I got the job!

The final days of my internship with Corporate Sports Australia

Reflecting back on my first day with Corporate Sports Australia (CSA) in mid March, I find it hard to believe yesterday was my twentieth and final day interning with them. To be honest with you, I can't believe that it's already June and I'm almost finished the final semester of my degree - where has all that time gone!

In the past three months I have seen my skills, confidence in my work and passion for this industry develop immensely and learnt a great deal about both myself and the workforce. I've worked in corporate environments before but it's interesting how the structure and culture of each workplace differs and how different aspects and departments work together to achieve the goals of the organisation. 

It was a great experience to be a part of the team that worked together to put on the Perth Garden Festival with great results and tremendous feedback. I have been exposed to different areas of the organisation and encountered many challenging situations where I've had to apply my personal ethics and values as well as the skills I have developed over the course of my degree to make decisions. 

In the PR and events industry I believe interning is vital to then securing a full time position. All the advertised jobs require 'a minimum of 2-3 years experience' which is difficult for a graduate new out of university. This is my third unpaid internship that I have completed, not including all of the hours I have volunteered at events to get to the position I am in at the moment. 

My advice to other students and graduates who are looking to work in this industry in the future would be:

1.  Volunteer – like I’ve said every position in the industry want candidates to have experience in the field. It also gives you a whole range of opportunities to develop your skills further and find out what aspects of the industry you really enjoy.

2.  Network – everyone keeps telling us the importance of networking and I absolutely believe that it’s helped me develop my career. Volunteering and interning is a great way to make connections with people who actually work in the industry. The majority of the positions and opportunities in this industry aren’t advertised but are filled based on who people know – so make yourself known! Linkedin is a great (and free) tool to meet other professionals. Also groups and organisations such as PRSC and PRIA have great social events to network and meet like minded individuals.

3.  Every experience is a good experience – I truly believe in this statement when applying it to your career and work experience. I’m not saying every experience will be an enjoyable experience because it won’t be. I’ve done plenty of volunteer roles that I haven’t enjoyed at all, but this has taught me that I don’t want to work in those positions in my career – better to find out now in a volunteer role than when a company is dependent on me.

4. Attitude is everything – how many PR and events graduates are there every semester? And how are they different from you? Attitude can be everything, use it to your advantage to differentiate yourself from your peers. Have a good attitude and work ethic and people will start to notice you and how hard you are working. PR isn’t a huge industry in WA and if you get a bad reputation from one employer it may affect the rest of your career in Perth.

All of my hard work over the past years paid off when the Marketing Manager of CSA and Event Manager of the City to Surf took me out for coffee and offered me a full time contract working on the City to Surf WA series! I couldn’t be more excited and although it’s only a three month contract, it’s my first paid experience for my degree! 

My job title is Event Services Manager and will involve liaising between sponsors, participants and teams to make sure all stakeholders of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ have a pleasant experience throughout the entire event experience.

I’ve had a great time reading about everyone’s experiences in their internships and I wish you all the best of luck for the future! Connect with me on Linkedin so we can stay in touch!

All the best,

Megan

You can't control Mother Nature!

Contingency planning in event management

Hi there,

I hope everyone is going well with their internships, I'm definitely feeling the stress of end of semester. How is everyone’s progress with your internship report?

In my last blog post I reflected on the role PR had in the promotion and communication of the 2015 Perth Garden Festival event. I also mentioned that I would be working on another event that Corporate Sports Australia (CSA) have been contracted to operate – The Big Campout. Unfortunately the event had to be postponed as it was scheduled to be held outdoors at the WACA during the previous weekend’s treacherous weather conditions.

After some debate about whether the event should go forward, the Event Director made the executive decision based on the information we had with weather forecasts to postpone the event. As the event is owned by a NFP foundation called The Fathering Project, the purpose of the event was for fathers to connect with their children by camping overnight on the prestigious WACA ground. The cricket ground provides little shelter for weather and as dangerous weather warnings were issued, the team at CSA absolutely saw the need to reschedule the event for a later date, benefiting all stakeholders.

The decision was made only three days before the event was set to take place which presented CSA with the issue of ensuring that all ticket holders were notified about the cancellation of the event on that weekend. As the event had to be rescheduled due to unforseen weather conditions, ticketholders have been given the option to request a full refund of the ticket purchase or use the ticket later at the rescheduled event for which the date has yet to be set.

We were able to utilise their electronic database to issue a newsletter/eDM (electronic/email Direct Marketing) communicating the changes of the event information. As we were also concerned with the timing of the cancellation, I was responsible for sending SMS messages to all ticket purchasers, further informing them of the changes.

The communication of the message was successful as no ticketholders went to the venue on the original scheduled day of the event. CSA now have the challenge of liaising with WACA representatives to organise another appropriate time to hold the event and then once again make contact with ticketholders to notify them of the updated event time.

Moving forward, I have only two days left of my internship - I can’t believe how fast time has gone! Working mainly on the communication in relation to events, I have been busy assisting with the creation of the post event report for the Perth Garden Festival which will be released shortly. The report analyses all aspects of the event to determine the success of the event measured against the key goals and outcomes determined in the early planning stages of the event. Sponsors are particularly interested in this information to determine their return on investment.

For the remainder of my internship my role will now be centralised around preparation for the upcoming Chevron City to Surf to Activ marathon series – CSA’s largest events. I have been working with the marketing and media coordinator to map out the public relations and marketing timeline, as well as reviewing the many sponsorship contracts to ensure all the agreed communication terms are met.

