Welcome to the first day of the rest of your (working) life

Day one. Let me set the scene for you. It’s 8.40am. I’m sat in the communications office room at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. My boss walks into the office with the greeting of “Good morning Kids!” to my second supervising boss and myself. This is the beginning of what I feel like will turn into a nostalgic tradition. I was not wrong.

He sits down at his desk, turns on the desktop computer, swivels his chair around to face me, and asks the second most profound question of the day “So, why are you here?” My reply consisted of something along the lines of  “To watch, to listen, to learn. I know I can write well, but I know nothing about science and supercomputing. This placement will teach me how to write about topics I previously knew nothing about. It will push my boundaries from the word go.”

Now, I’m not going to lie to you, I was rather impressed at my spontaneous response, which was the truth, but not something I had actively considered, no doubt because it scares me half to death. But then again, nothing worth doing is ever going to be easy.

My task for day one consisted of researching and writing an article for Science Network WA entitled “What is big data?” I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with the concept of big data, but I challenge you to do your research and compose a succinct definition that is both understandable for the less scientifically literate reader, yet comprehensive enough to satisfy specialising scientists and journalists.

The only comparative analogy I can give you to demonstrate the difficulty of this task, especially since I haven’t practised journalism since the first year of my degree, is the act of attempting to describe what an orange looks like to someone that has never seen one before. Here you can see the point at which I realise that I am barely doggy paddling through the deep end that I previously referred to as “pushing my boundaries”.

After expressing my struggle to my boss, he explained that you have two choices. He said you can either choose write a piece that dances over the topic and ticks the boxes, or you can get down to the in-depth explanation into what makes big data big. And with the help of some hand-drawn umbrella diagrams, he asked me “which approach do you want to take?” That was the most profound question of the day, because right there and then it made me question what kind of writer, and by extension public communicator, do I want to be? Well, I think I’ll have to get back to you with an answer at then end of day 20.

Both my bosses appear to be hilarious, welcoming, abrupt, kind, real, open, honest and intelligent. They hold the level of intellect towards communications that I dream of possessing. I know that I will learn more from them over the next 19 days than any unit could teach, and despite the doggy paddling, I also know that I will enjoy the next few months more than I could have thought possible.

Discovering Samson in the lion's den

My name is Phoebe. I'm a final semester Public Relations student at Curtin University. I'm a Capricorn, my favourite colour is yellow and despite the information I've just given, it is impossible to gain a complete perspective on exactly who I am, what I know or what I can achieve.

In the same way, small amounts of information given to the public about a company or firm create a portrait with holes, a dot-to-dot framework left to complete by those who observe or have a stake in the performance. My passion lies in filling those holes, to not only create a sketch but a rich tapestry of colour, ethics and practice that comprise an organisation and its relationship with its publics.

I am passionate about public relations and the effects that a single person may have on business operations and relationships for years to come; the power of the butterfly effect to influence positive change and see a real result in the surrounding community is something that drives deep to my core.

It's a strange thought how three years of theory, tangled with real-life examples of the heroes of our discipline and the villains of poor corporate management, cannot quite express the experience of first walking through the doors of your work experience or internship placement and having that thought of "Oh dear."

After a mild panic when over 15 submitted applications for internships were met with either apologetic expressions of "Sorry, we don't have the resources to accommodate interns at the moment" or radio silence, an opportunity to assist with the rebranding and PR repositioning of Meridian Services, a small private security firm in Burswood, seemed like the perfect way to gain immediate and thorough experience about exactly what complete PR overhaul for a firm entails.

Despite an international reach, the firm itself is small, with the four directors overseeing a local task-force of 20 private investigation, technical and administrative staff. Meridian's resources are divided across four distinct "programs", with each offering benefits specifically for target niches; Chameleon Innovative Assets (CIA) provides a fail-safe way to identify assets and equipment belonging to specific owners or sites; Meridian offers private security and investigative services for both business and personal use; BUSTED! focuses on the reduction and elimination of theft and asset loss from building sites and Space Safe Kidz aims to educate children in primary and secondary education about the dangers of cyberspace and how to be safe when using the internet. The company is acutely aware of its social responsibility, which in turn indicates a willingness to learn and adjust accepted practices should the need arise.

