Awaiting Spring...

Awaiting Spring... by joyliu on Polyvore.com

and a paycheck.

My life is Ad Team, no UIB, no I have no idea.

Where has the month of March gone? I cannot believe there is only 1 week left of March.

This past month has been insane. On top of my regularly busy schedule, Ad Team was added on top. Any spare moment of mine has been spent in the Ad Lab (or Idea Lab). A group of 20 or so of us have been working endlessly on the JCPenney case. It has been an awesome experience. It is one more thing that reminds me how much I love all my life decisions. It is astonishing how passionate my advertising professors are about their jobs. They work right along side us through those countless hours in the Ad lab. I really enjoy sitting back and just listening to the 3 of them discuss this competition like it is real life. They discuss JCPenney as if they were our real life client and we are a real life agency. So cool. It was fun to apply the knowledge I learned from my classes so far and use them towards the project. I worked mainly on the research and media team. I helped spend a hypothetical $100,000,000 on buying advertising space alone. I have become somewhat of an expert on current television shows and their ratings.

On top of that, UIB has been in full planning mode for our Spring events including our Launch Party. The day has finally come, the day we unveil our new logo. I must admit, I have let my fingers slip away from this project and I am disappointed in myself. I don't think I set unrealistic goals towards this re-branding initiative, but I may have assumed everyone working on it was able to read my mind. I have come to realize that I don't know how to express my ideas and thoughts to their full capacity. I don't enjoy being the dictator of ideas, but I also don't like when my ideas aren't carried out the way I wanted it to. So what do I do? Is it just my personal taste? Is it ever okay to tell someone they have bad taste?

After taking a step back from all of the craziness, it has made me realize that it may be time for me to chose. Activities that come along with my major seem to always conflict with the extra things I do that have to do with student affairs and/or events. I feel like I am always having to compromise myself and spread myself thin to be able to do both. I had to step down from heading the Wildcat Wahoo Carnival because of the Ad Team competition being held the same day. I can't be in my office for the full amount of hours because I spend it working on the JCPenney campaign. Don't event get me started on my opportunities I have to chose from for the summer or the other leadership roles I have taken on. I am never one to put all of my eggs in one basket, but that has caused me to officially spread myself out too thin. I am not performing up to my full capacity. I love what I do and I don't like feeling like I have to chose between the two. So do I cut some things out? Or do I learn to manage my time better? Is that even possible? If there were only more hours in the day.

Just venting a few thoughts, until next time...

So me.

P
new by joyliu on Polyvore.com

Growing closer to the rest of my life.

My entire life, I have always pretended and tried to act older than I really am. I've always been able to connect with adults better than people my own age and I have always been told that I am wise beyond my years. The thought of growing up has never been scary until just recently. The realization has come in slow bursts. I first caught a glimpse of being an adult when I flew into Providence from Christmas break and had no one there to meet me and no school transportation to call. I had to have a cab take me to where my car was parked. That was mainly bad planning on my part but it was a preview of my life when I move somewhere completely new and I do not know a soul. I am not afraid of moving somewhere completely new again, I did it for college, I can do it again for my career, but I had never really thought about how weird it is to not have anyone meet you at the airport or anyone who could meet you at the airport.

Remember back when I was stressing about when and where I was going to do an internship? Problem solved, I got an internship at a local ad/pr agency in Providence, Duffy and Shanley. I am officially staying in Providence for the summer. I will be working at school part time, taking a night class, and doing my internship. That should keep me busy, at least busier than I was last summer at home.

Since I hang around so many SEE (sports/entertainment/event management) majors, I forgot that unlike their degree plan, mine does not actually require a full internship. So strange enough, I only need to do this internship at Duffy, I don't have enough credits to do a full one. It's good because I am that much closer to being done with college, but bad because a lot of really cool internship opportunities require that it is for credit only. I only have 2 trimesters left of classes after this academic year. What do I do all spring trimester next year? Should I hang around since I have a year lease and graduate with all of my friends? Do I peace out early and hop on a 2012 campaign trail? Who knows! I'm flying through college faster than normal, but I guess it was the plan all along. 

Until next time...

