You gotta do what you gotta do
Public relations is a profession which is practiced around the clock. If an issue arises – God forbid a crisis hits the organization – that should be addressed in no time then the practitioner simply cannot wait until the next workday. Time management is a very important skill which should be mastered during the college/university years. Well, those were the main lessons I’ve learnt from our PRIME event organized at our college this week.
One of our main priorities this year is to build and maintain close relationships with the business world and higher education. The first event took place this Wednesday as we invited the Director of Communications of Coca-Cola Hungary, Ibolya Szabo. Coca-Cola is world-famous multinational corporation with excellent reputation – it proved to be the best choice for a first such event.
We had basically 8 days to prepare everything: acquire the green light from the university management, get digital cameras to record the event, create the buzz and craft a creative poster, complete a funny yet informative presentation to introduce PRIME, create questionnaires… all this during the Easter holidays.
The night before the big day I got to sleep for only two hours because I still wasn’t satisfied with the PRIME presentation. It was 3 A.M. and I was still thinking about the best visuals which would get our main messages through. I was thinking: “Hell, I should go to sleep, creative thoughts are long gone…” In that very second, another thought popped into my mind: “You gotta do what you gotta do!” Like a miracle, the heavy clouds on my brain simply vanished – all what was left was the deep blue sky of the focused mind. I finished the presentation and still had time to sleep… well, two hours definitely count, isn’t that right?
The presentation and the event was a great success. The room was filled with ambitious students who were eager to look at the latest PR trends of a great corporation. We had an almost full house there, leaving only a few seats unoccupied. The on-line college magazine gave us a two thumbs up for our organizing skills. Still, the best feeling was when students were telling us during breaks how much they liked our presentation.
You gotta do what you gotta do! If you are fortunate enough to be a manager of an organization’s reputation (ie. public relations) then don’t hesitate to spend energy and time on that. Know your publics, craft the messages carefully and stay focused – satisfaction is guaranteed.
May 3, 2007 at 12:39 pm
PR is a tough business and your right, its one that often requires a lot of time and effort.
I’d say one piece of advice I’d give you is if you can manage your time properly, anything is possible.