Different face of PR

Well, it’s my 4^th week here and how time flies!

 

Happy New Year before and hope you guys will have such a fabulous and blessed year ahead! :D

 

So yea, reading on others experiences, I found it that my experience here is not as hectic as others. It’s more to do on the admin sites.

 

Was talking to my Manager last month and he said what makes us unique as the PR practitioners here in the company is that we have to juggle things that is totally different than what PR agencies outsides are doing.

We don’t do much of press events, we don’t do huge events and once we are doing it, it must be someone from the Government side is coming to the jobsite and so on.

 

One of the ways we establish a good relationship with the local Government is by helping them with their travel arrangements. Being in a remote area like this is totally different than being in, Jakarta for example. There are limited planes available and the price itself is an on-going competition. So there are times when the GOI staff will come and asked us to help them booked a seat for them or even give them the ticket for their work purposes. We are helping them so just in case we need to collaborate with them in the future, they will not give us a hard time. There are times when it doesn’t look like its fair but again, being in an area where our clients can be a bit too demanding and later on bring complication, sometimes we just need to gulp it and help them as much as we can.

 

PR World is not all about glam and gazillions events at once. That’s what I learn. When you are in a remote area, foreign company, high demand from indigenous people and local government staffs, things like settling down airplane tickets and fuel, go to the court for hearing, lunch or dinner with the government member and also non-stop calls from the Government institutions that have their own needs.

 

So far I have been helping in making the Guarantee Letters for the meal and accommodations for Government guests from outside of jobsite, preparing the Government Support Request form, running up and down to the Accounting Department for the Custom’s payment, and also to other departments either to get the Vice President’s approval or simply to do a double check for the timber crushing issues.

 

I also learn that for a huge company like this, it is important to separates all the departments to make it easier for the employees to focus on their work but then at the same time one can’t stand on its own. We constantly need help from other departments.

 

Can’t wait for all my supervisors come back from their vacations and follow them again according to their specific duties to learn more!

 

 

Have a great day!

 

Gabriela Teguh

LUCT