Reflective Journal

My professional internship at Project A is finally coming to an end. I really want to thank my boss for giving me this opportunity to explore the professional world and get me in different projects. Thanks for accepting a second year student barely with any work experience and believe me to be part of the team. Also, the internship is a lot smoother with the help of the administrative staff and teaching staff from the English Department.

 

Last time in the progress report, I talked about what I am going to do briefly and I believe I have to tell more about what I have learnt and what I have done during this professional internship. I would like to first talk about things I have done first, then what I have learned and my reflection for the whole process.

 

Social Media Week

The first project I am in charge of is the social media week events, I am in charge of two cultural events in the social media week. The social media week is a half-yearly event sponsored by the global telecommunications limited NOKIA. The two events I am in charge of are called Schoeni Galleries and the Art of 5 senses and Art & Antique Hollywood Roadshow respectively. I have to work closely with 5 contemporary galleries and 5 antique galleries on program run down and details of the events.

Schoeni Galleries and the Art of 5 senses

Schoeni gallery is one of the leading gallery specializing contemporary Chinese art in Hong Kong. Before the event day, I have meetings with the marketing director of Schoeni gallery to brainstorm some ideas to hold the event. First, we have to fit in the theme of 5 senses, namely sight, taste, hearing, touch and smell. Second, it has to be social media related event. Then, it has to be related to art, promoting Schoeni galleries and art appreciation.

 

Since Schoeni has three different galleries, so we decided to break the events in three stations and visitors have to follow our clues to find the next station. The first station is the flagship store of Schoeni galleries located on Old Bailey Street. Here includes taste, smell and sight. There is a wine tasting session held by our wine specialist from Italy. Visitors get to taste two different types of wine from our sponsor Wino Cantina winery. I have also solicited sponsorship from Wino Cantina winery and Red Bull for the event beforehand. Moving onto the next station, there is a game for all visitors to try. It is called the six degrees of separation. It means everyone in the world is related by only six steps. We pinned our name on the board and found out our connections with other guests. At the same time, we offer red bull drinks to our guests. Coming to the last station, the social media station on Hollywood road, there is a live feed twitter wall in the gallery. Guests can use their smartphone to tweet about the event and it is shown on the wall instantly. Also, guest can scan the QR code next to the artwork and know more information about it and also the mini game in the app.

 

After the event, we found out the wine tasting game is extremely popular, also the six degrees of separation game. However, the twitter wall is not that popular; we discovered most guests do not have a twitter account. Maybe twitter is not really popular in Hong Kong. We proposed to use Facebook to subtitle twitter next time. Guests said they like the catering and QR codes most, because the QR codes are tailor made with colors and patterns, they are very different from other QR codes guests have seen before. Some guests also complained about the locations of the galleries, since some of the guests are wearing high heels, they have trouble walking down to Hollywood Road. Some guests get lost when they walk down to other galleries; we have to arrange more volunteers to guide them next time. And I walked up and down the galleries more than ten times to check if everything is okay. The event was a big success with more than 250 guests attended, even more than the number of people RSVP for the event. After the event, we went for dinner together with the team and celebrate the end of the event.

Art & Antique Hollywood Roadshow 

After the success of the first event, I have to assist in organizing another event two days later. The other event is also a feature event of the Social Media Week; it is called Art & Antique Hollywood Roadshow. This event intend to raise the awareness of Antique art in Hong Kong as most people in Hong Kong think antique art is not affordable or the collection is only restricted to Chinese antique art. This time we have to work with two contemporary art galleries and three antique art galleries in this event. This event is also a promotion for the galleries that exhibit in Fine Art Asia. Fine Art Asia is recognized in art industry globally as Asia's leading annual fine art fair. During the planning process, I came along with my boss to discuss the event matters with the antique galleries; two of the galleries are the traditional type of antique shops. My boss couldn’t speak in Cantonese and the owner of the antique shop couldn’t speak in English either. So I became very important in translating their conversation during the meeting. They soon decided to feature one of their most expensive and precious antique art from the shop. One of the featured antique is an antique Persian rug. This is very different from the usual perception of antique. And the other two antique shops feature ancient Chinese furniture and an antique porcelain vase. I have to arrange catering in each of the galleries and a cocktail closing party in the last gallery. Make sure media and guest speaker arrived before the party start.

 

Guests have to start with the first gallery to learn different artwork, they get a clue of the next location after the workshop. At the same time, they are given a leaflet to fill out what they’ve learned in each gallery. As they arrive the last gallery and handed in the form, they can go into the lucky draw for a year subscription of a high-end magazine and VIP invitation to Fine Art Asia. The final party is a success; We have invited the renowned artist Gustaf Nordenskiöld from Gallerie NeC, the famous female auctioneer from Sotheby's, Consulate General of Sweden, Consulate General of France and Consulate General of Netherlands. Guests generally enjoyed our catering along with three different choices of wine from the sponsor: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Krug Rose Brut. There is some room for improvements too according to the guests. The route is too long and by featuring 5 different galleries is a tiring night for them after work. Apart from the opening and closing gallery, the traditional antique galleries are really small and the capacity is only 20-25 people each timeslot. We have volunteers to help with crowd control, guests are not happy with waiting outside the gallery as some of them don’t make it to the final party due to waiting. We agreed the inclusion of 5 galleries is too much and even with the test walk before, the galleries are too packed with guests and time management is difficult. There was a lack of plan in case galleries are too crowded.

