Showing posts with label website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label website. Show all posts

Saturday, October 6, 2012

My very first PR event...

Hello everyone!
 
This would be my second post, and I will be sharing a brief overview about my very first PR event – GoMyWay Launch.

 
To start off with a little introduction about GoMyWay: GoMyWay is a location-based app that allows users to share taxis. Founded by four friends, they look to leverage technology to achieve greater efficiency in Singapore’s transit infrastructure. There are many benefits in using GoMyWay, including sharing the fare of the taxi trip, potentially reducing waiting times by reducing taxi queues, achieving greater efficiency to contribute positively to the environment and reduce congestion, and interacting socially with interesting people. The GoMyWay App is available for free download at the iPhone App Store and coming soon to Android.
 
Days before the event
The GoMyWay Launch was held on 22 August 2012, at Sansui Contemporary Japanese Dining and Bar (Clarke Quay). The whole event was actually split into two parts, where both the media launch and the consumer launch were taking place on the same day. As such, lots of preparation works were required for the different group.
Days before the event, the entire MAX team had several long meetings, with my colleagues briefing us on the event schedule, our respective roles, and other work-in-progress issues to be completed.  A list of things to prepare was also listed out. I was tasked to purchase the items required for the event, getting the media name tags ready for the lanyards, and the packing and organising of the event box (important materials for the event).
 
Day of the event
Though the event was held from late afternoon onwards, time was passing fast for all of us in the office with the event preparations and other work from the company’s other clients. Throughout the whole morning, other than the usual daily tasks, I was assigned to burn the soft-copy of the press materials into CD-ROMs (in addition to the hard-copy press materials), and making sure that the files could be opened. At the same time, I was peeling the price tags off from the files. Soon, I started to pack the media kits, lanyards and the event box, making sure that all materials were included in it. My colleagues were also very helpful in helping me along with the packing.
 
A bag of media kits and lanyards, with the event box packed ready for the event



Media kits
Media kits



 Our team went down to the event venue two hours before the media launch, to make sure that the arrangements for the media launch were all in place. I was also tasked to prepare the media registration area and arrange the media kits and lanyards accordingly. But soon, just about an hour before the media launch, a small nerve-wrecking situation happened. One of the journalists came much earlier than expected and I was the only one manning the registration area (the rest of my colleagues were inside the venue briefing the founders and having a final check through). Luckily, I was able to manage the journalist well after I had regained my composure. It was a pretty scary situation as it was my very first event in contact with a journalist. Luckily everything went well! As time passes, more journalists began to arrive at the venue, and for those journalist who have not yet arrived, my colleague and I were doing call-downs to them. But sadly, there were some journalists who were unable to attend last minute.
 
The whole media launch went smoothly according to schedule, first starting off with a presentation by the founders, and Q&A sessions. There is also a small demonstration area for the media to explore the app using the iPads available.
 
After the media launch, our team went for a quick dinner around the area before the consumer launch party at 7pm. For the consumer launch party, only attendees who have RSVP their attendance on the GoMyWay event page were allowed into the restaurant. I was assigned to help take photos for the attendees with the taxi cut-out and other ad hoc tasks on-site. There were free flows of F&B throughout, live music and an interactive game. For the game, attendees were to key in their next destination after the party using the GoMyWay app. Four lucky winners, whose destinations are the nearest to any of the four founders’, would win $20 in cash and a trip together with the chosen founder. 
 
Though it is a little messy with the amount of attendees for the event, but overall, the event was a success in being able to spread awareness of the app and getting people to use it.

Attendees for the event outside the restaurant
Source: GoMyWay Official Facebook Page


For more information about GoMyWay, you can access their website or official Facebook page:
 
 
It was really an eventful and interesting day for my very first PR event. I gained many experiences, and had learnt more about press events and the PR skills needed before and on the event. The right planning, team work and management are really the important ingredients for a successful event.
 
Till my next post,
Delvina Chiang
15006527
Curtin Singapore

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

First week in the shoes of a PR intern

Hello everyone...
I am Yashni, a 3rd 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...

Friday, May 18, 2012

Newfound Glory!

Northway Christian Centre is in a great place at the moment! My placement is almost over as you read this, but the PR and Communications work you have been reading about still continues! It is a very bright and wonderful day for Northway to be standing on. This is why I chose 'Newfound Glory' as the title for this post. What do you think?

In the last couple of weeks at Northway I have been working extremely hard with the web site company that is designing the framework for our new website. It has been gruelling, challenging and most importantly, the hard part is almost over! All that's left now is the text to be filled in by myself and we should have a fairly healthy basis to critique before it hits the world wide web! I am so excited. Words can't describe my emotions towards this project of mine!

