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

15523055

Curtin Bentley

An Honest Logo

A logo is a truly important aspect for an organisation or a business. It acts as a brand, a 'go-to image', customers relate to the logo, and the logo itself provides characteristics that epitomise the company or organisation that it represents; an effective logo sums up the body that it represents.

This post focuses on an ethical dilemma that I faced towards my third segment of my placement at Northway Christian Centre. You see, for a couple months now we have planned a huge outreach style event for our community that would be held in our suburbs local community park. The event would be held just before Christmas and would have a large stage for live music and acts on the Saturday evening. The event would cater for over 2000 people and would lead into Sunday's morning church service for a 'Church in the Park' atmosphere. However, the main attraction for the event was the fact that on the Saturday, we are giving out over 1000 toys to the children of our community for free! What a spectacle this will be!

This is where the dilemma occurs... The event is purposely named very similarly to a famous animation movie (which is OK!), however the logo that was created by the graphic designer also resembles the logo for that particular movie all to well... Once I had caught eye of the logo I immediately (and professionally) approached the designer and questioned the ethics behind the design. They saw no reason to change the font, the colours or the  shapes that all formed the overall imagery and depiction of the logo. I insisted that the logo that he/she created would in fact be considered copyright infringement as Northway would be seen by the movie company to have been stealing their identity and using it to further benefit our cause. This could result in legal matters and that is the last thing a church needs as their latest communication to the world! Also the last thing we need our congregation (internal members) to associate/identify their leadership/management with. A couple weeks went by, and I was able to convince the graphic designer to meet with a media law expert to examine what would be considered right or wrong about our logo before it was published. The issues with the logo were sorted and everyone learnt a valuable lesson (including myself).

The graphic designer and I are actually best friends... It was hard remaining professional in this matter with  dealing with them, but it proved to be worthwhile as the situation not only improved our professional relationship, but also our personal relationship and respect for one another.

I hope this post helps some of you that are still working in your placements and are currently having similar ethical issues as I did. It is always worth it to do the right and honest thing! The last thing you need is to be left questioning yourself and your own personal beliefs!

Thanks for reading.

Thor Williams

13971186

Curtin Bentley