So, what do you actually DO...?

So what is PR? Is it throwing parties and making cool contacts?

...

Yes. My Interning experience is fun event planning, with endless funds and media contacts, and everything falls into place without any hiccups.

Has anyone gotten these questions before? Perhaps from friends or family members?
Like most of us here, I am in my final year of uni, yet I still find it hard to explain to people what my degree entails and what I am doing as a PR intern!

When I tell people the list of things I do in the day, saying it outloud makes it seem like it isnt that hard/complex/time consuming, and I find myself wanting to ellaborate just to make it sound interesting! Dont get me wrong, I really have enjoyed myself throughout the entirety of my placement, but do you ever have those moments when you are telling people and it just sounds so... mundane?

"Today I worked on a story for our newsletter, sent some questions to an author and am waiting reply, then added some pictures to the website, did some mailouts and had to reply to teachers, booked some even space for an upcoming book launch..."
Wait, how did THAT take up 8.5 hours of my day?!

They all sound pretty straight forward don't you agree?
But all of this stuff takes time! Oh is it time consuming to think of questions to send, get those questions checked by my supervisor and then our editor, wait on the responses... Go through the tedious Photoshop steps to resize and scale an image so it works on the web... Find contact details for event spaces, research and send countless emails sometimes for WEEKS to places when wanting to book spaces, drafting media releases or stories a few times, and then a few more, before getting it edited and checked before it gets the go ahead, waiting on draft images from our graphic designer... I think I have been blissfully unaware of the small details that go into PR and marketing. Maybe its like that with all jobs.. There are so many things, seemingly insignificant and small, that make the bigger picture what it is. The devil is in the details as they say!

This is just a little blog post today, a stream of consciousness if you will, about the daily tasks in my PR placement.

Do you guys find people asking you the same thing about your placement / degree? Is it as easy/simple/harder than you would have imagined? Its funny how small things take such a big chunk out of your day.. but I guess it is those small things that make it all work!

 Please let me know if you guys have had the same questions or experiences as me!

Until the next post,

Anouka

Publicity for Perth International Jazz Festival and STYLEAID 2015

Throughout the past semester I have been undertaking two internships - one at Magnetize, the online marketing company in Subiaco, and one at Muse Bureau, a Public Relations consultancy based in Mount Lawley.  These have led to me partaking in very different roles as time passes, and in doing so I’ve realised that I find the umbrella of public relations very enjoyable and definitely what I hope to be involved in with my career.

Muse Bureau handles the public relations accounts for some major events in Perth coming up, like the Perth International Jazz Festival 2015.  I have been working on the publicity for this with my supervisor Megan Knox, and part of my work on this involves contacting various media outlets and pitching the event, then finding out if they would be interested in a feature on the festival or even an interview with any of the artists on the bill.  I have then liaised with the artists themselves, and been able to organise the interviews at all levels - location, date, time etc.  

I have enjoyed this work because of the interaction, both via email and telephone, with the various names in the industry, including features writers for The West Australian and Community Newspaper Group, and also talented musicians and the artistic director of the entire event, Graham Wood.  It was then very pleasing and exciting when the May edition of OUT In Perth (Perth’s queer community paper) published an interview that I had arranged with the artist and editor!  I love when tasks you have been working on for a long time come to fruition.  It is an incredibly rewarding feeling of success - so I can’t wait to be further involved with even bigger accounts.  See media clipping below.

Muse Bureau handles the public relations for STYLEAID 2015, which got onto the front page of the West Weekend magazine with a headline on the front page of The Weekend West and a double page spread inside the magazine.  As this is a charity event raising money for the West Australian AIDS Council, this sort of publicity is great for the cause, and I will be involved in calculating the publicity values of the coverage the event receives. 

I still find myself writing little scripts for the first couple of times I make phone calls, which I find makes me more confident and at ease - this is a simple thing to do but it makes my life so much easier!  Does anyone have another trick up their sleeve that helps them in their interning?  

Not long to go in the semester - keep your heads up!

Laura

Say 'Fact Check' 5 times fast

The importance of fact checking.

We've been told about it at least a million times, from every PR tutor we've ever had.

But you never really understand something in full until it's sitting there, in the outbox, staring at you.  The media release email you've sent out highlighting an upcoming event with the 

WRONG NAME OF VENUE.

