Reviewing these 20 Days in the real world

Hi all,

The 20 days have already come to an end some weeks back but i've been so busy with everything else at uni that i had no time until now to write a little something to conclude this internship experience. Crazy life!

What can i say about that pr393 module! Overall it has been a great experience as it has enabled us to plunge ourselves into the real working life, which is surely completely different from our university life. i've been able to learn a lot of new things regarding public relations that were not taught to us during our course, and for this i am very grateful to my placement. Being able to apply what we learnt to a real life client has also been a great experience and brings about feelings of pride and accomplishment, with increased confidence too!
So much confidence that I can really picture myself being a PR practitioner one day, while I don't really picture myself working in a big established consultancy. I'd rather challenge myself with stimulating the communications department of an organization that did not fully integrate public relations yet, or even crazier, create my own public relations company. My friend and I were actually thinking of that possibility and it did not scare us that much to imagine ourselves being the future of public relations in Mauritius.. What a beautiful picture, isn't it? :)
It can thus be said that this internship has brought about a lot a positive changes in me, since in the beginning i was a shaking thing scared of everything, and now i'm making projects and planning the future in public relations.. Great step Forward!
I would like to thank my placement organization for the support and opportunity, and thank my lecturer for the guidelines he gave to us since the beginning, and my friends for sharing their experience with me, and you through this blog!

Let us all communicate our way through
Cheers to you,
Kimberley CUNDEN
CTI, Mauritius.

Final Month and So Much To Do..

Dear readers,

I’m entering in my third and final month at Apave and to speak true, I have not noticed time-passing by.

Those two last months have been so overloaded with work that time seemed to speed up and to speak true it was an amazing experience.

I’m not saying it was boring and that I was overloaded, au contraire, having so much work really gets into you and as an intern, you’re so proud when something goes right that you want this feeling to continue and get involved totally in your work.

1^st experience:

My major tasks as communication intern were mainly to contact the Press and keep in touch with them. What is interesting with this is that you really get the grasp of how it is to work with journalists when you actually work with them.

There is always that need to keep contact, to recall and specially to have regular phone calls with them. Whilst doing this, I realised that:

WOW

I was already beginning my first media contact lists and I understood that those relationships would or at least should last for the entire time that I’ll be in the public relations field.

It was quite interesting as an experience, keeping in touch with them is rather time-consuming but when you get the chance to have that sweet girl at the end of the phone who is really willing to help, you do not even think of it as time-consuming but as a well done task.

2^nd Experience:

When I began my studies, I thought that working in the public relations field would be mainly focused on the media relations but I came to realise during my internship that every single petite aspect that touched a company’s image and reputation was to be taken into account. From the designing of the invitation card to the articles and adverts posted in the Press.

Every tiny detail was to be considered crucial and budgeting really was a necessary pain to be considered at some point.

It all started when time had come to focus on all the conference day material. The Graphic Designer and I had to start working on all the official documents that were to be distributed to all participants, prior to the event and during the conference’s day.

Invitations were to be finalised and official documents of the conference day had to be confirmed before the end of September.

I thought that a month of work on this would be enough, but I soon realised that time went by too fast and that procedures took long.

We had to ask for quotations regarding the prices and the products proposed, we had to concentrate on a quality-pricing focus and we had a lot of amendments to do regarding the final documents.

Dozens of quotations later, I realised that to fulfil a task and especially when it was to be done budget-wise, you needed to make compromises and to choose the best out of a global quotation. One could order invitation cards with a company and the envelopes printing with another one. This was normal usage in a corporate world and companies had to deal with that.

Well I hoped that you enjoyed all of my posts and that it really helped you to get an insight of what my life was as an intern.

 

 

'Doing it all'… Multitasking prone to PR!

Hello World!

It’s Yashni, intern of Odysseus PR agency...

Time really flies when you are having fun or should I rather say when you are busy. I have already completed 10 days of internship and I can say that PR is a fun department to work in because it’s a mix of almost everything. I’m leaning that people in PR have to simultaneously be able to handle different tasks. 

I guess you must be wondering why this title? 
Well this week has been an interestingly hectic one for me, the event is tomorrow and up till yesterday I had to run after the catering company for confirmation, to ask for the menu/price lists, and look for quotations of wine for the cocktail on Friday. At the same time, I had to research and write for the new website that I’ve been assigned to do and also to contact photographs, diving centers, hunting companies, etc.. to persuade them to give the right to publish some of their materials without any compensation. And I can say that I’m proud of myself for I have successfully been able to persuade them. I have realized that multitasking is a must in PR – varied clients, work, deadlines, etc…, all necessitate the ability to juggle multiple disparate tasks at once.  

