Sayonara Internship Program, see you in another time!

Today marks the last day of Internship program that I had for the Public Relations unit as part of my Bachelor Degree completion, focusing on final exams and hopefully I will be able to graduate on February 2017 *yeayme*.
Inul Vizta Family KTV has been an interesting place for a fast pace of working place. The company is eager to compete with another companies who is offering similar type of purpose which is Karaoke for customers such as working people, students in schools and Universities, families and corporate events. The company can be said as a leading franchisee based company that succeed to achieve a positive brand image and media coverage toward the company.

By completing the Internship program, I will of course miss the company and my small desk (more about it below) and I cannot wait to apply the skills that I have learned to the real world later on. I will mostly feel grateful to my supervisor, Herry and his assistant, Hendra to guide me when I was interning there and receiving important information about the company and to know more how to work in an office environment as personally I have never been working in an office before doing this Internship.

These below are some images of the office that I worked for:

 This above is the desk that I sat during the Internship days.

This image above is the situation of the 5th floor office at Inul Vizta Family Karaoke KTV Palembang, Indonesia.

This table above in the image is where me and the supervisors have a weekly meeting or daily follow up in the office.

Therefore, by creating this blog post marks the end journey of Public Relations Internship and my journey as a University Student.
Thank you my small team members and people in Inul Vizta for the precious memories and fun working situation that we had. See you in another time.

Thanks for reading my blog posts guys :)

Sayonara Internship Program, see you in another time!

Today marks the last day of Internship program that I had for the Public Relations unit as part of my Bachelor Degree completion, focusing on final exams and hopefully I will be able to graduate on February 2017 *yeayme*.
Inul Vizta Family KTV has been an interesting place for a fast pace of working place. The company is eager to compete with another companies who is offering similar type of purpose which is Karaoke for customers such as working people, students in schools and Universities, families and corporate events. The company can be said as a leading franchisee based company that succeed to achieve a positive brand image and media coverage toward the company.

By completing the Internship program, I will of course miss the company and my small desk (more about it below) and I cannot wait to apply the skills that I have learned to the real world later on. I will mostly feel grateful to my supervisor, Herry and his assistant, Hendra to guide me when I was interning there and receiving important information about the company and to know more how to work in an office environment as personally I have never been working in an office before doing this Internship.

These below are some images of the office that I worked for:

 This above is the desk that I sat during the Internship days.

This image above is the situation of the 5th floor office at Inul Vizta Family Karaoke KTV Palembang, Indonesia.

This table above in the image is where me and the supervisors have a weekly meeting or daily follow up in the office.

Therefore, by creating this blog post marks the end journey of Public Relations Internship and my journey as a University Student.
Thank you my small team members and people in Inul Vizta for the precious memories and fun working situation that we had. See you in another time.

Thanks for reading my blog posts guys :)

Nothing Pretty: The reality of the past 10 weeks

Today marks my final day at Event & Conference Co. Over the past ten weeks I have written press releases, multiple blog posts, conducted extensive amounts of market research and spreadsheets, completed data entry and ventured out into Perth’s foodie hot spots to handout fliers, all in all, a lot of work.

Bridget has always told her PR students that the public relations profession is not glamorous. I finally understood what she was talking about. Whilst I was working at an events company, the behind the scenes work was often tedious, bland and repetitive, far from fun and creative. I assume that if I was interning as a graphic designer, my tasks could have been more creative, however the PR work I undertook was predominately research based. Whilst I was prepared for this, the amount of research and areas of research did take me by surprise.

Most weeks at my internship consisted of the same types of tasks, however in the final week of my placement, I was able to help in the setting up of a conference my company was organising for one of their clients. Unfortunately as this was a corporate event, there were no pretty flowers, glamorous table displays or aesthetic decors that I could photograph and attach to this post. I was hoping there would be :( I'm sorry!

My duties for this event involved setting out the identification tags of the entire guest list in alphabetical order. In order to do this, I had to arrive at the venue, which was Frasers Restaurant in Kings Park at 6am. Once this task was finished, I helped with odd jobs around the venue until our 7am de-brief. My final task at this event was to greet the entering guests with a fellow intern and assist them with finding their nametags, then instructing them to the seat list. I was not able to help out for the entire day, nevertheless leaving the office and experiencing part of what goes on at an event behind the scenes was valuable.

In a previous week I was also given another chance to leave the office by distributing fliers around Perth’s most popular café strips. Along with two other interns, we visited cafes and asked if we were able to leave fliers for the upcoming gourmet food expo with them. To my surprise, everyone was accepting of the fliers and it was nice to think that we were actually helping contribute to this event being successful. The strips we visited included Subiaco, Leederville and Northbridge, so look out for the hot pink De-Lish fliers with Anna Polyviou on the front! You really can't miss them.

Whilst my placement has truthfully not been exciting, I am grateful for the opportunity at my placement and am definitely glad I chose the PR Internship unit. The last ten weeks have opened my eyes to what goes on in the real world and different workplace tasks. Being able to state that I have had this practical experience will no doubt be valuable when it comes to future job applications. I even think this process has helped build confidence within me, cementing the fact that I am capable of work life after university. I am proud of how far i have come and how i have managed to deal with the commitment of this internship. 

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

Blog 4: Hotel is not just about hotel, it could be something more

Before I start my internship in the hotel industry, I always have the thought that hotel is just a building that provide “temporary home” or “shelter” for travelers and good food for food lover. After working in the hotel, I changed my mind. Hotel is not just about a place to stay and to dine in with good food, it could be something more.

During my internship, then only I know that actually hotel is just like other for-profit- oraganisation, they operate their business at the same time they also have several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program. For example, in this hotel, Grand Palace Hotel, they will bring goodies, sing Christmas caroling and share the love and joy to the patients in general hospital during the Christmas season. Besides, they also design and selling bookmarks for charity purpose. From the bookmark design to printing, cutting, typing up a ribbon and packaging all is handling by PR.

                                                                                              

Lesson learns:

• As a PR person, you may need to carry certain level of hard skill as well as soft skill.

• Every software that they use in the hotel must be the original version. Pirated software is not allowed to use in the corporate.

• Regarding to the design, if that is necessary, you can download some of the pictures online and sometime you might need to pay for the picture in order to get the original picture.

•             As a PR, dress up properly and be there earlier for every event.  

Sing Christmas Caroling and bring goodies to children in General Hospital 

Hoh Xiao Mei 

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Throwback to my first event

My first event for Networking WA was the APIA and Finance Institute of Australia corporate seminar event on property and marketing. It was a breakfast; therefore I had to wake up at 5 in the morning to be there by 6. The dress code was particularly professional because it was an event that hosted around 100 industry professionals. My tasks included setting up the signs, handing out name badges and making sure the table were set up correctly. I also had other tasks which included taking photos and greeting guests. After my tasks I had the opportunity to sit down at a table with my colleagues and listen to the presentations which was very exciting (I didn’t mind the free hotel breakfast either!). When the event was winding down I had to collect the badges back from guests, greet them as they left and then help take the signs back to the office. My work colleagues and I had coffee at a small restaurant in Northbridge afterwards to recap on how well the event flowed and what the usual progression on an event is. We also got talking about each other’s background and aspirations before we headed back to the office. I then continued with my normal day to day tasks which are often written out on a website called High-rise HQ. On this particular day I was doing some research on the Executive assistants in Perth and how to contact them for networking purposes. We got to leave at 330 that say because our day started so early in the morning. My first event was a success overall and I learnt a lot of new tasks and industry norms.

 Cheers,

Twiza Singoyi

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