Disaster Relief Initiative program plan

Hello,

Today I came into a very quite office and was told by Jade (another marketing girl) that everyone would pretty much be out of the office today - sick, having the day off, on holidays etc. I was a little bit annoyed at this because I hadn't been left any work to do (at my other placement I'm always being set lists of things to do and having work set aside for me). Jade isn't really involved with the HRDRI so it looked like I would be spending a very long day researching information and writing up a proper version of the program plan - not exactly the PR experience I was hoping for (so this post won't actually be very interesting).

So I spent half my day going through the program plan properly - making up title pages, formatting and actually writing it. I got through the executive summary, the situation analysis, the communication strategy and the implementation. I still have to wait until next week for the evaluation and budget information. Jade didn't really have any information for the 'research' part of the campaign so I tried to find some of my own by searching around the internet - on the HVRF website, ABS website etc. Sheridan came in around lunch time and gave me a few things to do in the follow up of Corroboree - which wasn't ideal as it isn't my project, but hey, better then nothing. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing up thankyou letters for some of the key supporters of Corroboree - which was good - afterall it's all improving my writing skills!

I'm not really sure why this position was put forward, I've had some really good experiences with it (the first and second weeks were good) but since then it's been largely downhill - the people here are always (and understandably) really busy and don't really seem to have much to do with the HRDRI - so I can't help but wonder (in retrospect) whether I would have had a better experience with another event/campaign placement. Well there's my whinge for the week - I just can't help but feel a little dissapointed with how unorganised things have been around here. I guess not every day/week is going to be interesting though - I suppose it's just part of the job.

More HRDRI Work

Hi again,

This week I started preparing a program plan/report type thing for the HRDRI. I have already done a few of these for Uni so there weren't many hassles as far as knowing what to do, how to format etc. This would also be a good basis for the case study report which we have to do for this subject - two birds, one stone type thing. I spent a while looking around on the PRIA's website, trying to find the 2007 criteria - it doesn't seem to be there anymore - so I just checked the UTS database for the format of previous winners. I figured that would do for a starting point and hopefully the PRIA will republish the 2007 guidelines. For those who are looking for somewhere to start, I used http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/gta/show.php?id=581 as the basis for my report. I then had to start writing from the information I'd been given. It took me ages to pull the draft together - mainly because I had to sort through a lot of information which was written in some sort of industry lingo. I couldn't finish it because the campaign itself isn't over (making it impossible to do the evaluation part). Anyway, a bit of the draft is done now so I will just have to wait until next time to see what will be done with it. I get next week off (the office is closed because Corroboree is on and everyone involved will be up in the Hunter Valley). So until next time!

Vicky

Example of some written work

I thought I would put up one of the writing tasks I've done just to show you all the sort of work I'm doing! (Just ignore the crazy formatting).

MEDIA RELEASE AUGUST 2007

Hunter Tourism to launch Hunter Region Disaster Relief Initiative

Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation, along with the Hon. Bob Baldwin and the Hon. Michael Costa, will launch its Hunter Region Disaster Relief Initiative this Friday (17^th August) at the Hunter Valley Gardens.

The campaign will occur in the wake of the June long weekend storms, which devastated the Hunter and Central Coast regions, causing flash flooding and the beaching of the Pasha Bulker on Nobbys Beach.

Research has revealed that the Hunter tourism industry has suffered a loss of $60 million in revenue.

In partnership with industry, Hunter Tourism was successful in securing $600,000 for the Hunter from the NSW and Commonwealth Governments to restore tourist consumer confidence in our region.

The relief funding from the Government has been applied to an integrated marketing campaign which will commence on Sunday August 19.

The initiative, developed alongside the “Short Breaks from Sydney campaign” will encourage short breaks to Hunter destinations and will feature the slogan “You don’t have to travel far to feel a million miles away”.

The campaign will give significant exposure to five Hunter destinations, the Hunter Valley, Newcastle, Barrington Tops, Lake Macquarie and the Upper Hunter. The coverage will include TV advertising in Sydney and Regional NSW, advertisements in magazines and newspapers and online promotions.

The campaign will provide much needed assistance for those affected by the storms and flooding.

The initiative will run for four weeks, finishing on September 17.

For further information, please contact Andrew Fletcher, CEO of HRTO on 0407 410 017

Campaign launch photos!

Better late then never...

People!

Bob Baldwin

David Mulham

Will Creedon (GM of HVG), Frank Terenzini, Bob Baldwin, Andrew Fletcher (CEO HTRO), David Mulham (Chairman HRTO)

Week 4 of placement

Hi again,

Nothing much to report this week - everyone at Hunter Tourism is pretty focused on Corroboree at the moment so I haven't really been getting as much work on the HRDRI (Hunter Region Disaster Relief Initiative) as I would like. I spent most of my time this week preparing a pitch on the five areas which Hunter Tourism promotes (Lake Macquarie, Newcastle, Upper Hunter Country, Hunter Valley and Barrington Tops). This basically involved working out an angle for a weekend away (e.g. adventure weekend) and then finding appropriate activities and accommodation to suit the weekend. Apparently these sorts of things are handy to have in case a media outlet calls looking for something to run. I also spent a bit of my time this week ringing up media and other organisations associated with Hunter Tourism to see if they were able to come to an information day for Corroboree. It was all good experience but I wish I was able to do more for the project I signed up for. Anyway, hopefully next week there will be more to do for HRDRI (though I'm not sure as Corroboree is the week after - so I'm quite sure all efforts will be put into that). I will try to put up some photos of the launch of the HRDRI soon so you can all see what was going on.

Until next time...

-Vicky