Day on a Boat

I've opted to do my work experience at Channel Nine where I’ve been employed for the past 4 years in the advertising department. Aside from the convenience, I chose 9 because I’m passionate about the brand and have aspirations to work in the Melbourne office. It’s also a very exciting time for free to air television as a whole with the changing media landscape and introduction of digital TV.

On top of my usual workload, last week I was asked to project manage an event for our ‘Nine Lives’ clients to be held on Friday 25^th March. The event was the first for 2011 so had to be glamour!

It was a boat trip to Rottnest followed by cocktails at the Old Swan brewery. We had 40 guests and 8 staff members to cater for. Invitations and RSVPs had been sorted earlier so my job was to focus on the day itself. I firstly sent out reminder emails to all our guests and follow up phone calls to make sure we didn’t have any last minute cancellations or name changes. Everything was fine although I got lots of questions about what to wear and where to park. This info was on all communications but people must have still been confused. For the next event I’m going to attach a map showing exactly where to park.

We hired a catering company called comestibles who were amazing. They sent out suggested menus and from that I chose food for the day. I then went out to visit them where I was able to sample to food and make sure we’d ordered the right quantities of everything.

Back in the office I arranged with our graphics department to design name tags for the day. Once the design was done, one of our assistants typed up the names and printed the tags out. I didn’t realise we’d run out of lanyards and plastic slips so I had to drive down to office works and grab some more (hopefully I’ll be able to expense these later..). The name tags were really important because it was the first event and many clients didn’t know each other.

The day it’s self was a great success. Everyone met at the Old Swan Brewery for a quick hello and drink. We then ushered the clients onto the boat where everyone had champagne and our Sales Director Reece Hogan welcomed the guests individually. Comestibles were great on the day serving food and drinks and ensuring everyone was ok. It allowed us to spend time mingling and entertaining clients.

We only had a couple of small hiccups throughout the day that we hadn’t planned for. The first was that one client was sea sick on the way over. She had come by herself and didn’t know anyone so was a little embarrassed. One of our staff members took her inside the cabin and sat with her for most of the day. Although this was a bit of a burden, the client was greatly appreciative and (we hope) will still think fondly of Channel Nine. The other issue was that someone fell over on the dance floor and cut their leg. Again a staff member quickly and discreetly took them inside the cabin and grabbed the first aid kit.

All in all the day worked out perfectly and we had lots of positive feedback. The only other thing left to do is collate the photos and send out a follow up email. Any positive response I get back I’ll keep on file for future newsletters. I’ll post some photos of the day on my next blog!