Deadlines... Deadlines... Deadlines!

Upon my first day as an intern at Mills Wilson Communications, I was witness to how important deadlines can be and how important building relationships with clients is for a consultancy. One client in particular said they had spent the past two days at Mills Wilson working with two of the Public Relations Consultants to complete an application for an award he was nominated in. The day the application was due, the client was tense, stressed and easily frustrated, however the PR Consultants remained cool calm and collected to ensure that a positive relationship was maintained and that the job was completed before the deadline. The following day Mills Wilson were sent flowers of appreciation by the client for their commitment and hard work.

Once the application was submitted and the deadline over, I was then witness to the team trying to catch up on another client’s important work that had to be put to the side to ensure the previous deadline was met. This demonstrated the ability that Public Relation consultants need to be have to be able to balance the workload provided by the variety of clients which the company works with.

One thing I noticed was that although the deadline only affected a couple of individuals within the company, the whole team felt the pressure of the one deadline and tried to help in any way they could whilst balancing the clients and work they were tasked with.

In regards to interning at a consultancy, it seems to be looking positive as it does involve a variety of tasks, however working for different clients means these tasks will be repeated in a variety of different formats, for different industries, for different target audiences and with different purposes. This therefore helps my ability as a Public Relations student to learn each of the individual tasks required of a Public Relations consultant and to attempt and learn the variety of ways that these can be achieved. This is different to working as part of an in-house PR team as these tasks were involved as part of interning however were not necessarily repeated as frequently and in the various different ways.

An example of the ever changing world of PR Deadlines at Go Communications

Deadlines. The fact that the word contains the word 'Dead' must mean its bad right? Its true, deadlines are a pain 99.9% of the time. Especially during them hectic weeks at university where every assignment is due at once and your losing sleep to make that 11pm turnitin deadline. One of the best things about university is deadlines are often given to you with a fair amount of time, I  mean its written on the unit outline. Even then, you can ask for an assignment extension! As much as we hate it, deadlines follow PR students from the classroom and out into the real world of Public Relations.

In my second week at Go I was unfortunate to not have a futuristic deadline as a luxury. In a week of work I had learnt that deadlines can change dramatically. Take for example, a proposal was given to Sarah and I for us to prepare a client presentation. We had till 4pm Monday. Perfect, it was still Friday morning and we aimed to start working on it after lunch Friday and finish it off Monday morning. Little work was achieved after lunch as media monitoring became a priority and by Monday morning we were only really just starting the power point. All good though because we had till 4pm right? . Wrong.  At 10:55am Monday our supervisor informed us of a change of plan and it was due at midday. Frantic, we pulled together a presentation (yes, we did it) and managed to have it completed by 12pm. The pressure was surprisingly a good thing, where we had to think quickly and smart to complete it.

To my fellow classmates completing their internships, the world of PR is constantly changing (as I'm sure your already aware). The media will change their deadlines, the bosses will change their deadlines and the client will change their deadlines. While sometimes stressful, being organised and being on top of your work at all times will ensure a smooth transition for when the workload due is moved forward a few hours.

Bec

Challenges of an Event Planner

Doing my internship at Networking WA gives me the opportunity to experience a PR and Events Management background – which is perfect for my own PR and Event Management degree.

Today was an event management kind of day – Networking WA is currently working on the planning of the Advanced Dental Artistry Charity Ball: Supporting Parkerville Children & Youth Care (more information through here or on the flyer below).

One of the challenges that came up was the event – being barely a month away – hasn't sold nearly enough tickets as it should have (have a read about Parkerville Children & Youth Care to learn more about their work). As my supervisor explained that every element of their job has been fulfilled in terms of planning and coordinating however the company benefiting from the event has not done very much to sell tickets - this made me think there is only so much you can do as an event planner to get the event out there, but that shouldn't really be your responsibility unless you have been employed to do so... then as an event planner:

- How do you ensure maximum ticket sales when you shouldn't really be worrying about maximum ticket sales? 

- And if you don't reach a good number of ticket sales, well this clearly affects the event and its success... but who would be to blame?

Thankfully, as I have mentioned, Networking WA is a company of both events and PR background, and they have been able to incorporate their PR skills into increasing awareness of the event and hopefully in turn increasing ticket sales!

For those reading that may be interested in attending the event click on the links below for more information and remember it is for a great, great cause – 100% of proceeds go directly to Parkerville Children & Youth Care AND you get a 3 course meal and complimentary drinks along with all night entertainment!

For background information on Parkerville Children & Youth Care  

For event information on the Charity Ball or check out their Facebook Page

Reyhan Oz
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