My first week at Meridian Services was roughly the equivalent of taking the floaties off a child's arms and throwing them in the deep end of the swimming pool for the first time. Upon arrival, I was met with an immediate question from my supervisor: "How well can you write?" As an intern, I was anticipating to undertake the 'dirty jobs' at first, such as cold-calling and proof-reading media releases. However, my role involves working besides two experienced public relations practitioners, each with experience in marketing activity and a vast knowledge of the way in which a firm like Meridian can turn itself around.

I left my first day with a stack of briefs, including the framework for the organisation of BUSTED!'s August Roadshow collaboration with Nova 93.7; by the week's end, I was placed in charge of the social media operations and streamlining for both BUSTED! and Chameleon. My active participation in the public relations activities of the firm was not only encouraged, it was seen as a necessity. Glancing at the road ahead, the skill set that I've developed through years of study will be put to the test from the very beginning; it is only in the midst of the impossible that you discover your strength.

Regardless of all challenges ahead, it is clear that the education and experience I will receive will be nothing short of hands on, with no chance of being left in the corner to collect dust as a passive observer. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all and cannot wait to read about the unique journeys undertaken by each and every one of my fellow students.

National Science Week!

National Science Week was from the 10th-17th August, and it was crazy. I was unable to find the chance to write a blog entry over the last few weeks due to my typical hectic schedule juggling work with Uni with my placement, but thankfully I wrote myself some fairly thorough notes so that it was still easy to share the experiences.

As the largest state with  diverse population, National Science Week works to showcase the science, technology, engineering and innovation that drives our communities and our economy; it is an annual event, which this year incorporated a new range of events and activities celebrated through art, film, comedy and theatre (National Science Week 2013).

Scitech's involvement in National Science Week included the festival event on Saturday the 10th August, and Science Cafe on Wednesday the 14th August. National Science Week Festival was a day of celebration and family fun, incorporating science, education and entertainment for all ages. It was also a great way to introduce some of the headlining organisations showcasing their science endeavours over the week. The day kicked off with a live broadcast of the 720 ABC Perth breakfast program, followed by interactive science displays by local organisations. Dr Chris Smith from The Naked Scientist also provided some entertainment! Fundamentally, my role for the National Science Week Festival was mainly carried out post-event through media event listings sent to local websites promoting events and places to visit around Perth, and making up a list of scheduled social media updates to add to HootSuite touching on the daily highlights of National Science Week.

Science Cafe was an event held in Winthrop Hall at UWA for 300 secondary students from schools around WA - completely different atmosphere. Students were invited to spend morning tea with around 80 inspirational scientists from a range of organisations including UWA, Curtin University, ECU University, Murdoch University, Scitech, DEC, CSIRO,WA Museum and SKM. Sarah Lau from the Chem Centre hosted the event, which gave students the opportunity to speak one-on-one with scientists to find out what inspired them to take up science and where their science careers have led them. Chris Smith from The Naked Scientist, also made an appearance at this event as a keynote guest speaker. My primary role at this event was to liaise with the photographer and assist him in getting quality photographs of a balanced range of schools across several media circulation areas. Part of this was making sure students had their name tags on display so that they could be identified later. I also assisted my supervisor, Charlotte, with noting quotes by guest speakers as potential leads for the post- event media release.

The week following Science Cafe, Charlotte and I sorted through the photos that were taken at the event (part of being a NFP means time is frequently consumed performing such tasks), put together the post-event media release and emailed it through to relevant media contacts! 

Phew! Getting a behind the scenes look at the impact of NFPs on education and science in younger audiences was an awesome and very rewardable experience!

That's it from me for now, until next time...

Natasha Weeks
Curtin University, Bentley

14853926

Tick! Tack! Tick! Tack! ....

Hello everyone,

As you can easily guess from the title, the main topic for today’s blog is ‘Time’. When entering the real world of PR, I quickly realised that Time is a very valuable yet always scarce resource.

During the course of our studies we were often given the opportunity to work on “real-life” clients and provide “real” solutions. However, a very important aspect was missing: Time constraints (It’s true that we did have deadlines for our assessments but these are trivial compared to real-life deadlines).

