my group, the Main Event, only had 2 weeks to prepare and organize a quality seminar. Given the time constraint, we were forced to meet at least twice a week and brainstorm ideas on how to make the seminar a success. Furthermore, we were the first group to present in a 12 week long course. Hence, the pressure was on us to open the course with a 'BANG' and set the pace for the rest of the groups.
Contribution and collaboration: Being an international student, I had virtually no contacts or guests to offer to the group. Thus, I offered my technical services as a photographer; I was confident in my photography skills enough to have quality photos to be uploaded onto the main Media Industries website. Other than this, I also helped out in preparing refreshments for the seminar in the form of simple tuna sandwiches. Overall, the group had relatively little hiccups and we were able to solve any potential problem with ease. I felt that the group cohesion was solid and we were all united in making the event a success.
Proactive Learning: Perharps the one thing I've learnt in organising for the seminar was the way our stage manager (Clare O Donnell) was able to man-manage us so well. She took initiative in organising meetings and having clear plans of what to do. She even prepared a group list of what our specific tasks were and our contact details, ensuring that no one was 'lost' in the planning of the seminar. I have been through such events organization before, but Clare's leadership skills is definitely something I can follow and put into practice in the future.
Participation: I attended two of three meetings organized as I wanted to keep myself in the know about the planning of the seminar. During our group meetings, I was only able to contribute to a certain extent - this is because of the lack of contacts/guests I had at my disposal. I was unable to have any suggestions on who would make a suitable guest speaker for our seminar and could only offer ideas on how the seminar should pan out on the actual day.
Connections & intersections: I feel that the seminar series is a good opportunity for students, like us, to meet the players in the industry and find out more about our career paths. It allows us to establish connections and seek out invaluable advice from the professionals. However, throughout the seminar series, i do feel that international students have a great disadvantage in seeking a career here. Most of the professionals were honest and said it would be really hard for international students to succeed as the competition is stiff and more priority, unfortunately, is given to local talent. Nevertheless, some seminars content have left me inspired and I would definitely apply it to my future career aspirations.
Overall, our seminar 'the main event' turned out to be a huge success. The content that our three guests gave were excellent. It did help that our emcee was brilliant in keeping a smooth 'flow' of the seminar. Our peers were impressed with the way we managed to pull it off in such a short period of time - the pressure was on them now to replicate our seminar.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
alternative pathways critique
pre-seminar: There was a little bit of feedback noise from the mics but the lightings were good. The seminar did not start on time due to a late arrival from one of the guest speakers. The emcee was also not very confident of herself. Furthermore, the volume on her mic was not adjusted properly which resulted in her voice not projected well across the room. She seemed hesitant and nervous and was unable to prepare the audience for the seminar.
seminar: As the seminar name suggested, a panel of speakers hailing from different fields in the media were present i.e Sports Media, Public Relations, Video Games, Advertising and a Jack of all Trades. With such a broad range of potential topics to engage in, I thought that it was going to be a thoroughly entertaining seminar. However, this was not the case. The questions that were asked of them were more of general questions (e.g did you see yourself working in this particular field, what's the best part of your job or what skills can we equip ourselves to stand out from the rest?). I was hoping to hear more of these questions:
1) Can you describe us more of the media field that you specialise in?
2) What are the future trends in your media field?
3) Will there be huge changes in your media field in the near future?
Nevertheless, the guest speakers did a good job of answering their questions to the best of their ability. The late guest speaker (Fran Derham) still came to the seminar. I was hoping she would have made it up by having better content to share, but alas she was disappointing. She provided the same answers as her fellow speakers.
The seminar was meant to give us an insightful scope of the different media fields and perharps crucial advice to those who wanted to pursue a career in either one of the media fields. It was overall a very disappointing seminar because of the lack of quality content. This was made worst by the fact that it ended 1 hour earlier.
Post seminar: Most of the audience promptly left once the seminar had concluded. Those that stayed behind to have a short chat with the guest speakers mainly consisted of the group that conducted the seminar. Again, it highlighted the lack of quality of the seminar.
I approached Leah Mirabella, communications co-ordinator at Hawthorn Football Club. She had seemed like a perfect candidate to have in my PNR and I was hoping to get some quotes from her. It proved successful as she did give me some helpful tips in pursueing a career in sports journalism.
seminar: As the seminar name suggested, a panel of speakers hailing from different fields in the media were present i.e Sports Media, Public Relations, Video Games, Advertising and a Jack of all Trades. With such a broad range of potential topics to engage in, I thought that it was going to be a thoroughly entertaining seminar. However, this was not the case. The questions that were asked of them were more of general questions (e.g did you see yourself working in this particular field, what's the best part of your job or what skills can we equip ourselves to stand out from the rest?). I was hoping to hear more of these questions:
1) Can you describe us more of the media field that you specialise in?
2) What are the future trends in your media field?
