Professional Meetings

During my third week of internship I had the chance to accompany my colleagues in their meetings, it was a great experience, I felt more professional. One thing that I noticed is that, you can’t do this job without a valid driving license, my colleagues are always on the road between two meetings all over the island struggling with different client by trying to satisfy them.

I was quite surprised by my colleague request to accompany him because he never asked me before. It was an opportunity I could not refuse, I was very excited but stressed too because I did not know if I was dressed accordingly or if I should talk during the meeting, should I remain silent and not give my opinion or should I try?

Fortunately my colleague was here, he may be my boss and we may share only a professional relationship but I really consider him more than that, he is a mentor to me. Always there to explain to me how to do things and how to express myself professionally, I knew that he would put me in a good position and that I would not feel embarrassed.

At 10 we were already on the road to meet a famous Journalist/ Writer in Mauritius, Gilbert Ahnee, I was the one who contact him first to write the history of the RHT company, they are celebrating their 60^th anniversary and want to commemorate this event by publishing a book and I was in charge of the whole event. I was glad to meet such a great and inspiring man, he has been my best encounter so far. 

During the meeting we talked about how the book will be publish, who will publish it, his ideas about the publishing process and what RHT wants precisely in the book. Gilbert Ahnee is the kind of person with whom it is very easy to work with, what we appreciated my colleagues and I is that he will propose his ideas without forcing us to accept them, he was very professional. 

After sharing ideas and getting information we needed, we went to the RHT house to meet the CEO and share our ideas to see where he wants to go. I was impressed by his personal office and his welcome, I felt very comfortable and afterwards my colleague told me that it is often the case.

During the meeting, I realised that I had a false image of a professional meeting between clients and a PR agency; it is much more relaxed than I thought, still professional but not in a strict way, we were joking and relaxed but we did not crossed the line. The CEO asked me several questions about the development of the event as I am the one in charge of the project, fortunately I was able to reply to all of his questions and he was very satisfy about the result. That's it for me!

Thanks for reading

Anne-Laure Ferry

15886512

CTI (Mauritius)