Week 1: Thursday 27th September 2019 (Event Management)

Today we had our first session in Events Management. In essence an event is a one off gathering during a particular time where people see the specticale of the event and not the malarchy that goes on behind closed doors.

Really an event only works with communication; if your team can’t communicate effectively to get the event off the runway then it will crash and burn amazingly quickly. But no plane can take off without a schedule, so no event can be done without planning it first.

The plan has to follow one main rule; which is that every event has to be purpose led. If you lose your purpose for the event then it won’t make any sense to your audience and quite frankly you won’t even know who to target in the first place.

This was a really insightful session with Duncan Sedgewick and was also amazingly hilarious with his witty personality and clever charisma. The list memorable wa sheen we got our homework for the week and Duncan decided to jump in front of the board, photobombing everyone’s photo.

Week 2: Thursday 3rd October 2019 (Public Relations)

This was probably one of the most interesting session we ever had. PR was definitely really fun to learn about and really makes you think harder about the things you see in the world. PR speaks between the organisation, the media and the public. Whether its handling damage control from one of Donald Trumps tweets that he clearly didn’t think through or marketing and advertising a new product, PR is used everywhere to convey a certain feeling or emotion.

After leading the basics of PR we started learning about how to develop a PR story. To do so you always have to focus on measuring objectives and who the target audience is.

At the end of the lesson we were told to think about a company and how we would sell one of their products. Me and my group chose samsung. We came up with a strategy to sell the new note 10 plus which basically entailed using 4 well know celebrities that have all worked with Samsung before and have them use the phone disguised as an iPhone. They would take pictures with their fans and tag there fans with the pictures. After a few week they would then reveal that it is actually a samsung phone to help target the fact that people think that Samsung is on the top of the phone market.

We then pitched our idea in front of the whole class. We confidently gave our pitch and did pretty well (at least I think we did). So all in all it was an amazing experience and I would definitely consider doing moving over to the PR degree.

Week 3: Thursday 10th October 2019 (Music Industries)

This week we started learning about the music industry. Our first session started off with a general introduction of what is included within the music industry. The music industry isn’t just limited with producing, but also live music, recording music, publishing music and also representation and management.

The rest of this session was essentially about the value of music and whether or not music is valued in the world at the moment. If something is valuable then it will generally resist our desire to possess it. But it doesn’t just have to be economic value, it can also have cultural value, symbolic value, social value or even use value. Music has value when the music is creative and innovative. Sometimes that requires risk taking but thinking differently is the only way to move forwards.

The second session we had about music industries was more to do with how to ensure that people connect with music. Promoting and marketing music really depends on conveying the right message, to the correct target audience, so that it will have the right impact on that audience.

One way to really understand this is to actually write about music in press releases; a small targeted document aimed at journalists, bloggers and editors which provides all the information in a simplistic form. When writing about music it is of the upmost importance that you first profile your audience before figuring out how to reach that audience through different methods, platforms and connections. Once that has been done, you then have to figure out how to influence that audience through narrative, incentives and enthusiasm.

After this session we then had to pitch an idea for a musical event and how we would advertise it. We also had to write a press release for this hypothetical event. So our group created a huge competition where the best artists would compete in a no holds barred tournament to decide who the best music artist really was. We used what we had learned from our PR sessions to advertise it effectively. That allowed us to create an effective campaign that was very well received by everyone else in the class.

Week 4: Thursday 17th October 2019 (Journalism)

Journalism was the final discipline we had to study before our first assessment. Quite frankly it was the one I was most excited for. I currently work as a journalist and a TV presenter for a TV channel, so I was really interested in what more I could learn about.

The first session was about news. Essentially, news can be anything. From a simple gossip with your friends to a worldwide incident- news is how you make this particular event relevant to a certain audience of people. The 5W’s are especially important in journalism, and the first 30 words of your story should answer all of those in order to attract the attention of the audience.

Not only that but journalism is about originality, having multiple reliable sources and most importantly not rewriting what others have already written but instead adding new value to your story. You have to be curious if you want to be a successful journalist something that I am slightly reluctant to do. You have to keep your eyes and ears open, because you can turn anything into the news just as long as you can make it relevant.

The next session we did was all about interviewing. Good journalism is about voices- getting people to say what you want them to say. Journalism is about discovering the truth and getting answers. The best way to do that is to interview a person and get the answers you require.

We began the session by thinking of specific experiences we’ve had in our lives. After this we were shown two different interviews. The first sent horribly wrong. The question were closed questions and the people participating were very uncomfortable. The second was a lot more interesting, where the journalist listened to what the person was saying, which allowed them to adapt they’re questions and pinpoint their weaknesses. The main thing our lecturer told us, is that an interview should be a conversation. There shouldn’t be set questions and they should be able to adapt your strategy to get the answers and emotions your want. In order to do that you have to research the person and learn as much as you can about them. That allows you to successfully spin conversations in your favour. You have to also build a rapport with the person to ensure that they feel relaxed around you so that they might disclose something that they wouldn’t usually. Finally you have to ensure that they are the most relevant person to talk to about your situation and the news you want to talk about.