Gregory, A. (2008) described Public Relations practice as a planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics, that is to say in Public Relations they should be that carefully thought out process. We need to plan in order to do our tasks accordingly, to fit everything in, to do them all in time in order to give ourselves space to have fun. In Botswana Power Corporation we founded it important to do/make calendar of events in January, that we are suppose to follow as Public Relations department, in order to fit in all the events that will be taking place through out the year. We wanted to ensure that everything that needs to be done is included to create space for other activities and to put us in control. It was somehow difficult as we were not really sure about other events and the venues, because it was still the beginning of the year, maybe they might be changed, but we just did it to help us in planning.
Achieving goals is what we wanted most as planning through calendar of events helped us to do each and every task according to specified time, it also helped in terms of meetings as it stated everything, the dates, places e.t.c. Planning and managing or exercising what you planned properly is exciting, they are less worries and its a creative process and can bring great satisfaction more especially if you achieve your goals.
Therefore i could say planning helps you "drive events instead of being driven by events". showing your key publics that you can plan very well and not neglecting your functions can maintain the goodwill and mutual understanding for both of you.
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Good planning always bear fruits to the organisation and its key publics. Successful events are mostly associated with good planning where everything that is much needed is brought into place before the event begins. This meant that all the media, suppliers, VIP’s to the event should know about the event well in time. When I was working in a PR Agency I realized that planning requires much time and attention so that all the key publics can be satisfied at the end of the day. What I consider a failure in planning is when all the deadlines are not met which hinders one to achieve their goals.
During the internship I remember of the bad and disastrous experience that we had because we did not plan well in time. One of our clients was launching their new restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. From the start the media were not invited in time and when we called them they told us they are busy so they can cover our event. That is when I realised that we are doomed because an event without the media is a failure. We did not invite all the VIP’s because we cannot reach them because some were out of the country or they were busy. During the day of the event we failed to bring the name tags because we thought the client has done them, and we brought the wrong set of goodie bags and the worst of them all we arrived late. It was such an embarrassment as everybody was waiting for us to come and top of that we did not bring anything positive. The client was very angry and disappointed at us. So planning ahead is very vital to avoid inconveniences.
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