It's all over!

Hello (for the last time!),

It's been a while since by last post, but upon the conclusion of my internship at City to Surf, I've been madly catching up on all my uni work I missed! I though I'd take the chance to reflect on post event challenges and successes, as well as the overall experience.

At the conclusion of the event, after packing up all of the signage and labelling it to be returned to the sponsors, it was back to the office ( i place i hadn't seen for nearly 2 weeks!). It was nice to be back in an environment where i knew all the faces, and everyone was in such high spirits thanks to such a successful event!

The Friday was very casual and easy going, with very little "serious" work to be done. There were a few sponsorship issues which required attention, such as complaints from a few that their signage allocation on the day didn't match what was agreed upon in the plan. Sitting alongside my supervisor Alicia, we discovered that in fact the signage WAS correct according to the plans that were signed off on. This was frustrating (and a little nerve racking as I was terrified I'd made HUGE mistakes!) as they turned the blame on us for things that were a mutual mistake.

After sorting out these minor issues, I had the chance to read through the post event survey responses from participants. This was both rewarding and frustrating as there were plenty of wonderful comments, commending the event and labelling it faultless, but then there were the complaints. I managed to sort through many which were regarding signage and this was when the anger and disappointment really hit. Numerous participants had written on their feedback that there were "no kilometre markers". I can assure everyone who is reading this blog, that there were kilometre markers at EVERY single kilometre mark for the 42km, 21km and 12km distances. I know because I watched my crew load them into the Ute the night before, and saw them blowing in the breeze as I drove to the event early Sunday morning. This was such a frustrating situation (as the girls in the office and the other interns would know by now!) for me as I had done SO much hard work, and no one seemed to acknowledge it, instead complained that it didn't exist!

I realise this is the nature of events, that not everyone is going to be impressed and there's always going to be people who into the event with a negative mindset, but I was still a little hurt that they would say this- especially the huge number of people who said it! Continuing to flick through responses I also found some wonderful comments regarding the on course entertainment I had sourced, with one participant even saying the musician gave him goosebumps (the musician was David Lazarus in case anyone is wondering). It was so rewarding to read these comments, and I couldn't help but phone those who performed and thank them personally, before writing a letter of thanks, including quotes I'd pulled from the survey. I really hope when they received those letters, that it put a huge smile on their faces!

Looking through the hundreds of photos was our next task of the day- such a strenuous working day i know! it was so nice to see all the photos out on course, as I was located at the finish oval all day i didn't actually get a chance to see the race in progress. Seeing photos of all the signage was the most rewarding as all the hard work had paid off and it look fantastic!!! I was so proud of the crews who had followed the plans and instructions and got the signage out perfectly!

Overall, i had the most incredible time at my internship. I learnt SO much about the industry, as well as about myself! I definitely know that events is my area of passion, and I would love to pursue a career in event coordinating or directing for sporting events. If I had the chance, I would certainly do another placement with City to Surf, and am hoping they'll allow me the chance to work with them again next year!

That's all for now, I hope you've enjoyed hearing about my placement as much as I've enjoyed reading about yours!

Sarah Ball

14262784

(Bentley Campus)

My Final Blog for PR393

Hi All,

So this is my final blog for PR 393 which has come slightly late. My placement got cut short due to the lack of work after the City to Surf event. I did complete 20 days due to the week prior to the event working full time but I didn't get the opportunity to work post event and therefore look at event evaluation.

So this blog will be a brief wrap up of my time working on the Chevron City to Surf for Activ. I had an amazing time and it was a great experience in the industry I hope to work in after graduation. I have always had a love for all kinds of sport and working in the sporting industry in either events or public relations would be ideal for me!