Absolute nightmare!

I was working alongside Lauren, the account support at Devahasdin.  Her job was to show me how to send an introductory email with a media release attached to prospective media outlets.  It seemed like a job that would run quite smoothly. The release and email had been written, we now just had to cater each email to each individual outlet.  Other members of the office had read the release, Lauren and myself had read the release and nothing clicked to any of us until it had been sent out.

I was reading the release one last time when I noticed the venue name was 'The Deen Hotel'. I then suddenly remembered my girlfriends saying 'The Deen' was no longer 'The Deen' and  was now some sort of sports bar.  I brought this up to Lauren who quickly did a google search and there it was: 'The Game Sports Bar, 90 Aberdeen Street, Northbridge". 

 We both looked pretty shocked.  I, for two reasons.  The first is that, this is a fairly big issue that hadn't been noticed until now and second, I was the one who has spotted the error.

Aside from stressing about how to send the correction in the fastest way possible, I was also quite pleased that I managed to stop an even larger crisis from happening.  No venue wants to host an event without having their correct name sent to the media!  

As soon as it happened I immediately remembered countless tutors of mine reiterating the importance of fact checking and there it was: proof that it really is a number one priority when working in PR.

Thankfully, I had noticed the error in time and the issue was resolved in a very efficient manner but once again, my placement taught me a practical lesson to the theory I have been learning in the classroom.

Event Listing on EventFinda.com.au

Thanks again guys!

Let me know any other dramas you've had to face during your placement :)

Claudia x

Stop and Listen

So, I’m currently nearing day 10, and I find myself thoroughly immersed in office life! At the moment I am responsible for the task of composing a detailed proposal document. This document outlines the suggested plans for the facility’s exhibition space. The proposed suggestions detail the goals, outcomes, and risks associated with each pragmatic idea. The document also contains an audience analysis, which details the importance of each goal and proposed idea in relation to the audience group and their importance to the facility, followed by realistic event proposals, their costs, benefits and risks for the organisation. It is then presented to the organisation’s managing director for review…

The completion of this proposal document proves to be a challenging task, as it requires the accelerative knowledge from areas of sales techniques, creative event proposals despite the space and resource constraints, stakeholder analysis, risk analysis and crisis management analysis. Given my lack of experience in the nature of events within the WA science community, proposing event ideas and the subsequent facility, versus audience outcomes proves to be a challenging task. Judging the appropriateness and feasibility of space suggestions proves to be a tricky task than one may originally think. Without the context to consider the successfulness or unsuccessful components of past events, and adjust ideas accordingly, making realistic suggestions is challenging. It has become quite apparent to me that we graduate with the ability to communicate, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know what we need to be communicating. Working within the computational sector has shown me that we, as communicators by trade, have to be adaptable.

From what I have read from other blog posts, it is not uncommon to observe that one of the perks of working within a small department is that my internship experience is particularly hands on. I feel a deep sense of privilege that my experience is shaping up to legitimately prepare me for full-time PR work, and that my supervisors have the level of faith in me to trust that I have the capabilities to construct this document. I suppose after three years of study, it shouldn’t come as that much of a shock to me that I possess the capable skills set. They value my opinions and my perspective, despite my inexperience within the communications industry, let alone the science sector.

If interning has taught me anything, it is that those within the communications industry need to have a broad range of communications skills, outside of PR and marketing. We need to know how to communicate, but more than that, we also need to know how to stop and listen. Communicating comes easily to us. We wouldn’t be here if it didn’t. But understanding what you’re really writing about, now that takes some skill.

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

Small events, big lessons.

Hi everyone,

The semester has officially started and I am now working part-time at Link To Life. These past couple of weeks has been tremendously exciting, as I have had a variety of public relations activities to do.

A few weeks ago I got to assist at one of the organisations awareness talks at a local community centre. When the Programme Coordinator said I would be in charge of assisting the team, and taking photographs of the event, I was thrilled. Events are one of my favourite parts of public relations: from the planning to the D-Day itself. I had the opportunity to witness how Link To Life prepares for one of its awareness talks. Generally, the organisation brings their own equipment, such as projectors, laptops, etc.

