Week one: Success!

Hi everyone! I am currently entering the second week of my PR internship at Cannings Purple, located in West Perth. 

On my first day, I arrived at the office at 8.20am, surprisingly feeling much more relaxed than I had anticipated. As I walked into the office I introduced myself to one of the colleagues I recognised from my interview a few months prior. She gave me a tour of the office and pointed out what the different areas were and who worked in which department. I was introduced to a number of people and was greeted with a warm welcome from everyone who passed me in the office.

At 9.00am, the office has a daily meeting which they call WTF, or What’s the Focus. These meetings are designed to keep everyone informed of the daily activities occurring in the office, and give people a chance to put their hand up for extra work when they have capacity. The meetings are usually quite short, but there is always some form of banter going on between everyone and a lot of laughter. I think the meetings are a great idea, as they not only keep everyone up-to-date, but they also get the energy of the office up and create a happy environment for everyone to begin their day.

Once the meeting was finished, I had a brief chat with one of the executives to discuss what I would do on my first day. She directed me towards the Investor Relations area, and from there I was given a research project on dysprosium, a rare earth element that is predominantly mined in China. The reason for this research was to gain an understanding on the future outlook for dysprosium in order to give advice to investors on whether they should invest in a client called Northern Minerals. Northern Minerals is a mining company that is currently set up in the Northern Territory who are the first mining company in Australia to mine the rare earth element. My research for this project is still underway, however I have definitely learnt a lot from it, as it has not only broadened my understanding of the element and its uses, but also on how to conduct effective research. I found this task very interesting, as I discovered that dysprosium is a material used in many sustainable energy innovations, such as electric vehicles and wind turbines. As sustainability is an area I am very interested in and hope to end up working in, I found the content that I researched very valuable to learn. 

I was then given my second task for the day, in the area of Corporate Affairs. This task involved generating social media content for a client called Business Foundations. I produced a total of 18 Facebook posts and 18 Twitter posts on a variety of subjects regarding the company and their service offerings. My supervisor was very pleased with my work, which was a big confidence boost!

My second day was very similar and just carried on completing both tasks from the day before. On day three I was given a new task that required urgent research for a client called Landscorp. I was instructed to gather information such as population and economic data for various WA towns. The information needed to be sourced from credible sites and completed by that afternoon. Finding population size and demographics was quite easy, as I gathered most of this information from the ABS website. However I was surprised to find that the most recent data was taken from 2014, and even then majority of the information I needed was from 2011. I began to stress that the client would not be pleased with these outdated results. From there I became more stressed when trying to find information regarding any major projects occurring in the area and really struggled when it came to some of the less well-known areas. Thankfully I sent a draft copy to my supervisor of the work I’d already completed and was told I was on the right track and to continue doing what I was doing. That was a major relief and suddenly the task was much easier to do.

After completing my first week I can definitely say I am looking forward to graduating university and entering the workforce! I know that this internship will be a valuable learning asset towards my career and I am very excited for the days ahead! 

Things Nobody Tells You

Hello fellow bloggers!

Since the last couple of blogs, I realised that it's been quiet here at Momentum Forum Events. Maybe because there are more admin tasks to complete before our next event, rather doing the type of work you’d expect to be doing in a consultancy, or because Barbara has gone to Europe on a treasure hunt, yet it got me thinking; is there more to it?

Doing another internship outside of uni at a boutique consultancy is giving me more depth of knowledge in terms of what PR encompasses; and there’s always a lot to learn. This seems like an open-ended question, and I don’t know about you all, but do you have some days which don’t seem very eventful and make you feel like you’re not really learning much?
Whichever way it’s going, here are some things I’ve picked up along the way; and things that nobody tells you... 

Who’s Calling?
Dealing with clients and potential exhibitors for events over the phone requires some self-assurance and a call strategy. No-one tells you how to get either. You either naturally have this gift or you fake it until you make it. Another thing you might notice is how easy it is being ‘blown off’ on the phone, so getting your message across in the most effective way is very important. One of the things I’ve learnt is not to say ‘just’ when you’re explaining from where you’re calling from. I know this one can seem like a tough habit to break; so many of us just like to use that word so much! 

