Evaluation In Action.

We have been taught since our first year studying PR about the importance of evaluation in strategic planning. Evaluation acts as a way to see the effectiveness of a project and allows you to see if original objectives have been achieved.

I have been fortunate enough in my time at Momentum Forum Events to be a part of evaluating. Early on in my internship I was tasked with sending personalised invitations for an event to Momentum’s existing contact list. However, there were lots of contact lists and ensuring invitations were not sent out multiple times to the same person was becoming an issue. So we decided that in order to save time and become more efficient in the future, we would type up and place all the contacts in alphabetical order as well as separating them into contacts for each event. Now when sending out invitations for the Men In Black Ball, I see how much more effective the new system has become.

Similarly when updating Momentum’s social media pages we pay particular attention to how well the updates are received online. By looking in detail at what was posted in the past that did and did not work we are able to see the best types of posts to write, the best time of day to post it and exactly who to target. Making sure social media is evaluated is a really important way to see if the audience is receiving the information. If the audience is not being reached, it is not working and objectives won’t be reached.

Old logo

Recently, Momentum has started revitalising their image as a whole and it has been such a great project to be a part of. The reason for the update is simply to bring the company image into the “now”.  The company logo was the first aspect to get an update. The old logo had been used for many years and no longer reflected the quality of the company and the events that Momentum holds. Therefore the aim of choosing a new logo was both to update the image and also to reflect the quality of the company. The logo chosen brings Momentum into the now as well as showing the audience the kind of company Momentum is: An events management company that holds five star events.

So far the new logo has been used in the current media release and the new sponsorship proposal. The

Updated logo

sponsorship proposal is another area that has been updated. When sending out sponsorships recently we realised that the proposal no longer accurately reflected what Momentum could offer. So before we went any further with reaching out to sponsors we stopped, rearranged our plans for the day and revised the document.

Being able to experience evaluation in action has been such an important aspect of my internship. I have learnt that in order to move forward in any project you need to understand whether what you are doing is working and if it is not, how you can go about making it work.

Until next time!

Kiara Bonasera

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Curtin Bentley

Public Relations Internship, First Blog for Cancer Support Association.

Blog 1, week 1, 9th of September. Let me start by saying that at first I was struck by my limited knowledge of Cancer Support Western Australia, which at that start of seeing an advertisement for a public relations/marketing intern I had hardly even heard of the charity. I had no idea of Cancer support’s wellness and healing approaches towards the cancer-diagnosed public, I had absolutely no knowledge of nutrition, exercise or meditation treatments for their Western Australian stakeholders and I certainly had never participated in their education programs or donated directly. So I applied on the 2nd of September which was a Monday afternoon in the hope I could change this and two days later into the Curtin University study break on the 4th of September I attended an interview for the position. I was to start the next Monday on the 9th of September as an intern working in the public relations/marketing team under the leadership of the Cancer Support WA Marketing Manager as well as the Assistant Marketing Manager. My first tasks for that week were to familiarize myself with the office/building I would be working in for three days a week and to observe Cancer Support WA standard practices as well as computing software I would be expected to use. I arrived an hour early at 8am to allow for a good working impression and set about promoting a good work ethic among my co-workers. To achieve this goal I started by helping other volunteers with a “mail-out” which consisted of packing envelopes with CSWA materials to be sent for a future event, I would later learn that these were for an Annual General Meeting or AGM. It was explained to me that I would be involved in updating and posting for Cancer Support’s interlinked Facebook page, Twitter account and informative blog as well as some work to improve the CSWA website. I would also be involved in some advertising work for the Cancer Support WA various other events including street appeals. Thanks, Rob Dougherty

The start of something new

Hello all!

My name is Natasha Weeks and I'm a full-time student at Curtin University in Bentley, Western Australia. This is my final semester (woo!) of my Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Marketing and Public Relations. This has certainly been an eye-opening journey for me so far. Exciting doors are opening that I want to just leap through after graduation!

I have been patiently waiting for PR393 since the start of my degree, and after two and a half years of classes, towards the end of last semester I landed an internship opportunity at Scitech WA. I began my work placement -twice a week- just under three weeks ago, so I've now completed the first quarter of my 20 day placement. I am now fairly settled into my work environment and can comfortably discuss Scitech as an organisation, as well as the activities I'm destined to be involved in during my time here. I'm really excited about working here because in all honesty, Scitech takes the cake for coolest place to work at voluntarily!