I have so much more respect for uni now that I have almost completed my placement. This placement has made me reflect upon EVERYTHING that Curtin has taught me over the years I have spent with 'her'. Curtin has given me a wonderful foundation in which to start from, but most importantly, a foundation to which I can grow from. This placement has also taught me things such as client deadlines, time management,  an increased professionalism, ethics, relevant corporate identities and lastly, an ascertain to my passion for public relations and all that is encompasses. I have enjoyed this role so much that I am negotiating with my Senior Pastor to employ me both as the Youth Pastor and Public Relations Officer at Northway (someone else would need to help me with the youth work). 

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to read through my posts. I hope they have been helpful and insightful as many of your's have been. I also wish everyone the best of luck as we all finish our final reports on our organisations in which we have completed our placements. 

Before I finish this post, I'll just leave this here. It was super simple and easy, but I think it fits it's purpose quite well (I took my Youth Group (Infusion Youth), to a youth conference a couple of weeks ago. I designed this card for each teenager in case of an emergency where they lost the 'group' and needed to contact us). Let me know what you think!



Kind regards, 

Thor Williams
13971186
Curtin Bentley

New Season

New season's resemble new beginnings, a fresh start, or even sometimes, can present a new goal to achieve... In my last post I mentioned that Northway Christian Centre was in a period of change. New branding, new internal communications, new employee branding and a new website are all what form the New Season which we are currently working on.  

This New Season all started out in April 2011 when Northway's previous senior pastor, Pastor John Warwick resigned from his position of almost 10 years and our Associate Pastor, Pastor Dean Evensen rose to the call. Since then, he has brought many new ideas to the table! One very important call he has made, is to re-invent Northway through firstly updating its vision and mission statements to portray the new 'personality' that the church is taking. 

The task was given to me and this is one of the challenges I was working on in my second segment of my placement at Northway... You see, creating a vision and mission statement might not sound to difficult. Heck, we've written up hundreds at uni... but creating them for an organisation in real life proved quite daunting to me to be honest. I couldn't believe that I had been given the tasks of creating such statements in which all change and future direction was going to be measured upon! To cut a long story short... I developed both statements in accordance to the key phrase in which Pastor Dean had given me: he wanted the church focus to be on 'children, family and community'. This task was truly intimidating, but extremely fulfilling as I now have the pleasure of knowing that such important statements were created, and entrusted to me. 

A further update on the website happenings:
At this stage of my placement, I had contacted and arranged a meeting with the photographer which we had chosen. I briefed him in regards to what key messages we wanted projected from the images on the website. It was also key that the 'style' and 'feel' of the images were also on par with the branding of the design of the website. This too was a highlight for me at this stage as it would seem that my new role at Northway had been taken seriously and I was loving every minute of it!

Stay tuned for my next instalment!

Thor Williams
13971186
Curtin Bentley 

PR in the Church...

Northway Christian Centre, located in the urban suburb of Girrawheen, is the 'church' that I am referring to. It is also in fact, my place of employment...

My name is Thor Williams and I am finishing my bachelor of Commerce- double major in Marketing and Public Relations at Curtin, Bentley. I have been employed at Northway for almost a year in an entirely different role- Youth Pastor. Over the last 10 weeks I have dedicated myself to fulfilling PR and communications roles within my church/organisation and it has been thrilling to say the least! It has been such a refreshing time in my life to finally put my studies to hand (not that I don't like working with teenagers, I love them!). So, after almost finishing my PR placement role at Northway, I thought it was time to share a few of my thoughts which I will be bringing to you through this post and more to come...

Northway Christian Centre is located in a very urban and low socio-economic suburb. The church itself has been prevalent in the area since 1973 and has had a huge impact on its direct community and WA as a whole. In spite of the churches previous successes, modern communication is lacking, and this is where I have been put to good use! The church is currently going through a re-branding stage whilst internal communications, employee branding and a new website for the organisation's public's are currently being developed as you read this. As you can tell, my PR Professional Practice unit could not have come at a better time!

Some of the tasks which I have focused on over my duration in my new role, are communicating with the web design company and being the direct liaison with them, internal communications, employee branding, developing new vision and mission statements (coinciding the new Senior Pastor's leadership), looking for sponsorship and creating a new welcome flyer to say the least.

My first week consisted of getting used to the idea of less devotion to my usual tasks of managing teenagers, counselling, running high school programs, running our weekly program etc. and focusing on PR related activities. As the new website is the most important task on my 'To-Do' list, I contacted the web design company and discussed what needed to be done on my end as well as their end. I then ventured on to seek internal and external sponsorship for a monthly newsletter which should be launched around June this year. It was an amazing week, and one that felt quite strange. I was still working with the same organisation, the same peers, the same office... but in a completely different role!

