Internship so far...

Hey everyone :)

I'm capping off the day with my very first reflective blog entry. I am now well into my 3rd week of internship and since I'm doing my internship for the Brunei Government, I actually have to work tomorrow (Saturday).

It's been great so far, I started off being at the national television broadcast, Radio Telivisyen Brunei which is under the Prime Minister's office's jurisdiction for a week, and then got moved to the Information Department (also under the PMO).

Basically, the role of the information department is to act as a Public Relations agency for the government. They manage and overlook media centres and media conferences for almost all government ministries in Brunei and also monitor all media movement in the country.

This week has been a pretty busy week, the Asean Tourism Forum held from 21-28 January kept everyone at the office on their toes. I was assigned to help at the media centre to assisst in giving out press releases and ensure foreign media personnels were well looked after.

The preperations for the Asean Tourism Forum's media centre astounded me, we had meetings upon meetings on the logistics - "How many computers shall we set up? Should it be opened 24-hrs so foreign media can correspond easily using our facilities? How do we address 'sensitive' questions from foreign media?" and so on and so forth.

Suddenly I understand why it is important for PR practitioners to always be prepared and plan for all sorts scenarios and know how to handle them tactfully - it reflects on the organisation they represent, and what a huge responsibility this is.

Better call it a day for now, It's back to the office at 7.30am tomorrow morning... I actually look forward to my mug of hot milk coffee, flipping through newspapers to monitor news on Brunei, it's people and government in both foreign and local issues.

Goodnight fellow interns!