Hi all, its a bit late but i am making my first contribution to this blog finally!I started my placement with the WA Greens Party at Senator Scott Ludlam's office in Fremantle. I began in the first week of December 2010. I have been working 2 days a week and had a break over chistmas/new year and staying on till about February. (Photo by John Vidovich)
The first day was an induction to the procedures and administration of the office and from day one I was thrown right in the deep end, which was sooo good!! I assisted in organising two events. The first event, "Turning up the heat in 2011: Climate Change Forum", on the 8th of December, was a public event led by Senator Ludlam and other climate change experts. The second event was held on the 16th of December called "Peak oil shock", featuring Professor Kjell Aleklett, the President of the Association of the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO). For both events I learnt how event planning works in the 'real world'! I was responsible for sending out invites and recording the RSVPs, assisted in calling up journalist's to confirm media releases about the event, putting up flyers and posters around Fremantle and assisted in creating the running schedule for the day of the events.
The challenge was to fill the venue of the first event, "climate change forum", with 200 people at the Alexander State Library. A week before the event we only had 30 RSVPs, however we successfully recieved a great response of about 100 people. The evening was a success as there was alot of public debate about climate change and what action the Australian government should take to reduce carbon pollution.
The challenege was similar for the second event, but we had more time. We were amazed at the response on the night of the Peak Oil event as more people arrived than we expected. We even ran out of seats! That was pleasing, as it showed us that the public is interested in this vital issue of Peak Oil. For those of you who don't have a clue what Peak Oil is, it is when demand exceeds the supply of oil. Hence the ongoing rise in petrol prices...so we need to do something about it before world oil production peaks in the next 10 years.
My next blogs will be about a project that I started in January on Peak Oil and the impact of the Media.
I am really enjoying my time here, all the staff are easily approachable, helpful and great to work with.
2 comments:
I seem to relate very well to your event planning and your post because I have been there as well. And I must say dealing with real media and real people is a challenge because when writing a school report one can easily exaggerate but there is no place for that in the corporate world. This placement has given me light as to the aspects of event planning and the pleasure of seeing something that you have worked on much unfold into a good event and great turn up and the PR aspect of actually following up the next day as to see which media has published your event. Thank you for your post and I look forward o reading more of them. Hope you are having a good time and learning as much as you can for future.
Though I was not around during the planning of the event that I attended I still have learnt a lot. Event planning requires a strategic mind as major decisions(finances, e.t.c) has to be made, one has to know the target audience and to meet their needs which may not be easy.
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