environment is a crucial skill for us comms folk. I'm sure being exposed to these types of functions will have a great impact on your growth in the industry.
How Amazing!!! You really were exposed to the real world of ethics. Confidentiality is such a huge responsibility and as an intern holds a lot of trust with your supervisor! Must be such a rewarding experience to know you helped with getting images published onto Celebuzz! Cant wait to hear about some other exciting times :)
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