Trying to sum it all – [So Far] Experience overload!

Isn’t it incredible how time flies? I am already at my last week as an intern at Flymates and to be honest I feel nostalgic about leaving the workplace. Without any doubt, my placement has enabled me to develop the Public Relations skills learned at University and acquired real-life experience. But above this; there is also the workplace experience which we sometimes neglect to talk about – the workplace values, ethics and behaviors acquired.

Public Relations tasks done [so far].

•   Newsletter
• Trianon career and guidance fair event plan
• Rose Belle Rotary club fair event plan
• Banners design
• Video creation
• Roadshow event planning for 2017
• E-mailing, phone calls
• Official letters drafting
• Facebook event page creation for Trianon
• Instagram page creation
•   Local press lists
• Media Audit

20 days have passed and I have already contributed in the above tasks.  I remember how calling people were stressful at first or how I was lost when having so much work to do at once.
The Flymates team and my supervisor helped me a lot in planning and scheduling my tasks and apart from the PR skills acquired and developed all along the journey, I now recognize that the key to evolve in a workplace is in establishing a good relationship with the team.

Apart from establishing a good relationship with the team, I recommend everyone to never underestimate themselves due to lack of experience in the PR sector. Do have the courage to propose new techniques , new ideas, new visions and do things differently but neatly.

Happy that my proposal for an Instagram account was accepted 

Tools used [so far]:

• Basecamp
•  Photoshop
• Corel
• Visio
• Canvas

Here are some tools which I used so far. Basecamp is the online project management tools used by Flymates team to communicate. At first it was a headache for me to understand it but now I acknowledge the importance of having an online communication platform between colleagues and would recommend every business to settle one for internal communication.  I have also learned to use new tools such as Corel for designing newsletters and visio for designing procedures. It is always good as a PR person to learn using new tools. And no need to say that Canvas really helped me creating quick teasers for events Facebook page!

Some workplace values, ethics and behaviors learned [so far].

Dedication and commitment.

I learned that dedication to your work is paramount. It is what increases productivity and quality of work.  I learned that commitment to a task reinforces the team and supervisor’s positive opinions about me and makes it easier for them to trust and assign to me new responsibilities.

Teamwork and cooperation.

Teamwork is the key to evolve in a business. At Flymates I saw some clashes between team members but what I learned is that even if some colleagues do not share affinities with each other, they respect their work enough to work in team and makes the most of it.

Integrity and reliability.

An important work ethic which I learned is integrity and reliability. To be honest and to have strong moral principles is paramount and even more in the PR sector. It does not only show dedication but reveal the personality and character of someone making him/her a reliable and trustworthy colleague.

So far, I hope that, like me, you are enjoying your workplace experience and remember: 

The expert in anything was once a beginner – Helen Hayes. 

Doralie Lebrasse.
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CTI

Logging in...Social-media revelations!

Being part of the generation Y, the use of social media was regarded as "easy" for me. Since the beginning of Public Relations studies, we have learned the theories and importance of using social media in PR and it was (for me personally) way simple as “keep it short, simple and precise”. Yet in the real world of work, behind the scene of keeping content “short, simple and precise” lots of hard work resides.

I thought that managing social media contents were not so complicated. After all, posting news, entertaining and grabbing the attention of audiences did not sound that difficult, I was wrong. My internship at Flymates revealed that I was actually completely off track about it.

Regular contents formation demands lots of time and daily researches. And while having audiences’ attention was quite easy sometimes, keeping their attention was way more difficult as Flymates uses social media to not only promote their image and keep in touch with stakeholders but also to drive traffic to their website. Therefore, I learned that applying PR in social media is paramount for any businesses as I observed that it acts subliminally. However the quality of the posts must be up to the level.

 I realized that strategic planning and timeline applies for everything, even for scheduling of content when it comes to social media. And having “likes” and “comments” on a post after much work is way satisfying.  

