Moving into the real world

Walking into the office on my first day of work experience was daunting. Who knew how an office of public relations professionals would react to a 23 year old who is trying to find some footing in a new industry. Well I can tell you, fabulously.

Impact Communications specialises in event management, public relations and integrated communications. They are currently putting together the WA Road Safety National Conference, which they organise every year. This is a 4 day conference which includes a conference dinner where they usually organise entertainment that makes an impact.

On my first day I was introduced to the company and asked to look into a few entertainment options for them. This was a great opportunity for  me to settle in and do a bit of research and start to make some phone calls. After being kept busy for a while in doing this as well as chasing up some pits and pieces that they wanted to have for the conference I was dragged down to what they call "the shed". I felt like this was my initiation into the company.- On a hot day trudging around in their big storage shed to see what campaigns they get involved in and what they have for those campaigns. Going back to the office it was all about following up on responses to emails and making phone calls for quotes etc. Not as glamorous as you might think.

My second week of work experience felt possibly less successful. There was a little more to follow up from the last weeks correspondence before going down to the UWA University Club to set up for an event.

On Friday the 18th of March The Office of Road Safety and The Government of Western Australia launched a new campaign to encourage people to slow down on the road. On this day Impact hosted the launch breakfast. On Thursday the 17th was a rush around to finish up the organising for the event. Getting an introduction into what goes on in setting up for an event and just how useful it is to have contacts in the industry for when things may not go to plan or for when last minute changes are made.

All in all so far I am still hoping to get my hands a little more dirty as far as my work experience goes, but it has been a great fulfilling experience for my first two days.