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.

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

So what's the point of it all?

Hi everyone,

So as I'm now at the end of my placement and getting stuck in to my final report it's got me wondering what exactly the impact of Public Relations has been on Cancer Support WA.

After these years of study I was already of the opinion that Public Relations is an important component of any successful organisation. However, it was only after working at CSWA that I came to realise the integral role it plays in the success of not-for-profit organisations in particular.

With a limited budget and a number of other departments taking financial priority the promotion of the organisation and the services it offers is expected to be done through the acquisition of media coverage and stakeholder communication free of charge through Public Relations techniques.
This strategy being adopted out of necessity means that the organisation is dependent upon the PR department to perform.
 
As Grunig and Hunt put it "Public Relations is the management of communication between an organisation and its publics", and it is clear to me now that if PR was overlooked at CSWA there would be no effective communication between the organisation and its stakeholders which would inevitably lead to a huge decline in the number of new clients as well as donations and volunteers. Since CSWA is a charity and not profit driven this wouldn't just jeopardise their earnings, it would ultimately mean less people in need would receive assistance. 
The hard work of all of the other departments is backed up by effective public relations to make the most of the organisations potential to do good.

Well, that's about it. 20 days didn't sound like long going in, but I have learned SO much during my time with Cancer Support WA. I couldn't be happier with my internship experience and am thankful to have spent my time within such a fantastic organisation. 

Kelsey

All Good Things Come to an End - What I Learnt

Hello again all,

Well I've just finished up my last week at The Communications Store and it has been quite a learning experience. I thought I'd reflect on what I learnt and also my thoughts and feelings on the industry.

I feel as though there are so many minor details I have learnt which are hard to dig out of my memory right now, but were just so important. Little things about how to present yourself, how to talk to your co-workers, and how to talk with the press. I suppose I'll just have to focus on my most 'stand out' learning experiences.

First of all, I feel as though PR is all about dealing with people effectively. If you can do that, you're half way to success. Many of the executives in my team, particularly my supervisor, spent so much of their working hours on the phone building relationships. Once I was putting together a mail out - virtually just putting together bags of clients' products to send out to journalists - and my very busy supervisor took the time out of her day to go over all of them. She was making sure the products were relevant to the journalists' tastes and publications, and was including personalised notes for many of the journalists who demanded a more personal relationship with her.

This is only one example of the importance of dealing with people; I saw this every day. I love this aspect of PR because it's so nice to be social in your workplace, and I much prefer the idea of working with people in tandem with computers.

I learnt about the importance of what I would call 'house style'. I was always tempted to be super creative whenever I got the chance to do something exciting in my internship, but it was a priority that I held up the agency's image and reputation if I wanted to succeed. Every time I was given the opportunity to write something, or put a presentation together, it had to follow a previous example which was provided for me.

I suppose this aspect is a little disappointing; I thought that public relations would be an incredibly creative job. However, maybe the creative side will come into play later in my career - for now I'm at the bottom of the food chain!

I've also learnt a lot about myself and my career. I was so hesitant to step into the PR field, I suppose because I am a creature of habit by nature, and it was an intimidating thought. However I now wish I had started months ago, I loved office life for the month I had it. I always knew what hours to expect from my week, I always had weekends off, get to enjoy bank holidays, and in future when I'm not just an intern I will earn so much more than I ever have before. On top of this I get to spend my working hours using my brain, being creative and developing relationships with co-workers and the press. Why did I stay in hospitality for so long again?!

I wish so much that I could have stayed on at The Communications Store but it always had to end. The team are all adamant about me staying in touch with them, so who knows, maybe one day soon they will need me back!

I hope you all had positive experiences in your internships, and if you didn't, maybe try again somewhere else.

That will be all from me! Can't believe I'm graduating soon!! :D

Jessie x

20 Days as an Intern: A Reflection

At the conclusion of my time at Baptistcare, it seems fitting to reflect on my personal performance – my strengths, weaknesses, what I have learned and what I could have done better. So here goes.

I completed my internship over the course of Semester One, 2012, rather than 20 consecutive days. Not being in the office every day meant that I often missed out on critical team events or important meetings and was left with no work to complete. I was neglected during busy periods where the team was otherwise occupied, and I felt guilty constantly asking my supervisor what I could do to contribute during times of neglect. As the internship spanned a longer period of time, I also felt a loss of motivation and lack of personal value to the team at times.

However, there were times where I was very involved and felt like a true member of the team. I thoroughly enjoyed being part of a team and collaborating with everyone on projects such as the quarterly newsletter. My friendly manner and mature, responsible nature meant that the team was able to trust me with important activities such as articles, press releases and letters. And with other functions such as graphic design, events and strategic marketing needing assistance, I found additional work to keep me occupied.