What I learned so far:

• ·          The world of social media is constantly upgrading itself and to be able to grab audiences’ interests, businesses should evolve together with the social media features.
• ·          Apart from researches, a post should hold consistent content and be as far as possible creatively presented.
• ·         Strategies and goals should be set up prior to posts and constant monitoring is important.
• ·         Published posts should not only be newsworthy but should also be introduced in a social media friendly way.

Finally, keeping contents “short, simple and precise” stays fundamental. I will never ever again qualify social media as "easy" again after the insights gained at Flymates. 

I hope my posts helps and till then thank you for reading.

Doralie.

Charles Telfair Institute.

Learning facts for the last post

Hello fellow interns,

This is my last post for the Public Relations Internship (393).

For my last days at Logos Publicity, there were not less than three press conferences to ensure (two for the Festival Passe-Portes and one for the rebranding of the AAA as mentioned in the previous post). This was pretty stressed.

So, for this post I will mainly focus on my learning and thoughts being PR intern.

As Logos Publicity has prior to advertising, there was only one employee who is in charge of all the PR stuff. She taught and guided me towards the methods of writing media releases (according to the company), contacting media, preparing brochure and poster’s text, and product research. This was really interesting but demanding at times. The fact that my colleague had not done any course for PR techniques is, by the way, more remarkable. She gains experience through years and still she is very effective/productive :)

Through the opportunity of assisting a press conference, I have learned the importance of engaging the media in an event and networking.

I have also learned about the importance of good relationships with colleagues. This is important to manage conflicts and work together for better quality work.

To conclude, I am very grateful for this wonderful 20 days. However, I discovered that public relations sector was not really my domain and that I am interested mostly in event management :) I got the chance to experience PR tactics and techniques from theory to practice.

Regards,

Elodie Lamarque

15844167

Calling Media – Not so easy…

Hello everyone,

Already third post (after 1 month). I must say that I had difficulty to handle assignments and work and hats off for those who deal efficiently with those two.

This post will mainly focus on press conference. Logos was completely occupied with Festival Passe-Portes and the rebranding of AAA (Association of Advertising Agencies) during the past week. Press conference was needed to welcome the 60 French artists’ arrival and to announce the changing brand name of AAA to ACA (Association of Communication Agencies) respectively. Therefore, contacting the media was requested:

1 -  Sending email to editor-in-chief and journalists to inform for the conference (purpose, time, date, place) several days before (4/3days). Additionally, the news must be distribute to appropriate media as said in the second post (for example; AAA - Business Magazine, L’Express or Festival Passe-Portes – Scope). This will raise interest from journalists and ensure coverage.

2 - Calling for confirmation. That’s a different kettle of fish. This phase requests perseverance and patience :)

3 - Make a follow-up with the journalists presented. This consists of emailing additional information and photos to media that assisted the conference. It is mainly to ensure that proper coverage is done with correct materials. Furthermore, for the example of the festival, the invitation for the closure was sent to those same journalists.

Learning lesson: Good communication skills are required to maintain proper relationship with media outlet and to guarantee coverage of event.

Thanks you for following,

Elodie Lamarque

15844167

Going twice for a photo shooting session and standing a whole day– this forms part of the job

¡Buenas tardes everyone!

Today I will talk about my photo shooting sessions experience at Publico/Creative. After three weeks of learning about how designers deal with clients for billboard, magasines, business cards, posters, pamphlets or brochures which were really interesting, I was asked to go for photo shooting sessions with our photographer, Robert. I was very happy as I was able to see how things work before the designers edit the pictures. I learnt a lot of things in terms of photography and this can be very helpful. When taking into consideration that Publico/Creative works with different clients at the same time and having only one photographer, learning about photography is an important tool where you can easily go yourself for photo shooting sessions. During my internship, photo shootings sessions were the tasks which I did regularly. At the beginning it was amazing to see the different perspectives of taking a picture. After several days, I was promoted if we can say J, where I was in charge of supervising the photo shooting sessions to ensure that all the products were present. It was like a checklist to be sure that nothing missed. What was painful if I can say, was that we were asked several times to go again for photo shooting sessions as the client wants more pictures. Again, standing a whole day to take more pictures and finally the clients choose only 5 pictures among the 50 shots; this was horrible but it forms part of the job. During those photo shooting sessions, I was able to experience this situation about how the clients themselves are uncertain and the hard job rely on yourself. Anyway, it was a good experience to see the photography world, the different perceptions of taking a picture before the final step.

