PR within PR??

I am now halfway through my placement (Day 11 to be precise). And it's become very interesting. We are have three music festivals over three weekends. Starting this Saturday. So the office is an electric mix of excitement and stress and tension as everyone runs around like crazy trying to get it everything finished. Its very last minute, events planning. They work for MONTHS and months to plan and organise things, but then its only in the last 2 weeks that it all seems to happen. I suppose its just the tying up of all the loose ends which shapes the whole package and you can see a tangible result. Today I started thinking about what we learn at university about events planning, and what I've learned working at an events company. I was always under the impression that event management/planning was under the wide umbrella that is Public Relations. But over here at Sunset, its the opposite. Public Relations is only one part of the whole thing. An important part, no doubt, but still, only a part. Although, having said that I can see that any PR department or agency uses events as part of its overall strategy. So my conlusion is; Events can be a separate entity to PR, and it can also be a small part of PR. Which is why I think events management is so interesting. It can be as large or as small as is needed, depending on the scale of the events. This week I have been very busy with last minute details, I have done everything from design a run-sheet for the day, to spending half the day laminating (that was fun). There's a lot of sheer information which needs to be distributed to punters, staff, stakeholders and the media, and its been our job to get that out. With only one person in charge of all communications, its very very busy, but it means I get a lot of work and hands on things to do. And next week, I get to spend all day at West Coast Blues 'n' Roots helping out backstage, running the promo's and generally helping make sure the event runs smoothly. It should be amazing fun, and I will let you know how it all went!