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.

Conferences not an easy task!!

Hi everyone,

Today I will talk about organising a conference. During my place I have the chances to participate to a press conference and to experience the works linked to the organisation of an event.

The journalists were invited to make a media coverage as it was for the Omnicane Republic Cup 2015 and it was something quite important for the client. My task was to call each journalist a day before the event in order to confirm whether they got their invitations and also ask them if they will attend the conference. This task was time consuming as I must called at least 20 media outlets, talk to each journalist and in the case they did not receive their invitation, send another one and later call them to confirm if they received the latter and see whether they are attending the event or not. 

On the day of the press conference, my tasks was to  make sure that the media kits are up to the standards and to check whether there are no missing document. When the journalists arrived I had to fulfilled the list of attendance, show them where the conference room is and give them the media kits before the beginning of the conference and fulfilled their needs. During the latter, I must take notes of the speech, the persons present and their interest in the new agreement and the features for the Cup.

Journalists waiting for the beginning of the conference

After the conference I must write a debriefing of the event with the notes taken and also monitor a media clipping about the conference in all the media outlet in order to know how the conference is describe, its impact in terms of visibility for both the cup and for the client’s company.

In theory, press conference seems to have a lot of work but in practice, there is a lot of work which must be done precisely so that such event do not fail to deliver its final massage. Precision is very important and each PR practitioner should be able to deal with it wherever there is a lot of stress behind so that there is no negative impact from the journalists or from the client himself.

So much work for only 30 minutes of a conference.

Thank you for reading

Cedric

The Joys of Networking – When Sugar Connects People

Hello everyone.

This was by far my favourite week as an intern. I attended my very first international conference and it was great. I must admit that I did have apprehensions at first. I knew very well that I’d be the youngest person there and it tends to be a little (or VERY) awkward. Moreover, as mentioned in my previous blog post, the International AVH Symposium gathered businessmen and researchers who work in the sugar industry and who met in order to contribute to the advancement of the knowledge on sugar. I clearly felt out of place, especially when the researchers started to give lectures about the performance of sugar factories and refineries, with all the technical terms and mathematical formulae.

Mr John Field, Senior Technical Director at Carbo UA International, making a speech on "Energy Management in Cane Sugar Factories".

However, I had a rich learning experience by observing how the setup of the event was done and what needed to be done throughout the conference. It made me realise to what extent Public Relations involved doing a bit of everything; taking photographs, acting as Master of Ceremony, and so on. For my part, I assisted with the registration before the conference took place and it was actually a great way to make first contact and a good first impression. 

The registration point in front of the conference room at Holiday Inn Hotel.

Even if the conference was for people who had interests that were different from mine, I nevertheless took this opportunity for networking at the dining buffets and during the visit to the Omnicane Refinery, called La Baraque. It turns out that the people coming from different parts of the world were actually keen to know more about me and what I was doing at Omnicane. It was also an occasion to share our mutual experience and to discover more about the lifestyle in our respective countries. Many of them also had a good sense of humour and these people actually contributed to the fact that my experience at the conference was much more interesting than what I had initially thought. 

Omnicane's sugar mill at La Baraque.

One of Omnicane's employees showing samples of molasses, vinasse, and neutral alcohol at La Baraque.  

Dear PR students, please click here for a few networking tips.

One of the men whom I talked to worked in the Public Relations sector and he told me that his organisation was currently facing a crisis. He asked for advice and I was thus able to show my knowledge by telling him the Dos and Don’ts which were so often repeated by our lecturer. For example, “Do not downplay the issues”, “Never say ‘no comment’” and “Organise a media conference”. (Click here for a few other Dont's in a crisis situation). We exchanged a lot and I realised, more than ever, that the different PR units will greatly help us in real life; for instance, the crisis simulation that we had to deal with in Media Relations 250. The PR Professional told me that he had a similar training at work and that it was indeed very challenging.

One of the exhibition stand at Holiday Inn, on the occasion of the 22nd International AVH Symposium.

As my internship is coming to an end, I must say that I have gained confidence in my abilities and that my experience comforted me in my choice to pursue my career within the PR field. I hope that you are all enjoying your adventure as interns. Mine was sweet as sugar.

All the best,

Haddiyyah