See ya in the next post guys

Graziella Hippolyte

15806785

Charles Telfair Institute

An Honorable Job (Contrary to popular belief)

Dear All,

This post will focus on the way information is communicated to media (as I experience), experience with demanding clients and importance of details.

I got the chance to assist at the whole process concerning media planning and advertising in print and online media channels which requires a lot of time and efforts :)

- All the press releases are written firstly by my colleague and I, according to new information given by the organizer Catherine such as recently it was confirmed that the president of the jury for Passe-Portes will be Claudia Cardinale, a popular French actor. I will essentially point out on the importance of proof-reading. My colleague mainly focuses on that more than you can imagine :) . This is just great as I learn its significance NOW!

    - We then forward it to Catherine for approval or amendments.
    - Then, following it, press release is sent to each editor –in-chief and journalists of print and online media, and radio in Mauritius. We should mainly focus on journalists who cover the Culture and Art section in newspaper and radio which guarantees publication or diffusion.
    - In order to measure the impact, media monitoring is essential during the following days.

In case of lack of coverage (It happened at the beginning after the press conference), it is important to renew the process by concentrating on main or additional news.

I also learnt the importance of effective communication between the company and organizers in order to avoid confusions/conflicts and diffusing incorrect information. In the case of Festival, it is essential to confirm each and every detail with Catherine before sending to the media - artworks for advertising and press releases (It happened that there was confusion/misleading information and this was revealed to be stressful). So, imagine, we contact her at least 4 times per day. This could be really annoying. In addition, at times, she can be too demanding (she wants this in that way/ this should be sent at that time/ everything should be firstly approved by her – but she does not respond to mail on time). Inevitably, frustration, stress, disagreement and/or incomprehension can arise but these must not prevent PROFESSIONALISM and doing things ETHICALLY.

I should almost confess in my second post that I have a lot of respect for PR practitioners as this job is truly demanding and stressing. Works should be transparent and always correctly done. Every detail should be respected and take into consideration.  Errors are not always forgiven in this sector as clients could turn their backs and engage with competitors. My hat off for those who succeed in this field and love their jobs :)

Elodie Lamarque

Charles Telfair Institute

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Publico Bonjour (part of my internship) Is that PR??

Hello people,

For my second post I will focus on whether picking up the phone is part of PR tasks. This was what I did for 2 days during my third week at Publico. At the beginning, I was like: ok is that PR? I think that it was a very good experience for me. Thinking of PR tasks we tend to think firstly about really big projects and presentations and dealing with the media directly on first occasions. Picking up the phone, transferring calls, taking messages, calling back the clients were really helpful. I think that it is the first step for a communication student. Instead of stepping directly in the public relations world with presentations, client brief and so on, talking via the phone is a good beginning. This can help to have a first approach and contact with the clients, understand more about the relationship between the client and the agency, know about the different issues and how the designers as well as the marketing persons are dealing with them. It gives an overview of how to deal with crisis and can prepare me for a crisis period later on. When transferring the clients’ calls to my supervisor and seeing her dealing with the issues is very interesting. Eventually I will not be able to list the different issues here (confidentiality) as firstly it is about the clients and secondly it concerns some projects which are not completed yet. But what I can say is that picking up the phone is not as boring as others might think. If you think well, it helps you deal with future issues where you can therefore handle them easily as if you have some experiences with the matter. If you think about only sitting and picking up the phone without trying to understand the matter or only transferring calls this will undoubtedly not help. One advice is therefore try to take every task done during an internship very seriously and when analysing it deeply you can see that it really helps.

That’s it for now guys

See you in the next post

Graziella Hippolyte

15806785

The Charles Telfair Institute

Discovering of a new world

Hi fellow interns,

Here I am finally for my first blog post which is just AMAZING. I am actually a BCOM student at Charles Telfair Institute in Mauritius (Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management and Public Relations). After 2 months of sending emails and calling companies in vain, Mr Cyril Palan from Logos Publicity Ltd was the do-gooder to accept me for my 20 days of internship.

