My Last Words - 10 lessons learnt

So, the day has come to write my final blog.

Here are 10 lessons I learnt during my time at AIME. (Some of these are not related to PR, but is the wisdom shared to me from my colleagues).

1. Events can be very stressful and do not always go to plan. However, a good team will use what is available and pull it all together. So, make sure you have a good team, a team you can rely on and a team that is hard working.
 
2. Supervisors want you to ask questions. That is what they are there for. Therefore, use this opportunity to gain as much knowledge and experience as you can. 
 
3. If a program changes, make sure you redesign the posters and program flyers. No one likes to be misled when they think Shannon Noel is coming and he doesn’t show. 

 
4. Wisdom granted from a colleague: You cannot classify people simply as introvert or extrovert, sometimes you meet people who are both.
 
5. Always be culturally sensitive and broaden your knowledge on culture. Whether this means travelling, talking to people or taking classes. It is so vital to have an understanding about culture and cultural communities. 
 
6. Public Relations is not black and white. Just from reading the blogs by my classmates, it is evident that PR comes in many forms. This has been a great learning point, and makes this career path just a little more exciting.
 
7. When creating an event, you almost need a headliner act or a well-known personality to attract the numbers. Especially with a new event such as KiNDLiNG, I think it would have been beneficial to have had a headliner to entice a larger audience. I believe that was the initial idea, however to book a headliner, planning must be done well in advance.

8. Which leads me to advice number 8. When holding an event, it is especially important to start planning months and months before the date. This can be easier said than done with regular office and PR duties still in the mix. Prioritising your time to ensure planning is started well ahead is one issue. The other issue is having the organisation understand fully the role of PR. Especially in a non-for-profit, colleagues must be on board to realise how important an event can be in achieving objectives and raising necessary funds. 
 
9. Even though we learn to be professional in our email etiquette and media releases, sometimes an organisation will not want you to be so formal. On my first few takes of an email I was told not to be strict with my formal or professional language. Be polite yes, and write proper English yes, but take on the personality of AIME. I found this quite hard to adjust to, as email etiquette and professionalism when communicating with stakeholders has been a focal point of the PR degree. It was very unorthodox to be asked to use slang and write with a ‘chilled’ and ‘fun’ tone when liaising with potential sponsors. I suppose it gives the recipient a real picture of the organisation and the exciting and upbeat one that AIME is. 
 
10. The final lesson… What you study at university is not necessarily what you will end up doing. It is best to broaden your experiences and take on opportunities when they arise. You never know where they will lead or what doors they will open. 

I am so grateful for my time at AIME and have enjoyed almost every part (maybe not the stress). It has been a learning experience and has given me a taste of the ‘real’ world. 6.30am wake ups, long days, and busy schedules… maybe we should all do a postgrad degree ;)

All the best with the reports,

Libby

A Reflection on KiNDLiNG

It is true what they say, events can become ‘like’ your babies. Okay I am not sure if people say this but it is the only way I can describe the relationship between event manager and event. 

I am an aspiring events manager/coordinator/planner, any of those terms, this is the career path I would like to have. Well, the career path I have studied for. 

Interning at AIME has been a great experience in learning all things event planning and seeing an inaugural variety night come to life. I have become one with the stresses of an event, and understand that you cannot control everything. Although stressful, staging an event can be so fun and if it is successful then the rewards are plentiful. 

But let me explain this metaphor that events are like ‘children.’ 

For starters, you worry about the event day and night. You care about its legacy and want it to succeed. You put all your time and effort in giving it the best opportunity to make its mark. Secondly you cannot help but tell everyone about the event. It is a constant conversation starter.  You want everyone to know about it because you are proud of what it will become (and you need tickets to sell). And finally, once the event has been delivered or put to ‘bed’ you can finally relax.

See events are like children, well, sort of. 

 

  Taryn and myself had the responsibility of creating this colourful photo back drop. Pinterest was great inspiration. Our role during the night was to take photos and keep track of names, so that these photos can be used for social media purposes. 

