First few weeks

Hi guys,

My name is Sarah Ireland and this is my first blog.

I am completing my PR Placement at a slightly unusual place but nevertheless I am quite enjoying my time here. I am working at Wesley College, a private all boys school just south of the river in Perth. I am currently looking to find work in events management, so i am working with Aleisha the Functions and Facilities Coordinator, organising functions within the school and with external parties.

Her role is to organise all functions within the school grounds. She is in charge of a bookings system and books function rooms, catering, security, maintenance and cleaning for all of the different events going on within the school. Much to my suprise there is a lot of them! Wesley not only caters for internal events (Like meetings or lunches) but also larger more elaborate events such as cocktail evenings and reunions even to weddings. Aleisha and I are currently working on creating a functions package for corporate business and also old school boys events. The school also has the facilities to hold large scale drama and other concerts, art exhibitions and business breakfasts which we will be promoting and coordinating.

On my first day Aleisha taught me how the booking system works. With near on 100 rooms it can be quite full on! I booked a few minor events (lunch meetings and morning teas) I met a lot of the staff and learned a lot about the school and its facilities.

In the afternoon the headmaster had welcome back drinks for the staff. Aleisha and I coordinated with maintenance and caterers to ensure everything was ready for the afternoon.

The next day Aleisha took me through a running sheet of a bigger event, a parents social evening and taught me a lot about liquor licencing and applying for approval.

She is very keen on helping me learn about the job and wants me to be in charge of my own event that I will completely coordinate. She also is keen to have me come in and sit down with potential clients to see how she promotes the school and its facilities, then let me do my own pitch to the next client.

I am finding work here to be quite interesting and different. It is definately teaching me a lot about events management. Suprisingly I am now looking forward to entering the workforce after clinging onto my uni lifestyle as long as possible. :) haha.

Sarah Ireland (Curtin Bently Campus)