Come and join us at SVICC on 26th & 
27th July 2012 for the 'Salon de la Com'

The event is at the door and during the whole week there have been meetings, appointments, brainstorming, mailing – and I have been realizing that - you just learn as you go and you take it all in. I can say that right now at Odysseus, you don’t have a day, an hour, or a minute for yourself. 

 But still I love my internship! I’m always so busy currently, and each day has flown by so fast, but I’m loving the experience. I know maybe some could have expected to hear some negatives about this internship, but besides the lack of sleep and lack of social life, I could not be happier! It has been an amazing way to meet people who are interested in this field. I’m already SO glad I decided to do it and I just can’t wait for tomorrow!

What about you? How far are you into your internship? Are you enjoying it?

Let me know in a comment!

Keeping Good Company

After a rather shocking previous week at the old internship, I had a rather lovely surprise follow it up!

My supervisor invited me along to the West Australian offices to present a thank you cake and certificate of gratification to the CHIEF OF STAFF AND SENIOR EDITOR OF THE PAPER (coooooooooooooooollllllllllll). The West were sponsors of our campaign that just wrapped up, the Five Cents for Five Senses effort, that was very successful this year.

Walking into the offices is exciting enough for a little third world child like me, but meeting the editor and the cheif of staff was exhilirating. Only to find they are completely normal, friendly, down to earth gentlemen who need no fuss made about them!

As I have blogged before, PR students tend to have a vision of the journalist as an A-Classs untouchable celebrity who unlocks the doors to public relation and media relation success. Thus, in my mind I may have pictured the two gentlemen as the Kanye West and Jay Z of West Australian news. Needless to say they were normal as can be, but I still felt special meeting them.

Going to the newspaper and meeting the journalists who print our stories and make our companies newsworthy makes all this experience real. We are not in the class room, and this is not a draught for an assignment. There is no Turnitin to check our work for us and it is not just our tutors who will evaulate our efforts. Everything we do now is authentic and real work that is building the foundation of our careers. It too me visiting the West and meeting these wonderful and successful people for me to realise this.

I am very grateful, at this point, for this experience and everything that I have learnt and I don't want it to end!

Not for Profit vs Corporate

This is my first blog, I'm a bit late to the start mark! I'm doing my internship with a not-for-profit organisation called United Way, a franchise company of an American organisation that links businesses with community. So really they're like the middleman of charity.

When I was looking for my placement I really wanted something in a corporate setting, but I'm really happy that I am at United Way. I have always been under the impression that not-for-profit organisations did not take as much work as corporate when it came to PR and media etc. But I've learnt that it is actually the opposite. The amount of work that goes into getting in contact with journalists and sending out several media releases with photo ops and follow up calls is shocking! But it has been a really good challenge.

For me the most challenging thing so far has been developing a relationship with the media. Throughout doing my PR degree my tutors have always spoken of journalists as if they are the big, bad wolf and impossible to get in touch with. I have always put them on such a pedestal! But when my intern supervisor gave me the number of a journalist at the Guardian and told me to call her and follow up about a press release I had sent out I was terrified! I didn't know what to say and I stuttered throughout the phone call. But the journalist was perfectly friendly and took the story on. Needless to say my fear of them has decreased a fair bit.

So far so good, really enjoying what I'm learning and so good to be out in the field and not in a classroom reading a book!

I had a magical time!

Hi Everyone,

I have had so much fun reading all of your interesting blog posts. It looks as though we have all learned a lot from our time in the 'real world' as we so fondly like to label it but really enjoyed this experience at the same time. I am happy to say that I have completed the expected 20 working days at Hollywood Private Hospital and am staying on to help here and there. They can't get rid of me that easily!

It has been a really hands on and fun glimpse into everyday life as an in house PR professional. In my particular placement there was a big mix of marketing involved in the job but that only helped me to understand the relationship between the two and how they can work hand in hand in a very productive way.
Reading about the fantastic placements many people had at PPR, I am also quite intrigued into the world of consultancy. It has the appeal of different clients and exciting ventures that in house PR just doesn't hold.  So these blogs have definitely been helpful in understanding both sides and also not closing us off from the rest of the world of PR as we might have been only seeing one side to it.

