Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong ...

Hi everyone

As promised in my previous post, this blog is going to be a little bit about the T.A.G Hungerford awards night that Fremantle Press is involved with.

So firstly, what is the T.A.G Hungerford awards? Administered by writingWA, the award is a $12,000 prize awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a previously unpublished Western Australian author. Alongside the prize money, the winner gets their manuscript published by Fremantle Press.
The winner for 2015 was Madelaine Dickie and her manuscript, Troppo.

Winner of the T.A.G Hungerford Award, Madelaine Dickie

Held at the beautiful Fremantle Arts Centre, the setting was perfect ... But as many of you know all too well, anything that can go wrong will go wrong for an event! Claire and I were joking about this on the day, exchanging stories in the car as we set off in the car to drop some things off and begin setting up the event.

The Fremantle Arts Centre was the perfect venue to host the awards

Claire hadn't heard from Madelaine all morning, and we were both growing a little worried ... she was coming to Perth from Broome, and we knew that flights had been delayed because of torrential storms up North! This wasn't ideal for any shortlister not to be attending, especially the winner. Her plane was set to land around 2pm, and we didn't hear from her until around 4.30pm ... it is safe to say we were a little relieved when the text came through that she had arrived in Perth.

As we began setting up, we realised that The City of Fremantle hadn't dropped their pull up banner stands off. Seeing as though they were a sponsor, this wasn't ideal. Setting off in the car once again, we had to call them on the way and have one run down stairs at the town hall as Claire raced in to pick it up. Drama averted.

Back at the office we were finalising last minute things, including the guest list, name badges for the board members of Fremantle Press, and the media kit. Claire thought it was a little odd that she hadn't heard back from their usual flower company where they source bouquets for the winner from so gave her a call ... The florist had a wedding on that day and had completely forgotten! With a few hours up our sleeve, she promised to have the flowers delivered in time. Drama averted again.

Getting to the venue, I was posted at the front desk and was in charge of greeting guests and ensuring that all board members got their name badges and the judges had their assigned envelopes with the running order inside. It was then that I realised I had forgotten one of the name badges ... not the end of the world but when there are 8 others and one person missing I thought that it wouldn't look great! I had five minutes before guests were set to arrive .. armed with my clipboard, I raced down the street (thanking that our office was so close!), printed off another name badge, ran back up the hill (easier on the way down may I add) and got to the gates catching my breath and trying to look calm and collected as I rounded the corner and saw the start of our guests waiting at the closed gates... it was 5.58pm, and showtime!

Despite all of these little hiccups in the day, the night was a great success!

This blog post wasn't to criticise or point out or the flaws in the evening ... it was truly a successful night and everyone that came complimented Claire and the team and thanked us at the end of the night. I even got thanked in one of the speeches which was a nice, albeit unexpected little shock, hearing my name amongst a crowd of one hundred plus guests!
We did put time a lot of time and effort into the night, and it paid off.

I wanted to use this post to point out that no matter how well things are planned, there is always something that will go wrong ... it just depends on how well you handle these curveballs!

I remember from my PR Techniques class, writing running schedules and putting together media kits and having everything ticked off the list, thinking 'well this is perfect! Nothing could go wrong'
 - this awards night was a real life example of how you need to be prepared for the unexpected, and that you need to be flexible when things don't always go to plan!

Mayor of Fremantle Brad Pettitt announcing the winner

Madelaine with her certificate

Has anyone had similar experiences when interning at an events company? Or perhaps running an event for the company your interning at like I did? How did YOU deal with an unexpected surprise on the day of something important? I would love to hear about them in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,


Anouka
Interning at Fremantle Press,
Marketing and Communications Assistant

Interning at Fremantle Press- Reflective Blog Post 1

Hey everyone ... first blog post!

As luck would have it, I was just beginning to look for an internship when I got a message from an old uni friend asking if I was in need of one. She was leaving her role at Fremantle Press, a book publishing company where she started as an intern and then worked part time from there. A few email exchanges later and an interview with Claire, the Marketing and Communications Manager, the role was mine. Yay!

Situated in beautiful Quarry St in Freo, Fremantle Press is a small non-for-profit company that publishes Western Australian books. When going for my interview, I was curious as to what the position would actually be. Sending out books to people? Reading? Even though I am in my final year at university, my scope of what jobs are out there for my degree is somewhat limited. A marketing role in this kind of organisation ...? I wasn't sure that even existed. And oh how I was wrong!

My first day involved Kate (who got me the position) running me through as much as she could before I started the following week (my trial day was her last day). Sitting down at a computer, we went through hundreds of folders on the computer, and I was steadily filling up my little yellow notebook aka work bible to remind myself of where to find things that I would be accessing. By the end of the day, it looked as though a four year old had written throughout, reading something like this.

"HOW TO SAVE MEDIA DOCS:
Resources > 2015 Titles > Book Name > Logs > Reviews > March 2015 > Newspaper Title > "

Easy right? And thats just to save a particular file ... for a particular book ... in that particular month.


It hasn't just been computer-based work either! In the time I have been at Fremantle Press, there has been a book launch and an awards night. Some of my tasks have included calling catering companies to organise food for the book launch, sending out bookmarks to schools and libraries, emailing schools and answering enquiries, writing e-newsletter stories, contacting and interviewing authors, contacting journalists and pitching news stories ... and this was on my first official day!

The book launch we had was for Alan Carter's new crime novel, Bad Seed, at New Edition bookshop in Fremantle. Claire asked me to take the reigns and run the event that night, which was really exciting. Picking up the food and heading down to High St, I was greeted by Allan who owns the shop. Together we set up the store, and before long the store was filled with over 120 guests.
The night was a great success, with close to 100 books sold and signed that evening alone.

I have been thrown in the deep end and it's been fantastic. Claire has been great to me, helping me to settle in and answering the 101 questions I throw at her each week whilst simultaneously juggling her 101 jobs.
I feel as though I have been given a fair amount of responsibility, and am not doing the typical filing/coffee runs/errands that I was afraid I may be lumped with when I was thinking the words 'intern'. Having the title as a Marketing and Communications Assistant and being introduced as this when meeting people is really rewarding, and although it has only been a few weeks I am settling in really well.

 Some happy customers with their signed copies of Alan Carter's crime novel, Bad Seed.

New Edition Bookshop, where the Book launch for Alan Carter's new crime novel was held.





Next up is the Hungerford Awards, which I cant wait to write about in my upcoming blog!

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!


Anouka