Event organisation - exciting and complex

Hi everyone,

I want to share with you my experience of event planning and have your opinions on the issue. The idea of "organising" an event triggers a feeling of excitement and ideas overflow in your mind.... "The perfect location would be like that, the theme xxx would perfectly match the concept, the decoration should be xxx colour and so on..."As communication students, all of us have done at least once through our studies, an event plan, fact sheet , check list and all other stuff that need to be done to render a perfect event. We also know that we have to attach importance to details, as with a single detail missing, the whole event can go wrong. That is what we have learnt and it is quite an "easy" task to gather ideas on a piece of paper when you are very inspired and creative.

However, when faced to the real life, it is another matter. I agree that the feeling of excitement is the same, but this time you are being tested for your capacities and your creative skills and sometimes the success of an event depends on you. The problem is that, in contrary to an assignment where it is you and yourself who gather information, create the event and give rise to it, in the company, you are a kind of subordinate who give ideas to others and sometimes you fear that your ideas are not good and would not be accepted. Sometimes, when it is an annual event or one which has already been organised before, it is difficult to change the concept and create the event you would like.

During my internship, I had the opportunity to follow 2 big events, one was the "IBL Challenge Cup" and the other the launching of a DVD on Children's rights. These were two great experience while differing in the way they are organised. Since the first event is an annual one, the event plan , check list and so on are already done and only some modifications have to be made. The process is therefore simplified and less time consuming. For the second one, which was a brand new event, I was very impatient to put in practice what I have learnt during my studies. My PR manager challenged me by letting me do the event plan and checklist myself. I must admit that we were a bit in a rush since the event was about to happen in 2 weeks time! This is where the time management skill is testes and special attention have to paid to dates in the event plan. A lot do do in a very short time! Besides working on the event plan I had to at the same time call the interested parties, that is, caterers, the venue, the decorator and so on and book them. The main issue I had was with the availability of these parties, sometimes they are not free. The logistics part of the task sometimes pose problems as well, for example you intend to receive 100 guests and only 80 seats are available, this is where alternative solutions have to quickly think about.

What is your opinion about event organisation? Do you find it as exciting as you thought it was? Or is it a complex task?

PR duties and responsibilities

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share with you my opinions about the PR job and what I noticed during my internship... I realised that to be an excellent PR practitioner, paying attention to details was very important. The thing is that those involved in this job are mainly women and I worked with two women, the PR and CSR manager and the PR coordinator... As an intern, I learned the job of the PR coordinator which is more technical/functional and at the same time the PR Manager made me aware of what her role consists of and I noticed that it was quite different from that of the coordinator, she was more concerned about the strategic aspect of PR... Hence, all the decisions about the strategies and tactics are taken by her and the coordinator does not really have a say regarding these decisions. The PR Manager admitted that each and everyone has his or her own area of expertise, for instance she is not gifted for the creative aspect of the job.

Therefore, she looked for a coordinator who had the skills that she did not have so that their jobs and tasks could really complement each other. Working with women might be really challenging and enriching in the sense that they all have the same taste for details and perfection.... My majors are PR and journalism and I did not realise so far how these two could be interrelated in the performance of duties. In the communication department where I worked, we had to do the monthly magazine IBL news and the responsibility of the latter has been delegated to me during the internship. This is where I saw the link between PR and journalism, the articles had to be written to satisfy the audience (the employees) and their areas of interest had to be analysed to offer them a interesting magazine. Facts and each and every little words have to be checked and re-checked, this is where details are becoming vital. The real challenge was that the articles written by me was not really verified by others. So I had to be very attentive while doing this task.. I learned to be self critical and accept my mistakes - this is an important quality when you are a professional.

This was also an opportunity for me to understand that PR is more than just a two-way process, we have to be more open to the public and I had to take initiatives by myself for the interviews and this is where I had to approach people coming from different backgrounds. The approach is obviously different, I have to adapt to their personalities and cultures while trying to instill a trustful relationship. This is what I have learnt through my degree and I was happy to be able to apply this in the work placement.

I think that it is a good thing that each PR representatives in a company have different skills that complement each other or else conflicts might arise.

What do you think about the different skills required to be a good PR? Do you think that a "PR" whether he/she is a manager or simply a coordinator or else have to have more or less the same skills to ensure the better functioning of the company ?

Internship in the big family of IBL

Hi everyone, I'm Martine from Charles Telfair Institute in Mauritius and I have finished my internship at IBL(Ireland Blyth Ltd) since a couple of months...

Doing my internship there was very challenging for me since it is a big company which is well reputed in Mauritius and is contributing to diverse sectors in Mauritius, including the Seafood, Pharmaceutical, Agro cultural and Electronic appliances to name a few. The company has a communication department which is found at the Head Office and the latter is specialised in public relations and CSR... This is why I found it exciting to work there, as I would not only put in practice the Public relations aspect but also learn more about CSR, helping others in difficulty and change at least one aspect of the lives of many people coming from a poor background.

As we learned through our degree, PR is really a two-way process whereby the professionals help the organisation to deal effectively with various publics and ensure a proper flow of information, but feedback from the publics is very important as well...

The main challenge I faced there was to learn about the other sectors of IBL which are concerned about very different fields. It is not like working for a small organisation where the aim and tasks of the latter are clearly defined. Therefore I spent much time doing in-depth research about the multiple sectors IBL is involved in to be able to understand how the communication department is contributing to the good functioning of the branches, which are the main "clients" of the department. Besides these clients, the department has to focus on those of the CSR part for which it is responsible as well.

Therefore, the messages we have to transmit are very different since they are directed towards two types of clients. In fact, the PR department feel very concerned about the poor and especially the children as it goes with the logo and motto of the company which is : IBL brings value to life.. and at the start of life there are children, children are those who usually bring value to life of parents and people are very sensitive to everything that relate to children, especially those in difficulty.

I was there for the start of an advertising campaign designed to change people's perceptions about IBL and help them better understand what the company caters for. I contributed by giving ideas about the messages and the use of words for the campaign... This one has been very effective and gain widespread coverage through the press and billboards. The images portrayed children (showing innocence) and they were photographed in postures that translated growth, achievement, ambition and a sense of togetherness and freshness... These in fact shows what the company is doing and its objectives. It was a 3 months campaign and each month a message was transmitted to ensure that this one stays in the mind of the receiver.

I think that it is an effective way of touching people.. the department has been deciding to play on the emotional aspect of it since emotions are what people usually remember the most... But I'm not sure about the ethical part of it... Do you think it is ethical to "use" children to attract people's attention? One of my PR lecturers told us that using children to promote a product or company was not ethical