Event management and consumer PR really fascinates me and as I’m planning to study Events at university, I decided to gain a better insight of the industry and came to work at Brazen PR for a week. The last thing I ever expected was to be sat in Selfridge’s with a lady boy (from the Lady boys of Bangkok) doing my makeup, never mind the fact that he/she was only doing half my face, and a professional makeup artist was doing the other…in different colours of course. Think black line down the middle, complete opposites, extreme colour versus smoky. It was quite an experience in that alone with onlookers staring at my oddly painted face. Following that I was photographed alongside Miss Manchester and Miss Salford who’d also been made over.
Brazen is a consumer PR consultancy with a twist because it offers a specialist events and experiential division, Brazen Productions, so I thought I’d come and give it a go. Before when I thought of an event, I’d think rent a venue, dress it up and enjoy the result. How wrong I was. I’ve since learnt what needs to be done before even beginning to search for an appropriate venue. Incorporating consumer PR into my experience, I’ve witnessed the extent to which you need to market a company before you can even begin to plan an event for them, mainly because they need the publicity to pull in the punters!
While I’ve been here, I’ve not had to make tea or coffee for anyone- something you’d normally expect to do whilst on work experience. They haven’t given me boring or nasty jobs, but instead the opportunity to have a go at a bit of everything.
I had a great week at Brazen and strongly recommend it to anyone else who is looking to go into this field of work.
By Laura Kerr, Work Experience Trainee & future Event Manager/consumer PR guru