3) Will there be huge changes in your media field in the near future?
Nevertheless, the guest speakers did a good job of answering their questions to the best of their ability. The late guest speaker (Fran Derham) still came to the seminar. I was hoping she would have made it up by having better content to share, but alas she was disappointing. She provided the same answers as her fellow speakers.
The seminar was meant to give us an insightful scope of the different media fields and perharps crucial advice to those who wanted to pursue a career in either one of the media fields. It was overall a very disappointing seminar because of the lack of quality content. This was made worst by the fact that it ended 1 hour earlier.
Post seminar: Most of the audience promptly left once the seminar had concluded. Those that stayed behind to have a short chat with the guest speakers mainly consisted of the group that conducted the seminar. Again, it highlighted the lack of quality of the seminar.
I approached Leah Mirabella, communications co-ordinator at Hawthorn Football Club. She had seemed like a perfect candidate to have in my PNR and I was hoping to get some quotes from her. It proved successful as she did give me some helpful tips in pursueing a career in sports journalism.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
week 3 the write way critique
This week's seminar focused on the writing aspects of the media industry. It was especially relevant to those who interested in seeking a career in Journalism and for those who loved writing as a passion.
Pre seminar: Seminar started on time and the emcee did a good job of introducing the guests. The lighting was great, but the sound of the mics could have been better. It sounded as if the guests were speaking up and not using the mics to project their voice. Also, the emcee seemed not confident to be on stage. He also seemed not prepared for the role, as evident by his scrambling of notes and not being smooth in his speech. Perharps it could have been his style of emceeing as a means to make the audience to feel at ease, but it did not come across to me as such.
Seminar: The guests invited were excellent. Out of the four guests, three (Catherine Deveny, Paul Verhoeven and Jo Walker) had bags of experience and were all enthusiastic in sharing their stories of their careers. Their use of language, both coarse and entertaining, made the audience feel very much at 'home'. The energy of the room was very lively. Jo and Paul were, in a word, frank about sharing their stories. But Catherine was exceptionally exuberant, inspiring us with her career story and leaving us with an inspiring quote. It was 'you gotta be prepared to get burnt, get screwed, get whooped.. because if you don't, you're never gonna get anywhere'.
If we were to look at the negatives, Catherine dominated the 'talking' and did not give allowance to her other speakers. I would have very much liked to hear about what the three speakers had to share and advise.
Tom Cowie seemed a little reluctant to talk. Perharps it was his recent graduation that made him 'inferior' to his fellow speakers. Nevertheless, his story of his shameless act of self-promotion on the blogosphere greatly inspired me. I felt compelled to do the same.. my gut told me that this could be the making of my career!
Post-seminar: I actually did not want the seminar to end because the quality of the content was that great! It was seen at the end when some from the audience went up to the speakers and have conservations with them. That spoke volumes of the seminar as it had a lasting impact on the audience.
Overall, it was a refreshing, insightful and brilliant seminar. The guests were very relevant to the topic and had quality content to share. Other than the sound systems and a mediocre emcee, it was an inspiring session. Hopefully, we'll see equally solid seminars in the coming weeks!
Pre seminar: Seminar started on time and the emcee did a good job of introducing the guests. The lighting was great, but the sound of the mics could have been better. It sounded as if the guests were speaking up and not using the mics to project their voice. Also, the emcee seemed not confident to be on stage. He also seemed not prepared for the role, as evident by his scrambling of notes and not being smooth in his speech. Perharps it could have been his style of emceeing as a means to make the audience to feel at ease, but it did not come across to me as such.
Seminar: The guests invited were excellent. Out of the four guests, three (Catherine Deveny, Paul Verhoeven and Jo Walker) had bags of experience and were all enthusiastic in sharing their stories of their careers. Their use of language, both coarse and entertaining, made the audience feel very much at 'home'. The energy of the room was very lively. Jo and Paul were, in a word, frank about sharing their stories. But Catherine was exceptionally exuberant, inspiring us with her career story and leaving us with an inspiring quote. It was 'you gotta be prepared to get burnt, get screwed, get whooped.. because if you don't, you're never gonna get anywhere'.
If we were to look at the negatives, Catherine dominated the 'talking' and did not give allowance to her other speakers. I would have very much liked to hear about what the three speakers had to share and advise.
Tom Cowie seemed a little reluctant to talk. Perharps it was his recent graduation that made him 'inferior' to his fellow speakers. Nevertheless, his story of his shameless act of self-promotion on the blogosphere greatly inspired me. I felt compelled to do the same.. my gut told me that this could be the making of my career!
Post-seminar: I actually did not want the seminar to end because the quality of the content was that great! It was seen at the end when some from the audience went up to the speakers and have conservations with them. That spoke volumes of the seminar as it had a lasting impact on the audience.
