Hey Everyone,
So it’s been a little while since my last blog post. I am now over half way through with my placement at Rottnest Island Authority and have been learning a lot more especially within the depth of the client/consultancy relationship.
Over the last few weeks I have had some great opportunities in helping out with their corporate events, such as business conferences that are held over on the island in the Rottnest Island Country Club. One of my visits enabled me to stay overnight on the Island with the corporate event officer, and purely my role was the follow her footsteps in maintaining the country club, and ensuring that the clients at all times were catered for and made to feel very welcome and comfortable with the services we had to offer. During this night however he did uncover a small hiccup with one of the members of the client group, as they needed to get back to their home in Perth to cater for an emergency. By this time it was already 6pm, and the last ferry off the Island left at 4.30pm, so we had to franticly call around ever service possible, including the Island rangers, water police, even helicopter services or airplane charters. After about an hour of helping this man, we were able to convince the ranger to take the man back to Perth on his boat, for a cost of $500. After being in this situation, it immediately came to my attention the need to implement more possible crisis management tools, such as non-life threatening emergency services for situations like this. Being there and able to help this man out to give him a positive result in the end, really did show to me firsthand the importance of always maintaining the client/consultancy relationship.
Overall, the conference group were very pleased with their services, and I felt extremely happy in knowing that I had played a major role in their delivery of their annual corporate function, for over 100 members of their organisation. Upon returning back to the office after this event, I was then able to suggest a possible feedback form, for groups like this organisation I had just dealt with, could provide informative feedback and possible improvements into their event experience on the Island. I was then in charge of this assignment and put together an appropriate form that is now used for every corporate event held at the Country Club.
Although my active learning on the Island with event management is amazing, the thought of beginning to write the final report almost daunts me, because I feel in some areas of my placement, I am not being taught the ‘is all and end all” of public relations practices, especially when I’m just in the Rotto office for the day helping out with call outs and mail merges.
Has anyone else that might be doing their placement within event management having issues like this?
Thanks and good luck!
Kayla Wilkie
14286535
3 comments:
Hi Kayla,
Your placements sounds really exciting, especially as I read previously you were able to sit in on the Leavers meetings, etc. I can definitely relate to the importance of the client-consultancy relationship. No matter what the situation or who the client is, they are your primary focus, and they are the reason for the consultancy existing.
Working at the City to Surf, with the fatal incident of a participant, I was able to see crisis management kick in and it really is rewarding to be able to link what we've learnt in class to real life situations. So congratulations on your success!!
I can also relate to the daunting feeling of 'that report'!! I guess it's most important to remember that although the duties you're carrying out may not have been covered in a specific PR unit, it's all valuable and just as important, if not MORE important. I just finished my placement in an events position, but through listening to conversations in the office, asking a billion questions, and watching how others in the office tackle PR jobs, you can really learn a lot and it's all things that can easily be related to the report.
Good luck with the rest of your placement and writing the report!
Sarah Ball
14262784
(Bentley)
Hi Kayla,
What a great opportunity that was, to be able to go over to Rottnest and assist with the business conference.
I absolutely agree with you on the importance of crisis communication management... regardless of how out of your hands the crisis is, it will refelct on the PR team if it's not handled correctly. Like Sarah said, it's great to be able to link what we learn in class to real life situations, and it makes me feel confident that we have the knowledge on how to deal or approach these situations (even if it takes a bit of practice!)
I feel the same way as you with my placement, in terms of not being taught all the in's and out's of PR practice. I'm doing my placement at a non for profit and there is only one marketing girl to assist me, and she has her hands full with a lot of other things so sometimes I wonder if I've been given the best opportunity for PR experience... but then I think, everything I have learnt is still valuable and will still assist me in whatever job I may get. It doesn't have to be textbook PR skills you are learning, in order for it to be useful to you. Experiencing the crisis management like you did, and assisting with the coordination of the events and effectively communicating with your clients, is all extremely important in furthering your knowledge and experience in PR. I wouldn't worry too much about it :)
Good luck with the rest of your placement!!
Yeah, writing that final report sounds like a daunting task. You have alot of things to write about! Experiencing a crisis management like you did you'll have alot to write about. I work for an events company.Not much to write about if you think about it.
About your post, it was particularly interesting thinking about crisis communication management. It is such a big part of PR. I think being able to function well in a Crisis communication management team would reflect about you. I believe you'll get to know yourself more working in a crisis communication team. Dealing and working under pressure is not something everyone can do. I do abit of behavioral studies myself. And I've profiled myself, I don't think I'll be able to function as well as you in your team.
Good luck and all the best with the rest of your placement.
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