first seven days in the real world!

Hi all,

Starting a bit late I know, but after my first 7 days of working as part of LastSay Communications I have plenty to fill you in on. LastSay Communications is a PR firm in Leederville with over 30 clients including Rio Tinto, Alcoa Australia, Chamber of Minerals and Energy and Cameco Australia. As you can tell, their cliental are mostly resource based, but they also have other clients such as Sids and Kids and the Luke Adams Foundation.

My first day at LastSay was hugely nerve-racking. I’d been to a brief meeting at the offices a week before and everything was so professional and way out of league to anything I’d ever been involved with before. My boss Sally is incredibly friendly but you can’t help but feel intimidated around the highly successful author, mother, director, state hockey champion and manager of 2 businesses.

The team at LastSay is made of 4 girls and 2 boys, including West Coast Eagle’s Will Schofield, and were all incredibly friendly and welcoming during my first week. The atmosphere around the office is very light-hearted, with gossip and coffee breaks galore!

I would have to say that my first day at LastSay has been my favourite so far. After being seated at my own desk, I was quickly asked to write up a media release for MetroChurch. Having not written a media release since first year PR, I have to admit I thanked the lucky stars that I had brought along my notes from PR techniques. After having written the release I sent it off and was then whisked into a meeting which my boss kindly allowed me to tag along to. The meeting was with a company called ATI, a resource company. The meeting was hugely insightful and I actually found it a little amusing because the CEO was everything we’ve been warned about. He was very one minded and had a ‘no company does what we do’ attitude. The way my boss handled the situation was almost inspiring. She was so professional and managed to twist this guy’s words with hardly any effort.

Another highlight from my first week was going on a tour of the West Australian with editor Chris Manly. I was introduced to all the journalists and managed to collect enough cards to make my sad contact portfolio a little more exciting. Chris was kind enough to shout everyone a coffee and sit down with me about my studies and where I want to go to from here. I was so surprised by the West offices, I never realised how incredibly huge they were! This day was definitely a highlight from my three years of studying, it gave me even more of a drive to work with the media.

The rest of my week consisted of more media release writing and more meetings with clients. LastSay is holding an event in November for their clients which I’ve been helping them organise. I’ve also been appointed to work with a client called Women In Mining. Along with a colleague, I’ve been working on creating media hype for their one-day seminar next week. I’ve written several media releases and spent most of my days tracking down people for interviews. It’s actually been really great working on this; the relationship you create with your client in such a short time is remarkable. At the end of the week it was time to send off our releases to the media. I was so nervous about doing this, but after making my first call to The Sunday Times and hearing that they would love to write a story based on my release, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.

I also got the opportunity to have a chat to Michael Lloyd, one of Australia’s biggest event organisers. It still seems so strange to me that these people, who are so busy, have the time to talk to me.

I’ve been kept super busy throughout my first 7 days, constantly organising meetings for my boss and keeping in contact with her clients. I’m still trying to get used to receiving 30 plus emails a day concerning meetings with ministers and interviews with business people. It’s all been very full-on, but exciting, and I can’t wait to see what I’ll be up to next week. I’ve started to hugely appreciate this unit and the experience it allows us students to get a taste of the real world. I’m especially looking forward to next Friday where I’ll be attending the Women In Mining Seminar and meeting all the women that I’ve spent all week interviewing.