Showing posts with label #corporatecommunications #miri #curtinsarawak #parvither. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #corporatecommunications #miri #curtinsarawak #parvither. Show all posts

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Reflection 3: Open Day meeting


Greetings everyone!

Open Days are a fantastic opportunity to find out if you like a university or not. They is a chance to meet potential professors, see the libraries that could become part of your daily routine, check out where you could be living and meeting other senior students.
Open day is one of the major highlights at Curtin Sarawak throughout the year. As much as it may seem it’s easy to plan out, it’s actually not.

It’s just another normal Friday. I walk into the office and Mr Nicholas Leong calls me to his office. “Preet, would you like to join us for our Open Day meeting later?” not hesitating I said yes.  This was my opportunity to actually see how Curtin works as a team to prepare for an event.
During the meeting, the committee was elected where Mr Nicholas Leong is the Chair and the Co- chair is Ms Marcella Ginder. As the discussion proceeded, Mr Nicholas Leong welcomed everyone to the first Open Day meeting and thanked everyone who joined the committee. The date of the open day is set to take place on the 14 September 2013, on a Saturday and themed ‘Make Tomorrow Better’.

During this meeting, the Chair had pointed out that the PR & Publicity team should work independently. Looking at the post-mortem of last year’s open day, the PR & Publicity team only played a tiny role. One of the issues pointed out were, lack of sponsors and entertaining events.

Coming back to what I have learned, there are good meetings and there are bad meetings. Bad meetings are never ending, you never seem to get to the point, and you are left wondering why you were even present. Effective ones leave you energized and feeling that you have really accomplished something.
Three things that affect an Effective meetings:
1.       They achieve the meeting's objective.
2.       They take up a minimum amount of time.
3.       They leave participants feeling that a sensible process has been followed.
Meetings should be structured in a way that the planning, preparation, execution, and follow up result to an effective meeting.
*Golden Rule:
·         To run an effective meeting is to insist that everyone respects the time allotted.
·         Start the meeting on time; do not spend time recapping for latecomers
·         Whatever can be done outside the meeting time should be (circulating reports for people to read beforehand, and assigning smaller group meetings to discuss issues relevant to only certain people).

This was my first experience attending a real meeting during my internship and I have learned a lot and the most important things in just one meeting.


Best regards,
Parvither Preet Kaur
Curtin Sarawak
15131982

Friday, June 21, 2013

Reflection 2: Writing a media release



Greetings everyone!

It’s been a great week for me at Corporate Comm. In this reflection, I’m going to share my experience and learning’s on preparing a press release.

Coming into the real world, different agencies or departments have their style of writing a press release. They have a format or a guideline to follow.

Writing a press release in class has always been a piece of cake. But that piece of cake work does not work in the real world. Everyone takes baby steps and makes mistakes but the important part is we learn from our mistakes. As it was the first time drafting a press release, I learnt something really important. To get your news published, it has to be CATCHY and NEWSWORTHY!

Here are some tips on writing a newsworthy press release and how to get it published.
Press releases will be published if they have newsworthy elements in their headlines and content. If you want the editor to use your press release, you must have a newsy-angled, attention-grabbing headline and content. Your headline should be able to sell news immediately.

NEWSWORTHY
What, why and how does an editor choose a press release?
  • ·         Anything newsworthy will make to the news.

What do you mean by newsworthy?
  • ·         Anything news that has a value. For an example an announcement by the government regarding a new policy or an issue will be of interest to the public. In your press release, you should be able to tell your target audience what will benefit them.

What are the successful PR strategies in getting your story in the media?
  • ·         The name of the game is to pitch an angle in a unique way (it should be exciting) that the media will buy your idea and publish or broadcast it.

KEY POINTS IN WRITING A PRESS RELEASE
  • ·         Do not forget the importance of the headline
  • ·         Include statistics
  • ·         Tell a story or relate attention grabbing statements
  • ·         Keep it short, factual and well written
  • ·         Avoid jargons.
  • ·         Use quotes by identified people
  • ·         Write it in the inverted pyramid style

 here are the links to press releases that I had  helped draft.


Below are some links on tips for a press release by professionals.
·         http://vimeo.com/64949663


Best regards,
Parvither Preet Kaur
Curtin Sarawak
15131982

Reflection 1: The Introduction







Greeting to everyone!
Let me introduce myself first. My name is Parvither Preet Kaur and this is my 6th semester at Curtin Sarawak. My degree is in Mass Communications, Majoring in Public Relations. I’m from West Malaysia and coming to East Malaysia is a whole different experience (people, food, places, culture). Life is very much different here compared to the west, where it is much more hectic over there and very much laid back over here in Sarawak.

The thing about public relations is it deals with challenging ideas. How do you deal with the real world and the issues that arise? How would you assist your company? All these aren't found in the textbooks or lecture slides and you cannot be spoon fed. It is a skill you pick up as you learn in the “real world”.

Today, 21st May 2013 was my first day at Corporate Communications, a Public Relations Department in Curtin University Sarawak. My day started bright and early at the office. Upon arrival I was greeted by a very warm and welcoming office filled with a lovely team of Public Relations officers. After meeting up with my mentor, I was given a tour of the office and met everyone on the teams I would be working with. It was that moment where I had realized that the communications skill had already started kicking in. Throughout my learning in the classroom, a lot of importance was given to communication skills, especially with the bosses, the staff, the team and the clients and this was applied on my first day.

As I stepped foot in the office, my aim was to be able to answer these following questions once I have finished with my internship:
  • ·         How PR companies work with their clients
  • ·         What importance PR plays in promoting
  • ·         What clients hope to achieve through PR
  • ·         Why people and companies employ a PR campaign
  • ·         How to write a professional press release
  • ·         How PR specialists go about helping a company or person embroiled in scandal or negative media attention

Moving on, Mr. Nicholas briefed on detail information on the departments job. He encouraged me to mix around and learn anything I would like from my colleagues.  As it is the end of the semester, the department is a little laid back from its hectic routine. Ms Marcella recommended that I should start from scratch, which is reading the newspapers (English, Malay, and Chinese); my job begun with media monitoring and press clippings.

At the moment it’s hard for me to say how I feel about my internship, but in terms of the work environment and the office here at Corporate Communications, Well it’s GREAT!  Everything and everyone is just so laid back. Most important, I'm very thankful to have helpful people in the department who are willing to assist, teach and make me feel comfortable in the office.


Here are some links to PR and the real world.




Best regards,
Parvither Preet Kaur
Curtin Sarawak
15131982