Today was the 8th
day of my internship. I actually cannot believe it, I feel like I have started
months ago. Indeed, those 8 days have been quite demanding and stressful but I have
to admit it was worth it!
During those two
and a half years at university I have learnt that to be a good PR one will have
to be versatile and often multitasking. However I never really realized how
true this was until now. I always thought that in ‘real life’, I would only be
dealing with the journalists and writing several press releases and kits, while
designers and event planners would be doing the rest. The past days proved me wrong;
I have learnt that the role of a PR is much more than that!
Sunday 1st
of August, 12 Monkeys (My organisation), organized a charity event called the ‘Charity
Run, Ride, Walk by SKC Surat’. Before the event, I wrote the media releases,
called the press and helped for the Facebook page. I thought that as a PR, my
job was done.
The track for
the races was in the sugar cane fields around the Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius
in Moka. On the day of the event, at 6:30 a.m. we went to put the markups in
the sugar cane. I came back full of mud and dust and was now posted at the
registration table as to take more candidates. At the end of the event I said
to myself, ‘maybe the person in charge of this was not here’.
On the Monday
morning, I started my PR task, which is Media clipping, when my supervisor
called everyone for a meeting. One of our clients, Permoglaze (a paint manufacturer)
was sponsoring a major sport event and needed an idea to attract people on the
day without proposing paint (as it was not really relevant). There I was, giving
ideas about how to design the Permoglaze tent! We came up with an idea of ‘photo
booth’, where the participant would be able to take a picture and print it directly.
It was a great experience to see the brainstorming during the meeting and I was
proud as one of my ideas was approved.
I spent the
whole week juggling between designing banners, newsletters, bibs for coming sport
events and Facebook pages. I am actually planning and organizing two different
event at the same time, a press conference which will be held this Tuesday and
a sport event which will be held on the 24th. In the meantime, I am
helping on photo shoots for newsletters.
To resume, it
has been 8 days, and I worked as an event organizer, a PR, a receptionist, a
designer and a photographer, all of these, in the office as well as on the
field. One might think that my supervisor
just wants me to touch a bit of everything, but this is not true as even she is
doing every single job. I thus realized that all of these forms part of a PR job.
To be a good PR,
one must be versatile, polymath and multitask!!
Isabelle