Once there, we had to set up a few Link To Life banners inside and outside the building, set up the equipment, organise the brochures to be distributed, amongst other things. I was in charge of welcoming the attendees while Cindy and Javed were preparing for their talk. Once everyone had arrived, the presentation started and I started taking some shots of the event.

One important public relations policy at Link To Life is confidentiality. As such, I was required to only take shots from behind to respect the attendees’ confidentiality during the event.

I found it amazing to be a part of this small event, as it allowed me to prepare for other events that will eventually come in the future. In addition, Selvina mentioned that I would be responsible for choosing the best pictures of the events to have them posted on Link To Life’s Facebook page.

What I have learnt from assisting to this awareness talk is how the latter can help in reaching the organisation’s key publics and eventually raise awareness about the organisation. Furthermore, posting photos of the events on social media allows those who have liked the page to see how Link To Life is helping the community in raising awareness for cancer. Ultimately, it can noticed that several public relations activities may be linked in order to reach out to a greater number of people.

Stacey x

Events - the Good and the Bad!

With my time at Pirate 88FM Fremantle soon coming to an end, I thought I’d reflect one of the more eye-opening experiences i've had - events. My experience with Pirate has definitely made me realise how fun, yet how hands-on events can be. I’ve always had an interest in events, and have even considered taking a course on multiple occasions specific to events, and my time with Pirate has definitely confirmed my desire to delve further into events experience or study. Having said this, my experience with events at Pirate has been very “tame”, you could say.

Although the events I’ve been involved in with Pirate have been small and manageable, they still taught me a few serious lessons. Back when I first started at Pirate, they had began organising their first ‘Pirate Sesh’ – which was to be a Sunday sesh held on the first Sunday of every month. The event would be run by Pirate and a local record label in Fremantle, and would see 6 local artists or bands come down to the Pirate office/ shed (the office back then was in a warehouse) to entertain whoever walked through the door. It was exciting to be involved in helping organise this event, however as I was new at the time, my responsibilities were minimal. I was to post updates on social media in the lead up to the event, try and help get the word out, and update social media on the day of the event (as well as try and drag as many of my friends along as possible!). I did my part, took some photos, and even helped interview some bands on the night.

Some photos I uploaded to Instagram at the first Pirate Sesh

The first event went swimmingly. Awesome music enjoyed by just under 100 guests, a real sense of team work and satisfaction, an awesome vibe, and plenty of profit from the night. We were stoked to run the next Pirate Sesh, and I was hoping to be more involved in organising the event. It turned out, however, there wasn’t much to be done – or so we thought. The record label would source the bands, we already had a sponsor to provide alcohol and food, Pirate already had all the equipment, and we knew what we were doing to run the event the next time. All that was left was to raise awareness and get people through the door. So, again, I updated the Facebook page every so often in the lead up to the event announcing bands, made a new Facebook event and invited tons of people, redesigned the tickets, and tried to get the word out. If we could get close to one hundred people to a brand new event before (in the middle of winter), we could do it again, easy, right?

Some of the Pirate team and myself at the first Pirate Sesh

Wrong. This time, a measly 20-30 people strolled through the door. We didn’t understand. We had a great lineup of bands, had been promoting the event for the last month, and had such great feedback the at the previous event. I can’t comment on the vibe of the night, as in the end I couldn’t actually make the event (long story short, burst water pipe at the house on a Sunday afternoon… took some time to get a tradie out!), but as far as I’m aware everything was set up just as before and prepared for an awesome afternoon and evening of local musical talent. The event barely made a profit.

Despite attempts to have an urgent team meeting after the event to discuss what went wrong, the meeting never eventuated (if you’ve read my previous blog post, you’ll know of the tendency of a lack of organisation and communication in the office…). It was decided the event would be cancelled until further notice, due to several reasons (mainly due to sudden plans to move the office into Fremantle). It’s a shame, because the event could have really been something. If I were to comment on the failure of the last event, I would have to say it came down to the inconvenience of the location (in the middle of industrial O’Connor at the time), and a lack of awareness. An event can’t simply be promoted through Facebook with the expectation people will turn up. We needed to put up posters, hand out flyers, talk to people about the event and get them excited. It was planned that this would happen, but it was never organised. Pirate has recently moved office space into the heart of Fremantle, so who knows, maybe the event will be brought to life again soon. We’ll see.

