Yoga...Ordering foosball tables...Finding interstate flights...Facebooking...And now blogging!
In one day at Sunset Events all that has happened and more. I had such an exciting day and looking back on it, what made it exciting was the variety of jobs I did and how accomplished I felt.
It was my fifth day at Sunset and a significant one because I feel like my internship kicked off on this day! I am gradually starting to find my way around the busy hub where some of the best festivals in WA are born, and am thoroughly enjoying it.
I'm now used to the quirky, friendly Sunset staff walking around the little Freo shed barefoot with coffee and funny stories and enjoy listening to music and Janelle (the communications manager and my supervisor) having lengthy conversations with herself each day! I am often bewildered how the Sunset team manages to keep their good humour under so much pressure, definitely an admirable trait I would like to have in my future career!
Day five kicked off with media monitoring, online and in the latest editions of the Drum and Xpress magazine then it was time for Wednesday's yoga session. This was my first yoga experience and I'm hooked already. I almost fell asleep if I hadn't been woken by the yoga instructor's soothing voice.
The afternoon's activities consisted of:
• Finding flight options for Channel V crew to come over to Southbound for their segment on following artists around
• Organising a foosball table for Southbound
• Updating website copy for Southbound via website company
• Checking festival websites for errors or incorrect links
• Drafting a media release for the Laneway festival
• Downloading and saving photos from Stereosonic to the Sunset server
• Adding paid advertising to Janelle's marketing megasheet in Excel
• More media monitoring
• Creating a new album on the West Coast Blues 'n' Roots Facebook page and adding in all the professional photos of each artist in the lineup
So, without going into too much detail- it was a pretty productive day! Stereosonic kicked off the festival season on Sunday and so I can tell it is going to be so busy from now on! I'm really glad I'm doing my internship in this time period though because I think I'll get a really good insight into the events industry and all the public relations activities involved in the peak season for Sunset Events.
Will see what's in store over the coming weeks! Am interested to hear about what everyone else is doing in the world of PR internships!
Lisa
3 comments:
Hi Lisa,
Your placement sounds amazing! You have performed such an array of tasks in such a short amount of time. I have just finished my third week at Professional Public Relations and I am also finding there is a large diverse amount of tasks someone can perform in a public relations role. We are the handy-mans of the corporate world! I am slightly jealous of how hands on your placement has been. Even though Sunset Events is a huge organisation you have been able to perform interesting tasks such as drafting media releases and organising flights for the Channel V team to come to Southbound. The music industry is a great place to gain experience as you are always looking artists and bands as well as coordinating events and tours. You will be an event queen before you know it.
You have been working with website design and update during the first week of your placement. I find it interesting that a website is such a key element to the image and interact a company has with its stakeholders, however as students we are not taught about website development or design – even at the simplest level. I have had some experience with website design but this has been outside of university. Website design and update will be a great skill to have as a public relations professional.
I have also been assisting with a lot of media monitoring which I have grown to like as I have a better concept of the whole media cycle in public relations. From creating connections in the media to drafting media releases to finally having a media release published – this is quite an achievement. This is why I think it is so vital for organisations to complete media monitoring so they can better understand just how well they are communicating organisational messages to key stakeholders. As well as how much the organisation has managed to save in advertising dollars. This will also be a great skill to carry on into our careers as public relations practitioners.
I think I may need to start doing some yoga – all this time sitting at a desk has really made my muscles tense!
Good luck with your placement and completing your degree.
Best Wishes,
Deanne
Bentley Campus
Hi Lisa,
I agree with Deanne, your placement does sound amazing! I too am a little jealous, although I have been enjoying my placement thoroughly!
I agree Deanne, it is interesting that website management/design does not constitute part of a public relations (or even commerce) degree, yet it is almost inevitable that you will need these skills as a public relations professional in the industry! I think this is something that needs to be assessed at Curtin Business School at some point.
On another note, I was wondering about the type of clients your company caters to; are they mainly music festivals and similar events or any type of client that wishes to hire their services?
Enjoy the rest of your placement!
- Carmen
Hi Deanne and Carmen,
Thank you so much for the comments, it's so great hearing what other people are doing and what different placements involve.
I was wondering what a placement at Professional PR would be like Deanne! Where are you doing your placement Carmen? That's good you're enjoying it!
One thing I do wonder about is how much strategic work other students are doing as part of their internship because so far I haven't really contributed on that side of things. Have you done anything strategic in your placements Deanne and Carmen?
Deanne your placement sounds great, I agree media monitoring is so important! Well done on having your media release published! What was the media release about? What's it like working for a consultancy? Do you have a huge variety of clients? I'd love to know what a consultancy is like and how you manage the different clients' needs. And Deanne, I definitely recommend yoga to destress- I am converted!
When did you both begin your placements? What have your favourite tasks been?
I definitely agree, website design is important- I wish I knew alot more about it and it would have been great to do a crash course on it. I've realised how important social media and using the internet is through doing this placement, it really is essential to be an efficient web user in modern day public relations!
Great to hear from you, hope you both keep enjoying your placements and have a merry Christmas!
All the best,
Lisa
Post a Comment