It's hard to say goodbye!

When you have developed a relationship with these people, these working people, you can already call them your friends. Before i get to the sad part, let's recap shall we?

Advertising

Marketing team asked for my help to come up with a name for their new promotion. I started scribbling words that makes sense to me. I admit i might have cheated a little and used the thesaurus (EH! Hello! It's a book that provides you with knowledge! So it should be useful!) and found a few out of the ordinary words like "ballyhoo", "hullabaloo"and they chose "extravaganza" (ok, that's a little more simple and less crazy). So yes, my phrase was printed on to the promotional posters and was distributed around Miri and in facebook. 

Online Stuff

Amanda was on leave for a few days, so my assignment was to come up with short stories that fits a facebook status for her to post on MMRS's page once in 3 days. So i wrote quite a few, sufficient for 2 months. It covers just about everything - weather, fashion, entertainment industry, food, lifestyle, quotes from famous and influential people, like i said, everything i can think of. (Made me think for a second there that i could actually be a writer for a fashion magazine. pffttttt)

Marriott Matters

My assignment was to find suitable and impressive art that best fits the theme of Ramadhan, Eid Mubarak, Malaysian Independence, Sri Lankan food, and the London Olympics! My boss actually taught me how to use coraldraw and it was so user friendly and efficient. (Makes me think photoshop what? LOL) So basically i helped my boss in editing the Marriott Matters for July/August/September edition.

Birthday Card

Did i tell you that MMRS distributes birthday cards to their employees. YES! They do keep tabs on when your birthday is. Amazing right? Just when you think no one remembers your birthday, and suddenly you find a card in your locker. Brightens your day knowing that the management does care. So i helped Mr Jamal to insert the names of the birthday boys and birthday girls of the month and printed it on some cool paper they have in stored! 

Meet the GM!

Marketing team what shorthanded and they needed someone to go up and get the signature and pass something to the GM! I swear, my heart stopped beating for a bit. I don't know why i was so intimidated. Weird right? He's just another man working there. It was all in my mind about him being scary and all, when the truth is, he is so utterly friendly and smiles a lot. He actually made me smile just by looking at him smiling. So contagious. 

Making full use of the staff benefits!

Staff gets half price discount on F&B no matter lunch or dinner. So i went and have buffet dinner at Zest with my two friends. It was great! My attention was all at the dessert counter!!! Maybe it was because i have not had buffet meals in quite a while. 

And here's the sad part.

I told them that my internship period is up because i want to focus on my classes, halfway through the semester. And on my last day, they made me promise to go dinner with them, which i agree. They brought me to Dragons Seafood, Off Luak, Bakam road. I knew in my heart that i can never forget them. They are my friends that i cherish forever. 

Lobster that we had.

Appetizers! 

Sales and Marketing team, as well as PR Team. My Marriott Family

So you see folks, first it was work, then it became fun and relationships start t build up amongst friends that made them feel like family. And that was how my internship went in Miri Marriott Resort and Spa. 

This is Amira Saryati binti Misnu

Curtin University Sarawak Campus

I'm wide awake!

Katy Perry made a statement in her song saying that she's wide awake. That's how i felt when workload after workload is assigned to me. This is not pretending anymore, this is real. I felt the taste of how someone would be busy with work. With constant routine of daily media monitoring, reading newspaper after newspaper, the Food & Beverage requested for help from the PR department in assisting them to create a flag to decorate the dishes served. Picture taking with the chef, Shell and Petronas dinner coming up that need literally a thousand mini flags to be made, taking pictures of the dishes, arranging and preparing for the video shoot of the chef in Mulu - exotic food of Sarawak that will be filmed by RTM and footage will be shared with Asian Food Channel (AFC), there is so much to be done in so little time.

First Agenda
Proof reading for my boss's article for newsletter as well as the GM's letter.

Second Agenda
Fact sheet updates that needs me to research on the current property of Marriott chain. I spent a few hours in front of the laptop (thank god the internet speed is super fast, makes my life so much easier) opening websites, checking for validity of the information.

Third Agenda
Cutting and pasting of the mini flags. It's so tedious it was ridiculous! Printed mini flags, penknife, toothpick, the whole ensemble.

Fourth Agenda
Anticipating the call from RTM regarding the slot for chef cooking in Mulu cave filming

Fifth Agenda
Picture taking around the hotel.

I'm not complaining, i actually am very grateful that i received as much knowledge as they are throwing my way. I took on every task thinking that if i do great, it'll reflect so much on my impression with the hotel and my lecturer. And mostly, i just want to make a name for myself, make sure they will still remember me even after i have stop interning at the resort. Fingers crossed! Hopefully.