MY FIRST DAY

Officially trainee in Logos Publicity (25^th March 2014). I stayed the whole day and was introduced to the employees with a site visit. The director also shared with me his career path and the history of the company.  During the day, I was asked to make research about a new product for its launching advert and I also helped to prepare invitation to journalists for a press conference (Figure 1). This was to announce the first Festival of Theater and Music “Passe Portes” in Mauritius which will occur at the end of May.The festival will not only constitute of icon theater and music personalities but will also act like a platform for young talented artists from different countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, Reunion Island, France and Mauritius. They will get the opportunity to present their own play(written and act by themselves). Awards will also be given for the best concept. 

SECOND DAY

My second day was really special, full with unexpected events. I was invited to the press conference held in the evening. This was a great pleasure as it was the first time I assisted such event and it was exactly what I wanted to discover.  This was really impressive to be surrounded with important personalities (such as General Director of Total Anne-Solange Renouard; Director of Le Caudan Waterfront, and Director of Blue Fish, Laurent Garnier, French Ambassador). Logos Publicity's roles, during the conference, were to distribute the press kit to journalists, to take photographs of the event and also for networking. 

The importance and objectives of project were clearly explained by the organizers of Passe Portes, Catherine Swagemakers and Francois Moravic.

Figure 2 pictured the organizers, French Ambassador, and the participants from Mauritius. Figure 3 shows Mme Swagemakers during the presentation. 

 Figure 1

 Figure 2

 Figure 3

 Stay connected. More to come. I will keep you update about the festival preparation.

Elodie Lamarque

CTI Student

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Not the end but just the beginning

Hi,

So sad, it’s  my last post on the blog. I started my internship thinking how I would be able to make my place in a company. The first day was the most stressful one and some days were more exciting than others. Now that  it is the end, I feel nostalgic as slowly it started to become stimulating to go to work. I think that after the event, I was embarked on an interesting project, like thinking about strategies and tactics to help clients in the promotion of their business or services. I was able to enter into another world where there were professional public relations practitioners, journalists and event organizers. Throughout my observation, indirectly my manager and those professionals helped me to understand better the hard work that lies behind a campaign, a launch and the promotion of a company.

The experience of public relations in the real world changes my perspective on public relations as it is not only about promoting an organization. It is also about building relationship with clients so as to be able to meet their expectations. I learned that the first step when working with a client, is to listen and understand what he expects when he is working with your company. It may happen that the client himself does not know what he really wants and it is our job to provide him with creative strategies and tactics to enhance his services or products.

Moreover, I can say that the Internship has reduced my fear about my involvement in the public relations field, as it is astonishing to find out how creative ideas can pop up from your mind when you are in real life situation. The most interesting aspect of working is when you see how ideas that were in your mind come up to live and end up to be productive for the company. It is a lot of hard work to set up those ideas but in the end when they work, the reward is a priceless one.

The Internship definitely has a positive contribution in my life and fortunately I work in a company where the task done was appreciated by the colleagues and the manager. Moreover, I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn from life. Whenever I will encounter bad or good experiences in the future, I know that they will help me to strengthen my personality and be better in my job. For sure, my internship is not the end but the beginning of something new.

Marie Adeline Jules

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CTI

Never underestimate the power of social networking sites

Hi everyone,

Today, I will share with you more about my experience at Logos Publicity Limited. I have got the opportunity to bring something new to the company which has helped me to learn more about the importance of social networking sites in public relations. I have always seen social networks as mere tools to socialize with people and I used to underestimate its power until my manager asked to create a new Facebook page for the sister company of Logos Publicity Limited.

It is one thing to create a Facebook page and it is another one to promote it. I have learned that either it is a Facebook page or a YouTube channel, it is important to communicate effectively with people online. Those people can be the clients of tomorrow and they will judge the reputation of the company based on what they can access online. Nowadays, companies and people are found online and they are attentive to what you post on social networks and how you promote your company.