My internship was a perfect public relations internship - I think I pretty much used every technique we were taught in PR techniques! I was wrote approximately 10 press releases, drafted speeches, created run sheets for press conferences and the main stage on event day, drafted newsletters to be sent to stakeholders, wrote biographies for the MCs at the press conference, helped organise the press conference which included creatin an invite, drafted a media guide for the City to Surf event itself as well as creating a media kit for all media outlets. I pretty much think I have completed the PR techniques unit working in the 'real world'!

I have had hands on experience working at a press conference, on a media photoshoot as well as in the media tent on race day.

All in all my internship was fantastic experience into the real world of public relations. It's made me want to pursue a career in public relations over my other major of journalism.

I hope the final weeks of everyone's internships go fantastically and make sure you make the most of it, because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Good luck in the future!

Georgia Stewart
Bentley Campus

the big day!

Hi all,

So as you are all probably aware, the Chevron City to Surf for Activ was held last Sunday, August 28. It was a record breaking event with approx. 42,000 participants!! As i mentioned in my last post, I was allocated a management position for sponsorship signage. I was required to be on hand from last Tuesday, however for the week preceeding this, I was unfortunately hit by the flu and a sinus infection. As much as I tried to be of use, I ended up in tears (yes, in front of the whole office) and was sent home to bed! The Wednesday, however, I felt 100% better and was sent immediately down to City Beach Oval where the bump in was well and truely underway!

Signage had begun arriving so it was my job to record what had arrived from each sponsor and ensure we had enough to suit the Master Plan that my supervisor, Alicia, had prepared. It was then my job to redesign the plan to suit what we had received. This was a MASSIVE task as boxes and boxes kept being delievered right through until the Saturday, and there were so many different types of signage, poles, bags and bases- which the majority of were not labelled!! Very frustrating.

So Saturday night I sat with Alicia and had a final run through of the master copy and made (very) last minute changes. I also sat with the event director (and most dedicated, hard working man I have EVER met), to go through on course signage allocations, and which of my crews would have which sections to do. I already had reliable crews for Esplanade Park, the start at St Georges Tce, and the 4km start at McLean Park, but after they had to let one of my crew leaders go on the Saturday, I had to step up and take on the role of driving a ute (complete with a flashing orange light!!) and putting out on course signage on the Sunday morning. This was a daunting experience but worked out okai in the end (except when the marathon runners started running past us when we were mid way through putting up signage- oops!).

Saturday night I finished up around 8pm, and had to be back down at City Beach by 3am. By this stage of the week I, along with every other road and signage crew, was well and truely shattered! Words can't explain what working 70 hours in 5 and a half days does to you!!! But we all troopered on and got all of the signage out without any major issues. There were small things, like one of our sponsors sent us some Subaru feather flags- which clearly weren't meant to be there!! Other than this, we rushed around doing last minute things like putting signage at the main stage, putting all the feather flags up at the finish line, and I was answering calls from my crews with questions (my phone was ringing before I even got there at 3am!!).

Upon returning to the finish precinct, participants had well and truely begun crossing the line and the festivities were underway! I hovered in the events office and assisted with the radios, lost children, general queries and a bunch of other things (including a trip to the marathon recovery tent- I don't recommend going in there, it's rather sweaty and smelly!!). The day was going perfectly until the call came across the radio regarding a collapsed man at the finish line. As the news would of informed you all, sadly a half marathon participant passed away. My deepest sympathy goes out to his family, friends and fiance. Unfortunately, as Georgia mentioned in her earlier blog, the media thrive on these stories, and it's difficult to control what is said on the news and written on online news sites, which is a shame, as the 'facts' they provide aren't necessarily true. However, as we all learnt, this is all a part of dealing with events, PR and media.