Another small event I helped organise and run was a Rock ‘N’ Roll themed quiz night, which was, thankfully, a big success. Yes, I know, it’s only a quiz night, it’s not hard to organise nor run. But the quiz night alone was probably one of the highlights of my time with Pirate.

When I started with Pirate, the idea for a quiz night was already planned, but was a whole big mess. Turns out the event was meant to be held months earlier,  by a group of events interns. Long story short, they didn’t organise much, failed to sell tickets, postponed the event, and then three out of four of them didn’t turn up anymore (sounds awful, right?). A new date had been set in September, but again, no tickets were sold and hardly anything was organised. The event was, however, still listed on Facebook. I was asked to step in and help take over the event – a task I was more than happy to take on, I love quiz nights! 

The last remaining events intern organised contra deals for tables and chairs, catering and alcohol, and got started on organising prizes. I got started on the rest. Spreading the word, inviting friends and family, getting them to invite their friends and family, and constantly pushing the event on Facebook. I wrote and voiced radio ads as part of contra deals, arranged some prizes myself, wrote an event schedule for the night, designed tickets and answer sheets, wrote quiz questions, helped source a live band for the night, and plenty of other little things. Unfortunately on the night a few team members didn’t turn up, so there were 3 of us running the event, and our manager acting as ‘Quiz Master’, so the night did tend to feel rushed from the get go! In the end, though, this only felt more satisfying. We had already sold a fair amount of tickets, and were pleasantly surprised when a huge number of last minute guests walked through the door. The little warehouse in O’Connor was packed. We had a great night with great feedback, made an impressive budget higher than our goal, and felt extremely satisfied to have turned this little disaster of an event around to a great success. Again, it was only a quiz night, but to me, it was a great accomplishment.

Some photos from the Rock 'N' Roll Quiz Night - check out my balloon raffle!

The satisfaction of an event running so well has made me want to learn more about events. As has the disappointment and frustration of an event failing. Although these were all fairly simple events, it has really inspired me. I’d love to be involved in larger scale events, where everyone works as a team, things are planned from top to bottom, and there is a real challenging aspect. Where you feel amazing when things go right, and seriously reflect, and hopefully rectify when things go wrong. It is this that I am disappointed not to have experienced more with Pirate, but I guess we all start somewhere. I can definitely see myself jumping into events experience after this internship!

My time with Pirate ends in 2 days – so until then!

Emma

How I made my boss cry

The theme of this blog is event planning and I’ll be talking about a Farewell Reception I organised for my boss and a big event I’m planning for October 22.

In a bittersweet moment, I had the opportunity to organise a Farewell Reception for Clubs WA's Executive Director of 14 years, Mr Peter Seaman. It was held a couple of weeks ago at the University Club of Western Australia and aimed to be an intimate and laid-back event where Peter could say goodbye to the "VIPs" of WA's club industry. I was very nervous as this was the first event I had to organise for Clubs WA, and really the first event I've had to organise ever. Thankfully the University Club hosts thousands of events every year and are prepared for almost everything. 

Below I have listed briefly what I had to organise in the weeks leading up to the event:

• Booked the venue and confirmed day and time.
• Put together a guest list of relevant Ministers, Corporate Partners, industry representatives, supporters, State Council and staff.
• Sent out save-the-dates.
• Followed up save-the-dates with emails to Ministerial secretaries, and other VIPs.
• Drew up budget.
• Sent out official invitations.
• Bought a gift for the ED.
• Visited the venue to get an idea of room layout and AV equipment.
• Chose the food and beverage menu.
• Confirmed all attendees and the correct spelling of their names.
• Printed all names onto name tags.
• Organised everything for a registration table.
• Plus so, so much more. 

The event turned out really well and thankfully ran smoothly. Sport & Recreation Minister Tuck Waldron, Racing & Gaming Minister Mick Murray and Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll each made a thoughtful and personal speech about their experiences of working with Peter over the past decade or so. My boss became quite teary at one point and Mick Murray made a funny speech and both of them turned red.

Although the event was quite small, with about 60 people showing up, it was still nerve wrecking having to organise the event with absolutely no experience! But it has prepared me for my next event in October, which has an expected attendance of about 130 people.

The next event I’m organising and the one that’s causing me heaps of stress is the Clubs WA Training, AGM & Networking Event on October 22.

