Week Seven: 30 Oct - 6 Nov

It’s week seven of the Brunswick internship programme. The team takes you through what happened, day by day…

This is the seventh blog entry from the 2009 Brunswick Six, click here to return to the blog index

By Brunswick Interns

Friday 30th October (Claude)

This afternoon we went to see the opera at Glyndebourne, which was an amazing opportunity. The majority of the Interns had never been to live performance of this kind before, so it was a real eye-opener

On arrival at the Glyndebourne Estate, we spoke to the communications team there and learnt about the changes they have implemented, and are looking to implement in the future, in order to make the opera appeal to a wider audience. We also had a tour of the venue, which gave us an insight into the place’s almost epic history.

And then we took our seats in the Glyndebourne opera house itself to watch a performance of ‘Jenufa’. It was amazing, and really vocally impressive. Whether or not you’re interested in the arts (which I am), and however you feel about opera, you still had to appreciate the amazing vocals on display here. I have to say that the soprano who played Kostelnička was particularly good, though the whole cast was brilliant.

Glyndebourne proved to be a great trip, and a welcome break as well. Though we have become so conditioned in the world of PR by now, that even on this social outing, our minds focused on the PR dimension, and in particular ways that organisations like Glyndebourne can reach a wider audience.

I would like to thank Glyndebourne for inviting us to come and experience their performance, and for making us feel so welcome.

Monday 2nd November (Tina)

Monday was a very quiet day for the whole group. Heather wasn’t due to set us our task until Tuesday this week, so we had the morning to finish writing our blogs from the week before. We also worked on our CVs and cover letters, which we need as we get ready to start applying for jobs and graduate schemes. For some reason I felt quite uneasy and apprehensive, maybe it was the thought of continuing the day without knowing what the week’s main assignment would be.

In the afternoon we had a session with Chris on the Sunday newspapers. We went through the previous day’s Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, the Observer, Sunday Express, The People, Sunday Mirror and the News of The World. We were each given a paper to go and do a little background research on, and then we went through all the papers in detail and discussed Sunday papers in general. It was amazing to see the similarities and differences between the Sunday papers and their weekly sisters.

Tuesday 3rd November (Param)

Tuesday was a productive day.

First, we were given the companies we had to present on this week, and guidelines on what we needed to cover. This week we were working in pairs, and had to choose the pairs and the company we would look at between us, which we did relatively easily. We got down to doing our research straight away.

In the afternoon we had a learning session with Chris, who talked us through how to write effective reviews. In preparation for this session we all had to write reviews of the film ‘Thank You For Smoking’, which we had watched in the first weeks of the internship. It was a great film that highlights the complexities of Public Affairs work in an amusing way. One of the reviews was chosen to be sub-edited, and Chris talked us through how we should go about doing this. Once that was done we spent an hour discussing the basics of what goes in a press release.

Wednesday 4th November (Junior)

Wednesday morning didn’t start at the office like normal. Instead we were kindly welcomed to Holborn, to meet Robert Clinton and Patrick Callaghan of legal firm Farrer & Co.

Things didn’t start off quite as we had planned as we struggled to find Farrer’s offices. We relentlessly walked in a circle, only to find out we’d been right in front of the office to begin with! But it proved to be fun, because we’d had a short unplanned tour of the area as well as a few laughs about how silly we had been!

The session at Farrer & Co informed us about aspects of the law which are relevant to PR and the media. We were also told more about the Press Complaints Commission and given an introduction to defamation. The interesting thing about this session was how my fellow Interns were curious to know the rights and wrongs of PR, and especially where lawyers like Robert and Patrick came in. I feel we only scratched the surface on this issue, but we did get a better understanding of how PROs and lawyers worked together for the benefit of a client.

We returned to Unicorn House for lunch, but as soon as we were finished we found ourselves back at Liverpool Street station off to Taylor Bennett, no rest for the wicked! The afternoon session at TB focused on appraisals, as well as our perceptions of each other based on last Friday’s group presentation. Although not all the feedback was positive and there were areas for improvement, we all showed real character and respected each other, not only as a group, but also as individuals.

Thursday 5th November (Charlotte)

This morning we went to the offices of Save The Children in Farringdon and met Learning & Development Manager Rajvi Shah and Head Of PR Rosie Shannon.

Rajvi met us at reception and lead us through the charity’s brightly coloured offices to a meeting room where we each received an information pack. After a brief introduction, Rajvi gave a Powerpoint presentation about the organisation – what they do, what they hope to do, what they’ve done – all very insightful – and we asked lots of questions. I had no idea they were responsible for so many breakthroughs.

Then we heard from Rosie, who had previously worked in fashion and consumer PR. Rosie spoke about the challenges and pleasures of the job, and how they get their message to the regional and national press. You could tell by the way that she talked about the charity and her job that she enjoys what she does.

At the end they gave us some frank advice about getting into charity PR. Rosie explained how difficult it is for people like us (inexperienced graduates) to get into it without at least a years of work experience under our belts. However, many of us walked away contemplating a career in charity PR. Our visit to Save the Children was great, and showed us yet another side of the PR industry.

Friday 6th November (Jenard)

For our presentation assignment this week we were put into pairs and allocated companies from the travel and leisure sectors. Charlotte and I presented on TUI Travel plc, Junior and Claude were allocated Whitbread plc and Christina and Param had Compass Plc.

We presented on the structure of our allocated company, recent news coverage they had received and the people who ran them. Our panel of judges today consisted of two Sarahs – Sarah Stimson from Unicorn Jobs and Sarah Crawshaw from Taylor Bennett.

All of our presenting techniques have improved greatly over the weeks and now, for most of us, presenting comes with ease. The critiques we received after presenting today demonstrated that we are improving, while also helping us pinpoint where we need to do better.

That said, every Friday I still get butterflies in the belly, because I always want to do well, and meet the high standards the other Interns have set. Today went well I think. It was a very good and productive Friday morning.