Upon the conclusion of the event, all my signage crews brought back the masses of signage (unfolded, some on poles some loose- it was a SHAMBLES). We finished up at about 4.30pm with a beer and a seat in the sun, then went home for some much needed sleep, before returning at 8am Monday morning! This is when the clean up begun, and I had the tedious task of folding every single piece of mesh signage, and the feather flags, and checking off what had been returned against what had been delievered. This took until 5pm Monday, with a large crew of very helpful road and signage crews helping me, and one lovely guy describing the signage area as looking like a 'brothel'. That started a word war, but made our day much more enjoyable as we were all laughing and having fun whilst working. I had to return Tuesday morning to finish it all off and load everything into the truck which we then took to a warehouse for sponsors to come and collect.

I was informed that this was the first year EVER that every single piece of signage had been returned, and I was greeted by extremely appreciative and congratulating managers in the office on Friday!! This was such a great feeling, to know the big bosses recognised and acknowledged my hard work.

I know this has been a very long blog, but to be honest, no amount of words or descriptions can do this job, or event, justice. It was a long week with an extreme amount of work, and I even found my inner boy (hi vis work gear, driving utes, having an appetite of a man, getting filthy sock tans and yes, shamefully my language became worse as the week went on!). But the most rewarding thing to come from this whole experience was my satisfaction that I've found what I want to do for the rest of my life. And for this I can't thank the crew at City to Surf enough for giving me the opportunity to take on such an intense, important role. As much as I whinged and moaned about being exhausted and shattered, I had the best time imaginable, made some life long friends, and even networked my way into being offered a job at another event that will see me travelling Australia and getting paid!!

Until my next (and final) blog, thanks for reading :-)

(I've added a pic of a little bit of memorabilia they gave each of us)

Sarah Ball

14262784

(bentley campus)

The week of the event.

Hi all,

So this is now my third blog and I am about three quaters of the way through my internship at Corporate Sports Australia working on the Chevron City to Surf for Activ. As you all will know, the City to Surf was held on Sunday and so the event we were all preparing for is completed.
I thought in this blog I would give you a rundown in what my internship entailed for the week prior, as well as the day of the event.

From last Tuesday onwards, we were all working long hours making sure everything was completed for the event. We had press conferences to get ready for, media guides to finish, run sheets to complete and of course the Event Expo.

My main job for the week was to make sure everything for the press conference was ready for Friday morning. The press conference allowed the general media to have a 'question and answer' session with a group of elite athletes as well as some human interest stories and of course the ambassadors for the event. I was in charge of organising the event. I had to call the general media to let the know it was happening and see if they would be interested. I then had to send out invites to all media. I had to remind the elite athletes (who were mostly international athletes) that they would need to be prepared for the press conference the next morning. Another part that I had to organise for the press conference, where PR techniques came in handy, was media kits for the general media. The media kits included a copy of the media guide - which had all the necessary background information about the city to surf event as well as media passes. My supervisor and I created a run sheet for the event, making sure it fulfilled all the requirements without going too long overtime.
On Friday morning, I was in charge of making sure everything was setup and ready for the press conference. We realised at 9am that two speakers were not able to make the 10am conference as their flights were changed. This meant I had to do a bit of ringing around to find two other speakers that coudl fill their spots. Thankfully this all turned out okay and we found two other athletes that could make it in the hour time frame.
All in all, the press conference ran smoothly. Although it went a little overtime, all the media who attended seemed interested in all competitiors' stories which ranged from elite athletes from Kenya to the army reserves who were pushing a 2 tonne gun in the 12km course to cardiac patients walking the 4km course.

The rest of Friday and Saturday were spent finishing odd jobs that needed to be completed. I completed a run sheet for the main stage at the starting line and wrote a congratulations news mailer which would be sent out after the event. I also found myself at the Expo with Sam (another intern) working the help desk. The event expo is held at the Perth Convention Centre on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the City to Surf. It is where all competitors can come collect their race packs and all sponsors can show off their merchandise. Some 30,000 people come through the doors over those three days so it is a busy event. I was on one of the 5 help desks aiding people with registration and geography queries.