My experience in the last 10 weeks has truly been eye-opening...I'll touch base with you shortly as I post up my next instalment from my placement experience at Northway Christian Centre.

Ciao,

Thor Williams
13971186
Bentley

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Post-it Overdose

Hey PR Bloggers,

After four weeks of waking at 7am, high intensity pressures and numerous corrections with a red pen, I am currently approaching the end of my internship at Rossmoyne Senior High School.

As one approaches the end of the road, whether it may be the end of another semester at university or a compulsory internship, one would assume that the work load would slowly diminish, allowing their inner demon by the name of slack rise up from deep within. However this isn’t the case for me.

With just one full day left at my internship, I swear my workload is getting larger than Britney Spears herself. I am not entirely sure, but I have this strange feeling that since my time here has reached the point of extreme limitation, my fellow colleagues and supervisors are keen to make the most of this free labor.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. I mean I’ve been told countless of times to reject any additional workload if I can’t handle it; but as an intern, I am keen to make the most out of this experience and to learn as much as I can. This is why I am now swimming in a sea of post it notes.

For the past week and a half I have been organizing and developing the school’s alumni program. This include website design and layout; building and writing up information for it’s content; develop an appropriate application form and organizing staff meetings for those interested in being apart of the committee.

Once again, my heart had it’s little leap of joy when the content for the alumni program was launched on the school’s website. Although it wasn’t 100 percent similar to my designs, just having the approval nod from the school principal was a reward to the long hours I spent working on it.

As I commence my final day, I have signed on for a few more last minute projects including writing up four more articles for the school’s newsletters and four press releases to go with it; organize the distribution of 350 alumni application forms to this year’s graduates with letters attached to it; and to write up an event proposal for the launch event of the alumni association.

From day one of PR 200, we were taught that to be successful in this industry, and well pretty much any industry, we need to be highly organized, and have excellent time management skills. Obviously this is not the case for me, however I am determined to get everything done before I leave, even if it means I have to skip Friday drinks with the teachers.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

So awkward...

Hey P.R. Bloggers,

After being at my placement for over three weeks, it’s officially time to stop procrastinating and actually post something up on this blog; in saying that, I swear this is most likely THE last introductory post to be up for the semester.

In this short period of time, the number of awkward moments I’ve had would most likely equal to the amount of times the world has seen Britney Spears’s happy bits. Most of us would have had that horrid experience of meeting a teacher we once had outside the classroom and we ALL know how awkward that can be. Well try being surrounded by all of them every single day.

Yes, I am currently completing the PR393 placement at an institute filled with all sorts of traumatic moments which I spent 5 years trying to get out of. Rossmoyne Senior High School is located just ten minutes south of the Perth’s CBD. Founded in 1968, this independent public school is now one of Western Australia’s leading school in academics, music and volleyball.






Rossmoyne Senior High School


Only graduating three years ago, my oversized forehead is still somewhat fresh in the memory of those teachers I’ve had. So as you can imagine, it was somewhat ‘interesting’ to constantly receive that same ‘oh my god, unless you failed your TEE, what are you doing here’ expression from them.

However, to be honest this experience hasn’t been all bad. Being in a familiar surrounding, has, I believe enhanced my experience as an intern. I discovered that if you deliver a good job to any work assigned, word does get around to teachers who once ‘hated’ you, and you’ll eventually be sipping on the same diluted coffee with them during morning tea.

The past few weeks have been somewhat of a whirlwind experience for me. I started this placement not knowing what to expect; what the public relations sector at an educational institute is like; and if there is even anything relevant for me to do that relates to this unit. However in a short period of time, I had liaised with several journalists including Anne Gartner from the Canning Times, Maria D’Agostino from School Matters and Amber Gorrie who is the Media and Communications Officer of the Department of Education. In that time, I have been fortunate enough to have three stories printed by the Canning Times and made a (I like to believe) positive impression on Maria and Amber. To me, this was absolutely surreal as it’s amazing to actually apply the concepts and techniques we spent the last few years learning into a real life situation.

In addition to those little heart-skipping moments, the some other projects I worked on include writing articles for the school’s monthly newsletter (which was printed for the 1600 students at the school); organizing the seating chart for the Year 12 Valedictory at Curtin Stadium in October; updating any ‘Latest News’ on the school’s website www.rossmoyne.wa.edu.au ; along with a few side projects including assisting Year 8 students with their assignments on the promotion of their ‘product launches’.

With only a few days left and an untouched 5000 word report, I hope everyone is a tad more organized than I am and have enjoyed their time at their respective placements. I look forward to updating you with more awkward moments and trivial achievements the next few days.

-Bryan