Scitech's mission statement illustrates that it is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to increase awareness, interest, capability and participation by all Western Australians in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Scitech 2013. http://www.scitech.org.au/our-mission/notices/our-mission/Page-2.html). They are West Australia's leading science education centre and offer a number of experiences for visitors of all ages and demographics. Scitech features exhibits, live shows, an in-house CSIRO lab, Australia's largest Planetarium - Horizon, as well as an extensive touring program that visits every regional and remote community across Western Australia.

As you can probably tell just from the above paragraph, there is always a lot going on at Scitech so it's a really exciting atmosphere to be a part of. My first week included a lot of getting to know the organisation, so discussing the IT Policy and the use of photo release forms (a lot of the time we work with children and schools), and reviewing the company's five year plan; their vision, key programs and financial targets which gave me a good idea of the direction the organisation was headed.  I spent a lot of time meeting all the friendly faces around the office and sat in on a couple of awesome shows with the kids (getting to know the company, I swear!). I also spent quite a lot of time on data entry for maintaining customer feedback and inputing coupons from discounts, I started during the school holidays - the busiest time for Scitech - and although the process seemed monotonous at the time, it's actually given me a great idea of how Scitech's target stakeholders - their guests - view the company.

During my second week I went behind-the-scenes of Scitech's social media and now understand the uses of HootSuite; collating all social media platforms onto one handy tool, and Mention; a communications tool used to monitor an organisations online presence by highlighting FaceBook comments, Instagram posts, websites, blogs and everything else you could possibly find on the internet with the word 'Scitech', I felt a bit like a spy!

National Science Week, Scitech's 25th Birthday and Scitech After Dark are major events coming up, so I've been doing work on draft media releases (gulp!), and archiving media clippings that date back to as early as 1988! That was extremely interesting, it brought back a few childhood memories for me as well as gave incredible insight into the history of the organisation and the contrast of events and exhibitions from then and now.

Here at Scitech there are also other projects I've begun working on - they're stories for another time :)

We learn things in class, but it really doesn't compare to getting out there in the real world and putting textbook knowledge into practice. This really is a new, exciting experience! Good luck to everyone. Though we're all in the same position, each of us will have unique experiences and I'm excited to read all about them.

Over and out!

Natasha Weeks
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Bentley

It's a first for everything

Today was my first day the 20-day internship at the Department of Education Services. I will be located in the section of Training Accreditation Council, who regulates courses delivered at higher education departments and TAFE’s, which is delivered by Registered Training Providers (RTOs). Before I commenced my internship, I had done research about the Department and TAC; however, I could not get a clear understanding the services they provide. Luckily, on my first day I had an information session with one of the Register Officers at TAC before I started to commence any work, in order to get a better knowledge of the industry. During the session, my questions were all being answered. How does a person become an RTO? How do you accredit a course? The answers are too complicated to outline in this blog post, but believe me, at the end of my first day I am not even 100 per cent sure because it is a lengthy and complex process that will take time to learn. One of the main issues I could identify without being with the organisation for a long time is the webpage and how it is out dated and difficult to navigate. TAC receives a large amount of complaints regarding communications problems on its website. This became one of my first tasks, to draft up a new webpage that could improve the outlook of TAC as a modern organisation. Sadly, I had to use Microsoft Word because it was not any design programs available so the template looked quite basic. When working in the public sector, new implementations has to go through a series of decision making progresses to identify if those changes could be utilised or not within the allocated budget. Being in the public sector, funding is always a problem. Previously, one of the Managers for Regulation had asked to increase the funding so the needed update for the webpage would be possible to implement but that proposition was rejected. My supervisor wanted me to organise the webpage to reflect on how the organisation is operating, but in a monetary efficient way. My suggestions included tools such as social media, a search function on the webpage to reduce the difficulty of navigation, more inviting pictures on the homepage, changes of the position of the navigation buttons and so forth. All to be more user friendly and less complicated. However, time will examine if the suggestions are applied or not during my placement at TAC.

Until next time,

Karolina

The Beginning and End of an Era

Hi Everyone!

So here we are! The last week of semester...it has flown by. I finished my placement at Kings Park last Sunday when i had one last day left of event management during the festival left. It was really great to do some event management throughout the festival and see what all our hard work in the lead up had gone towards.

I have learnt so much during my placement and my time at Kings Park has been nothing but a positive one. I have been involved in so many services such as promotion, advertising, community relations, government relations, stakeholder management and event management. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to experience a new working environment and make many new contacts along the way.

