Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Organizing appointments

Hi to all followers,

So today, my fourth blog post will about a public relation activity that has been entrusted to me for my last week at Imagine Communication. This consisted of setting up activities for a candidate at the presidential elections of next year in Madagascar, Mr Raharimanana, to introduce himself and develop a contact book in Mauritius.

Our main tasks were to organise appointments for him with political parties, the media (radio and the press) as well as with the CEOs of the main companies of the country dealing with the economy so that he could present himself along with his projects for Madagascar and the region.

Minutes of Meeting
So firstly, was the meeting with the CEO of Imagine Communication, Mr Jean-Marie Richard who explained to us the project and gives us hints about whom to contact within each organisation. Then, after the meeting, we had to prepare the minutes of meeting which means structuring and setting up all information given to us to see if we are on the right track.

Cover letter
After this, I had to prepare a draft of a cover letter that would be sent by email along with his curriculum vitae and presentation of his projects. The project executive, who was supervising our tasks, has used my cover letter partly to write the mail.

Contacting the media outlets
Then, the other day, I was responsible for contacting the media outlets and setting appointments based on the planning of Mr Raharimanana. I also had to send e-mails of the cover letter along with CV and project presentation for them to have a look at and prepare questions which would be asked to them.

Redesigning the planning
At the end of the day, I was also asked to redesign the planning in a better format for Mr Raharimanana to better understand and not be confused. So, I scheduled the planning again, adding all new appointments that we had obtained during the day and search for addresses of the offices in which he had appointments.

Attending meetings
The other day, when the appointments were already fixed; we had the opportunity to accompany Mr Raharimanana to his appointments with the leader of MSM, one of the main political parties, Mr Pravind Jugnauth, with the Lord Mayor of Port Louis Mr Kodabaccus as well as with the Communication Manager of the Government, Mr Subash Gobine. This was the most interesting part of this project and a great opportunity for us as we have been able to learn how these kinds of meetings unfold and to better understand how politics function in Mauritius.

Report of Meetings
We have also been given the opportunity to write a report to the CEO about the meetings; in there, I included what Mr Raharimanana said and what advices have been given to him by the person he met.
This project for Mr Raharimanana, as a whole was a great opportunity which has enabled us to learn how to deal and make arrangements with those three sectors to obtain appointments. It was quite successful, as we have been able to achieve about twenty appointments.

It was not an easy task but which has been very worthwhile for us. It was enormous experience which I have grasped every single procedure which will be useful for me when I will be in the professional world.

Thank you for reading my blog post and I will soon be back for another post which will be to sum up my whole experience at Imagine Communication and the lessons I have retained form these experiences.
Natacha

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Natacha,

Interesting post and a lot of paperwork i am pretty familiar with. Those tasks seem sometimes to be useless e.g meeting minutes but when the company is in charge of several accounts at the same time, it can get rather confusing and those paperwork ensure a better follow up.

Looking forward to your last post on your experiences.

Regards,
Kevin

Unknown said...

Hello,

Been there. Done that. Haha.

I guess what we as PR students do while interning are generically similar in nature. Though one thing that is slightly different may be the environment. From one post that I've read, the author mentioned that PR actually stands for personal relationship which from my point of view I totally agree. Success and failure and work doesn't only depend on your capability in accomplishing tasks assigned but more importantly is the connection and relationship that we establish with people we deal with on a daily basis. Imagine the consequences if we offended our superiors or worse the customers. Curtin should really provide internship placements for not only PR students but for all as we can only learn so much in school. Alright I think I shall stop here. If I continue on I could just ramble whole day. Lol. Thanks again for your post. : )

Unknown said...

Hello,
Thank you both of you for your comment and attention...
@Kevin:
I know, it is not fun tasks; however it is essential to manage our clients in a consultancy. It will be so confusing if these tasks are not done...
@Phebe:
Yes I agree that personal relationships are integral in PR, without networking, connections and relationships; it is hard to achieve good PR...So true!!!Thanks for raising this point

Thank you,
Natacha