I found communication to be very important - the key to success. I would constantly update my supervisor via e-mail on my progress during the day so that she knew what I was doing or where I was at without having to ask. It also meant that she knew I was working hard. I also learned to get on the phone or see somebody in person if I needed the assistance of somebody in the organisation. Having to contact people right across the organisation spanning different locations throughout the state, e-mail was not always the best option, and work was often held up waiting for people to respond to questions or requests.

Besides from the experience, I believe that the most valuable element which I gained from my internship was comfort and familiarity in a working environment. I feel much more comfortable about transitioning into a professional position in the future with experience and a portfolio of work behind me. If you haven't done it, give work experience a go!

First week in the shoes of a PR intern

Hello everyone...
I am Yashni, a 3^rd year BA Mass Communication student studying at Charles Telfair Institute, Moka. I am actually interning in a PR Agency, Odysseus. The agency mainly focuses on public relations and event planning.

As I know that nearly all PR students would be doing an internship in the future, are actually participating in an internship program, or dream of some day working in the PR field, I am going to reflect on my weeks interning so that you can indirectly learn from my experiences.

What would I mainly be focusing on?

Surely not about my day-to-day clothing selection, the food and shopping I did...

 I will be mostly laying emphasis on what I have achieved in my first week as an intern and also about some of my responsibilities within the agency.

I can't really believe it's been a week already since I have started interning at Odysseus. It somehow seems longer, but all in all I am pleased with how the week has gone. The overall feelings I have observed in myself this week have, aside from a sometimes debilitating tiredness towards the end of each day, been mixed and often very exciting, stressful, nerve-racking but constructive.

Unlike the usual first weeks of work in any organisation, my first week has been quite hectic consisting mostly of managing the invitations by contacting all the PR, Marketing, Event and Communication Manager, and confirming the VIP lists in regards to the ‘Salon de la Com’, the first Communications Trade Show in the Indian Ocean which will open its door at Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre on the 26 and 27 July 2012.

I cannot deny that it certainly took me some time to really understand what they are demanding from me and becoming more comfortable with the working place. However, my director was very understanding and flexible which eased me a bit. He did find some time out of his busy schedule to discuss the work with me, introducing me to the other staffs, which was great of him. By this point, I think I have met all the members of the team who without exception have been supportive, welcoming and encouraging.

My day at Odysseus normally starts with passing through all the newspapers of the day and looking for news for media clippings purposes. Currently, I am tasked to research and write for the company’s website whereby they are targeting a specific European market. I can say there are plenty of research work waiting for me this week. Will keep you guys informed on the details.

If I were to give you people an advice it would certainly be - When you walk in every day, just ask yourself how you can make the most out of this opportunity. It is high time for you to learn to accept criticism even though at times it can be a tough pill to swallow. Remember that only those who care will make the effort to guide you in the right path. You want to make PR as your career right? So take the maximum knowledge available from your supervisors and use this opportunity to the maximum to grow into a PR Pro!

Well, that’s all I have for today.

I will leave it to you now: Are you planning to do a PR internship soon? Have you started? What is your internship like so far? If you’re not interning yet, do you want to sometime in the future? 

Let me know in a comment...

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Previously, at Student Edge...

I was tasked with creating the corporate enewsletter, which would communicate on a business to business level from Student Edge to its clients. The next step was the brief the design team. Unfortunately, this proved extremely difficult due to the designer in question working externally. I was having to describe something visual using words, which I think was difficult for both of us!

Emails - complicated?!

Image source

After much going back and forth (5+ times - I think the designer became more frustrated with me than he showed!), the enewsletter was signed, sealed and delivered, and ready to go into production to be coded and 'html-ised'. Our in house designer told me this was quite a lenghthy process, including spam filters, test sends, cross browser compatibility and consistancy - wow! Who would have thought such planning and testing went into emails? Before I started work at Student Edge, I had never given much thought to daily mailing list emails that would land in my inbox. But now I think differently, and actually take the time to open emails and appreciate the work that goes into them.

Final words

Last intern day complete, 30 page+ placement paper written - what now? I have learnt so much over the past 18 months of working at Student Edge. I loved all the tasks I was given, which included copy writing & proofing, developing media release templates, working with a wide range of stakeholders, briefing and providing feedback on design, as well as the exciting task of having complete ownership of a key corporate communication project – the corporate enewsletter. 

The highlight of my placement was not only working with such a great team, but also getting the satisfaction from developing the corporate enewsletter from scratch and see it get to the final stage. I can look at it and think, "I did that!" I don't know about anyone else, but despite us being third year public relations students, I still often feel like I don't know anything! My experience at Student Edge has taught me otherwise, and shows that a lot of the content learn at uni really did manage to sink in after all!

All the best, Semester 1 2012 PR393 students. Look forward to seeing you in the 'real world'!

Rachel