“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
–Marcel Proust.
It has been a busy few weeks to the start of my internship with Exa Web Design, Perth. From the initial interview, to sitting at my desk and finally settling down, I caught my breath and decided it was time to reflect upon my first few weeks at Exa.
Our Team at Exa
Exa was established in 2000 by Peter Ball in Melbourne and is now employing over 250 staff. Currently, Exa has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Mumbai, Bangkok and the USA.
The Perth office was established in 2009 by Christina and we have 6 staff with over 50 clients in various industries.
Our team at Exa in Perth is like a little ‘family’. Christina is our manager, Andy is our project and business developer, and Mark and Kim are our sales people.
The First Thrills of the Job!
My first day at Exa was exciting, nerve-racking and thrilling! I am so honoured and lucky to be working with Christina who is Perth’s Marketing Manager for Exa. Her success sheds light to the job opportunities and possibilities which a Public Relations degree can offer.
For my first challenge, I was assigned a media list to reformat and update for media contacts in each nation of Australia. This is a challenging task as eastern states are 3 hours ahead of Perth so I need to contact journalists before 2pm (5pm eastern state time) during their work hours.
My experiences so far!
I have been to client meetings with Christina for an architecture company and one scoping meeting with Andy and Kim. Scoping meetings consists of our Exa representatives negotiating with our clients to come to a common understanding of what our clients’ expectations and requirements are and what Exa can provide. These meetings remind me of how communication is the foundation of successful public relations. The scoping meetings illustrates the concept I learnt from my PR Corporate unit which is that proactive two-way communication is the key to creating relationships with clients and strengthening existing relationships.
My main task at Exa’s office is copy writing for clients’ websites. Web copy writing is communication with our key stakeholders at Exa which are our external clients. Andy and Quentin provide a brief of website requirements to me and I create a copy which will be read by our clients’ customers.
The line between marketing and public relations grows more elusive within a small company. Exa is quite large nationally but within Perth, Exa is considered a small company. I was anxious that my tasks at Exa were under the scope of marketing. I had a misconception that PR is about communicating with the media, creating media kits and event planning but upon reflection, I have experienced a whole new world to public relations that puts my prejudice of PR to shame. Exa is continually opening my eyes to the different avenues of PR and as Marcel Proust once said, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in having new landscapes but in having new eyes!”
Until next time,
Evelyn
