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Week Four: 9 - 16 Oct

It’s week four of the Brunswick internship programme. The team takes you through what happened, day by day, beginning with the previous Friday afternoon, and taking in some arts PR and a trip to the British Museum, interview training (both as interviewee and interviewer), a discussion of the business media, and the third set of FTSE presentations, this time on the media sector.

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

By Brunswick Interns

Friday 9th October (Claude)

As Charlotte explained at the end of last week’s blog, this day started with our Friday morning presentations, which were conducted in front of Sarah Stimson, Faith Conley and Heather McGregor as well as our fellow peers on this Internship. It was a bigger audience that we had expected.

This week I volunteered (somewhat under duress!) to go first, and I was very nervous, as it would be my first time speaking in front of Heather. However, she gave me some very useful feedback and encouraged us think of other elements that we could include in our presentations, adding to what we cover when dealing with our respective presentation topics.

Our traditional Friday afternoon trip to Brunswick’s offices allowed me to meet with my own mentor there, Michelangelo Bendandi, who I met for lunch. It was an interesting meeting, and I quickly saw how his knowledge of the media, and in particular his views on new media, were going to be of great use and interest to me.

Michelangelo then led our first formal session of the afternoon, and created an open discussion about new media, allowing the other Interns to question and further understand how this particular type the digital age is affecting the media and PR industries.

Our second session at Brunswick was also of some anticipation, especially for me, as it was a visit from Brunswick Arts, the group’s arts PR division. As someone with a history working within the arts, in a variety of contexts, I felt very at home in this session.

We were then given a task – thinking about what we might include in a PR campaign for a real arts project – the Moctezuma exhibition at the British Museum. It required us to come up with a strategy for this event, as well as identifying its key messages.

I enjoyed this session as it gave everybody an opportunity to talk, and to think more laterally. Having to think creatively is an aspect of public relations that I have an instant passion for.

At this stage I would say that I am still enjoying the experience and I am still acquiring knowledge and information that I was previously a stranger to. I look forward eagerly to next week.

Monday 12th October (Junior)

Monday, a new chapter.

All of a sudden the weekends seem to whiz by, and we soon find ourselves back in the familiar setting of Unicorn House.

There really is no place like home (the office) and it’s funny, because I could never have imagined feeling at ‘home’ at work.

Monday morning has a standard procedure: what happened at Brunswick on Friday? It starts with one person talking about the session and, in case anything is forgotten or missing, it becomes a free for all, as the Interns make sure every aspect is covered.

As the weeks go by, the days grow more intense, expectations are high and Friday’s presentations are a top priority. So free time on Monday afternoon is working time, and we remain glued to our computers, trying to discover everything there is to know about the companies on which we will present, asking questions we’d never have thought of just a few weeks ago.

How times change, I use to hate Mondays, but now I consider it to be a day of reflection, of how we as individuals have grown within the space of a week.

I look forward to tomorrow.

Tuesday 13th October (Param)

Tuesday was a productive day. The morning was spent further researching the companies we would be presenting at the end of the week. We all sat quietly, gathering as much information as possible – we knew these presentations had to be even better than those we had done in previous weeks. Heather herself had emphasised the importance of getting theses presentations on point last Friday. So the pressure was on.

On Tuesday afternoon we had a great session with Chris. First he went through the ins and outs of writing a business letter with us; but then we also discussed how to write professional emails – because, as we all know, these days emails are the most common form of communication between both individuals and companies.

We then had a session on undertaking interviews – a journalism skill that was relevant this week because we had been told to incorporate a mini-interview into our Friday presentation. We practised our interview skills by interviewing Chris regarding one of his own media, CMU. We then had to write up the answers so that Chris can give us feedback at a future session.

Wednesday 14th October (Charlotte)

We had this morning to work on our presentations, and after Heather’s surprise appearance last Friday, we aren’t taking any chances, let’s just say those luxury lunch breaks of the first two weeks have turned into ‘eat when necessary’!

This afternoon we made our way to Taylor Bennett for a session on interviewing techniques – not on how to write interviews as a journalist (which we’d discussed on Tuesday), but on how to perform well at job interviews. There were some familiar faces involved in this session – Chantal Tregear, who we’d met at a previous TB session, Seri Davies, who actually interviewed me back at the Assessment Day, and Taylor Bennett researcher Iona McDougal.

Together they told us everything we need to know, from what not to drink to what to talk about in the lift when you get there. My personal highlight of the afternoon was the handshake role-play where we each had to get up and shake Chantal’s hand when she walked towards us – Tina had a weak grasp, Junior wasn’t standing up straight enough and I held on too long! It was all great fun and we took a lot away from the session.

Thursday 15th Oct (Tina)

This morning we all started at a very special exhibition at the British Museum on Great Russell Street – the exhibition we’d discussed at Brunswick last Friday. It was about the Aztec ruler Moctezuma. Katie McCrory and Claire Walsh from Brunswick Arts had put us on the guest list, as the people running the exhibition were their clients. It was a cultural, informative and entertaining experience; I certainly got a better understanding of the way the Aztecs lived and ruled.

We left the museum around 10.30 am and headed back to Unicorn House. We spent the rest of the morning working on our media company presentations which we now knew we’d have to present twice, once the next day at Unicorn House and again the following week to a secret audience!

In the afternoon we had a session with Chris. We’d been expecting to go through our interview question write ups from Tuesday, but time was of the essence, so Chris announced he was postponing that until next week. Instead we leapt straight into a discussion of the business media.

We went through both the Financial Times and City AM, to see how the paid-for paper and the freesheet compared. We also discussed all the other sources of business news, and how you can distinguish between those news stories which are business-based and those which focus on the City; and sometimes how personal finance stories appear in these media also.

Having discussed TV and radio sources of business news, we went online to the BBC iPlayer and listened to that mornings’ Today programme on Radio 4 – in particular the 6.15am business slot – and then to Wake Up To Money on 5Live. Chris finished off the session by playing us an interview he had done on Wake Up To Money the week before regarding Napster.

It was a good session. Once again a lot was crammed in – we are so busy on this internship, but also still have a lot to learn from Chris.

Friday 16th October (Jenard)

It’s Presentation Friday again … you would think by now that we would be used to this and it would be a breeze! Well, it isn’t, the butterflies are in the belly and the nerves are still there, even though we’ve all worked hard all week getting our presentations read.

We were all given a company in the media sector this week, and on the panel of judges were Sarah from Unicorn Jobs and Sarah Crawshaw from Taylor Bennett. We each presented our research into our company’s structure, market performance and future forecast, and reported on the interviews we had conducted with a PR representative of our organisations (in-house or agency). We all usually try a different style for each presentation we do, and today was no different.

After each person had finished presenting we were appraised on our presentation and research skills. It was a very informative session that gave us useful tips to take into account for next the next time we present.

Which, incidentally, will be next Wednesday, when we will redo our media company presenation front of a “special person” during our trip to the Financial Times’ London headquarters. I know everyone is excited about the opportunity to visit the newspaper, but also to present our findings and showcase the skills and knowledge we have gain since being on the internship.

The morning session is now done, so we are going to get something to eat before we make our way to Brunswick for the always-enjoyable afternoon session, which will bring to an end another brilliant week; stay tuned for more adventures of the Brunswick special six!