AIME WA’s KiNDLiNG event was not shy of a couple of issues. Not even the most efficient planning can stop external factors impacting an event. A couple of weeks prior, we had several acts that could no longer perform at the event. This put strain on the Events Manager and myself to try find replacement acts within a very short time frame. In addition to this, our volunteer security member had a change of plans and the CEO decided not to fly over from Sydney to attend the event. 

However, none of these issues compared to the stress made from very low ticket sales. The week before the event, only 35 tickets had been sold. 35 Tickets! 35!! At the beginning of the planning process, 350 tickets were expected to sell. This was based on the reason that AIME WA has over 6000 mentors. 

This has been a very important learning curve for me. That a not-for-profit cannot solely rely on its volunteers and other stakeholders to fill seats at a fundraiser event. The promotions side of an event is so significant in attracting community support. The way you target your audiences through different platforms and the extent to which you push the event in media streams. As this was AIME WA’s first major event, and they did not have a headliner act or a major incentive to attract numbers, promotional efforts were so important. Posters and word of mouth would not be enough to carry this event. It needed radio ads, newspaper articles, social media, posters, personal emails, letters and direct communication with schools, mentors and universities to make the tickets sell. 

Thankfully, the week of the event saw a flood of online tickets sell. It is interesting to see how people tend to purchase tickets closer to the event date. We had 200 people walk through the doors. KiNDLiNG was a success and raised necessary funds for AIME’s mission in reaching 10,000 Indigenous students by the year 2018. It was a great night filled with amazing performances and great food.

It was a privilege to be a part of an event so rewarding. To close the gap between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous community, to inspire and bring unity. 

A photo from the night used for AIME WA's Instagram page. 

The Importance Of Research

The importance of research;

Until recently my placement organisation Netball WA had been essentially flying from the seat of their pants in terms of communications strategy. While what they describes as a “going with the gut” feeling has evidentially not had any serious ramifications on their business success, it’s an approach they finally reconsidered. As far as I can gather from chatter with my supervisor (Netball WA’s Communications Manager) and those who work under him, the communications team was a one or two man show up until 2015. With the addition of four extra staff members, a ‘Communications Team’ appeared, complete with a Media Relations Officer, Social Media and Marketing Officer, Graphic Designer/Photographer and Events Manager/Membership Coordinator.

Under the Events Manager/Membership Coordinator I completed one of my first major projects at my internship, while that was a week or two ago, I was recently reminded of the importance of the work I was doing whilst in a Public Relations Planning and Evaluation seminar earlier this week. The seminar, entitled ‘making a case for communication’, explored the ways that research and evaluation in PR can help to justify the existence of communications teams in businesses and organisations.

Clearly, a core part of the business at Netball WA is to ensure the WA netball team (West Coast Fever) have well-engaged and happy members. The work that I was doing, while rather laborious, was to analyse membership feedback data from the recently finished 2016 season, compile trends and finally recommend some changes to the way the memberships were handled based on the feedback data. This kind of research is an example of the data and analysis that can contribute to ensuring that West Coast Fever members are well engaged and happy with their membership experiences. Not only does this kind of communication and research help to achieve this business objective, it allows a concrete connection to be made between the quality of this communication and the rate of member retention and registration. This kind of data gathering and analysis is not only a great example of a feedback channel in operation (part of the 2-way symmetric model of communication in action), but also a fine example of a way that professional communications justifies itself and it’s place in a business or organisation.

While back in first year, research may have seemed like an inconvenient prequel to an exciting PR plan, looking back through my third-year goggles I can definitely see that not only is research a fundamental foundation to the formation of clear communications goals and objectives, but it is essential also as an ongoing review and monitoring activity. Without this continuous reflection upon our PR efforts and their results, the efforts themselves are nullified in the way that we have no record of their effectiveness, and their results are practically invisible to CEO’s and organisational boards.

Research is an not only an essential starting point, but it comes into play at both the mid, end and review points of any PR activity in the forms of all kinds of feedback lines as well as the day-to-day monitoring conducted by PR practitioners.

This has finally solidified for me having seen the kind of tasks performed daily by the Netball WA Communications Team, without research no plan or proposal can be justified.