If anyone has any friends who are completing the PR Internship unit next semester, CSA are currently looking for six interns to work exclusively on the City to Surf. I can absolutely recommend this organisation for completing an internship – I have learnt so much from them and my experience has been invaluable. For more information comment below, or you can view the official advertisement here through Curtin CareerHub.

Wishing everyone luck with their reports and end of semester – we’re nearly there!

Until next time,

Megan

Generating PR for Events

Public Relations and Publicity at the 2015 Perth Garden Festival

The Perth Garden Festival is owned by the Nursery & Garden Industry Western Australia (NGIWA) and Corporate Sports Australia have been contracted to organise and operate the event for the past two years. The budget for the advertising of the event was minimal so public relations played an important role in ensuring the public and target audience were aware of the event and were communicated adequate information. 

The event partnered with The Sunday Times/PerthNow as the major media sponsor and this played an integral role in advertising the event. A seven page lift-out was published in The Sunday Times the weekend prior to the event as well as an online article that was featured two weeks before the event on PerthNow. The Perth Garden Festival also secured coverage with The West Australian when Sabrina Hahn, one of the key presenters at the festival, published an article online (Yahoo). Please see below for media clippings.

The event relied heavily on social media to engage with the target audience, as well as second hand advertising through exhibitors. All the exhibitors were sent event posters in their exhibitor packs and were encouraged to engaged with their customers to promote people to come and visit their stalls during the festival.

Throughout the duration of the event, horticultural experts featured in seminars presented to patrons at the Bupa Main Stage. Gardening personalities such as Sabrina Hahn generated media coverage through her work with ABC 720 Perth and The West Australian.

Thanks to Singapore Airlines and Pan Pacific Singapore, Mix 94.5 came on board to run “Kymba’s Ultimate Garden Giveaway” competition where listeners could win a trip to Singapore while also giving out free passes to the Perth Garden Festival. People who had already purchased online tickets to the PGF could enter their ticket bar codes to get two entries into the draw. Mix 94.5 was also featured throughout the festival as their live radio broadcast was played through the festival speakers.

The Media Coordinator secured two TV segments with Channel 9 Perth’s Today Show as Lisa Fernandez came down on the Friday morning of the event to interview exhibitors and showcase the festival.. This was a great achievement for the event considering the limited formal advertising that was undertaken. One of the segments is added below and if interested the second segment can be viewed here.

Sponsorship and obtaining event partners were vital to the advertisement and communication of the event to the target audience. Public relations and event management are two professions that overlap and work closely together to achieve the set outcomes of the event. PR is an important aspect of any event, and can contribute to the overall success of the event itself. 

I'm now reaching the final days of my internship with Corporate Sports Australia and the final project I will be working on will be and event called The Big Campout which is on this weekend (16th-17th May) at the WACA in the CBD. I look forward to sharing more experience with you as I'm involved in a different style of event. For more information about The Big Campout please visit their website The Big Campout

Until next time,

Megan 

x

And that's a wrap!

The 2015 Perth Garden Festival

What a whirlwind the past two weeks have been! The event I have been working on since I started my internship with Corporate Sports Australia was held over the weekend and there are so many experiences to share.

In my last post I introduced you to my internship and the event I would be primarily working on; The Perth Garden Festival. It was interesting to see how the event came together over time and how the different professions in the workplace contributed to the planning and execution of the event itself.

As an intern I am working underneath the media coordinator but also alongside the event operations team so my role so far has been a mix of event management, public relations, sales and marketing.

As I mentioned in my first blog post, my responsibility for the duration of the event was to organise and manage the Children’s Education Playground, supported by Lotterywest. My role up until the event commenced was revolved around social media but I was also responsible for booking primary school excursions for the Thursday and Friday of the event which was a daunting task.

With only two weeks until the event commenced, it was a challenge to book schools into the remaining sessions due to the short notice and time restraints of organising transport. As the area was sponsored by Lotterywest, it was very important that all the sessions were booked to comply with the requirements of the Lotterywest grant. Finally, after several discussions with a Principal I was able to secure a local primary school into all remaining excursion sessions - a huge relief to the event director and a great triumph for me!

Photo of the Lotterywest Children's Educational Playground

All that was left to organise for the Children’s area was the timetable and confirm the facilitators for the activities that the schools would be working through. By this time I was well trained to speaking professionally on the phone. During the school excursions, the primary school kids were working through workshops with the Water Corporation, Earthwise and Joy of Wood while Kindergarten kids had a presentation by Scitech and activities with Remida. On the weekend we had gnome painting, the Swan Valley Cuddly Animal Farm, Scitech, Remida and Eco Faeries to entertain the children. 

Gnome Painting (Photo courtesy from Perth Garden Festival Facebook) 

Cuddly Animal Farm (Photo courtesy from Perth Garden Festival Facebook) 

School Excursion Earthwise Workshop (Photo courtesy from Perth Garden Festival Facebook) 

The day before the event started the office was chaos as I was taken to site to assist the event operations team with set up and to ensure that everything was prepared ahead of the opening day. The not-so-glamorous side of event management that everyone has been telling us about was evident with manual labour required to make sure everything was ready for the next day!

The next four days of the event flew past with early mornings and late finishes as I worked through many challenges with the schools on the Thursday and Friday of the event, and the general public over the weekend.

After the company received disappointing feedback after the 2014 festival, it was great to hear that patrons really enjoyed the 2015 festival and responded positively to the changes that were made. I felt so proud to have been a part of creating the experiences that people had while they were at the festival. It helped me understand that this is the industry I want to work in, knowing that it was an accomplishment to me because I was a small part of that process.

After five full on days working the event I am exhausted but really happy and proud of the work we achieved!

I’m planning another post centralised around the media at the event and the role public relations played so stay posted!

Until next time,
Megan

xxx

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