Now to the big day,
Sunday was the City to Surf where we saw 42,000 people race in 7 different categories - the marathon, half marathon, 12km run, 12km walk, 4km run, 4km walk and 4km wheelchair. I was the PR & Media Assistant for the day which meant I was situated in the media tent in between the finishing line and the first aid station. On the day I was first point of call for our 20 TAFE volunteers who would catch the winners of each event and bring them into the media tent for photographs and interviews. Prior to the event, I had allocated the volunteers into teams who had approximately 4 competitors each to find, catch, tag and bring into and look after in the media tent. Each team had a run sheet that said exactly where they were supposed to be and when The volunteers did an amazing job which made the day run very smoothly. The tent was never too busy or frantic with everyone knowing where they were supposed to be and when. We did have an incident, as you all would have heard, where unfortunately a half marathon contestant collapsed at the finish line and was later pronounced dead. Sam, the other intern, and I were both there when it happened. We very much had to use the issues and crisis management skills we had learned to make sure the event still ran as smoothly as possible while dealing with the situation. I had to try and keep all media away from the incident without being too forceful. This I found was a difficult task in itself as something like this, as horrible as it was, is newsworthy and lots of the media wanted to capture it. I had numerous calls in regards to the incident from media outlets where I had to be very careful with what I said. Other than that, it was great to see so many people having such a great time. We have had lots of people comment on how good the day was and how well organised it was, which is always a nice feeling.

I feel like this is getting way too long now. Sorry to cram it all in one blog, I just haven't had any time earlier to write separate ones! Everyone's internships are sounding amazing! It just makes me want to do work experience for a full time job!

Until next blog,

Georgia Stewart
14754951
Bentley Campus

only 2 weeks to go!

Hi All!

I'm now half way through my internship at the City to Surf- and things are really picking up! I was having my doubts at first and wasn't enjoying the jobs I was allocated very much, however after sitting down and voicing my concerns with my supervisor, I've been given a LOT more responsibility and subsequently I'm enjoying my time there more and more! I definitely recommend anyone who is feeling the same to speak up, turns out they'll be a lot more impressed with your work and contributions than what you thought!

With the event now only 2 weeks away, things in the office have become hectic to say the least. The past week has been spent assembling race packs (almost 40,000 of them!!!), responding to an uncontrollable influx of emails, and being briefed about our roles on the day. This week saw the event guide that i worked on be released on the web site, which was really exciting to see my own work being put up for everyone to see.

I was also offered an extremely exciting opportunity for the event this year, which has far exceeded my expectations. I've been allocated a position, which they are introducing this year, as the signage manager. Basically, I'll be in charge of all the sponsorship signage for the entire course (for Esplanade Park, St Georges Tce, the entire course, the 4km start at Floreat, and the finishing precinct at City Beach). I'll need to check it in as it's delivered, then manage crews who need to put it out on course- it's VERY specific and different sponsors have different signage, then make sure all the signage is returned to me after the event. This is a HUGE task! I feel extremely privileged to be allocated this role, as they believe I am competent enough to manage it- definitely makes you feel more confident in your abilities! To be right in the action of the largest sporting event in WA gives me a real burst of excitement, as it's a lot more exposure than I ever expected.

It's nice to see what everyone else is doing and to read about their amazing placements too!

Until next time,

Sarah Ball

Bentley Campus

14262784

My Second Blog and Half Way Through

Hi all,

So this is my second blog for my placement at Corporate Sports Australia working for the Chevron City to Surf for Activ (full name). I am now half way through my internship which is super scary but super exciting! As the weeks go by, the event is getting closer and closer so there is more and more work and everyone is getting more and more excited/stressed!

My role as PR and Media assistant has let me work on a range of activities which is great! My days are never the same. Last week I got to help out on a media shoot with our media ambassadors for the event. I got to meet people in the media industry which was fantastic and hopefully very helpful in the future.

