Reality of events: My first 12 hour day

Hello! Welcome back to my blog.
For those who haven't read my previous blogs, I am interning at an events company in Northbridge, Western Australia.

I am approaching the end of my 20-day internship journey and have experienced my first full day at a conference managed by the company.

A week prior to the conference, one of the company directors emailed a run sheet with a breakdown of all the tasks required throughout the day and the interns that would be responsible for particular tasks.

I was very nervous prior to the event, particularly because I thought I would sleep through my alarm at 5AM and because one of the first tasks of the day was to welcome CEO's of oil, mining and gas companies from around the world. Never the less I arrived on time at 6AM and greeting the guests wasn't as intimidating as I had imagined.

As there were a few interns helping throughout the day, we could relieve each other and take breaks in the 'green room'. Most of our tasks consisted of directing guests on where to sit, handing out name tags, directing guests to lunch, morning and afternoon tea, assisting with mobile device application that was used throughout the conference. Most of the day guests were seated, listening to the speakers so we had very little tasks to do.

During the quieter periods of the day, the directors asked me to return calls for another event they are managing.

The conference consisted of a number of CEO's speaking, referring to videos and slide shows and interacting with the audience. There was a team of audiovisual, that had to follow along with slides, play the videos at the right time, ensure correct microphones were switched on when members of the audience spoke and to ensure the entire day ran smoothly. My director sat with the audiovisual team the entire conference to ensure that the slideshow, videos, and talks ran coherently.


It was a great experience seeing what goes on behind the scene at an all day conference. I learned that it is important to have good people skills when working in events as you have to work and collaborate with a number of people and things aren't always going to go to plan and the way you compose yourself when things take a turn for the worse is a clear representation of your professionalism.

It is also important to remain professional throughout the entire event because it may be an opportunity to network with business professionals.

Overall the event was fast paced and a good learning experience for a soon to be university graduate.

Below I've inserted a screenshot of the run sheet the interns were sent the week of the conference.