Behind the scenes of the 2015 Perth Garden Festival!

Hi Everyone!

I'm Megan - a final semester student studying a Bachelor of Commerce with a double major in Public Relations and Event Management. This is my first blog post and I'm excited to share the experiences and challenges of my internship so far with a company called Corporate Sports Australia.

Corporate Sports Australia Logo (Source: http://www.csports.com.au/) 

In summary, Corporate Sports Australia (CSA) are an event management and corporate hospitality company who specialise in large scale participation events. The biggest event which the company manages is the Chevron City to Surf for Activ marathon series which attract over 50,000 participants state wide! I was interested in interning with this organisation because in the future I hope to build a career in the sports event management industry.

I've already done seven days with CSA and how time flies in such a busy work environment! Initially there were some big challenges in the first couple of days of my internship. My interview was conducted a couple of weeks before I actually started because the company were moving offices from the CBD to West Perth. 

Every interns worst nightmare came true when I turned up to their new offices on my first day and they had no idea I was coming! The media coordinator who I had originally interviewed with had finished her last day the day before I started, even though I had confirmed the internship details a week before! I stayed calm and luckily the other person who interviewed me remembered my face and introduced me to the new media and marketing coordinator (who's first day it was as well). After I was able to settle in I was given all the information about the event I would be working on - the 2015 Perth Garden Festival!

Perth Garden Festival Logo (Source: http://perthgardenfestival.com.au/)

This is the second year that CSA has managed the Perth Garden Festival (PGF) and after a slightly disappointing response to the 2014 festival there have been some BIG changes to this year's festival! The Perth Garden Festival, formerly known as Garden Week, has been running for 43 years and is Perth's premier horticultural event. This year the festival will be held at the picturesque location of McCallum Park in Victoria Park from April 30-May 3. The festival will feature the SunSmart Show Gardens, Bupa Garden Main Stage, Children's Education Playground as well as over 100 exhibitors offering a whole range of products and services. 

You could imagine my excitement to be working on such a large scale event! So far my responsibilities and and tasks have mostly been social media based but have included:

• Drafting and editing media releases
• Creating content for social media pages
• Posting and scheduling social media posts
• Social media monitoring and tracking for compliance with contractual agreements with suppliers, exhibitors and sponsors
• Editing and creating content for the webpage
• Contacting and liaising with exhibitors
• Sourcing media contacts
• Working with the graphic designer to create content for social media
• Printing and organising event packages and supplies

My primary role during the festival will be to effectively manage the Children's Education Playground for the duration of the event. This involves liaising with the schools who have booked excursions for the Children's Education Playground on the Thursday and Friday of the event, as well as manage the area over the weekend. I will also be involved with the social media during the event as well as have other responsibilities alongside the media coordinator.

With under two weeks until the event commences the office is extremely busy - I can't wait to share more news as the event unfolds!

Until next time,

Megan

xxx