I have now been put in charge of organising the Press Conference for the event. The Press Conference will be held the Friday before the event and invites all media to interview prominent athletes and human interest athletes for the event. I have been told this event is "my baby" which is super exciting but also daunting! I feel so lucky to be able to organise and coordinate something of this magnitude especially becuase it is something that will provide me with fantastic experience for the future! Has anyone else been put in control of something like this? I would love to hear how it went!??

I hope all interns are going really well and everyone is loving there placements and learning valuable knowledge for the future!

Until next blog,

Georgia Stewart
14754951
Bentley Campus

Activ without the E

Hi everyone,

It's week four already! Assignments due, deadlines getting closer, presentations coming up...Oh how I will never miss the stress and panic of uni-life.

On a much brighter note, it's also my fourth week at my placement, Activ. I am loving my time here so far, I really feel part of the organisation, the people I work with are outgoing, friendly and always wanting to give me work to do (I'm undecided whether this because they like me or not), but it certainly is nice escape from all the uni craziness.

A quick low down on the organisation: Activ is a Western Australia's largest provider of services for people with disability the services include accommodation facilities, occupation, family support and much more, Active has been around since 1951, so for a very long time.

More info: http://www.activ.asn.au/2/2067/8/about_activ.pm

Most people (including myself, before doing research) will not have heard of Activ, or directly link Activ with the services they offer. What the organisation is often known for is being a major partner of the annual event Perth City to Surf.

Why Activ: I first was attracted to complete my placement at Activ because of the potential opportunity to be involved with some aspects of the Perth City to Surf. However, after the interview and having a talk with the communications manager, I realised the vast services and community based activities which Activ actually do. The services are helping so many that truly need it, it sounds very cliche, but they want to make a difference in people's lives. How could I not want to be part of this.

So what I thought I wanted to do within my placement quickly changed, I now am involved with a range of activities within the organisation and getting hands on experience of the communications role. So much more than I expected!

When I finish my 20 days, I hope I can come out with more skills, knowledge, experience and most importantly a bit more confidence for what I can do.

I'll be back with more updates soon! For now, hope everyone is making the most of their placement and enjoying the high and low moments. Don't worry, it's all character building!

Talk soon,
Thy :)

City to Surf anticipation

Hi All,

I am now into the third week of my internship at Corporate Sports Australia (same as Georgia who posted earlier). Basically Corporate Sports operate out of Perth and Sydney, and are the centre of several sporting events (such as the Chevron City to Surf for Activ, Freeway Bike Hike for Asthma and many rugby games), as well as being the management for many AFL players. The focus of my placement is the City to Surf, which is WA's largest community sporting event, with over 40,000 participants.

So far I am loving my placement- the people are lovely, the duties and responsibilities are diverse and interesting, and there is so much to learn and take in. Being a practical person, I've been able to put what I've learnt throughout my degree into practice through allocated jobs such as collaborating the enormous event guide which outlines every minute detail of the event (between 4 or 5 of us we're onto the 5th round of editing!!!); writing up mailers to be sent to schools in Perth and remote locations around WA to keep them up to date on events and news; sourcing accomodation for the international marathon runners; booking on course entertainment and rides and entertainment for the kids carnival at the end, and so much more!

Of course there are the tedious jobs such as answering phones, making photocopies, and responding the hundreds and neverending emails that come through. I find that although responding to common enquiries (which sometimes astound us- such as "can you tell me what date the event is?") can be a little repetitive and sometimes boring, I'm gaining a deeper understanding if the event and all the smaller details that go into producing such a massive event. As my mentor said to me, as interns we will be given prominent positions on the day as we will have great knowledge of all aspects of the event through our email reponses and phone calls- which is very true! So although these tedious jobs can be frustrating, I'm learning immense amounts.

I'm looking forward to getting further into my placement and can't wait to get more involved with his amazing event planning.

If anyone wants to have a little squiz or even sign up for the event you can visit:

http://www.perthcitytosurf.com

Sarah Ball

14262784

Bently Campus