Dog on the Catwalk?

The hard work and months of long hours, well only 5 days to go! The Perth Fashion Festival has started and it being in its' 15th year was the highlight. Bigger and better!

Now I did say I had experience doing events, but this...multiple events at one time. All the more fun and running around, to try get things done. 

Finally, I get to view my first catwalk in person. I was pretty excited. Attending to VIPs and actually envisioning what I had been working on for the past 3 months. It all made sense now. 

It was spectacular! What topped it off was a model walking a dog on the catwalk. How often do you see that happen?

Being an intern at the Perth Fashion Festival did have its' benefits. I got to attend and help out at all the events and also meet celebrities and VIPs. It was a whole new experience, that a not-so-fashionista, would be interested in attending again. 

The highlight was guiding VIPs through a back stage tour that I had put together from start to finish. I had contributed to a piece of the puzzle and was very proud that it was well executed. 

If you have the chance to attend a fashion festival, do not miss out on the opportunity. 

To walk comfortably and confidently in heels.

As the title of my blog suggest, it takes time to be comfortable and confident to walk in heels.

I would like to share with you the next few weeks of my placement. How much more confusing could the Perth Fashion Festival get?

Not being quite a fashionista and having never attended a fashion event before, I was quite over-whelemd by the intensity of how much planning and the components that went into fashion events.

I had experience doing events, but understanding how sponsorship and business development played roles in the Perth Fashion Festival was proving to be a challenge, that I aimed to overcome.

I had to start reading fashion news that was relevant to the Australian and in particularly West Australian fashion industry. It is always hard to have interest in something that you previously had minimal interest in. Over the weeks, I started becoming more familiar with local designers and their biographies. For the proposals, that I was given to work on, I had to mention them in it and I was keen to understand how the whole concept of 'marketing' a fashion festival to the corporate world worked.

I soon realised, it boiled straight down to networking. How do you attain sponsors for such a large-scaled event if you do not know people? Networking was the key and it gave these corporations a reason to network at events such as the Perth Fashion Festival. You needed the skill of being able to communicate to your potential sponsors as well. The proposal was just the beginning of a relationship that could turn into a friendship between an non-for-profit organisation and a corporation (some multi-national).

I also learned soon enough from my manager, that when given the chance to network never turn it down. It opens up a lot of doors and passages for you to build you profile. Networking is something I am interested in and will start doing more often.

I also believe, networking gives you the opportunities to build yourself as a person and when entering the working environment, it gives you options to figure out what interest you and what you are good at.

Giving connects two people, the giver and the receiver, and this connection gives birth to a new sense of belonging.      - Deepak Chopra 

Aruna Ramanathan

13847892

Curtin Bentley

Work meets fashion.

Having done work experience with a few events companies throughout my degree, I decided to look for something different and ended up securing my PR393 placement at Perth Fashion Festival (PFF).

I did not set any expectations, as I had no idea what to expect. The department I was going to be undertaking my placement in was the Business Development and Sponsorship department.

It was not a role completely involving the practice of Public Relations. However, as we know most organisation's Public Relations teams do a bit of everything. Sponsorship does fall under the Public Relations tree while Business Development was more towards the Marketing aspect, so they went hand in hand.

Front of Office

What was my first day like? I was introduced to the different departments and the people. Everyone was already busy with the festival only 3 months away. One thing that I noticed immediately was the size of the office in relative to the popularity and size of the actual Perth Fashion Festival event.

Classroom taught Public Relations, is nothing like what you do when in a working environment. However, Curtin's Public Relations modules have moulded students towards the practical work rather than just the theory. This definitely gave me the confidence to be able to go into a work environment and not feel like a complete newbie.

My manager, the Business Development and Sponsorship Coordinator, gave me a brief overview of the Perth Fashion Festival, what the Business Development and Sponsorship department did and what tasks I would be undertaking during my placement.

With that, I was given my first task of the exciting 20 days ahead and completely not what I had expected. I was given a proposal to work on and not having done that before, I was a bit hesitant about how I was going to perform at the task on hand.

However, my manager was more than willing to help including the other team member in the department. I was always able to clarify and ask and they were ever-ready to help me along this 'learning' journey.

Sponsorship proposals, were a bit tricky as the writing style had to have 'knack' in order to attain sponsors and my manager was excellent mentor, having been in different Business Development and Sponsorships roles prior to the current. I learned quite a bit on my first day, but walked out feeling like I needed another 5 weeks to get my head around the process and how that tied in with the Perth Fashion Festival.
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And indeed, I did.

Aruna Ramanathan
13847892
Curtin Bentley