my first event

Hope everyone is well. Study week this week so at least we can breathe a little easier, for now.

Must say, I've had an incredibly busy and tiring week. I attended my first event as a PR consultant on Friday. It was the Women In Mining Seminar held at the Hyatt Hotel. It was incredibly hectic and stressful, but so so rewarding after wards. Not too mention I got a goodie bag at the end and a delicious three course meal!

My morning started bright and early, having to be there before all the guests to make sure everything was where it had to be. My consultancy, LastSay Communications, was responsible for all the media at the event, so after spending the last few weeks persuading the media (we ended up getting the sunday times, the west australian and a few community papers involved, plus a radio interview on ABC) the day had finally come.

The event involved 500 attendees from the mining industry plus 10 or so guest speakers including last year's business women of the year and CEO of Rio Tinto. It was great to finally meet all these women as I'd made quite a good relationship with them throughout the weeks. The day kicked off with the first set of guest speakers before a morning tea break. I have to admit, I was incredibly nervous and felt quite out of place. It took me a while until I got the hang of things and started to get a bit of confidence.

Of course, the day had to start with a bit of a bump in the road with some journalists not turning up at the time they said they would. I automatically panicked thinking they weren't going to come as it was my job to get them there. Towards the middle of the day I could breathe a little easier with all the journalists there plus two photograhers that I had organised. That's not too say my job was over.

For the rest of the day I ran around making sure that all the journalists that couldn't make it were recieving a half an hour update by myself or a colleague back at the office, as well as making sure that each media release that I was shooting out throughout the day had a photo to accompany it. It felt like it was never ending and it was quite a strange feeling having so many people relying on me.

The day was a great success, and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to be involved. Being my first event I felt like I did really well. The next week is going to be quite busy, with all the follow of stories and contacting more journalists to pitch the story ideas. I feel like I learnt so much in this one day and it's something I would have never experienced without doing this work placement. It was absolutely amazing being able to experience a day of being a real consultant. I must admit, I did feel quite important!