I now know that having good time management is a must in the PR industry. I know that it is crucial to make positive relationships with everyone you deal with. I know that what we learnt at uni did actually help when working in the "real world". I know that it is important to do better than what others and yourself expect of you. And i know that you should do all of this with a friendly, professional, honest, credible and approachable manner.

I think the PR 393 Placement unit is one of the best units because it gives all student to kick off their experience or to add to their professional experience. I still believe that hands on experience is where we learn our best lessons, and from the experiences i have had this year i will keep believing this until proven otherwise.

Hope you all had as positive experiences as i did and good luck with those placement reports!

Kelly

Gaining Exposure and Making Contacts!

Hi everyone!

I have finished my first placement at Presbyterian Ladies College last week – it was a great two and a half months of part time community relations experience. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. The team I worked with were really nice and I learnt a lot. However, I now know that that type of environment and field of work is not what I would like to work in. I think it is a little slow-paced for me and I believe I am suited to a place with a more intense nature that is more challenging to me. It was worthwhile being there though and I am glad for the experience. I am on the Public Relations Student Chapter as the Design Coordinator and last night we hosted an event – PR in Mining & Resources. Many of the PR professionals that came to talk to us said that any experience is very worthwhile and that sometimes you have to do some jobs that you may not like or suit you to get to where you want to be. I think this is wise advice and applies to me in this situation.

I am still doing my placement at Kings Park for the Kings Park Festival. I am really enjoying it there. We had a lot of work to do in the last few weeks leading up to September (the start of the festival) and we had a lot of our content be released onto the website, articles published in newspapers and photo shoots for the newspapers as well. Something that was not mentioned in my job description, but I got the opportunity to be in the promotional photo shoot for the West Australian. It gained a lot of exposure for the festival and there was a lot of positive feedback from it. Here is the photo that was in the West Australian!

Now that the festival is underway it will be great to do some work out in the field and see where all my hard work has been going!

Till next time.

Kelly

Promotion, Promotion, Promotion!

Hi all!

Now that we are half way through August the Kings Park Festival is approaching very fast! I have been very busy distributing all our promotional material packages to hotels, libraries, residential areas, and many organisations for elderly people and disabled people. We are also in the process of organising advertising in the West Australian and really pushing the promo in the last few weeks up until the festival which starts on September 1. We have been organising content and photos for social media updates throughout the festival. Once the festival starts I will be out in the park doing some event management and making sure everyone is organised and everything is running smoothly. I am really looking forward to it! Below are some examples of the promotional photos I have chosen to use for the website and face book.

My internship at PLC has been very busy lately as well. We have had one big event last week which was a 50 year reunion. Everything ran really smoothly and it was great to see where all my hard work had gone to and to see it was a success. Next week we have our biggest event which is the schools' Founders Day. I have been working on this a lot so it will be great to see how it all goes.

I hope everyone is still enjoying their placements!

Kelly

The Juggling Act

Hi There!

Wow...What a hectic last couple of months! I started a placement as Events Assistant at Kings Park in June – doing the PR in the lead up to the Kings Park Festival in September – and then also started my Internship at Presbyterian Ladies College Public Affairs Department. So on top of two placements and uni and tying to have a social life – its been crazy!

Working at Kings Park has been really interesting. I am part of a small communications team and we are doing everything in preparation for the Kings Park Festival. The festival runs every day in September with events and activities on every day. Also, every weekend there are Live Music Sundays. So, there is a lot to organise! I have been doing a whole range of things so far – from design work for promotional material to organising distribution lists and booking musicians and artists and writing up contracts for everyone involved in the festival. It has been really interesting having meetings with external PR professionals that help work on the festival and seeing what their lives are like.

My internship at PLC is a little less hectic. It is community relations based and I have been working on a range of events that the school hold to retain involvement of past students. It has been really good working on events from the very beginning until the end. We are at the point now where all the preparation is done and the events are about to start happening. It should be a good end to my internship to attend and run the events that all my hard work has gone into.

I guess this is all just a small taste of what working full time is going to be like!

I am looking forward to seeing what else I get to experience over the next few months, and hearing about everyone else’s placements!

Kelly

A little trick I’d like to share

Reflecting on the Internship at Artsource, I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity. Reflecting over the past twenty days I was able to put into practice a lot of the PR theories I learnt over my tertiary education.

I was given a variety of tasks, ranging from gathering information for the client’s website, media and galleries distribution lists, brainstorming and implementation of PR strategies, contacting sponsors, creating media kits, a pitch to a magazine, e-newsletters to sponsors, and much more.

In our past PR assignments, we often only needed to pitch the product/idea/event to just one particular audience. On the contrary as a PR professional, I often had to present the event to a multitude of target audiences.