Updates will be up again soon!


A PR Practitioner to be,
Mea Misnu


Curtin University Sarawak Campus

Journey through High-Speed Internet to the Arabian Night!

Work has been fun! And I feel like I am meant for this industry. Besides reading, writing, reading again and writing again, i get to dip into the event management arena. Basically the marketing team promotes the facilities and offers that the hotel has to give to their customers, but to make the visions come true is the PR part in the workload. 

I had the opportunity to witness and be apart of two event this week. Awe-freakin'-some! Even though the first event did not have much work for us to do, but i had the chance to meet a few local reporters and make friends with some. MMRS became the first hotel in the northern region of Sarawak state to have high-speed internet, Metro-E service that provides 22Mbps broadband connection. That, ladies and gentleman, is one of the fastest running Internet speed in northern Sarawak. There are no delays in webpage load and everything just appears in a blink. There were corporate gifts prepared by Majupun Sdn Bhd (the company that owns MMRS) for the press and attendees - a cool black notebook. The next day i saw it in the newspaper as i was doing my daily routine. To read more about it, click here. 

So that was my first encounter of event management as a PR intern in MMRS, even though it was just a memorandum signing. Next day i was reserved by a colleague to help out in another event and this time i get to get my hands dirty, in a good way! We had to transform the ballroom into an Arabian dining place. I think we used around 20 stacks of textile material to create tents, decorate the walls, entrance, lobby and the trolly. They envisioned the whole Arabian experience and they wanted us to make it happen. We tried out best to fulfil their requests. It was tiring but at the same time fun! I snapped a few pictures of the place.

Some of the decorations for the event, to bring up the Arabian Night ambience

Entrance to the ballroom (Like i said, textile materials!)

And that's what the trolly was for. I became their test subject for the two men to practise. 

All in a day's hard work isn't it? Like i said, work equals fun! The secret to great performance in your work is when you enjoy what you are doing, and that's exactly what i am feeling. 

Updates will be up again soon!


A PR Practitioner to be,
Mea Misnu


Curtin University Sarawak Campus

A "Pre-Show" of what the new beginning feels like!

There is was, waiting anxiously in the HR Department for the officer to lead me to my boss, and it hit me, "this is probably how I would feel like, again, when I start my first job after I graduate." The person that I met, I call him the "HR guy", was friendly, smiley, nice and approachable, best part was that he speaks my dialect, which makes communication much, much easier. He gave me a pamphlet of working values needed to be a staff at Miri Marriott Resort and Spa (MMRS) and my very own trainee tag. The last time i actually wore a tag with pins on it was in secondary school, form 3, and that was like 9 years ago. Goodness, how time flies and things have changed so much.

HR guy brought me on tour of the whole vicinity including the restaurants, shops, gym, offices and the hot shoppe - where all staffs have their meal during lunch breaks. Oh! And lunch is provided. Awesome. 

I finally settled in my boss's office and he stationed me at the table just opposite him. My boss's name is Mr Lian Pasan by the way, and I met the whole Sales and Marketing team, also the PR team. Miss Amanda was the one who brought me to the hot shoppe to have lunch with her for the first time. Basically my first day was an introduction to everything there is in the office. Printers, the password, the resort's regulations and what is in stored for me to do in the next few weeks i'm here. 

The following days went on with new jobs directed to me. I was told to do media monitoring (oh shocker!) and pretty much newspapers were my best friend after that. They did not have an extra PC for me so they advice me to bring my own laptop, which i did. At first i was only told to read and identify news article related to MMRS but after a three days, they asked me to actually do media clippings. Well, that is something that we learnt in PR(Media)250 not wasted. It was actually applied in this job. I had no problem doing that because, come one lets face it, that's the easiest thing to do, true? I also had to monitor any articles or advertisements by the competitors around Miri. Advertisement was a little twisted, considering they have the same advertisement running for a month. What i did was i just took them out, but before pasting anything on the ready made template for media clippings, i chose only one out of the similar ones. 

First week was pretty much media clippings, and reading MMRS staff regulations and the history of the hotel chain. It was interesting to me because Marriott hotel chain has their own certification for PR practitioners. I studied the Marriott bible (that's what i call it, it was THICK!) but a week after, my boss told me the exam can only be taken by staff and not interns. I didn't regret reading it, but it could have been an extra addition to my resume if i had the certificate. 

Updates will be up again soon!

A PR Practitioner to be,

Mea Misnu

Curtin University Sarawak Campus