It has been a while since my last blog and much has happened. I helped with the launch of Glengarry Private Hospital's new branding which is now Real Magic. Everyday. I was in charge of taking photos once again and had a great time capturing the day as we held a surprise lunch and reveal for the staff. The launch was lead up to by a teaser campaign which consisted of the CEO emailing out elusive magical messages each day to the staff which I had made up for her earlier in my placement. There were also foam asterix's placed around the hospital to pre empt the logo of the brand. Below is one of the designs that includes a chef at the hospital who catered the lunch on the day. It was a nice touch including staff members from the hospital in their campaign as it is a very close knit community they have.

My internship has come to a close now but they are still wanting my help due to a heavy work load. It has been a great experience for me and can only hope to learn more and delve even more into the typical PR elements of the marketing department. 

I am finishing off my report and hoping it all goes well. I wish you all luck on yours and hope you had as great an experience as I did. 

Cheers,

Kate Millar

13643087

LUCT: First week of internship.

Hey everyone.

I started my internship at Esente Communications in Hartamas on the 14th of December 2009. This organisation deals with PR, branding, marketing, listing communication, event management, advertising and media planning, among others. It’s a very small organisation, with two directors, one PR and Events manager, an accountant, an in-house designer, a junior consultant and two interns (me included).

On the first week of my internship I was assigned to draft a speech, media invitation, press release and agenda for the listing ceremony of K-Star on Bursa Malaysia. I am also assigned to do media monitoring for all our clients (this is an ongoing project), and it has to be done by 10 a.m. every morning.

I was also given the task to do research on potential clients as requested by the directors.

Throughout the first week I’ve learnt how to value the importance of research. I’ve realised the need for preparation and organised information. On top of that, each task has a deadline to be met. In the office, we use Microsoft Outlook to exchange views, or to get important announcements from the directors. It sounds so professional.

From what I’ve been told, I can expect more events in the future, more meetings with clients… Here’s to a fun and meaningful

internship.

GTP OPENING CEREMONY 17 & 18 '09

The Malaysian campaign of Satu Malaysia (1 Malaysia) was officially launched on Thursday by Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon( minister in the Prime Ministers Office) marking a two day ceremony at the prestigious Sunway Convention center. Alpha Platform PR was in charge of the opening ceremony which went really well.

Back at the office i was given an opportunity to contribute so i had to call the invited guests and confirm whether they will be able to attend. i was given a contact list of foreign embassies to call for confirmation, it was really challenging for me as i had to sound professional( something which i was not used to as i always speak in a friendly voice over the phone with my friends...), but it all went well.

17th First day( invited guests and Government representatives only)

on the first day of the ceremony we had to be at the venue by 7am in the morning to prepare our table where the media was supposed to register and be given their tags and media kits. before anything else it was important for us to have something to eat first, before the guests arrived so it all started with all of us getting some hot coffe and sandwiches to eat..awesome.
we then set our table where i helped out.By 8.30 the guests started to come in and where welcomed with smiles from my team.
the media came in and had to register with us and we explained what was going to happen on that day, showing them the program and what to expect.

it was a very busy day with no time to sit around and chat, strictly business! we all enjoyed the rushing,running around and helping our guests.


at 9am Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon who is in charge of the whole Satu Malaysia campaign gave an opening ceremony which was amazing to watch and listen to.local television reporters( 8tv, TV3 etc) where reporting live during the whole event, asking all the attendents their views on the governement's effort in building one Malaysia.

above:Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon


after the opening speech Senator Datuk Idris Jala from Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department took over by explaining the governement' NKRA's (National Key Result Area) and they are:

• access to quality and affordable education

• crime prevention reducing corruption

• addressing poverty

• upgrading infrastructure in the rural areas and

media people getting ready for the event


explaining some of the Key Performance index and putting pamphlets and programs of the event for the guests.



the convention center had a media center where all the journalists were provided with free wi-fi for them to write their articles on the event, it was our duty as the Public Relations people to make sure that they had all they needed and they could ask the names of the speakers that they missed or forgot to write down. we provided them with passwords for access to the internet, coffe and opportunity to interview some of the participants.

18th '09( public and NGO's)

the 18th saw all Malaysians coming to ask questions and learning more about this campaign






some of the audience











SATU MALAYSIA




The two day ceremony was wrapped up with a press conference by Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon and all the media representative that were there covered the event and published the stories for everyone to read which was our main aim at Alpha Platform PR. This was a huge learning experience for me as it was the first Malaysian Government campaign which aims to build one malaysia( Satu Malaysia) and i am glad to have been a part of it.
what i learnt from handling clients, phone calls, registrations, helping journalists to get their stories...it was amazing and i know i will apply it one day when i am already working in this field,in a few months to come.thank you Alpha Platform PR.