I’ll admit that I haven’t been given a huge amount of guidance or instruction when it comes to organising either of these events and it’s making me pretty stressed. I’ve basically organised this AGM & Networking Event by looking through the previous Events Officer’s file where she has kept hardcopy invoices of everything she ordered for last year's event, and then deciding what was useful this year.  I’m so grateful that she kept such good records of everything and I plan to do the same!

Last year’s event began at 10am with an hour long Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Clubs WA company update, followed by a luncheon, trade expo and then entertainment.

This year we have decided to tie the event in with the launch of two new training workshops, Good Governance and Workplace Relations, which will begin in the morning, followed by a Canapé Reception, AGM, Clubs WA Update, Networking Luncheon, Club Leadership Panel, and then a Social Hour. This year’s theme is training and networking and we think this will boost numbers opposed to an otherwise boring AGM.

My three biggest fears for the AGM Event are that we don’t get enough numbers, that I haven’t planned well enough, and that the event goes over-budget.

Achieving the attendance goal:

I set myself the attendance goal of 130 people but I’m quietly hoping for 150.

Other than for that fact that it would heartbreaking if no one came, our Corporate Partners (sponsors) are attending so they can network with our members, and I don’t want them to think the event was a waste of time.

Last year’s Trade Expo component felt a little pushy, and most of our sponsors have been with us for a long time so their products are well known by our members. This year, I’ve planned lots of ‘break-out’ sessions for networking. For example, rather than having a three-course sit-down meal, I thought it would be nice if we served the entrée as a ‘canapé reception on arrival’ – this way our members are able to mingle and network with other industry reps and sponsors in a more informal way – think a bigger version of  ‘water-cooler talk’.

We’re 12-days out from the event and so far we have a 110 people registered which is 23 more people than last year! I think I’m doing okay promotion wise, even though I was aiming for 130 people.

We started promoting the confirmed date of the event in May, and since then have been putting articles in our monthly newsletter/magazine, in our fortnightly email blasts, on the website and through social media. My boss told me that 6-weeks out from the event we should start calling clubs, as phone calls are so much more personal. However, when we started calling clubs 6-weeks out, the majority of people we called didn’t know much about the event.

Our monthly newsletter is only sent to one person on a club’s Board (usually the Club President or CEO) and the fortnightly emails to two or three – so from calling our members I’ve realised that the Board Members do not pass information on!

So 6-weeks out from the event, instead of convincing people to purchase tickets, we were calling people to tell them about the event, which was frustrating. I instructed everyone to follow-up any phone call they made with an email thanking people for their time and to attach a copy of our event information pack and registration form. Luckily this seems to have worked, and I’ve left a note for next year’s event organiser to make the calls much earlier – I really think this would boost the numbers!

You can have a look at some of the information that was included in the event info pack and an article about the speakers written in the monthly newsletter, by clicking on the below images.

         

Event planning

I shouldn’t admit this, but I’m one of those people who leave things to the last minute (some of you will know this ;)). I think that I know myself pretty well, and I know how long I need to get things done properly. Looking at the timelines and schedules from last year’s event I know that the previous Events Officer had written the MC Script, running sheet, staff roles etc. more than three months out from the event. While this might have suited her, she would have had to of updated the scripts and running sheets constantly in the months leading up to the event as new things were decided – and I personally feel like this would have been a waste of time. Instead, I spent a total of eight hours working on the MC Script, running sheet, room plan, assigned staff roles, and an overview running sheet for sponsors just a little over two weeks from the event, and they were all approved within two days and I may only need to make one or two tiny changes. I do believe there is such a thing as over planning!

My point here is to know how long you need to complete tasks properly, and how to work to be productive.

If you have any easy networking ideas to get people talking, please feel free to share! One idea I’m thinking of is to ask people to write three words on their name tag, for example, Cambodia, photography, cricket, travel or scrap-booking, to give people conversation starters. Maybe there’s a person who’s thinking about going to Greece and then they spot someone who has Greece written on their nametag... BOOM conversation starter!

Anyway, until next time!

You can find my past blog posts here:

1. Make us famous - P.S. there's no budget

2. Don't dread the red pen

I hope everyone else is still enjoying their internships, and if you have any tips about event planning, promotion, or networking I would love to hear from you J