Event: International Literacy Day

Companies and NGOs host events to encourage a cause and a project that is predominant to the organisation and its intended audience. Whatever an organisation's motivation for hosting an event, it is important to incorporate public relations well before in its event planning. Here’s why I have been engaged for 20 days internship at Caritas, to bring my PR knowledge as a tool in the event organiser's pocket.

Here is a brief description of what the event was about:

To mark the 50^th anniversary of the International Literacy Day, Caritas has organised Thursday, 8^th of September, the launching of a documentary to promote its Functional Literacy Programme.  The International Literacy Day celebrates and honours the past five decades of commitment and national and international progress deployed to increase literacy rates all over the world. The theme of this year is « Reading the past, writing the future ».

The audience is watching the documentary

Before organising the event, my supervisor, my colleague and myself thought about the goals and objectives, and the target audience we wanted to reach. As a PR intern, I have made it clear that it is crucial to be mindful so as not to lose sight of our objectives; i.e. to educate and motivate the illiterate to join the Functional Literacy Programme, if we wanted the event to be a success. This event, like many other public relations strategies, ought to be used to accomplish a particular public relations purpose. That implies having a particular target audience at the top of priority before the start of the event planning and persuasively conveying a clear message to the audience during the event.

Special events are not meant to be special; don’t jump in without careful planning. - Michael Turney

An event do not just happen. At Caritas, we needed to consider all the possibilities and get them going. Choosing the location and date of the NGO’s event was just the beginning of a long list of things to do. After that, comes some contemplations like:

• Who will be invited, and in which way would they be invited?
• How will individuals get in and out of the event?
• Will there be enough parking room for the guests who come?
• Which catering to employ?

And the rundown continues. The inquiries and concerns are about perpetual.

I was asked to write a compelling press release to announce the launching of the documentary to send to the media, and an article after the event along with some testimonials during the occasion. This means that during the event, I needed to take some notes of what the guests were saying. It was a challenge for me to write down the key words of their testimonials, and to develop it in my second article. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I needed to make phone calls to ensure that the invitations were well delivered way before the event, and to proofread checklist as it was the key to catching errors.

Speech delivered

Wow! Being asked to deliver a speech in front of the media and the guests was so stressful. I still remember that feeling as if it was yesterday. 

I cannot deny that though I was stressed, I manage to give a description of what we are doing at Caritas to help the illiterate make their lives worth living again by being independent.  

I conclude that the event was a success as the goals and objectives have been reached, alongside the positive feedback of the guests. The following day, we were having phone calls of people who want to join the Functional Literacy Programme - it was rewarding.

Okay, I need to stop there because I feel that I can keep on talking on the amazing experience I had being part of this event.

It was a privilege for me to deliver a speech and to be part of that amazing team.

I am so grateful to Caritas.