Alicia Saba
Progress reports (5) (30% total, 6% each)
Progress report 1 Week 1
Embarking on a new adventure was exciting and scary. Luckily I had a direct flight from San Francisco and sat next to five other girls from the internship program I was going to be apart of. When we arrived in Sydney two days later (because we flew over the international date line we skipped a day) at 7 a.m. we were all looking forward to meeting the other members of our program and seeing where we would live. When I arrived at the apartment I would call home for the next two months I met my roommate, Lindsay, who is from Scotland. The next day I decided to go look for my internship so it would be easier to get there on time on my first day.
When I arrived the next day for my first day of work I realized the office was actually an apartment complex with two rooms on the bottom floor where the offices were. Two other employees worked there, the office manager, and the marketing manager, along with the two owners, Clare and Denny Burgess, who were always in and out. When I arrived they welcomed me with open arms, calling me “Miss America” I was the first American intern they have had and their first full time intern. They gave me a quick orientation and then I was given the assignment of working on a newsletter.
The newsletter was for the Global Battle of the Bands, an international band competition. A Red Letter Day managed the 50 heats located in Australia and New Zealand. This was the first newsletter they have ever sent out. I choose a design for the newsletter and began writing it. I interviewed the first place winner of the first heat and wrote a story about upcoming heats. The second day of work I wrote press releases all day. I was confused on what the write about and how they wanted it written. In Australia things are less formal then in America. In America we follow a certain style of writing, most of the time AP style, when writing press releases and other things like that, in Australia, or at least at the company I worked for, followed no uniform sense of style. To make writing exciting they used exclamation points. Usually in press releases and in papers they look unprofessional.
Progress report 2 Week 2
This week started by making phone calls to venues and music stores asking if they had received the promotional Global Battle of the Band posters and if they needed more. Then I got their address and sent them the posters needed. At first it was hard to understand the Australian accent but I got more used to it as time went on. I researched universities in the cities of all 50 heats and called them to see if they were interested in receiving posters to promote the Global Battle of the Bands.
I also called some media outlets trying to pitch the story to them. This was a challenge with the different accent, and it was only my second week so I wasn’t too sure what I was talking about yet.
Most of this week I made phone calls about the posters.
Progress report 3 Week 3
Since the Global Battle of the Bands newsletter goes out ever two weeks that was one of the duties I worked on this week. I interviewed more bands and wrote articles on current and future heats. The newsletter goes out to hundreds of people including bands, venues, music stores, radio stations, television stations and newspapers.
This week I received a new, big assignment. The company I work for owns a Web site called Hot Source. It is a site for all music and entertainment events in Australia. My job was to write an article for all 50 Australian and New Zealand Heats. I called a band participating in the heat, asked them a series and questions and then wrote an article about it.
The office manager also gave me a task to do this week. Her job is to book bands for events and there was a band competition coming up that needed bands. The band competition was the next day. I had a list of bands I was suppose to call to beg the to play at the event. Most said no but two actually said yes which was a big number considering I was calling in such short notice.
Progress report 4 Week 4
This week I continued to work on the Hot Source articles. Calling the bands was the best part of my job. I liked to interview them; most of them were really excited to talk about their band and how they were looking forward to the competition. Some of the interviews were a challenge to get the band member to talk. Some would give me one-word answers as I would pry for more information. I would try to find them on MySpace Music before I called them so I could ask them specific things.
Another challenge of this project was to make the 50 articles different. Most of them had all the same information so it was hard to diversify them.
Progress report 5 Week 5
This week was the first week that I was taking over for the office manager who was on holiday for the reminder of my internship. Her job was to book bands for a variety of shows, correspond with bands and their managers, keep the MySpace account up to date, answer the phone, keep the office organized and be the personal assistant for the owners of the company. I also still had duties from my old job. I was continuing to work on the Hot Source article as well as another newsletter.
This week was extremely busy trying to get everything organized and booking bands for the three or more shows each week. I also had to book judges for the band comps, make sure there was a sound person at every concert and an M.C. script was written if needed. I liked this job a lot better. It was easy to book bands, most wanted to play. It was nice to give new bands the opportunity to play shows.
Progress report 6 Week 6, 7, & 8
This week I continued to carry out the office managers duties. I was really enjoying it. My job as personal assistant was to book meetings and make sure that Denny, the owner, knew where he was suppose to be at all times.
Things were hectic working as the office manager and still doing my marketing duties for the Global Battle of the Bands. My days were filled of answering phones, corresponding with bands, and uploading the Hot Source articles to the Web site. I also had one more newsletter to write.
This internship was a wonderful experience for me to see another culture, how they work and live. The way things are done in Australia are much more laid back and care free. It help me realize how I would run a company if I decide to own one in the future. It also made me realize that writing press realizes and articles is not something I want to be doing.
Bibliography (10%)
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Proposal (5%)
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Paper (25%)
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Portfolio (30%)
My portfolio can be found on http://www.aliciasaba.com/australia.html
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