Week XI

Now that my internship is over, I can sit back and relax until it's time to walk on stage and recieve that precious little piece of paper I have been working towards for the past two years!! But, I still have work to do. I have to find a job since I decided not to stay at my internship. So wish me Good Luck!

Week X

My Final Week YAY!!!!

This week was the PA Preferred Best Chef of Pennsylvania competition held at Ag Progress on August 19 & 20. The event was exciting! I was able to meet the chefs that I have been in contact with as well as meet our client, Maria, who was in charge of the competition. It was a big hit because the 30 chairs provided were filled with excited bystanders as well as people standing outside of the tent trying to see what all the buzz was about inside the tent. Reporters were there from the CDT, Lancaster Farming, and the Farm and Dairy. We also had the Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff present the $ 500 check to the winner Bill Sell from the Altoona Hotel. On Thursday the 21st to my surprise the Best Chef competition made the front page of the CDT. Gail Franklin did an excellent job writing about the Best Chef for the CDT. It was a real accomplishment to see all my event media coverage make the front page of the CDT. I really feel like I did a good job and all my efforts paid off!

Week IX

Since we are rounding down to the best chef competition, I needed to create cue cards for the DJ’s, thank you cards for the chefs, finalize times for both the interviews and the food pick-up/drop-off times, and start working on the post press release in anticipation for after the contest. It’s really exciting to be able to work on a huge project like this from beginning to end and watch its growth in anticipation for the event. So far I have created attention in four different newspapers (CDT, Altoona Mirror, Lewistown-Sentinel, Lancaster Farming), one magazine (Town & Gown) two websites (Pheonixvillenews.com, NittanyLiving.net), two radio stations (WRSC, 95.3 3wz), and one TV station (WJAC). And I have been saving copies not only for our client but also for me to put in a portfolio.

Now that the bridal workshop is over, it was my job this week to keep in touch with the contacts that were made on Thursday. Between Michelle and myself, six out of the ten companies that came to the workshop had expressed interest in learning more about preparing for this trade show through the networking session part of the workshop. I was able to make contact with all of them after the show and four of the six went further into depth of wanting quotes on items. It was my job to create proposals for those four companies with quotes of the items requested and explanation of those items. Creating proposals is fun because I have to contact printers to find out prices, add our markup to the printing costs, place other quotes in there for design and such, then email it to client once I get Michelle's approval.

Week VIII

For the best chef competition, I made some major breakthroughs in the past week. I was able to get the returning champion chef from last year, Harrison Schailey, who is competing in this year’s competition to participate in an in studio interview with WRSC and other radio stations. That was exciting for me, but now I have to organize times between the studio and Harrison, which should be somewhat easy. Two other competing chefs also agreed to prepare a dish of their choice to drop off at 95.3 3wz radio station to help promote some chatter on the radio. I also had an article about best chef published in the Wednesday Altoona Mirror and in Sunday’s CDT. Everything is falling into place for this event.

The bridal workshop that was being held at Impressions on Thursday, was a huge objective for the week. I had created favors that would be used as a giveaway that everyone would receive for participating in the workshop. Also I helped to create the powerpoint presentation, HTML emailer for companies that did not show up, and other arrangements that needed taken care of for the workshop. Overall we had roughly a dozen companies join us, which was a good turnout. The purpose of the bridal workshop was to prepare the companies that are attending the Bridal Showcase 2008, at the BJC on September 28, would learn techniques on how to draw in clients and sell their products in a trade show setting. Our objective was to sell them trade show items including; banner displays, literature racks, and other promo items. Michelle said I did a wonderful job in Pre/At/Post event planning. As a side note, I have a friend that is getting married and we will be attending the Bridal Showcase. This will provide me with both the satisfaction that I am helping my friend, but also finding out what it will be like to attend a trade show for my future reference in the marketing industry.

Week VII

Progress was made this week in promoting the Best Chef Competition. I finished creating a press release which needed approved by the Department of Agriculture. It was sent out to different types of media including radio, newspapers, and TV stations. I have received feedback from a few sources but a lot more promotion for this event needs to be done. My next task is to get the participating chefs to agree to create dishes that will be given to the radio stations to perk their interest and hopefully get them to talk about the event on air.

I am also working on other projects including a bridal workshop taking place at Impressions, a survey to be conducted at the Altoona mall for Pruonto's Hair Design Institute located in Altoona, and other work from clients such as Webster's Cafe & Bookstore, The State Theatre, and much more. It gets pretty busy.

