Halloween, Thanksgiving Cards and Christmas Decorations

The past few weeks have flown by, and I have been busy with a variety of projects that keep me on my toes. The array of opportunities is one of the things I enjoy most about public relations; you’re not tied to your desk writing press releases day in and day out.

One of the projects I have been working on is compiling a media coverage report for the press conference I attended last Wednesday. To do this, you find the articles that feature the event and than find the circulation numbers for the publication, telling you how many people potentially read the article about your client.

Another project I have been focused on is ordering Thanksgiving Cards for a client. This means choosing everything from the design on the front, to the color of the ink. I’m excited for the cards to come in and to see the project through from start to finish.

Picking out Thanksgiving Cards the week before Halloween has thrown my holiday clock for a loop. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the Christmas season officially begins on November 1 here at Eisbrenner. Who thought you could throw three holidays into one short week?

Press Conference 101

I have been lucky enough to attend three press conferences since I started interning at Eisbrenner, two of them earlier this week. One of the benefits to being an intern here is that although you are assigned to certain clients, you are able to work on any account and that means you are involved in a wide variety of projects.

On Wednesday I attended a press conference at Cobo Hall for Convergence Education Foundation’s Innovative Vehicle Design Awards. The program unites high school students with corporate partners and their goal is to build an innovative one-person, electric car. The students did amazing things with their cars, and it was great to see the interest from the media.

Thursday was another press conference, this time at the grand opening of Rock Financial JA Finance Park in downtown Detroit. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was there to speak, along with the founder of Quicken Loans and Rock Financial, Dan Gilbert. This conference attracted all sorts of media, including print, radio and broadcast.

The press conferences I attended this week gave me a world of knowledge about the role of a PR practitioner at these events. They are there to greet the media that attend (sometimes chasing them down), make sure they have the press kit and any information they might need, as well as set up interviews with people involved in the conference. These are things you may be able to learn in class, but when you have the opportunity to see how a press conference is run, your knowledge of how to work with the media will vastly improve.

Public Relations Makes the Grade

As a soon-to-be graduate, any article that talks about employment rates or growing job markets catches my eye. I stumbled across one on CNN that ranked the best jobs in America.

I was completely and pleasantly surprised when I saw a public relations specialist was ranked 20th. Better news than being ranked at 20 was the 10-year job growth forecast at 22 percent. For all of the warnings college graduates hear about the poor job market, a 22 percent increase is music to my ears. Different areas were also graded, with a public relations specialist position receiving a “D” in stress, “C” in flexibility, “B” in creativity and “B” in difficulty.

The 22 percent increase isn’t a surprise, as a public relations team is an essential part to any company, especially in the increasingly competitive market, where company recognition is second to none. As for the grades the position received, it shouldn’t be of any surprise this job could be stressful and require long hours. But it does allow your creative side to shine, and if you work somewhere like Eisbrenner, with a supportive and positive working environment, each one of those grades would vastly improve.

Press Conference

Monday morning I had the opportunity to go to my very first press conference. The conference was for an automotive study being released by the Harbour-Felax Group. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it was definitely a learning experience.

I was assigned the task of making nametags and filling in information for journalists that hadn’t confirmed. There is so much work that goes into a press conference and I tried to absorb every detail I could. One of the important points I picked up is that the conference can be an opportunity to speak with journalists to see what other stories they are working on, as well as to develop relationships with them.

Although the actual conference was a great experience, seeing the coverage the conference received was equally impressive. It was evident some of the journalists were going to take a different spin on the study through the questions they were asking, and seeing the difference between what people wrote was very interesting.