Monkey See, Monkey Do
There are many programs which can create just the right content for distribution, such as newsletters for example. Mail Chimp is the one that we use here at Momentum, and although it is relatively easy and straightforward to operate, patience will be your friend when playing around with resizing the sponsors’ logos to make them all fit nicely together. It’s one of those fiddly tasks that you could spend ages on. 

One of my co-workers, who is great to learn from and work with, gave me a tutorial on how to wrangle the Mail Chimp, and then I had a go on my own for a little bit. You learn by observations, but you also learn by doing things yourself; and to be honest, I think you learn much better and effectively when you apply your knowledge and build on it through trial and error. That’s why I thought I would be creating this newsletter and take the time to do it on my own. Sure, having templates makes it easier to visualise where certain elements should be positioned, yet the creative side of doing such things, is what keeps this experience interesting.

The Iceberg Effect
You get days that are quiet and then you get days that productively busy; and at first I didn’t know what to make of those days that seemed to go by quickly yet, when I thought back on what I achieved during the day, I realised that there was no decisive goal to be reached or deadline to meet. Maybe it’s just the calm before the storm. At times things are not as exciting as they may seem, interning at an events management business, because the funny reality is that everything happens before the big day; all the preparation to make an event what it is on the day that others don't get to see from the outside. I like to call this the iceberg effect: 

You're Not a Robot

Working in an office environment there will always be lots of work to do. Sometime's you're lucky if you remember to take your lunch, even if you eat at the desk (you can say it's more efficient that way). Here in the office, however, the mind drifts and wanders, until you notice once again that there are no windows here. Since my first days at Momentum, I've been blessed with people who annoyingly remind me to go outside and take a break; "you're not a robot". In previous jobs I've been allowing myself to miss the fresh air and sunshine, but now decided to take the advice of seasoned pros; take a break. 

I think that maybe other interns would know this feeling too; not wanting to take too many breaks away from the desk as not to seem disinterested with the work that's to be done. We all really want to make the best out of these experiences and show that we are capable to handle all types of responsibilities. Let me know if you're also a self-admitted 'busy bee'!

 

Lunch-time landscapes

The ups, the downs, the compliments and the critiques of the The International Cheese Awards

If you have been following my blog of my internship in London, you will know I have mentioned my work on the lead up to The International Cheese Awards in Nantwich which is located a few hours drive north-west of London. I did not get to attend the show myself unfortunately but the feedback I got back was very helpful indeed.


The show was a great success, it was a busy and fast paced two day show, however like most things in life it needs major evaluating! This years show was the 118th event in the town of Nantwich so it already has a good background and history. The show was run over two days Tuesday the 26th of July and Wednesday the 27th. The first day was Trade Day for businesses looking to sell their products and the 27th was open to the public.



 I found that it does seem that the interest in the show is declining by the media and public interest. As I was monitoring the posts on social media, I noticed on the lead up to the event that there were was not that much attention based on comments and likes on posts on a variety of social media platforms, which I thought was strange, as the event is supposed to be huge, plus there are many, many people out there that love cheese. I also think that there is much more communication efforts, techniques and strategies that are needed for the show in that when I contacted bloggers and magazines not many were familiar of when or where the show even was or what it involved (so that definitely lacks in communicative abilities by the event management of the show). However the media that I had contacted and told me they were attending came to the clients stand and got their goodie-bags and got to know the product. My manager also got a potential grocery store interested in the product however after delivering her pitch to them the week after did not go so well. (They were unhappy with pricing and some products etc).



I found that a lot of bloggers and media that did attend the show in previous years couldn't attend the show for reasons beyond control or had other commitments so maybe it was just quieter in terms of other events happening or maybe the event management and PR decided to cut back on event publicity this year overall. So to gain some more online feedback for our client I got in contact with two foodie bloggers (out of like 20 that I had tried). I sent them a cute little sample bag so that they could try them before the show and add to some of their cooking to post on social media.


