Advocating Stakeholders, Press Conferences and CSR.

Hi, It's me again! It has been an exciting week for me as there were two events in a week, a press conference and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony. I feel delighted to be invited to a press conference held by our campus, Curtin University Sarawak and a local renown poverty company, Naim Land. This alliance of both companies benefits to fulfill their common mission on community engagement. This is also an opportunity for me to meet more people and extend relationship with our stakeholders. 

The main purpose of this press conference is to launch and deliver the important details of the short video competition themed "My High-rise Home". This competition aims to gain local community's view of what forms of ideal high rise living and also collecting marketing messages through creative video productions. I personally think this is a great platform provided for the local youngsters to shine their talents and creativity ideals. 

After the press conference, the VIPs and journalists are invited to have a glance on Naim Land's newly launched architectural and interior miniature models displayed at the exhibition corner. Refreshment was served after that. I really enjoy the pleasant atmosphere where everyone stays to socialize with each other. It is really a great experience for me.

Q&A session during the press conference.

My colleagues and me. Refreshment was served after the press conference.

The second event of the week is Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony. This MoU signing event is to assure co-operation between Curtin and Samling group of Companies can be continue in broader range. 

The local journalists and managers of Samling Group of Company were invited to the event. Before the ceremony starts, media kits are distributed to the media journalists. The honored attendants of this event are Curtin Sarawak council's chairman, Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan, Chief Operating officer (COO) of Samling company and vice-chancellor and chief executive of Curtin Sarawak, Ian Kerr. 

In Dr Chan's speech, he believed through this MoU signing not only it will reinforce both parties' relations but also continue to improve students' development through internships placement, scholarships, subsidiaries or guest lectures. This MoU signing also encourages collaboration in CSR activities advocate community's benefit and interest.

In this event, I learnt the procedures in organizing a press conference. My supervisor has been busy sending invitation e-mails to the journalists. We arrived to the venue early to ensure the sound system works, the backdrop is nicely put up, indoor lighting is bright enough and so on. Media kits are needed to be prepared and hand in to the journalists before the event starts. 

To conclude, I found out that the common ground of these two events are both aiming at gaining mutual benefits while advocate the other key stakeholders - students and the community. By having collaborations between the education institution and other enterprises help in gaining more stakeholder's support and useful resources. The press conference is a way to communicate with the stakeholder of what is happening recently. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is also one of the vital activities in our department. We often  collaborate with some of the corporations for CSR activities. 

Coming week, we will have another CSR event going on. I will share with you guys with my experience again on my next post!

Renee Tiong

Curtin Bentley

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You can only please some of the people some of the time

“I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” - Bill Cosby 

Stakeholder Management 

Ah, stakeholders. They don't realise how important they are to us. As we have learnt through uni and as I’m sure others have discovered firsthand, different stakeholders in an organisation require communication - not just the what or message itself, but also how the message is transmitted. 

Whilst completing my placement at Student Edge, one of the key projects I was assigned to and given complete ownership of was the corporate enewsletter (sent via email). Student Edge is very good at communicating to it's student membership, but not so consistent with communication to their clients. But clients cannot be neglected! As our lecturers say, 80% of business comes from 20% of clients, and so the relationship between a business and its clients requires nurturing. 

Primary school flashback - the 5 W’s

Image source

As my supervisor Sharyn says, do not underestimate the importance of the 5 Ws – who, what, where, when, why (and how). Before beginning any project, these 5 Ws need to be answered so both yourself and your colleagues have a clear idea of the project objectives and end result. 

So, the corporate enews – the objective behind it was to provide an update on and to present news on the happenings of Student Edge from a business to business perspective. Student Edge clients are not as interested in the latest student discounts as they are with how Student Edge fits in with their communication plan (and if they are not aware of us – how we can help!). For this newsletter, I had to think not from a student point of view but from a B2B perspective – what would a client be interested in reading about? I focused on recent success campaigns, as well as “fast facts” on the Student Edge membership demographic. Overall, I showcased what Student Edge can do for their partners. 

Based on my previous experience of working in media, my email inbox was inundated with a minimum of 50 new emails per day and often a lot of my 'newsletter' emails would be deleted – so I had to make the Student Edge corporate enewsletter short, sharp, snappy and digestible! Knowing how I used to go through my emails in the past, I had less than 15 seconds to capture the recipient's attention. 

You can only please some of the people some of the time  

I presented my first draft of the corporate enews to my supervisor Sharyn, who was overall positive but whose main piece of criticism was the enewsletter not being clear enough on who were the target stakeholder/s? My first draft of the enewletter had focused heavily on successful advertising campaigns, but she reminded me to take my ‘advertising’ hat off and put on my ‘public relations’ hat again. She said that the enewsletter had to position itself as coming from the board as opposed to business development (those in the business who are in charge of gaining new accounts). So, I had to steer away from the advertising emphasis and provide more of an general overview, but again as mentioned keep it short and sharp. 

It doesn't stop at copywriting - next steps, briefing design! 

One the copy had been finalised the next step was to brief the design team. Wouldn’t it be easier if everyone could read everyone else’s minds? That way, a designer could see exactly how I was seeing the newsletter in my mind and work their magic to create it! But alas. It was not to be. Keep an eye out for my next post, where I explain exactly what happened (or didn't happen!) with design ... 

In the meantime, PR Daily provides some further food for thought - 5 questions to ask before you write anything (and if you don't subscibe to their enewsletter already, I highly recommend it!)

Rachel