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

Week 3: A new week along with new responsibilities

Good Morning friends,

For my third week of internship, when I arrived at work on Monday, I was told that I would not only be doing the media clippings process, but that I would also be the one in charge of uploading all of them on the Medine Limited's Head Office's intranet.

At Medine Limited, media clippings are made daily but are uploaded on the intranet every Monday.

So far I was only doing the media clippings and was only showed once how articles are uploaded on the intranet, but was never the one to actually be in charge of the whole process. Obviously, I was thrilled at the idea of being given such an opportunity, which showed that I could be trusted and given work without any continuous monitoring and was quite a fast learner.

This task easily took up my entire Monday. When I was done with the uploading, next I had to check the PDF files one by one to make sure that it was uploaded correctly and whether they eventually corresponded to their headlines. At the end of the day it felt nice to know that I got to do this task all by me and that the day after everyone connected via the intranet would be viewing these files.

However, I observed that the particular process of scanning all the articles on the same day that they are meant to be uploaded in the Press Review section took most of my time. As such, I proposed that instead of only doing daily media clippings and filing them in their specific folders, I would also go through the scanning, cropping, auto correcting and/or re-sizing, cross checking and through the conversion into PDF files daily, so that on the next Monday, less time would be spent in going through this process and as such time would considerably be saved, as only the uploading and checking would have to be done.

During the internship, I also learnt that making suggestions and working hard never hurt anyone. Of course, when making suggestions, one should not sound as if he or she is trying to impose their decisions, but should be done politely and by giving valid justification as to why and how this might help in saving time or making certain tasks easier. Even as an intern, my suggestions were often taken into consideration and put into practice, which in a way makes one feel valued.

The following days I was in charge of document filing of the articles which were uploaded the previous day and was asked to re-organize the folders in the files in alphabetical order and make simple 'Table of Contents' documents for each file. This is where organisational skills come in handy. 

The third week was pretty much about re-organizing certain folders and files and about document filing. Another section on the intranet referred to 'Living Better Tips', for that week I was also in charge of uploading new articles/files to this section and remove old articles - in other words I was generally in charge of updating the intranet specially the press review and living better tips section.

Additionally I was asked to review and add more details to a document concerning the Fondation Medine Horizons that had to be sent to Business Magazine as soon as possible.

As usual as the days passed by, I could not get the fact that - theory learnt and applying the latter in the real world of work is two very distinct processes - out of my mind. Learning is good, but being able to apply it in certain contexts and/or situations is what we are required or expected to deliver. 

I still remember and I know my fellow friends also vividly remember that at the end of every PR lectures up until now; there have always been the slides where we were told how "To be an Aspirational PR Practitioner". I personally found that these aspirational notes/steps/tips proved to be very valuable and very much applicable not only as an intern but also as an ambassador of our campus, namely - Charles Telfair Institute. 

Well, that was it for my third week experience at Medine Limited and as promised, here are some pictures of the event that took place on Friday 15th February 2013, of the 'Laying of the Foundation Stone of the new Casela & Leisure Park' by the Prime Minister - Dr. Hon. Navin Ramgoolam, GCSK, FRCP: 

The Prime Minister - Dr. Hon. Navin Ramgoolam laying the foundation stone of the new Casela & Leisure Park.

 On the left: Mr. Thierry Sauzier, Managing Director / Deputy CEO of Medine Limited, in the middle: one of the experienced feline tamer and on the right: Dr. Hon. Navin Ramgoolam.

Dr. Hon. Navin Ramgoolam (R) and Mr.  Thierry Sauzier (L) petting the cheetah under the supervision of the feline tamer expert.

On this note, I take your leave until my next blog post.

Thanking you all for your time,
Warmest regards,
Geetika Boyjoo
Curtin ID: 15172402

The first week of my PR 393 Internship

Greetings everyone, 

I am Geetika Boyjoo and am currently undergoing my final semester at the Charles Telfair Institute (CTI), Mauritius,  majoring in a Bachelor of Commerce in Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management and Public Relations.

