The Intern Elves at Work For the “One Life Suicide Prevention” seminar

The seminar is organized by Momentum, and it is a one life suicide prevention program to present about how the community can overcome their mental health challenges and problems. Just to remind you readers that I am currently working for the Momentum Forum Events which is in charge of organizing events for worthy causes.

Since the event starts at 9.30 am we arrived one hour earlier so that we can be able to do what we can before attendees arrive. I was helping out my Public Relations team to get prepared for the seminar at the Technology Park in Bentley WA.

There were boxes of booklets, pamphlets, handouts such as the evaluation form, running sheet agenda, business cards to be given away to the attendees related to the seminar. My public relations team and I were all working together to organize them all in one media kit and place the kit on the chairs. This way we can avoid giving out the whole lot or passing on the materials one by one to the attendees.

Besides, we thought it was more convenient to put it in one pile with the handouts, business card, pamphlets and flyers all wrapped in one booklet. It is certainly better to put all in one pile with rather than just having the materials displayed on a table. Not forgetting, the team had to sort out some reserve signs to be displayed for the reservation of the VIP’s on the front row.

There was almost a panic situation when we couldn’t find the box with the name tags. It was not in the batch of the boxes. We were asked to arrange the name tags to display them on a table for the guests to register and collect. Luckily the name tag box just arrived in time. Would you imagine if the name tags were not around for the attendees?  Now that would have been a PR dilemma.

Guests arrive! Now it’s time to get serious.

The name tags were all aligned for the attendees to collect signed in for registration and was asked to sign a photo release form. There needs to be permission to be granted in case the photographer would want to take a photo by following the legitimate reasons provided in the form. 

I have learnt so much just by attending and helping out in this seminar. It has definitely been a different experience for me. Here is to sum up on all the things I have learnt. 

• Arrive before the guests to ensure all is ready in order to avoid any dilemma surprises

• Assist all guests in registering and offer help when needed

• Prepare and organize the media materials for convenience

• Team work leads to a solution

• Responsibility in prioritizing the guests

• Respecting the seminar by being attentive

• Multitask and work smart

Here are some snap shots of the “One Life Suicide Prevention” seminar. The CEO of Momentum Forum Events, Barbara McNaught quoted, “it was a great seminar, and it was a successful all went well, thank you girls for coming!”

I am glad to share this experience with you other fellow interns. If you have any other enquiries don’t hesitate to feedback or comment, thank you for reading. Be sure to follow up with my blog posts as my diary of a public relations intern continues.

Happy Birthday, Mauritius! – “Celebrating our diversity the Blast Way”

                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                  Courtesy of Blast

Hello aspiring PR Professionals,


I know, it’s been a while since the last time I’ve posted something on the PR 393 Reflective Blog and I'm truly sorry about the delay but I was hoping I could make up for the it with this vibrant post. So today, I’m going to share an incredible experience with you: the celebrations of Independence Day at Blast Communications. For those who don’t know, we were celebrating the 45^th anniversary of Mauritius this year and because the 12^th March, which marks that occasion is a public holiday, the Blast team has chosen to observe this event on the 8^th March instead.

Luckily, I have been able to participate in this glorious event that created a very spirited and fun atmosphere at Blast Communications and I was truly mesmerized when I saw all of my colleagues play a part in this event. To put it in PR terms, it was basically an internal campaign which took place for a few days. It first started with the design team proposing a few visuals for an advert of Blast Communications to show its patriotic pride to the public. Brainstorming sessions were carried out so that everyone could agree on a visual and the tagline that would accompany it. After that, my colleague Emilie, PR Executive, negotiated with specific media outlets to have the advert placed in their newspapers at an affordable price. Of course, we had a very limited budget allocated for the placement of these adverts.  

Moreover, a list of activities on the 8^th March has been devised by the PR Think Tank to mark this event by involving everyone at Blast Communications. They are:

- Lunch served with typical dishes of the different communities in Mauritius (entrée: Chinese and main course: creole etc...)

- Handkerchiefs for lunch decorated with Mauritian flag ribbon and all desks adorned with a miniature Mauritian flag.

- All Blast employees wearing personalized t-shirts (black as the background color with the logo and the chosen tagline “Celebrating our diversity”) and a badge of the Mauritian flag.

- A photograph of the Blast team forming the number 45, taken from the roof – photograph which will be used on the website, Facebook page, E-newsletter and also on an e-card which will be sent to all Blast’s clients and partners.

- Launch quizzes/guessing games also known as “Sirandanes” (which forms part of our Mauritian culture and tradition) throughout the day and a winner will be announced in the afternoon.

- Have all Blast employees plaster their handprints on a canvas board to make a four-colour chef-d’oeuvre (using acrylic paint of the four different colours of the Mauritian flag: Red, Blue, Yellow and Green)

All of the above mentioned activities have been successfully put into place, with the help of every Blast employee. On that eventful day, everyone wore the same personalized t-shirt at work, thanks to the designers, Kim and Ritesh who came up with the t-shirt’s artwork and to the event coordinator, Diane who ordered the t-shirts and had them ready for that day. Lunch which was taken care of by the administration was really delicious and it was an opportunity for everyone to joke around and get to know each other more. 