Week VI

A road block was reached this week. I have been contacting various forms of media, or I should say that I have been leaving a hundred voicemails on machines of people that won't call me back. Oh Well. Michelle told me that I will just have to keep calling and bugging people until I get a response from someone. I finally got a commitment from Town & Gown to publish a follow-up article on the event we are helping to promote. By the way, the event is PA Preferred Best Chef of Pennsylvania Competition that will be taking place during the Ag Progress days August 19th and 20th. I have less than a month to get more media sources interested in talking about and spreading the news about the event.

I also have been working on a press release to send to newspapers and whoever else I can think of to get to promote the event. I am working with multiple Ag Progress people to help get the event broadcasted. I was concerned that I didn't have enough time to promote the event but when I made the connection with Ag Progress I found out that I was ahead of them when it came to contacting certain media. This gave me a little relief.

I really hope I can pull this off!!!!!

Week V

To continue the work I started last week, I began to contact various media sources to help promote our client's event. Pre/At/Post was the game plan, meaning, media selections we will have to choose that will cover the event before, during, and after. The first task was to create a list of all the potential media sources that were available for us to work through for the event. Since we are on a tight budget, I have to contact different media sources like radio, TV, and print media. Radio stations were choosen to broadcast in studio interviews and make people aware of the event that will be taking place. News stations like WTAJ and WJAC will be called multiple times to get them excited about the event so that way they can cover it on the news while it is happening. And after the event print media like Town & Gown will have a follow-up article with possibly some pictures promoting the winner of our event.

I would have to say that I have enjoyed the work that I do at Impressions. Some days it is better than others but what job isn't that way.

Week IV

The big project this past week was to create a media plan in the state college area for an event that is being hosting in the centre region. I had to call all forms of media sources ranging from radio, newspaper, online ads, and TV to receive quotes and find out who would comprise the best foundation of media for our client.

Also, my friend from South Hills that I mentioned last week, is purchasing some promotional items from us. I received the okay from her this week and proceeded with her order. I can't wait to find out how everything turns out!

Besides the workload, this week was very informational in terms of what to be looking for in my next job. When you begin a new position, you look for certain things that you want the most. It could be anything including how many hours a week you have to work, do I receive health care, is there any form of retirement, how many people do I work with, and the list goes on. But for me the most important requirement is how well I am going to work with the employees. And I found out that I really enjoy the work, but I have to enjoy the people to like my job, otherwise I'm not that happy.

I do believe that this is a good company to work for, and a wonderful learning experience for me.

Week III

Only 29 hours was devoted to my internship this week because of the 4th of July weekend. I was still able to learn many things in that short span of time. I worked on organizing the client workbook, sheduled meetings with potential clients, called suppliers, emailed contacts, and brought in a business lead. My business lead which I am proud to boast about is one of my friends from South Hills. Her company needed promotional items to hand out at a baseball game to promote her business. I felt pretty good this week about bringing in new leads to my internship site.

Week II

Yet again, this week went by extraordinarily fast. I felt alot more comfortable about the tasks set forth for me to complete. I found as the days flew by that when a task needs to be accomplished, my co-workers will place the paperwork on my chair. I think this is a good task completion system, and a nifty idea, because I have to physically pick up the pile of things to do off of my chair before I can sit down. By using this system, I see every morning what items need attended to and be concluded by end of day (which can be very hard to do).

Throughout the week I learned more about the internal environment and had the ability to give myself tasks to complete. I took it upon myself to organize a certain client workbook, which houses information that is used on a daily basis. Halfway through that process I realized that all this information needed updated, and should be housed in a database for better record keeping. I brought up this statement to my boss, and now I am in the process of searching for a database that we can purchase, and therefore create a smoother running business.

So by the end of the week, I was not following Michelle around like a little lost puppy dog anymore, but instead spreading my wings to make this business better. I felt more confident in myself about working at Impressions.

Week I

The first week went by really fast. I felt like I was in the middle of a whirlwind. So much was going on around me, and I didn't know what to do. I was basically following my boss (Michelle) around like a little lost puppy dog saying only a few words when asked a question. On the first day I was immediately exposed to talking with suppliers, clients, and co-workers. I felt overwhelmed by all the information flowing through the office. I even thought, "What have I gotten myslef into?" But I knew I had to stick with it, since I barely even gave the job a chance to sink in yet. By friday, I was feeling better about my position at Impressions, and was looking forward to coming back the following week.