I started my internship at the Medine Limited last week on Monday 4th of February 2013. The first day I have to admit I was rather stressed but as I got to know my colleagues and more importantly my supervisor, I was able to adapt and understand what the internship entails.

However, before giving you an insight of my first week at Medine Limited, allow me to give you a brief introduction of the company. 

Medine started off as a sugar estate, which means that it formed part of the sugar industry which was once Mauritius's main economic pillar back in 1911, when Medine was first established. Later on Medine diversified its activities into other promising ventures as the sugar industry's economic importance declined with time. As such, in 2009 Medine divided its activities through a rebranding exercise, into 3 definite clusters which are as follow:

1. Medine Property: this involves the development of the property portfolio of the company.
2. Medine Agriculture: this cluster's role is to generate and try to implement innovations related to the agricultural activities of the group while at the same time considering diversification programs.
3. Medine Leisure: is all about managing, operating and developing the leisure activities of the Group, including the Casela - the Group's leisure hub.

For more information, you may visit their website on the following link: 

http://www.medine.com/  

and/or if you prefer their facebook page on: 

https://www.facebook.com/MedineLimited?fref=ts

As you will be able to see on their website, the Group also does news, publications and CSR-related works. The Corporate Sustainability and Communication Department at the Head Office, is where I am following my internship. 

The first few days were already scheduled as being my period of Familiarisation with Medine Limited through their printed materials namely their newsletter - 'The Medine Post', their website and facebook page and their Medine Master Plan - a document downloadable from their website which is a high-quality document written and published in 2005 by a team of architects, town-planners and sociologists under the guidance of Mr. Maurice Giraud, one of the architect planners.

This specific document contains all the details of the vision and plans of the organisation over the western part of Mauritius for the coming years. 

Up until now many of the projects have been undertaken and are still ongoing. Also every year the Medine Master Plan is reviewed, updated and adapted to current economic situation and according to present demands. Below are the covers of the latest 'The Medine Post' and the Medine Master Plan:

Moving on, on the first day, apart from going through the familiarisation process, I was able to experience what real media clipping is all about.

 What I was asked to do, was to convert the JPEG articles into PDF documents to be uploaded on their intranet so that everyone connected would be able to get access to it on one main location, in order of - published date and  - separated into 5 sections, namely:

1. Agro Industry 

2. Tourism & Leisure

3.Property Development

4.Regarding Medine, and 

5. Education 

Additionally, I was asked to make a comparative study which involved research work to identify in what ways Medine was different or similar to its competitors.

Moreover, I was asked for the address details of particular ministers and ambassadors for which took place yesterday night - 15.02.13 - concerning the laying of the foundation stone at Casela by the Prime Minister. 

Even if I was not asked to search for their phone numbers, fax number and e-mail addresses, I produced a contact list where these were included in case these were urgently needed. I used the same procedure when making the ambassadors' contact list and as a matter of fact, these two documents came in handy when we had to make follow up calls afterwards. 

Also, during the first week I learnt how to officially communicate on behalf of Medine Limited, whether this was done by calls or e-mails when asking for quotations of certain logistics and how crucial proof-reading is before sending out e-mails. 

Furthermore, what I essentially grasped was that representing such an organisation called for professional behaviour and attitude. 

Afterwards I got to help with the company's fun day scheduled for their employees, which involved:

1. Cross checking of a Power point presentation

2. Re-organising and adding details to a budget document

3. Making integral calls, and 

4. Chase up calls of logistics

As a whole, this is how my first week went by in a jiffy. Having been working on these two events is the reason why I was not able to post my first blog earlier.

Nonetheless, remain posted to check my second blog post coming up soon.

In the meantime, I wish you all good luck with your internships,

Take care everyone,

Warmest regards,

Geetika Boyjoo

Curtin ID: 15172402