Completion of Internship

A big ‘HI’ again to all fellow interns from Tri1A 2009!

I have finally completed my internship on 27 Mar 2009 but only managed to find the time to enter my final post now. During the final week of my internship, I met the designer and photographer to discuss the souvenir magazine for the fundraising event I mentioned in my entry on 22 Mar 2009. The magazine will include details of the beneficiary, sponsors, advertisements and write-up on all the artistes who will be performing at the event. Like me, both the designer and photographer are volunteering on a pro bono basis.

Throughout my 20 working days of internship, I had the chance to draft media release, take client’s brief and prepare a PR proposal. It was a very interesting experience for me and I believe there are still a lot of things for me to learn and equip myself to work in the PR world.

Even though my internship has officially ended, I will still be assisting my internship supervisor on the fundraising event. I am really looking forward to conduct the various interviews with the artistes as well as organize the press conference which will be my very first contact with the Singapore media. I am so excited!

This is all I have to say for my final post and all the best to the rest of you in your internship and enjoy it while it lasts!

Third Week of Internship

A big ‘HI’ again to all fellow interns from Tri1A 2009!

I am now into my third week of internship. This week did not start off very well as I was down with fever, sore throat, flu and cough since Mon, 16 Mar 09. The first two days of this week were rather quiet for me until my supervisor called for an urgent meeting on Wed, 18 Mar 09. There were opportunities for 2 new projects and he needs me to do a SWOT analysis, a list of publicity opportunities and PR Proposal so that he can pitch for the projects. Unlike the luxury of having almost 2 months to complete our PR plan for our PR courses, I was only given 3 days to complete all the tasks. Though it was tough, I felt a sense of achievement and satisfaction when I was able to complete the tasks within the deadline given by my supervisor.

On Saturday, 21 Mar 09, I had to sacrifice my beauty sleep once again to attend a meeting at 8:45am for a fundraising event together with my supervisor. However, I had a pleasant surprise when one of the fundraising event committee members, Brian Richmond appeared at the meeting. He is a famous and popular radio presenter on Singapore radio station, Gold 90.5FM. I was really happy to be able to meet him in person. I had the chance to introduce myself as an intern with Majic Communications and even took a photo with him after the meeting.

For the fundraising event, my supervisor and I will be involved in the publicity. We will need to prepare a souvenir programme featuring some of the local music artistes from the 1960s and 1970s. This includes conducting interviews with the artistes so that we can prepare the write-ups to be included in the souvenir programme. Besides interviews, we also need to organize a press conference to obtain media coverage. Things are really getting exciting in my internship and although some of the activities will only happen after my internship, I am more than willing to volunteer my time to help.


An excited me next to Brian Richmond!

Second Week of Internship

A big ‘HI’ again to all fellow interns from Tri1A 2009!

Time really flies and I am into my second week of internship with Majic Communications (Singapore). I was assigned a project to organize a Heritage Trail. The trail would cover the Kranji area which is located in the northwestern part of Singapore. According to my supervisor, it is an area rich in World War II history and a good place for National Education. Some of the interesting places to visit include Hay’s Goat Farm, Kranji War Memorial, D’Kranji Farm Resort, Bollywoord Veggies, Sarimbun Scouts Camp where the Japanese army landed during WWII. Having lived in Singapore all my life, I am embarrassed to say that I have not really visited these places so I was really excited to be involved in this project.

I was given the task of preparing the itinerary for the trail and to find out details such as number of participants, pick up point, contact person (client), equipment such as portable microphone etc. I was also required to prepare an A3 size map of Kranji area so that we can display the route during the Heritage Trail. However, the most important task I had to do before the actual trail was to recce the place with my supervisor. This will allow us to determine the actual time taken for the trail and I was really looking forward to the recce which was supposed to take place on Sat, 14 Mar 09. But to my disappointment, my supervisor informed me on Mon, 9 Mar 09 that the client has cancelled the trip. I guess things always happen when they are least expected but thankfully, we were informed before the recce otherwise it will really be a lot of effort down the drain and time wasted.

On Thursday, 12 Mar 09, I met with a client from a local band for a preliminary discussion. My supervisor was supposed to go with me but he had a last minute training session and I had to go alone. I was rather nervous as this is the first time I will be meeting with an actual client in the PR world. Prior to the meeting, I prepared a list of questions and my supervisor gave his comments and made the necessary amendments. I reached the meeting venue 15 minutes earlier than the time set and was really looking forward to the client’s arrival. The meeting lasted for an hour and we had a really nice chat and I managed to get some of my questions answered. The experience reminded me of what I had learned in PR Consultancy on taking a client’s brief. I am really glad to be given the chance to take a client’s brief in the real PR world.

First Week of Internship

A big ‘HI’ to all fellow interns from Tri1A 2009!

I have just completed my first week of internship with Majic Communications (Singapore) and I am really glad that I have finally found a placement. This is my final course and semester with MIS/Curtin Singapore and I was really worried when I found out that I have to complete an internship before I could graduate. Just when I was wondering how to go about finding a placement, I met a classmate from PR International 240 who has completed her internship with Mr Robert Conceicao (Managing Director, Majic Communications) who is also one of the local tutors for our PR courses. I had a discussion with him in Jan 09 and he was willing to take me in as an intern and that marked the end of my worries.

My internship officially started on Mon, 2 Mar 09 and I was given the task of updating a draft news release and preparing a list of questions for the client to answer so that I can make the release more newsworthy. I had to recall what I learned in PR Techniques on media releases and I am looking forward to preparing the official news release and I hope to see it published in the Singapore media before the end of my internship.

I was also given the chance to be involved in a workshop on Effective Communication. As part of events management, I had to coordinate with the client on various logistics such as profile/number of attendees, duration of workshop, equipment provided etc. It was really interesting to be able to speak to real clients and learn more about events management.

The workshop was held on Sat, 7 Mar 09 at 9am and it was kind of tough for me to wake up so early on a weekend. Fortunately, I managed to ‘force’ myself to get up at 6:30am to reach the venue at 8:38am. However, Robert arrived much earlier than me and I felt really embarrassed that I had arrived later than my boss. I told myself that I must not let this happen again. We were told to expect an attendance of 25 but due to overwhelming response at the very last minute, the actual attendance was almost doubled! This taught me an important lesson of always being prepared for the unexpected just as in a crisis. Of course, this unexpected turnout was not exactly a crisis at all.

The workshop started off with Bryan Lucas (ex-employee of Majic Communications) conducting an ice-breaker. He used drums and various percussion instruments to illustrate music as a form of communication. In fact, drums were the oldest form of communication. It was fun and interesting and the sound of the drums really helped to wake me and many of the attendees up. Robert’s presentation was very interesting and it was really heart warming to see all the attendees fully engaged in the workshop. I am indeed glad to be involved in the workshop and it was certainly worth the sacrifice of my ‘beauty sleep’.


Bryan Lucas conducting the ice-breaker


Robert giving his presentation


And that is me......