I have grasped the essence of Facebook when it comes to promote a company, as you do not have as much liberty as a personal Facebook page. It is rather a tool to create an intimate relation with customers and raise awareness about the services that your company can accomplish. It is the same experience for YouTube, where the company can showcase on the services it provides to other companies and it is a means to attract other clients and build up relationship with the stakeholders.

This experience also leads to the idea that people online also like your company to promote its image as being friendly than business oriented. For example, a simple post likes “Good Morning. Have a productive day” leads people to push the button like and to be ready to come back for more information about your company. This experience goes beyond my expectations as the supervisor was keen and happy of the results of the new Facebook page, as with the new YouTube channel a client contacted them to showcase one of their videos during an event. This was an additional and unexpected contribution in promoting the new sister company. The lesson that I have learned from this experience is to never underestimate the power of social networking sites in promoting a company.

Adeline Jules

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A whole new world …

Hi everyone,

My name is Adeline Jules and I am a full-time student at the Charles Telfair Institute. Let me share with you my first experience as trainee at Logos Publicity Limited. I have imagined how would be my first day at work a million times. Questions about the tasks I would be doing, the people I would meet and the place where I would work were spinning in my head.

Obviously, the first day happened and it was different from what I expected. The people at Logos Publicity Limited were welcoming and they did not make me feel as if I was a beginner in the field. The funny thing on my first day of work is the idea that I would be afraid. Guest what? I did not have time to feel the fear or anxiety as when I was allocated a place to work. I was asked to do research work for a video that would be created for an event. Therefore, I executed my work while trying to do it at my best. I was lucky to see the final product of my research before it was broadcasted for the event. I must say the modules I have learned at school, have facilitated my integration for the Internship as I was familiar with the tasks that were asked to be done. 

The next task that I have done on the other days was media clipping which consists of the promotion and launching of an event. The most interesting part of my internship is that I have participated in providing strategies and tactics to promote an up growing organization and that aims to renew his brand. This kind of experience helps to boost your confidence as you dare to speak your mind and people around you are aiming to use it to promote the campaign of that organization.

On the fifth day of my internship, the task of creating and updating a new Facebook page was undertaken, as the company wants to uphold a new branch of their company. Working was a whole new world which helps to improve the skills learned at university along with a touch of creativity. I wonder what this experience will teach me next! To be continued……

Adeline Jules

15636694

That first week!!

Hello there!

I'm Kimberley, from the Charles Telfair Institute, Mauritius.
I am actually writing from the office, I've got some time after a hard day's work. Overall I feel like working in the PR field looks a lot like what we have seen during our studies, while having some differences, of course!

I've been doing a lot of media monitoring so far, which enabled me to better familiarize with the firm's clients and to understand how demanding and time consuming it all is. I've been so scared at first to miss important articles in the newspapers concerning the clients that I ended up reading every article instead of just passing through, loosing a lot of time of course!

In those few days I've also learnt a new thing; press digests.. Never heard of them before! It actually is a list of all the times the client or its competitors have been mentioned in the media in a given month. I thought it was kind of boring to do, but in the end, it is very useful to the client, in order to know what is being said about them, or their competitors, or if they should in the future generate more coverage to compete more on the media sphere.
And today I was asked to draft my first media releases.. STRESS! I was wondering what I would be writing, if I would have enough information to have a decent media release.. In the end, turns out it was not so bad. My supervisor told me it was good and only needed a few corrections.. I was quite proud of myself..
To sum up, that first experience in the PR field, so far, is not as bad as I thought.. I am learning new things, confirming what I already knew, and improving my self-confidence concerning my skills..

See you later people!

