On-Ground Exposure

For an intern, having the opportunity to grasp a hand-on practice where we can involve in an on-the-ground event, prepare all the details required for the event, and follow through on what’s happening at the event itself, is a chance that one needs to value as not every intern can have the opportunity.
Last week, my consultancy held an event for one of our clients and I had the chance to be a part of it. It was in a form of media and analyst briefing. It was held at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur where we invited media representatives and analysts/financial manager from different companies/publications to participate in the briefing. The objective of the briefing was to announce our client’s expansion and financial performance. The event was a success as many media representatives and analysts attended the function.
Before the event, I followed through the preparation that we need to tackle; all the small details such as venue arrangement, the rush for the press reservation, organizing the press kit, arrangement for the business analysts, and some other details needed. We have several people working in the team to prepare the event. We assigned each person with specific job thus made it a lot easier as we do not have to cram all the jobs single handedly. It was very systematic as my senior was able to organize it very well.
On the day of the event, we reached the hotel an hour earlier to arrange the press registration booth and the meeting hall. 30 minutes before we started the media briefing, we could see press with pen, notebooks, and camera registering and preparing their equipment inside the meeting hall. It was a relieved to see the numbers of media turned up as it meant that we have succeeded creating a mass notice about our event. After the media briefing, we escorted the media to the lunch room for some refreshment. Meanwhile, we prepared for the analyst briefing that was held in the same room as the media briefing. Many analysts turned up, registered, gave out their business cards, and sat inside the meeting hall. Both the events were very well prepared and went very smoothly.
After the event, we needed to make a report where we collected all the news that was published in the various media. Our news eventually came up in almost all of the print media, TV, radio, and online news. It was a big hit because it meant we have gained the media and public attention through this event which also meant that our consultancy had done a good job.
From this experience, I learned how to handle and organize an event from its tiny details up to its big picture. I also noticed a slight difference between media and analyst briefing. In a media briefing, journalists were required to gather as much information as possible from the speakers to create a good story for the public to read. While for the analysts, even if both of them go for similar objectives, analysts tend to look for a deeper insights and analysis beyond what was stated in the presentation rather than just note down what was said during the briefing. Their job went beyond evaluating and analyzing on the company’s outlook performance based on the current figures they have. This was the small difference that I notice and it was interesting to know such things, as I didn’t notice it before.
It was fun and exciting being able to involve in such event and being exposed to such practice. I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot from it. I look forward for more practice and experience before I end the training. So, more updates soon!