As a company Artsource is in charge of the marketing and public relations for an event hosted by the Shire of Roebourne. Our services include creation of media releases to promote the event to different segment of the community; Arts, Business, Local, National, State and Travel.

Some of the challenges I personally faced was to write a media release, particulary one that aimed at an audience with a business interest. I was fortunate enough that one my colleagues, Nicola Zed, offered help in the form of Financial Review and WA Business Newspapers. After reading a few articles, I was able to find an appropriate angle and write the media release accordingly.

Now before I finish this last blog post, I would like to thank Artsource and especially to my supervisor, Tabitha Minns, for the support and guidance she has given me over my internship program. I also greatly value the rapport and network I have developed with the rest of the team at Artsource.

Daniela Sasongko

Gong Xi Fa Chai! Time of family gathering and respecting the elders

Every first day of the Lunar Year the Chinese and other races will come together and celebrate Chinese New Year, where family and friends get together for open house and enjoying each other’s company. On this day, children will wish their elders happy Chinese new year and each will get an ‘ang pao’ as a reward. This can also be said as a day where everyone pays their respect to their parents and grandparents. There is no difference in Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu for this celebration. We decide to visit the Sri Pritchard Home, a home for elderly. In conjunction to that, there were lots of preparations to be made.

I was very much involved in this celebration as, I am now not a new intern here, my colleagues and I bonded quite well after a month. I was responsible for the gifts that we would be giving the residence there. This year we all agree on giving a hamper to every residence. I never thought that wrapping hampers would take up so much energy and time. From ordering the items inside to arranging the items and wrap and decorate it. Everything takes time.

On that day, everyone wore casually as we load the entire hamper into the hotel’s catering lorry and off we go to visit Sri Pritchard Homes. When we’re there, all the residences there are so welcoming. We then move all the hampers and the special Yee Sang into the hall. Most of the residences are gathered there as they wait for our arrival. All of them look so happy and excited to meet us.

First we started with a speech, and then continue with the Yee Sang (Toasting Ceremony). After that, the general manager of Le Meridien Kota Kinabalu went around to give out the ang pao and hamper. While the GM is doing so, the rest of us mingle around and talk to the residence there. It was fun and there were many stories from all of them, some were sad but some were very touching.

After taking picture we all went back to the hotel. It was truly a wonderful experience. Besides having to go on that trip, we also gave out gifts to the media outlets as to thank and wish them in this special occasion.

Below is a featured article on our visit and also one of the outlets that we send our gift to.

Group Photo in Sri Pritchard

Featured Article in New Sabah Times on the visit to Sri Pritchard

Sending gifts to media outlets. 

Beauty and the 3geeks

Beauty and the 3geeks

Episode 2; Would you recruit me?       

Good morning,

In episode 1 the focus of my placement at the digital agency; 3geeks, was to lay a solid foundation for their new social media department. With proposal and presentation templates firmly in place it was now time to test how effective they were. My boss and I had a meeting with one of Perth’s leading recruitment agency’s to discuss the potential of implementing a social media strategy. I had met the owner (aka the decision maker) very briefly before the meeting so I wasn’t walking in blindfolded however it was a big pitch and very different to presentations I had done in the past and also anything I had pitched at University.

The agency was already aware of the importance social media placed on the future success of most organisations however they did not have the resources or experience to fulfil on the strategy we were suggesting.  Our proposal (another PR technique I had been graded on many times before) included the management of their Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin and Youtube accounts. It was exciting and confronting to be talking to not only a “real” client but also a potential BIG client about managing their digital footprint on such a large scale.

At University we have been taught about budgets and timelines for supposed clients and it was satisfying to be proposing something in reality and for a client that actually invested in marketing or PR activities. The only clients we had come close to working with at Uni were charities and typically these organisations don’t have the money to spend on excess marketing, advertising and public relations therefore it was refreshing to be able to unleash our creativity with this campaign and still produce value for money.

(A Rolls Royce Camopaign).

The pitch went well (I felt) and my boss was happy so we crossed our fingers and waited for their response. They were happy with us BUT wanted to know what a step down from the campaign would cost them so requested we come back to them with a ‘Plan B’ proposal so they could choose.  This response was positive for me, we were proposing a 'Rolls Royce' of campaigns and they wanted to see how a 'Mercedes' would look.

After this pitch I had a completely new experience of what we call an “oral presentation” at University. Although the process was a lot more natural in this context it was also a lot more confronting and I was left waiting for a contract rather than a grade.

Overall it was an enjoyable experience and I learnt a lot! Working with my boss to ensure we were on the same page before, during and after the meeting was crucial. This is more important in a small working environment and is also obvious to a client. Therefore we worked together making sure we agreed on every part of our proposed campaign and did we land the job??? Episode 3 will answer all ;)

Final thought: don’t take them up on a coffee at the start of a meeting it’s too hot to drink until after the meeting is over.

Thanks for reading,

Ashlee Harrison

Lights, camera, action.

For the second time, hello everyone!

It's been awhile since the last post, busy with the Go Go Retro Roadshow, and now that it's over, I shall start on the happenings for the pre-event. Well, better late than never.

So the last time I mentioned about media releases and stuff like that. After putting news out that the event is on the 15th of April, we had to start doing publicity and get more stall holders to join in the event. One of my tasks was to get models for the promotional photo shoot, which will be showcasing some of the stall holders' items. I managed to get two professional models to do it but the changing of dates for the shoot sure wasn't making things easy for me. Finding a suitable time and location for both the model and the media photographer was already enough to keep me busy. Finally we managed to agree on a date that was good for both sides but last minute changes from the media side meant that I had to change the date of the shoot, yet again. Plus the fact that the model was sick at that time wasn't an ideal situation. Few days later, I got a call from my supervisor saying that we have to do the shoot the very next day. I called the model, and of course, it was too last minute and she couldn't commit. The next thing I could remember was my supervisor saying: "you'll go for it". Before I realized, I was at the studio doing the shoot. It turned out to be a really great experience but one thing I learnt, there's really no guarantee when working with people. Changes happen all the time in this industry and you just have to always make sure to have a back up plan. Like they always say: "what can go wrong, will go wrong".

And from there, we went into the event. Shall talk about it in the next post. Laters! x

Wee Ee

Working is not as easy as going to schooling

During my first day in Le Meridian Hotel, I was given my uniform and then the Human Resource trainees Manager brought me around and showed me every department. This allows me to get to know most of my colleagues and also my way around the hotel. After the entire introduction, I was directed to my supervisor, Jocelyn Banding, Marketing Communication Manager. When I met her, she showed me where is my seat, and brief me trough what would I be doing throughout this placement. After that, I went along with her to the daily briefing. In that briefing I was introduced to the entire sales and marketing group.

For the first week of my placement, I was assign to do all the media clippings, from English to Chinese and Malay newspapers. Besides that, the hotel is being audited on their branding. I was also responsible to make sure that all brand standards was meet and take pictures to prove to the head quarter. This few days I experience the real working experience of going to work in the morning, having lunch with colleagues and taking on responsibilities and also order from our supervisors.

Basically, the first week of my placement was just getting to know the hotel and their branding standards for future purpose. To guide me on the standards, my supervisor passed my four Starwood branding guide book. I read it and understand it, it consist many artist. Their three main core value are sheik, element of discovery and culture. Everything they do must have at least one of the elements in it. Therefore, my assignment for the first week is just to do media clippings, at the same time know the hotel’s competitors and what were the current affairs.

The Internet

We use the Internet every day. More often than not, we take it for granted. This week I realised how the Internet has made our jobs as PR Professionals – so much easier!

Research and e-mails

One of the tasks in my internship this week is to distribute the Cossack Art Award’s ‘call for entry’ to galleries around Australia. After typing the email addresses of contact personnel of each gallery (which was found in an arts magazine), Microsoft outlook informed me of the some recipients with invalid emails. This is where the Internet comes in handy – It allows me to go to the galleries’ website and find the correct email addresses. Can you imagine if I had to use the phonebook or a long and outdated database to search this particular information?

This an example of the ‘call for entry’ advertisement:

Social Media

In this new era of social media, can we imagine our lives without the Internet? Facebook has been one of the biggest changes in the workforce and in our personal lives. It allows us to connect with people from all over the world and to find events on the other side of the globe.

In the internship, I was in charge of updating the Cossack Art Award’s Facebook page. I gave it a ‘face-lift’ with new profile picture, updated status, timeline and created new events. I was able to put all the relevant information online for free! Facebook has allowed the Cossack Art Award to have a constant presence in our Facebook fans’ lives. We are constantly in their notifications, and in the pages they visit (by using Facebook ads).

As we have all learned in PR and from this post, Internet has made our lives easier and opened many opportunities for us to communicate to a wider audience. I am eager to see what other opportunities it can bring for us PR Professionals!!

Until next time,

Daniela