Kimberley Cunden
CTI MRU

The end is near

For most of us, this will be our last semester at your Universities and it is sad. It is heartbreaking to leave the friends and the comfort of university life behind.
But one thing I have learnt from my internship is that the learning never stops and neither does the friends. This internship has really helped me open my eyes that there is life after university, and that things dont stop.
It also taught me that we create our own comfort. Life after university doesnt mean no friends, it just means different ones. And we need to learn to adapt to that. In the world of PR there is no space to be shy or scared. No room for doubt. We need to make all expereince count, because in the world of PR one blink and you could miss out on a lot of things.
I will forever be grateful to my intership for really giving me a transition between university and the real world.

How it starts and how it ends

Best work experience. Thats all I can say about my internship.
Ive learnt so much, and I have been able to expand my network. Contact journalists wasnt the same as I would have imagined and the internship was a great way to learn how to do it.
My boss has not only been supportive of me, he has also been understanding and taught me how things work in the real world.
Since my boss is not from Mauritius, I have also helped him by explaining to him how things work in Mauritius. It has been great learning from him. He has taught me how work should be done in teh real world, and how things are done in other countries.
I found out how to create a website, I found out A lot about internet communication. I found out about different cultures.
All three of these skills will help me into becoming a leader, and has taught me that there is always something new to learn.
I has been interesting working with the other members of the team. While they have all been from Mauritius, they have all studied at different universities, and it has been interesting to find out how things are done at their university and share skills.
The team has been great and we have never let anyone fall down, but worked together to help each other as best as possible.
While my 20 days have been completed. I will continue to work as an intern to the end of the event.
I would just like to thank my team, AIESEC and Charles Telfair for allowing me this experience.

Working in events

During my internship at AIESEC, I have been working solely on a competition that AIESEC has created called Case Challenge 2013.
It has been great working for the event. It has given me a great opportunity to put in practice all I have learnt during my degree and shown me how quick the world of events go.
I have done everything from press releases, to organizing press conferences, to facebook updates, to contacting sponsors.
Using all the skills Ive learnt during my three years has been interesting but challenging, but at the same time it has also showed me that I have a lot to learn and that even though I have my degree there is always something new. Nothing is ever boring in the world of events and PR, and you always have to be on your toes.
I love how fast paced the world of PR is. Every day there is something new to do, and everyday is a new challenge.
It has been a very different experience going from university to the real world, but I am excited for what the future bring and this internship has only helped me.

AIESEC

I started my internship at AIESEC and all I have to say is I love it.
I love how its a student run organisation. Everyone is so understanding of others and everyone has similar ideas.
I love how they encourage you get give your input. It great to find an internship that really values your ideas and opinions. As well as this they encourage you to speak out. No idea is to stupid, and they never make you feel bad.
i love the atmosphere. Because everyone who works there is young and a similar age as me everyone gets along and there is no tension in the group.
I love how they have all accepted me and been so inviting of me. Everyone has spoken to me and I cant say that one person hasnt accepted me with open arms. Not only in work but also in the private life.
I love my boss. My boss is amazing. He is understanding if every I need time off for school work. He understands when I cant do any task because of other assignments. When I need help he is always there. He always is enthusiastic about all I have to say. He has been very expressive about how happy he is that I am working there in the team.
I really am lucky coz I found the best internship.

Delving into the PR World - The most enriching journey as an intern - Hectic but Worth It!

Greetings everyone,

My last post was on the tasks that filled up my third week as an intern at Medine Limited, including the 'Laying of the Foundation Stone of the new Casela & Leisure Park' event which took place and was a rather successful one.

However after the event, many articles were printed in various newspapers and each one had its own version of relating the event mostly emphasizing on clarifications Prime Minister gave concerning other issues rather than the event itself. Only articles that I had cut out for document filing purposes focused mainly on the event. 

Also, I vividly remember that one of the articles had its headline/title wrongly quoted as per what the Prime Minister had said. More specifically there was a mix up in how the Prime Minister had delivered a particular saying in his own words. In short, he had rephrased if not paraphrased the saying from "La bave du crapaud n'atteint pas la blanche colombe" which means "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", to "La bave du crapaud n'atteint pas la blancheur du lys" implying that what is pure cannot be tainted. 