As an intern, my main issue was to adapt and take in these new skills and understanding of the PR world while at the same time try to keep up with this rapid and demanding world.

Our daily workload has its specific, often short, deadlines which require a quick and almost instinctive decision process. And that is why I believe that work experience plays a crucial role in the PR field - and any other field - ; experienced PR practitioners will have an intuitive feel when working and will automatically know what the task/situation requires.

Interns first have to go through a series of internal mental processes to understand the context and its requirements so as to be able to provide their own inputs. On the other hand, experienced PR practitioners will, through practice/repetition, skip some of these processes and are thus able to put more emphasis on their inputs.

Unfortunately for organisations, it means that most interns are at the learning stage and that the real inputs that they could bring to an organisation only come with time and experience - which alas often comes by the time their internship is over.

So that’s the main thought that I wanted to share today.

Until next time, best of luck for those still doing their internships!!!

Reflections on my PR internship

Well now that the end of my internship has come, it's time to reflect on my time spent there and all the things I learned and liked or didn't like. I am definitely sad to leave the hotel and it feels strange to me to no longer have to go to work everyday and not have to think about the hotel's doings as I'm no longer part of it. Recently, I will saw a mention of the JW in a magazine and thought about notifying my PR manager about it before realizing it is no longer my concern.

But I had a great time at the hotel and I took away so many valuable experiences. I now understand what it is like to practice PR in the real world and I finally know that this is the career path I want to take after I graduate. Before I started, I was so unsure because the idea of PR sounded stressful and pressure filled. And while yes, I learned PR is stressful, I can see how it works in the real world and it looks really manageable  at least from an in-house perspective. Oh, and that's another thing, when I do go into PR, I want to try in-house because it seems less stressful and more focused which is better as I'd like to put my efforts into improving one company, rather than several.

I would say the best parts of my job have been the media events both outside the hotel and inside. I loved getting out there and meeting media people, chatting to them, making connections. And when it came to media events in the hotel, I loved watching the print media and TV crew/radio crew come in to film/review our hotel and restaurants. I loved how I got to have input on who we should allow to come and feature our hotel and who shouldn't. It made me feel like part of the team. We also got to plan the annual MICE press trip for our hotel which was a lot of fun too and again, great having that input.

The more menial part of my job was the media monitoring  It can be tiring going through all those magazines and newspapers but then I enjoyed the feeling I got when I found something and got to make a clipping for it and then file it away in the PR report. I loved being able to tell my boss how our value was looking at any time during the month. Then of course there was the media database which was tiring to put together even if it is a critical part of PR.

I really regretted not being able to stay longer though. At the end of the month, the annual media blitz would commence where the team visits all media outlets to send them gifts and further cement the PR-media relationship. But I also got to experience alot too in my time there so I'm fairly satisfied.

This is not the end of my PR journey though, and I hope to have many more great experiences in the future!

 Christy Lau Su Mei
15130659
Curtin Bentley (Sem 1, 2013)

The Media Database

In my second last week here at JW Marriott Hotel Bangkok, and things are quite uneventful. Seems like PR has downtime, usually around late December to early January because everything has been tied up for the year 2012.

The next major thing to look forward to is the PR plan for the year ahead. My boss has said that she will allow us a look at the plan and a discussion session so we can understand how it works and talk about it. This should be interesting to see whether it ties in with the PR plans we study about in class. Will update you more on that next week when she shows us it.

Other than that, we interns are put to work on another important part of PR which is not really mentioned-the media database. In other words, the database that consists of the list of media contacts with telephone numbers and emails so that we can send press releases to be published in magazines, newspapers, etc.

This is something that obviously needs to be updated properly as people are always going in and out so emails and numbers will change. The difficulty with doing this is finding the right telephone numbers (usually online or in the magazine itself) and then calling them one by one to get the right email to send press releases too. Simply looking up a valid email and filling it in the database is just enough-a publication can have multiple editors/writers and simply sending it to one lowers the chances of it being published, so you have to make sure you have the one who handles press releases.

As this is my second last week, I'm starting to feel quite melancholy. I had a great time here and I feel like I got exposed to alot of things, from the day to day media monitoring to the more exciting events where I got to meet members of the media. I'm almost 100% sure this is the career path I want to choose. I'm so glad I got the chance to pursue this internship. :)

More next week!