Lessons Learned: SES Educational Excursion 2011

Unlike the stereotypical Spring Break activities that come to mind, I spent my spring break with 39 bright and ambitious students interested in pursuing a career in the sports/entertainment/and or event industry exploring he industry on the west coast. The Special Events Society strives to supplement our education outside of the classroom and give us true experience in the events industry. Last year we went to Orlando, FL and this year we went to the Los Angeles, CA area. This past week was filled with different tours and Q&A's with all different types of venues and event professionals.

The list below pretty much sums up what I got out of this trip:

1. When flying coast to coast, always fly Virgin America
2. Yes, it is Spring Break and we are going to CA, but it is still winter. Pack appropriately.
3. When planning a race, always check to make sure you have enough sign-age, safety pins, and make sure the bibs are in numerical order before registration begins.
4. The best place to watch celebrities on the red carpet is on TV, not from behind a fence across the street.
5. Most professionals in the event industry, fell into it by accident
6. Be willing to work for free and pay your dues
7. Pay attention to the small details and fix things without being told to do so
8. If you haven't been hearing enough "no's" you haven't been talking to enough people
9. "No" just means "Not now". Be delightfully persistent.
10. Be well versed in the industry before entering the industry.
11. Send your resume to EVERYONE.
12. The sports industry is a very small world, do not burn any bridges, they talk. 

The SES board members did an outstanding job planning this trip for us. I can't wait to get started on brainstorming ideas for next year's Educational Excursion. The new board has some big shoes to fill.

Until next time...

In Sync

My Google Apps

Instead of checking important things off my to-do list today, I discovered Google Chrome Apps and synced my entire life online. I finally figured out TweetDeck and wondered why I didn't start using it a very long time ago. Updating Facebook pages is a big part of my job and the leadership positions I hold. With TweetDeck I am able to manage all of my social media in one application. Genius. It is also a lot let distracting than having an actual Facebook page up on my computer at all time. Just recently I synced all of my calendars to my iPhone and today I figured out how to even sync my Facebook calendar to my phone. Here are the directions to do it if you're interested, it is very easy to do.

By doing all of these things, it is a way to make me feel more productive that I actually was, but it also allows me to keep myself organized and connected at all times. In preparation to going out into the work force in the near future, I have been attempting to brand myself. A good way of doing that is doing my personal IMC (integrated marketing campaign). I am in the process of streamlining my own brand and making all of my online profiles cohesive within my own brand as well as sending out positive messages out about myself. I am managing my own PR as well as my own marketing. It is not quite there yet, but I am very excited about it.

More to come...until next time...

I left my heart in DC

The entire female conservative
population at JWU

Ahh, finally time to sit down and blog after CPAC. I spent this past week in DC with 4 other lovely JWU conservatives volunteering at the 38th Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Rae and I had such an incredible experience last year volunteering, we brought 3 more with us this year: Alison, Katy, and Dara. It is always such a great learning experience for everyone to go but it is even more special to us because of all of our backgrounds in the event and hospitality industry. It is a perfect merge between the two things we are passionate about. Although I am leaning further away from event management and closer to advertising and media, this was also an incredible experience for me as well. There is the RNC and DNC conferences and then there is CPAC. It is the 3rd most news covered political conference in the nation. This year I had the opportunity to assist the Director of Communications at CPAC, Ian Walters. There was an expected 11,000 people attending this conference and over 400 different media outlets registered to cover the conference.

w/ Griff Jenkins from FOX News

My experiences as the media assistant was different from my experience as a volunteer last year. While I technically had more responsibility this year, I spent a significantly less amount of time in the ballroom listening to speakers and more time out and about helping Ian put out fires here and there. I didn't get to meet as many speakers this year but I did get to interact with the press more and meet reporters from major news networks like FOX, CNN, The Washington Post, and the list goes on and on. I spent some time backstage with the production team as well as time down in Radio Row confirming interviews with different politicians and radio shows. During my down time I got to sit at media registration and chat with people in the public affairs and public relations profession. I discovered that there is a small niche of people who are interested in media strategy and politics. I shook lots of hands and collected business cards. I also learned more about how CPAC is run, and got to see a whole different behind the scenes of the conference.

The whole CPAC Crew

It saddens me every time I have to leave DC. I am confident that I will end up there at some point in my life, hopefully sooner than later!

Until next time...