Media Event

During my placement at Qantas Corporate Communications I was involved with the media events leading up to the 2011 Formula 1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix and was lucky enough to be flown to Melbourne for the media launch on the 2nd February.

I was responsible for some of the smaller tasks involved in putting it together and one of my responsibilities was collating an RSVP list. This was for media guests who were invited to a media even held at one of the Qantas maintenance hangars in Melbourne where we unveiled the Formula 1 branded Boeing 747 and the new Qantas ambassadors Mark Webber, Australian sporting champion, and Ashley Hart, Australian model.

I certainly learnt how tricky it can be dealing with the media at times! Many guests did not RSVP although stated on their invite that they would not be allowed to attend the event if they hadn't responded with the relevant details. This meant that on the day of the event I was left to organise security passes, security checks and briefings for those that had not replied.

I was also responsible for writing the media release, which took me quite some time to perfect before I was confident enough to give it to my supervisor. I was never really introduced to the media release guidelines to follow, rather just thrown into it, so I did the best I could.

On the day I greeted each media representative, whether from a TV network, radio station, newspaper or magazine and gave them a rundown of the rules that must be abided by when at the hangar (the event was held Airside where obviously there are many safety and security concerns!) Each guest was given a media kit that I helped put together with the team from the Australian Grand Prix and they were ready to go! There were 80 guests, and each group of 20 people as they arrived were transported to the maintenance hangar by bus. We needed to strictly adhere to the precise time schedule and ensure all guests adhered to the strict safety rules. I was responsible for checking that guests were wearing HI-VIS vests and that girls were wearing flat shoes (luckily we had spare shoes on hand!)

After my greeting duties were complete and everyone had arrived, I made my way to the maintenance hangar to watch the event unfold. The Qantas MC and TV celeb David Whitehall introduced Mark Webber, the Grand Prix branded B747 and Ashley Hart. Our CEO Alan Joyce made a speech and guests were then invited to ask questions. The event was a big publicity opportunity for Qantas to be shown as the major sponsor for the 2011 Formula 1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix, and we did this well!

I felt very priviledged to be a part of the event, and to see my hard work pay off. It was very rewarding rading parts of the media release that I had written in the next day's newspaper articles and even in our CEO's speech.