And it finally came to an end....

Well today is my last day. It was so exciting to end the internship with a Photo shoot at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. The shoot was held on the 2nd floor of the Sheraton on an outside terrace. I went over there around 3 and watched how they set up and get the talent ready for the shoot. I never realized how time consuming it really was to take a few pictures.

When I got there, the 14 individuals that were hired on for the talent for the shoot were getting their hair and makeup done, along with finding the right outfits for the shoot! I wish my closet had as many clothing articles as the stylist brought over. I mean there were hundreds of clothes. One the talent was finished with hair and makeup, the stylist got the clothes steamed so there were no wrinkles and made sure that they were pressed. Once the talent was dressed, they had to either stand straight up for the next couple of hours or if they did sit down they were not allowed to cross their legs. Wow that must be pretty uncomfortable. My feet were hurting by the end of the shoot and I can’t imagine how the talent was feeling.

So around 4:30-5pm the talent was put into place and the photographer and the designer placed the talent around and snapped hundreds of shots to make sure that they found the perfect placing for the shoot. Once they found the perfect placing (2 hours later), they were ready for the shoot. They had to make sure the talent was in the right place and also that they had the perfect lighting that they wanted.

There was a lot more to it but that is the gist of it. Overall it was a great experience and I’m glad I got to end it on that.

Well I hope everyone has a good few weeks left before graduation.

See you all on May 15th.

Nikki

Final tasks!

Well, my supervisor, the Marketing Assistant, the Director of Marketing and the Internet Marketing Manager, took me out to lunch today. It was a thank you lunch for all the hard work that I have put in over the past 14 weeks. We went to the District that is located in the Sheraton Downtown, and let me tell you, it was WONDERFUL! I was so lucky to work with this fabulous group of individuals! They had really taught me a lot about the marketing field especially in the tourism industry. I will hopefully take all of the knowledge that I have acquired over the past 14 weeks and apply it and other knowledge gained through school (of course) to my future job opportunities.

So today there really wasn’t a lot for me to work on so I have been helping out the Membership Department with taping ‘Membership 2009’ plaques in these membership cards that they send out every year. Tedious and time consuming but it is keeping me busy!

I know from personal experience that the job search will not be easy. Like my mom always tells me “Finding a job is a full-time job in itself” so I will just have to push myself until I find what I am looking for.

Best of luck to all to those of you in the same position that I am in. I know you will all do wonderful!

Keep in touch….

Nikki

Time is ticking....

Well it’s the start of my last week here at the Phoenix Convention and Visitor Bureau and there really isn’t a lot of work for me to do. All morning I worked on downloading files to our database so that we had them on file for any upcoming projects that they will be working on. I have been cleaning out my drawers and my desk, which is kind of sad now that I think about it. These past 13 weeks have gone by so fast.

I just set up my twitter account last week so I am currently trying to figure out what it is all about. I never thought I would have so many social networking sites and now I just have to figure out how I am going to maximize them to their full potential. Hopefully that will help with the whole job search process.

Last week was kind of slow as well. I help with the set up of a green brochure that the membership department was putting together and we luckily got it done and approved by the Friday deadline. My manager set it off to the printer last Friday so hopefully when they get it back it will be perfect. We did find one little spelling mistake after we sent it over but we caught it in time before it got printed off. It’s funny how you will stare at something for so long that you will totally look over an error. That’s definitely why we need 4-5 people proof reading anything that is sent out.

Keep in touch!

Nikki

The countdown is on...

Well it’s Thursday. One week and one day left of my internship with the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitor Bureau! How exciting. This week hasn’t been much different than the last weeks. I have been doing a lot more small projects with the marketing department since they are getting closer to the launch of the new website. Oh and not to mention the spring-cleaning that I have been doing around the office. Always a fun time!

Other then that I am just doing the whole job search thing. Which I have come to find out that that is a full-time job in itself. But hopefully my persistence will pay off in the long run!

Anyone have any good ideas for a bakery in the Tempe/Chandler area for graduation cakes? If so, let me know!

Nikki

Finding a new career path?

Well this week was completely busy, but not with marketing things. I mainly did projects for administration, which was interesting to find out that I actually really enjoy administration work. A lot of the projects involved filing member dues and making sure that they match their invoices. Another time-consuming project that I worked on was in-kind reports and making sure they balanced on the given spreadsheet. In-kind reports are the reports that each department turns in at the end of the month showing the expenses with clients. It is time consuming because it is a lot of search and find type of work that fortunately kept me busy.

Nothing too exciting in the marketing department this week, mainly my day to day activities involving mailing visitor guides, updating the online calendar and approving photos. I did however get to do collateral on Friday. I don’t know about you but it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. :)

One more week down, only 3 more left. That is so crazy to think that these past 11 weeks went by do fast. Now it’s time to start job hunting. Oh JOY! Well I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Keep in touch!

Nikki

What I've learned!

Well the site visit was successful with Sara Owen and now I know what I need to work on and what I need to accomplish over the next couple of weeks remaining here at the CVB. For the homework assignment, “Action Plan”, my major concern was that I wasn’t getting enough work and I felt that my skills were not being taken advantage of. So for my action plan, I put together a list of things that I wanted to get out of the remaining weeks.

One important thing that was discussed was networking. I have worked a lot with different companies and have gotten to get to know some of the people that I worked with. This is a great opportunity for me and I just need to maintain the relationships so in the future if something comes up I might be considered for it. Also in my action I talked about how I was going to try and get together with my supervisor and the rest of the department and get some insight from them as to how I would further my experience in the Marketing World and what I could do to improve myself so I would be a better candidate for a position.

It was interesting with we did “Offer a Solution” because my major concern was that the marketing intern does not have enough things to do to keep them busy for the full 40 hours for 14 weeks requirement through the school. It was interesting because right away I approached the situation as an opportunity for me to help out other departments and get to know them just like I have gotten to know the marketing department. This has been a major success because not only do I have a ton of things to do, but I am also broadening my horizons as to what I might want to do in the future.

Well that’s it for now. More to come tomorrow!

Nikki

Nearing the End....

Well last week was a pretty slow week. There really was not much to do around the office. I worked on a couple of projects here and there for the Marketing Department but a majority of the tasks that I did came from other departments such as the Travel Industry Department, Communications and Sales. Nothing really too strenuous, just mainly inputting data and filing folders.

This week has been the same. I just met with Sara Owen on Monday morning for the mid-term site visit, which everything went well. She met with my Supervisor Kim and she also met with Eric who is the Marketing Assistant who I mainly get all of my projects from when Kim doesn’t have anything for me. It was a short meeting and we basically talked about what I have been doing for the past 9 weeks and what I would like to see myself doing for the next 5 remaining weeks of the internship. It’s kind of weird to think that it is almost over and it will be time for graduation. Real world time.

Other exciting news for us, President Obama is coming to speak at Arizona State’s University Commencement. How exciting is that. Not too many people who graduate get to say that the President came and spoke at their Graduation Ceremony. We are just one of three school to be lucky enough to have him grace us with his presence on this exciting day. So I hope you all take advantage of this opportunity because tickets will be numbered and we definitely are lucky to get first dibs on the tickets.

Other than that there really isn’t much else to talk about.

Keep in touch!

Nikki