Overall, it was a refreshing, insightful and brilliant seminar. The guests were very relevant to the topic and had quality content to share. Other than the sound systems and a mediocre emcee, it was an inspiring session. Hopefully, we'll see equally solid seminars in the coming weeks!
Friday, August 20, 2010
making it in melbourne critique
Today's seminar invited a panel of guest speakers from different media fields i.e Television, events and digital media to talk about their experiences in the Melbourne media industry. At the same time, they gave us invaluable insights on how to make it big in the competitive Melbourne working world.
Pre-seminar: Powerpoint slides were hard to read. They had black font against a colour background which were non-pleasing to my eyes. Refreshments were little as well, but this could have been due to the wastage of the (excessive) refreshments last week. However, it is only my personal opinion that it is better to have a generous and reasonable amount of refreshments than to have little.
Seminar: The guests invited were relevant to the topic. They were good in their content, explaining the ups and downs of the Melbourne media industry. They were also inspirational, stressing that nothing but hard work and persistence were the key to succeeding in their respective careers. Dwayne Thompson, promotions co-ordinator of youth focused company Future Entertainment was the most engaging amongst the speakers. Perharps it was his age that 'bonded' us with him, which only made us strive more to one day succeed like him. The only problem I had during the seminar was the emcee. He spoke well, though I felt that he was not engaging enough and was very distracting with his fidgeting movements.
Q&A session: There were some good questions asked from the audience and good answers were returned. All 5 speakers shared personal stories during their careers, which I felt was interesting and relevant to the topic.
However, there was a particular answer to a question that I felt was weak and perharps, ignorant.
There was an Indian student who asked (who spoke in a Singaporean accent): 'From your own experience in your own fields, do you think international students have a chance of making it here in Melbourne? What are your thoughts?' There were 5 speakers, all of whom who surely had some experience working with non-locals in their jobs (most notably Sabrina Jansz, production assistant from Sportsbrand). Yet, it was only Dwayne Thompson that spoke but the answer he gave was a standard answer that one would expect from any working professional.
To my memory, Dwayne answered: 'Well, we've worked with internationals before.. Europe.. Asia.. India *points to student*.. when it comes to succeeding, you know, you have to network and do alot of research.. sit people down and really talk to them about how you would go about making it...'
What Dwayne answered was relevant, but it was a generalized answer. More importantly, he did not give a clear indication of the 'chances' that international students would have of having a career in Melbourne. Given that international students (anywhere in the world) have lower priority of working in foreign countries, we were keen to know the answers from the 5 professionals sitting on stage. Instead, they had little to offer and it was disheartening. Also in my personal opinion, it would have been wise if Dwayne was more sensitive and asked the Indian student of his country of origin instead of assuming that he was from India.
Pre-seminar: Powerpoint slides were hard to read. They had black font against a colour background which were non-pleasing to my eyes. Refreshments were little as well, but this could have been due to the wastage of the (excessive) refreshments last week. However, it is only my personal opinion that it is better to have a generous and reasonable amount of refreshments than to have little.
Seminar: The guests invited were relevant to the topic. They were good in their content, explaining the ups and downs of the Melbourne media industry. They were also inspirational, stressing that nothing but hard work and persistence were the key to succeeding in their respective careers. Dwayne Thompson, promotions co-ordinator of youth focused company Future Entertainment was the most engaging amongst the speakers. Perharps it was his age that 'bonded' us with him, which only made us strive more to one day succeed like him. The only problem I had during the seminar was the emcee. He spoke well, though I felt that he was not engaging enough and was very distracting with his fidgeting movements.
Q&A session: There were some good questions asked from the audience and good answers were returned. All 5 speakers shared personal stories during their careers, which I felt was interesting and relevant to the topic.
However, there was a particular answer to a question that I felt was weak and perharps, ignorant.
There was an Indian student who asked (who spoke in a Singaporean accent): 'From your own experience in your own fields, do you think international students have a chance of making it here in Melbourne? What are your thoughts?' There were 5 speakers, all of whom who surely had some experience working with non-locals in their jobs (most notably Sabrina Jansz, production assistant from Sportsbrand). Yet, it was only Dwayne Thompson that spoke but the answer he gave was a standard answer that one would expect from any working professional.
To my memory, Dwayne answered: 'Well, we've worked with internationals before.. Europe.. Asia.. India *points to student*.. when it comes to succeeding, you know, you have to network and do alot of research.. sit people down and really talk to them about how you would go about making it...'
What Dwayne answered was relevant, but it was a generalized answer. More importantly, he did not give a clear indication of the 'chances' that international students would have of having a career in Melbourne. Given that international students (anywhere in the world) have lower priority of working in foreign countries, we were keen to know the answers from the 5 professionals sitting on stage. Instead, they had little to offer and it was disheartening. Also in my personal opinion, it would have been wise if Dwayne was more sensitive and asked the Indian student of his country of origin instead of assuming that he was from India.
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