Moreover, it was nice to see everyone get their hands dirty with paint and sing the national anthem, just like school children. Eventually, the winner of the “sirandanes” turned out to be Valérie who works in the media monitoring department; she practically guessed most of the answers before everyone else and earned a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates as prize, which she generously shared with everyone. Lastly, the Managing director, Mrs Aisha Allee-Mosaheb was really pleased with the outcome of this internal campaign and she congratulated everyone for their part in it and for planning everything in so little time.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this post because I’ve actually enjoyed recounting that experience with you. If you have any questions concerning my internship, please feel free to leave a comment on any of my posts and I shall get back to you shortly :)

Best Regards,

Houmaira Ramjaun

15102108

CTI, Mauritius

...Embarked on a new adventure...

Good morning dear friends

Last week was the start of a new adventure at Investment and Management services (IMS) Ltd.

At the beginning of the week, I was informed that IMS was chosen for the organisation of a residential team building activity for a company that has problems with communication among the employees. Therefore, the aim of the team building was to improve employee relations within the organisation. IMS has to create the whole event from the choice of the venue to the activities that will be undertaken. To my great pleasure, I was notified that I will contribute to the event's organisation. Until now, every formal event that I planned was only for assignment purposes thus, I was excited to participate in the development of such an important event for real.

As it is a residential team building, my role was to contact different hotels to verify availability, ask for the different packages and so forth. Then, I had to eliminate those that did not match our expectations. When I obtained the final list I had to analyse each and every offer and make recommendations on which one correspond best to the company’s expectations and why.

This was enriching as I did not conceive that so much time could be spent on finding an accommodation. In theory, we just mention “to find venue” but in practice it takes much more time as sometimes people do not respond and I had to send several messages for them to react. Moreover, on some occasions I had to explain all over again due to some misunderstandings.

Besides, all through I had to remain professional. Last week i had a quick grasp of the difficulties that a PR practitioner might come across for instance, communication problems, or impassiveness among others.

This experience taught me how to remain professional in circumstances where one could get easily upset. Yet, I know that there are many situations like this to come and I feel ready to face them with more confidence.

So, PR 393 peers I’ll see you soon for a new ride in the PR realm.

PR= TEAMWORK

PR= TEAMWORK

As the PR industry is full of days which are fast-paced, tiresome and long hours, Teamwork in public relations is necessary. At Imagine, bringing people together does not automatically result in success. However, as everyone brings their own strengths, weaknesses, personalities, qualities and individual touches, working, although under stress, seems easier.

During my 20 days at Imagine, I have learnt the importance of teamwork in PR field. Every employee is dependent on his colleagues to work together and contribute efficiently to the organisation. I have understood that nobody can work alone to accomplish task efficiently. 


When responsibilities are shared and work load and work pressure reduces. Teamwork produce quality work, better decisions, experience satisfaction in the teamwork process, and engender client satisfaction. 

Week Two- Department Synergy, Mock Audits and Getting to Know More

17 May 2012 (Thursday)
Another slow day.while the rest are doing on going projects, I am looking through 8 papers today and grabbing only 1 article. I have read through 164 newspapers ever since my first day starting here. With half the day gone in monitoring the print media, I resume to read throught the media release database as recommended by Marcella.

I have gathered: (As of 17/05/1012)
7 Media Releases
22 Indirect Advertising
6 Brand Advertising
1 Feature Article
3 Events Advertising
2 Job Application
1 Perth Media Release
1 Tender Advert
1 Congratulatory Advertisement

In the afternoon, Nicholas invited me to a mock audit of the School of Engineering. Throughout the meeting, I have learn the power of teamwork, English and synergy. The real audit is in regards to ISO 9001 certification to be given to Curtin Sarawak. SIRIM officials will be coming over for a few days to review the policies and procedures of all the departments. Thus, all departments are doing a mock audit on each other to prepare themselves for those days.

If they fail, they will have to review the policy again, that is the reason why this mock audit is done. It is to iron out as many kinks as possible and fine tune the policies and procedures to the guidelines of ISO 9001. Departments are task to audit each other, troubleshooting and pluging up any holes found. This shows synergy between departments as well as teamwork. Mastering English is important and I learn of this today how vital each word is used. When all is done, each department will do revisions again to the updated version of their policies and procedures until that very comes when SIRIM does checks to see if Curtin Sarawak deserves the ISO 9001 certification.

18 May 2012 (Friday)

Everyday I learn new things at the Corporate Comms department. Reflecting back, I have learn how to take pictures, the power of mastering the English language, proof reading a press release, attending an event and media monitoring. So far into my second week, I had fun as well as getting to know the people within the department.

Today, I am being briefed on who does what and their roles, from web designer to relations management. They also tell me how important it is to communicate and know client traits. Also, I went along with Nicholas to a second mock audit meeting with the School of Engineering. There I learn more how each department within Curtin Sarawak depends on each other in acquiring feedback of their performance.

Looking back, every department within Cutin Sarawak are friendly to each other. Even though they have their secrets within their databases, every employee gets along with each other. Things get done efficiently and properly.

I have learn today the how important each role is within the department I am working in. Not only that, I also learn the power of teamwork between departments as well as the... "politicking" within a formal setting. It seems synergised and friendly as well as highly positive. Everyone knows each other and could connect.

So far, within my print media monitoring, there are no mentions of Curtin University, however, in regards to our competition, China universities are making a headway into Malaysia. Especially within Sarawak.

Newspaper read through since first day, 174. Articles collected... NONE...*cries*

(BEHOLD!!! The stacks of newspapers. Mine is on the top part, first row from the left, about 1/3. All done up and ready for the recyclers.)














This ENDS Week 2 Blog Report