So check out Taste Today's Instagram as she has produced some recipes from our clients cheese.
And if you're a cheese lover check out the ICA twitter for all the postings from all of the different dairy and cheese brands! It was a pleasure to be working on food brands!


As the work for the Clear Group has been a mixture of intensive non-stop work and also quieter days my experience gained from the company has been extremely eye-opening. Public relations is a really fun, exciting industry to work in, maybe it was just the environment I was working in, I even found the slower, more admin type jobs enjoyable that most others would think are boring, such as looking into mistakes on the clients webpage, as my manager said to me that their page once misspelled cheese, which surprised me, however being from an Eastern European background it was a mistake that could definitely happen. And of course the lots of researching I was required to do, it made the days go really fast but I did enjoy every single one of those days I was working for CG.


On my farewell, I knew that both the directors enjoyed their share of chocolates (as well as tea and coffee) so I went out and purchased some nice chocolates for them all and the directors got me a gift in return for my efforts, they are happy to all be a reference for work purposes for me and are very kind and caring people, I will always look back on this internship as a choice I will never forget.


Thanks for reading!


Jessica Abberton

Becoming a guru in 45 minutes – adapting your research and writing skills to connect with your client’s publics.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts and as I’m sure you’re all familiar with, working in PR can mean creating a run-of-the-mill media release one second to running around town to find a unique place-setting for an event the next; the work is ever-changing and one has to adjust quickly. Essentially, you are an octopus trying to pull together your resources and knowledge to satisfy client demands in a timely and satisfactory manner. This particularly rings true when you’re trying to reach out to people on a topic you yourself are not familiar with.

I’ve found the topics and clients I write for at GO vary greatly. Being a consultancy that aims to cover all bases of PR (issues management, CSR, rebranding, events etc), the scope of our clients was understandably broad. The diversity of clients meant I had to change my writing skills to suit their company profile and stakeholders (e.g. corporate, conversational, critical etc) as well as often having to become well-versed and knowledgeable in their core competencies and the messages they wanted to communicate.

In my first major writing piece, I had to write an article about cyber-security that would be sent out to thousands of clients in an e-newsletter. The company dealt primarily with complex computer software, but periodically wanted to send out updates in laymen’s terms so their clients could stay up-to-date and the client would remain relevant in their customers’ minds. 

My supervisor asked me to have the piece researched and written, and sent back to her in an hour. Eep. Not only am I a complete noob in anything beyond Microsoft Office, I wanted to prove my worth in my first major output so I would continue to receive writing work. My mind flickers to the Albert Einstein quote:

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”

To apply this to the piece that lay in front of me, I spent the next 45 minutes researching current cyber-security threats and risks to the average user. Four years at uni and countless research assignments have taught me how to filter through the unnecessary information and how to highlight what is actually relevant to one’s needs. The foundational PR classes that really honed in on the basic tenets of writing and tried to nurture our transcribing skills also gave me a confidence boost; I could interpret my findings to suit the necessary context and power out a report in 15 minutes. N.B. I’m also convinced Malaysian Red Bull is considerably stronger!

I initially felt somewhat hypocritical giving advice to customers on a subject I am completely unfamiliar with, however I was reassured when my supervisor and the client came back happy. The basis for the recommendations were of course of upmost importance, but being able to translate the information to a language which the targeted public would understand and respond to is one of the most challenging and enjoyable doctrines of PR.

It has been a whirlwind four weeks; in between working 9+ hour days, pushing my writing and creative skills, and experiencing first-hand the ups and downs of working in a consultancy, Hannah and I also tried to squeeze in as much as we could into the rest of our Malaysia experience. Weekends were spent in Highlands clinging to dear life as we faced impending doom in a skylift (or at least that’s what it felt like), tasting the most amazing cuisines that emerged from the unification of three distinct but cohesive cultures, and hanging out in one of the coolest, culturally rich cities I’ve ever been to. 

I hope you’ve all enjoyed your internships as much as I did mine and I wish you all the best with your future endeavours.

Until next time!