Below is the article which was published, followed by the preciseness part which had to be published to rectify the mistake:

Also, during my last week at Medine Limited, a rather serious incident took place at the Casela Nature & Leisure Park where an intern of the Safari Adventures was bitten by one of the tigers and the man of 42 had to be taken urgently to the clinic Darné. Graeme Bristow, the director of Safari Adventures stated that as he was not on the premises at this particular moment, he cannot give better clarifications as to how these events took place. Mr Bristow further said that never has such an incident happened ever before. However, when asked, Mr Mooteelall Sookram mentioned that his superior - a tamer - who asked him to help him. Mr Graeme Bristow firmly stated that for an intern who was employed only 4 days ago, he had no business being so close to the cages and most definitely did not possess required experience to approach tigers. 

However after the incident, the article published clarified that Mr Mooteelall Sookram will keep his job, receive his salary as he should, and received the best medical treatment. Additionally Safari Adventures noted that they would bear all the medical expenses and the superior given a severe warning, would be fired if not responsible in the future. 

This incident not only allowed me to witness a moment of crisis but also showed how communication through articles conveyed messages to re-assure the public and the family of the victim that this incident was taken care of in the fairest way possible. Besides, the way Safari Adventures, its director and Medine Limited reacted to the incident simply reminded me of how we as future PR professionals have been taught to manage issues and crisis management as follows:


1. Tell it all and tell it fast: 

which means using open, frank and speedy communication as it always proves to be the best strategy to minimize damage to corporate image and key relationships, hence enabling organisations to retain the initiative and maintain credibility. Also always remember never to say “No Comment”. 

2. Show you care and ensure clear, unblocked lines of communication:

this refers to the promptness with which the media should have access to information/spokespeople and the facilities to dossier their stories.

All of the above is easily summarized via Burton's crisis action plan whereby he lists out how one can manage such events in logical steps:

• Assemble your forces
• Establish the facts
• Prepare a statement
• Inform appropriate people
• Notify next of kin
• Take care of media queries
• Handle media on-site
• Organize employee interview(s)
• Do not place blame and most certainly do not speculate
• Manage other notifications

As a whole be as transparent as possible and your organisation will not be tainted.

Well this is it for my last post; how time flew by and came the time to say Good Bye to Medine Limited and to the most inspiring colleagues still feels unreal. But as the saying goes "All good things must come to an end". Yet, I strongly believe that the end's only just a short break from what's coming next - which would have to be even better, if not best !

On a different note, I just hope that you've all enjoyed your placements, acquired as much experience and knowledge as possible. Thereupon, I wish everyone good luck for their future endeavours in the PR field.

Warmest regards,
Geetika Boyjoo
Charles Telfair Institute (CTI) 
Curtin ID: 15172402

Post 2: Challenges in finding an internship and thanks to Groupe A

Hi everyone, this post is about the challenges I encountered in finding an internship.

Sending of curriculum vitae:

Since December 2012, I have already sent my curriculum vitae as well as all my certificates needed to many companies. I was waiting to get a reply from one of these companies but in vain. No reply, no phone calls till April 2013. In the mean time I asked my lecturer if it is posible to do the internship at Groupe A de Cassis and the reply was positive. I tried to apply at Groupe A de Cassis and the response was quick enough, after one week.

Responses from the companies:

In the second week of April 2013, when I have already started and enjoying my internship, two companies called me to tell me that I have been approved. I did not accept because I had already done many tasks at Groupe A de Cassis. I was wondering why these companies took so much time to give me a response.

What was my aim:

My aim of sending my curriculum vitae since December 2012 was because I wanted to complete my internship before the starting date of my studies as this semester I am doing 5 modules. It is a little bit difficult to cope but I am trying my best.

Enjoying my internship at Groupe A:

As it is a Non-governmental organisation, I enjoy a lot doing my internship there because I learn more about the issues which our society is facing and what these social workers are doing to help these people. The environment is calm and at Groupe A, the sex workers and drug addicts show respect to every one even to the visitors.

That's all for this post.
Thank you all for reading.