Christy Lau Su Mei
15130659
Curtin Bentley (Sem 1, 2013)

Making PR Mistakes and Dealing with Them

Hey everyone,

This isn't an easy post for me to write but I thought it necessary to share with you the recent hiccup I had involving a printed mistaken price error in the newspaper.

My boss recently assigned me the task of drafting up press releases which would then be translated into Thai by my Thai intern friend and would be used as the basis for a feature we were promised by a local Thai newspaper. The press releases involved prices and was promoting the Christmas buffet lunch/dinners and New Year's Eve buffet our hotel was offering.

I thought I had done a good job on the press releases and sent up all the documents which were then forwarded to the editor of the paper. When the newspaper came out with our hotel mentioned in it, we were obviously very happy... until my boss noticed an error in the listing of the prices. After going back and checking to make sure it was not the paper's mistake and going through the Thai translation and then my copy, we discovered that I had incorrectly typed up the prices. Of course I was very upset because I hadn't made a mistake like that before but thankfully, my boss was understanding, saying that she should also have properly double checked the prices before sending. It's still a shock to the system because this isn't like a mistake you make in school. Mistakes like this could be potentially damaging if not dealt with immediately and properly.

Right away, she got to work on handling the situation. The first step was to call the editor of the paper and ask if they could make a change for the following day. She made it clear that it was not the paper's fault and apologized, smoothing things over and thanking them again for offering to feature us in it. Unluckily, they couldn't which meant the prices for Christmas Eve dinner were printed incorrectly and was going to come out like it was. So then my boss asked to change the prices for Christmas Day (this day was the 23rd) and luckily we still had time to change it and were also able to correct prices for New Year's Day.

At the end of the day, even though this was not a pleasant experience, it taught me a great deal about making mistakes in the PR industry. As my boss later told me, everyone makes mistakes and even she has done so on occasion. There is no use crying over split milk and the best reaction is instant action. Call immediately and check to see what can be done to rectify the situation as much as possible. Make sure you make it clear it is not the media's fault but your own if it is indeed your mistake. Above all else, make sure you double-no make that triple-check your work before sending it off, particularly when it comes to numbers and prices.

Till next time,
Christy Lau Su Mei
15130659
Curtin Bentley (Sem 1, 2013)

PR and the media

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been a while. Been very busy with work lately. Everything is going well though and I'm loving my internship! I'm almost certain PR is the right career choice for me as I love everything my boss gets me to do. Yes, I know it can be a stressful job but I have the genuine interest in it.

Lately, my boss has been asking me to draft up releases for Christmas promotions as well as New Year and Chinese New Year specials. Getting these releases done early is vital as magazines will close the books for the following month at a certain time. PR and the media have a very co-dependent relationship. It may seem like PR need media more but this is not the case. Editors do call in sometimes to ask for any promotions to fill up their columns. It was great to be actually writing a real press release that could appear in a magazine soon!

Besides print media, my bosses and I have been looking at TV opportunities. I attended a shooting for a cooking show featuring our head chef which was great fun! I got to see how a cooking style show was filmed and it surprisingly only took an hour and half to compete it all! Very soon, we will receive a CD from the TV company with the clipping which we then use to calculate PR value in our monthly media report. We look at the time and multiply that by the amount of people watching to get a number. Obviously this is so much more valuable than a print article.

Another TV channel has expressed interest in our Japanese chef and his unique style of cooking. Our job was to get all the relevant information such as the time it would take to perform his 'tricks' and how many he could do in a certain time, as well the ingredients he would need. I also filmed a short clip to showcase his skills which we then sent to the company for them to decide whether they want to confirm the real shooting. Fingers crossed we get it!

Then we had a new chef come in and I had to draft an 'appointment' press release for him. My boss went to personally interview him as she wanted to find out if there was anything he could do specially that could garner media attention. Turns out, he was writing a cook book and it could be useful to plan an event around it in the future.

So when dealing with the media, it's important to analyze the media potential in what you have and look for any media opportunity you can in print, TV and radio and try to get something in there. You never know unless you try!

Until next time!

