No time for the office- it's all about events!

This week has been all about the big, exciting world of events! From day one, a daily task has been to make media calls in order to attain a forecast of attendance on behalf of media outlets to the events. Note, this has been a daily task as it is often only by a stroke of luck that I was either able to speak to a representative of the publication, or gain a confirmative answer after just one phone call. I found this task to be very interesting, as I was given a list of English, Malay and Chinese publications to chase up, which opened my eyes to the variations in cultures with small things such as phone manner and times deemed appropriate to call. 

 

Two client events fell on the same day, so I was lucky enough to be able to attend and assist at both. The day before the events, our team met around the boardroom table to run through the ins and outs of the day. First we were briefed on event one, a ‘Celebrity Dare Challenge’ for the client Sunway Lagoon, a major theme park within Kuala Lumpur (KL). This event was coordinated to promote the recent opening of a new waterslide (the world’s largest water ride I might add), utilising celebrities of the region to ‘take the plunge’ in the name of charity. During the briefing I was allocated the role of ‘Celebrity usher’ for the event- a job that I was eager to undertake. However, it quickly dawned on me that I was completely unfamiliar with the celebrities of the region, and would have to teach myself names and faces of over twenty individuals in less than 24 hours- yikes! Concluding the meeting agenda was a further briefing about the second event of the day, being ‘Fitness FX’ on behalf of our client Celebrity Fitness. 

 Celebrities after taking the Vuvuzela plunge


The day arrived, and it was full steam ahead from the get go! After a quick tour of the venue and briefing informing us of the projected sequence of events, it was time for the real deal. Once the celebrities arrived my job was to accompany them with each movement of the event, including: initial speeches; photo opportunity position; the plunge and concluding lunch. Before I knew it the event was drawing to an end, thankfully with no major hiccups along the way.



RedFm DJ Fiqrie and I after the event 


Now it was time for the second event of the day, Celebrity FX. Along with a fellow intern, I was provided the role of media liaison. This required me to greet the media upon arrival, register attendance and warmly hand over the media kit for the event. With the intention of promoting a new fitness class within the gym, the event prompted the media representatives to get involved with the class as a way of gaining a deeper insight, to detract from the perception of it being ‘just another craze’. A lot of the media representatives were reluctant and preferred to observe from the side line, so I was instructed to mingle with them and make them feel comfortable. The importance of this role was quickly noted, as I was asked by numerous journalists to set up an interview as a means of gaining more information regarding the event. Without this, they may not have had the depth of information or potential interest to write a follow-up article in their respective publications. 



All in all, the day was a great experience! It opened my eyes to the excitement and fun of events, whilst also being a learning exercise informing me of the extent of preparation that happens behind the scenes (often months of work). I was still buzzing from the exhilaration of the day hours after it concluded, but I definitely crashed once the adrenaline wore off!

I am now officially half way through my internship here in Malaysia- time has flown by! I can’t wait to see what the next two weeks have on offer.