Post 1: About Groupe A de Cassis

About Me:
Hi everyone, my name is Marie-Lorry Coret and I am doing a BA in mass communication at the Charles Telfair Institute. My specializations are Public Relations and Journalism. As for Public Relations 393 all the students had to do an internship, I chose to do mine at Groupe A de Cassis mostly known as Lacaz A.

About Groupe A de Cassis:
Groupe A de Cassis is a Non-governmental organization operating in Port-Louis, the capital of Mauritius. This organization is mainly to help people living with the HIV/AIDS, sex workers, those living in poverty and drug addicts. These people are given food, shelter throughout the day at Lacaz A, and also the parents of the victims are given moral supports. Groupe A de Cassis organises many campaigns in order to make people aware about the dangers which are encountered by society. The last campaign organised was on Monday May 20, 2013 and it was a candle light.

Sub-organizations:
Groupe A de Cassis has many sub-organizations such as les Zenfans Benis, Viv A, SEL, Cazado, Outreach Program.

Les Zenfans Benis is a group for children aged between 7 to thirteen years old. They meet every Saturday at Lacaz A and they are guided by social workers.

Viv A is a group for all those who are living with HIV/AIDS and they all meet on Wednesdays to have counselling sessions by the members of Lacaz A.

SEL is a group of parents who have a relative in drug addition and they meet every Thursday.

Cazado is a group of youngsters who meet every Mondays where they see all the values which have been given to them.

Outreach program is to help the sex workers and the drug addicts who want to benefit the methadone.

The mission of Groupe A de Cassis is to respect the human dignity.

So far, I enjoy a lot my internship at Groupe A de Cassis because there are so many things which I am learning there.

PR should be experienced, not just taught

Hi future PR practitioners,

This will be my last post and it will wrap up some of the things that weren't taught and experienced in previous PR units. I firmly believe that a PR degree is just a starting point and as Harrison (2011, 15) has said, “Graduation is not an end to study. It is the start of a lifelong process”. By now, I can tell that only a portion of what I have learnt at university will be useful in the workplace because not only I will always be learning new things as a PR practitioner but also some of these things have to be experienced. Likewise, PR is a fast-evolving profession, so every PR practitioner has to constantly adapt to the changes in this demanding profession.

Things I didn't learn and experience at university:

1. Drafting media releases and communication plans in French (Written communication is mostly done in French in Mauritius and most PR Practitioners need to have an excellent grasp of the French language)

2. Media monitoring – Writing and sending daily Media Alerts to clients on positive and negative articles about them.

3. Calculating Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) for media coverage of PR generated news stories by measuring the dimensions of these articles and multiplying to the newspapers’ advertising rates.

4. Assisting in Press Conferences – Greeting journalists, marking their presence, noting down their contact details and distributing goodies/media kits to them.

5. Contacting and following up with journalists – confirming if they have received invitations for event/media function/press conference/round table and calling them again to mark their presence.

6. Working without a proper brief – Sometimes, we are not given a written brief for a particular task while at university we always had those for every PR assignment that we had to submit.

7. Implementing a PR Plan – We've been writing a few PR plans for real life clients at university although we've never executed any of these and this is the most complex part.

Although this internship is just a foretaste of the real thing since it was relatively short and we didn't experience everything, it actually prepares us to join the workplace confidently. Moreover, I do believe that I've done quite a lot in one month and learnt many new things. If it wasn't for the PR 393 Professional Practice unit, my knowledge and understanding of PR would be limited to only general PR concepts and guidelines. So, kudos to Curtin for having introduced that unit a few years back because it certainly allowed us to put some of the teachings of the other PR units into practice.

Okay fellow PR 393 students, now that most of us have already completed our internships and we are nearing the end of this semester, it's time to move on to other things. It felt great to share my internship experience with you and to read about yours during the last few months. I would like to seize this opportunity to wish you all best of luck with the report writing and for your future endeavors.

P.S: Do you guys have any anything else to add to the list above? You’re most welcome to do so in your comments :)

Much love,

Houmaira Ramjaun

15102108

CTI, Mauritius

References: 

Harrison, Kim. 2011. Strategic Public Relations - A practical guide to success. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan