A few Words From the CEO

Dear fellow interns,

Before I conclude with my final blog post for PR 393, please allow me to share with you a few thoughts on post-event evaluations.

HSBC Brunei has recently closed the chapter on one of  its life time events. The charity event called HSBC Walk Run Cycle (WRC) was an overall success with a 90% show up from its 10,000 registrants and additional patrons who came just to enjoy the carnival. Everyone from the communications, marketing, and corporate sustainability team thought that it was the call for celebration. 

Click here for event photos! HSBC Walk Run Cycle 2012

What happened during the event 
Soon was 11.30pm and as we are leaving from our event booth, standing there was our CEO who was expecting to have a few words with us.

From a CEO's perspective

1. I realised after the event that we did not provide enough disposal bins on the field, people have no where to throw their water bottles and they end up littering on the field. I think we can improve on this   so we can have our volunteers helping on other things as well and not worried about picking up litter. Internet response on WRC's littering 
2. I also hope that we can reuse the games and banners from the WRC carnival, its only been used once and it surprises me to find out that its missing or misplaced when we need it for our next events. 
3. Whats next? The major event has ended, and we have lots of unused prizes left from the game booths. We can utilise it. We can look forward to plan another HSBC event in the smaller suburbs; its important to recognise our local communities too; its part of our company values.

His insights summed up very interestingly for me, he evaluated the overall success of an event by stepping out of the box and viewing it from a wider angle. Although the basic aspects count heavily towards the success of an event too, like what most of us would see: the attendance, any injuries, enough food and refreshments, volunteers and paramedics and police force well distributed from starting to finishing line. 

That was the insight into my CEO's thoughts on improving an event. Have you ever experienced anything similar before? 

Wishing you all the best.

Xx Jasmine

The Days Prior To An Event

The Days Prior to a Large-scale Event

Dear fellow interns

Last week I introduced you to the place I work (HSBC), and breezed through what happened on my first day in the Communications Department dealing with write-ups and more.

Tonight, the communications team and staff from 7 other branches in Brunei will be assisting in a community event that has statistically recorded over 10,000 sign ups within a blink of an eye (4 weeks to be exact). The event will involve the community to Walk, Run, or Cycle, along different designated routes with the purpose to raise awareness and funds for the children with special needs in Brunei towards a better future and education.  
- HSBC Walk Run Cycle (WRC)


Days prior to the event: 


Aside from the normal work load in the office, our communications team has been busy for the past few months dealing with the media, sponsors, and partners of the event along side with the Corporate Sustainability (CS) team who take cares of the event donations and basically the 'event planner' of WRC.


As the event was nearing, it was important to remind the public about road safety and any anticipated road closures along the routes of WRC. To ensure that the message was reaching our audience, our head of department decided to remind the WRC participants to look out for recent updates of WRC on the newspaper, through sending reminder text messages to the database. The problem arises. How can we guarantee if the media is going to publish our story? The thought of asking people to read the news that wasn't there was daunting. 


One of our colleagues even had to call the media individually to check whether our press release has made the cut to be published on the next day before sending out the text messages. Personally, I think this can only be made possible through a good relationship with the journalists or editor. 


Through the phone calls, one of the newspapers even took the opportunity to highlight that it was only fair to them to publish our stories if HSBC can buy ad spaces from their paper. Lesson learnt by the communications team: Media appreciation luncheons wasn't the most appealing way of thanking our media friends :)

                                      Communications team at the ground of WRC before the event.


Nevertheless, our event is already taking shape and the event will kick start later at 8.00pm.






Xx Jasmine
heading off to WRC... 

Fundamentals Are More Important Than Talent

Hello this is HSBC Communications office, Jasmine speaking, how may I help you?

Coming back to Brunei from Perth to find the ideal placement for PR393 sounds uncertain at the beginning for me. After two semesters of waiting and changing focus from different career fields, I have finally, FINALLY, found my placement that promises me to my dream graduation. *tears of joy

The past four weeks has seen an enormous growth in my time management skill, writing, communication, as well as reading habit and other fundamentals that may sound inconsequential for some, but has actually played a vital role for me to become a competent employee as I am today.

My first day working at HSBC's HQ in Brunei, surprisingly concluded with a good pace. The first feeling when I stepped in my office was a very welcoming HSBC theme with the red chairs and flooring; then I saw the long stretch of windows that overlook the minute capital of Brunei where traffic may sound too absurd to believe (but its true).

The first thing that reached my mind was my 'little black diary', which I remembered as a tip to us from the very first PR393 orientation session I attended at campus. I met Gerry my supervisor, who is also the Communications Manager of HSBC. He introduced me to the Marketing and Communications department, and briefed me through everyone's job scope at the department.

Then, straight away I had things to do, Gerry gave me a copy of the communications plan for the month of April, so that I can absorb what was going on for the next following weeks. And, I was more than happy to find out that I will be able to contribute the effort of my own to the annual charity event called HSBC Walk Run Cycle 2012; which has already seen an enormous improvement from the previous event last year.

This may sound funny but my first challenge after that was to write a press release, which took me the whole morning at office to edit to make sure that my writing style can match with the identity of HSBC's. My other job scopes for the day include writing a list of interview questions for the Managing Director of Valor Property Agency, and  attending a meeting with Gerry and the Advertising Sales Manager of Brunei Press to talk about the details of the supplementary pages in Borneo Bulletin.

So far, I feel that I am on the right track; I have gained a lot in such a short period of time and the Public Relations units I have registered with Curtin has definitely landed me where I am today.



Thank You for reading.

Jasmine Tan

Bentley