On Station Seminars

In August Channel Nine is holding educational seminars called ‘TV Works’. They’re information sessions for prospective customers who will be offered ‘one off’ deals if they attend. Last year the seminars made a huge amount of incremental revenue for the station and we’re hoping for the same result this year.

Although this is primarily a sales initiative, there’s a lot of coordination and PR efforts that go into the planning and implementation of the day. In previous years the station has hired an events planning company to do all the legs work however this year they’ve asked me to project manage the event.

Last year I helped out during the seminars but I wasn’t involved in the planning process. Unfortunately the person who did it last year is no longer with the company so it’s taken me a while to get my head around how much work is involved! The first thing I did was go through last years folder and create a list of things that needed to be done and by what date. I had to make a lot of phone calls and check with people in the PR office to see what went on last year. Our Adelaide offices run the same seminars so I’ve been in contact with them as well. Once I had a list of jobs I costed each aspect of the event to ensure we fit within the budget. The company has a strict cost recovery model so I had to speak with the sales staff to ensure the expect number of packages sold was realistic.

The Seminars require a huge effort from everyone on station. We need help from production to create an impressive show reel, engineering for audio and visual help, News to coordinate talent and use them wherever possible, admin/security to help with letting people in and out etc and sales who will be hosting the clients. My next step is to hold a meeting with the heads of department to get them excited and let them know what we’ll be doing differently this year. I’ll briefly mention the jobs/help required but go into more detail in individual meetings.

Lots to do on top of my usual workload but I’m really excited to be in charge of such an amazing event!