Christy Lau Su Mei
15130659
Curtin Bentley (for Sem 1, 2013)

PR Events

What an exciting week it's been for me working at the JW Marriott! I'm loving learning more about the real life duties of a PR manager from my very talented boss.

Last week on Thursday, I had my first event which was a press trip for international members of the media who toured various Marriott hotels around Thailand. The first two were beach hotels and our hotel was the last stop before they headed back home. The purpose was to highlight to them the MICE properties of the hotel. MICE is an acronym for meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition. JW Marriott as a luxury business hotel offers facilities to accommodate the business traveler's needs, such as meeting rooms, an executive lounge and specialized executive rooms to stay in. My job leading up to that involved the planning and organizing of the activities they would take part in during their stay. Me and the other intern sat down with the PR manager to discuss the activities chosen which was actually a clever and fun way to get them to remember important facts of our hotel so they could go back and write about it.

After that, it was out duty to create the tools needed, such as a crossword board and a power point presentation of a JW Marriott style quiz game, testing them on the important facts of the hotel. On the day itself, we had to standby and make sure things ran smoothly and be on hand so that we could help out if needed. I ran to the different locations to check with the staff that everything was set before the media came to visit. It was tiring but everything went smoothly which was good and hearing the very positive feedback from one of the cluster PR people that came with the media was great. Hopefully, we'll be seeing some more coverage of the hotel in the news soon! Last Monday brought some difficulty with one media who was asking more than what he would give us back in PR value, and we had some debate about how to handle him as it was a delicate situation. Thankfully, it went ok. This is the real trouble of PR-deciding whether the return and PR value for the media is worth what we are giving to them, whether it's a free lunch (for a food review) or the use of a hotel room for a night (an extra cost so they can do the review).

And then yesterday night, I attended an event hosted by a local magazine which was a good opportunity to network and meet important people in the industry and of course to maintain the important relationship between media and PR. I had two events this Thursday to attend but we had to pick only one. I learned that you have to set your priorities in PR and as one was for the launch an up and coming magazine against one for a party for a magazine we already have good connections with, my boss decided we should go to the first one so we could try and create new connections.

That's all for now!

Christy Lau Su Mei
15130659
Curtin Bentley (Sem 1, 2013)

First Day of Work: Impressions of Being a PR Intern

Hey everyone!

Today was my first day as PR intern at JW Marriott Bangkok. I was super nervous but also super excited to take all the things I learned in my course and apply them in the real world. I knew this would be a good experience as doing PR, especially in a city is extremely high pressure and there will always be something to do and something new to be exposed to.

Right off, I got introduced to the PR manager who gave me and another intern a long briefing about the 3 brands we'll be looking after under the Marriott name. Each brand has a unique writing style which will be used for the press release. We continued later with her explaining the different tasks we had to do under PR including drafting press releases, monitoring media clippings, event planning and strategy. All of the things felt very familiar as I had already covered them in PR 220 but she did mention calculating PR value which was something I wasn't too familiar with. This is basically calculating the ROI by measuring the inches of space any mention of the hotel took up and multiplying it by the ad value, followed by the PR value. All this has to be recorded in a spreadsheet which will make up the basis of the monthly media clippings report.

After this, me and the other intern got on with our work which was going through all the different magazines sent to the department, finding any mention of JW and marking it down. Then we had a meeting with the event organizer about Thursday's press trip where members of the press will come down to view the hotel and which featured an 'Amazing Race' style contest to make things more memorable. This will be a major event that we interns have to take part in and we were allowed to give our input and suggestions on how to improve it.

After that it was back to the media monitoring and then it was time to call it a day.

I definitely feel excited about what else is to come now that the initial nervousness has worn off and I know more what I am expected to do. Everyone is super friendly and even though the hours are long, it's quite enjoyable as there was (and hopefully will be later on as well) lots to do. This wasn't how I expected it to be because I thought PR would be rigidly strict and stressful but you still have fun as well! I think PR 220 and 250 will be the most useful for my time here as I will be expected to help out a lot in the creation of PR documents, more so than any planning or strategy making.

I look forward to my first big PR event on Thursday!

Till then!

Christy Lau 15130659

Bentley (for Sem 1, 2013)