Sustainable Design Competition II 

Competition & Roadshow

After these two events, I continued to work with my team for the sustainable design competition II. Our first sustainable competition was very successful, that’s why we plan to have a second competition. This time our contestants have to design a red packet “lai see” for Delta Airlines using sustainable materials. We went to different universities for our competition roadshow including SCAD Hong Kong (Savannah College of Arts and Design), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Baptist University and Chinese University of Hong Kong. We have over 120 contestants in total from different institution in Hong Kong. We introduce our printing sponsor Polytrade paper to the contestants and explain what kind of paper they can use when they design the red packet. The choices of paper are all made from recycle paper to fit the theme of sustainable design. Even the paper are made from recycled materials, they are of very good quality and sharp colors.

 

When we are preparing the competition, I have successfully pitched and solicited an estimated value of $50000 sponsorship from Delta airlines and also prizes from G.O.D. (Goods of Desire) as the prizes for the winners. I remember giving a presentation to Douglas Young - the CEO of G.O.D. alone in the board room to explain what we want to achieve with this competition and what we hope to get from them. I  can still remember I was really scared, even after meeting some important clients from overseas, I was still scared by his title, the CEO of a multinational company. I want to close the deal and also make their company happy. Luckily, the presentation went well and I would say Douglas is really friendly and he promised to offer us sponsorship and internship opportunities for the winners.

Exhibition in Dutch Design Week

After the result was announced, we started to prepare for the exhibition in Dutch Design Week to promote the traditional culture overseas. The winner's design are exhibit in one of the biggest event in Netherlands for the design industry. I am staying in Hong Kong with the HK team; I have to help preparing press release and other promotional materials to coworkers in Netherlands for printing before the exhibition start. It was quite challenging with the time difference in two places and we  communicate with emails mostly, so we need more time for communications than usual. At last, the materials are printed and the exhibition is set up as well.

 

Louis Vuitton Art Tour and Business of Design Week Exhibition

In between different events, I also help arranging art tours, including one held at the Espace in Louis Vuitton Flagship store and another one is a private tour for BNY Mellon’s Andy Warhol Eternal Art Tour for our VIP clients. Besides, I have also assisted in organizing Porous City Exhibition by Prof Winy Maas as one of the activities in Business of Design Week by Hong Kong Design Centre. I have to check with Philips when is the artwork being transported from Netherlands to Hong Kong. Later on, we moved the exhibit to city gallery in central. I have to book the venue and arrange the exhibit in city gallery.

Afterthought

After organizing all these events, I have learned a lot and also a lot to express. The first two events namely the social media week events are the biggest events I have ever in charge on my own. There are so many troubles in the process as things do not always follow your plan. Guests may appreciate what you do but they can hardly understand how hard you work and prepare for the events. At the same time, other companies I work with certainly do not have much respect for a young and new intern of the company. Things get a lot more difficult and more details are needed when I am the one dealing with these companies.

However, by working hard, understanding more and learning fast, I proved to them I am not only an intern in this company. I am actually the person in charge of this project, the project we work together. I spent much spare time outside office hours to study their company background, the important people of the company before meeting them in the real event. Also, I spent time to work on a presentation to bring along with when I am getting sponsorship from them. So at last, they are convinced by my actual attitude that I am not wasting their time but really working on the project.

I realized getting trust by the companies or your colleagues are very tough. Especially they are affected by the perception of “Post 90s” kid that we are irresponsible and lazy. I further prove them I could work better than people from prestigious universities. I proved to them not only people from those prestigious universities could help the company. Student from CityU can do the same or even better. I hope this can hopefully stop the labeling of my university. Being the person in charge for the project is very challenging, as I am just a new intern with no experience in this field, I have to learn everything very quickly and make sure there is no mistake in the project. Because being the person in charge does not only mean you get the glory of success, it also means you are responsible for company’s loss and the third party’s loss.

I remember the first time I was helping an in-house designer to design some promotional flyers. As the software run faster in a mac computer, so I use iMac for designing. As I have finished four different versions of posters and I saved it on desktop. And I am about to show them to my supervisor, the office cleaner came and unplug the computer. I restarted the iMac and all the documents are gone. They told me I was using the guest account of the iMac so everything automatically erased when the power was off. Have no idea what to do, I just burst into tears but quietly on my seat. I just blame myself for being so careless and not saving a backup copy. All my hard work is gone in just one millisecond. And how do I know about iMac guest account when I am not a Mac user at all? I feel frustrated, my supervisor came to me and she asked me to talk to her outside the office. After understanding my situation, she asked me why do I have to cry? I answered because all my work is gone. She said I have to keep my professional image even without the clients, my image represents me and being emotional won’t help. She encouraged me to work on the design again, I first refused but then I was convinced by her, if I just get knocked down by simple things like this, who am I? A kid in playgroup or a professional university student working in a company now? I picked up myself and work on the design again, this time more creative and more careful. I know this seem to be a very simple problem but I can be very stubborn at times because I have the perception that the cleaner should be responsible. I forgot the very important truth that it was only an accident and not being careful enough is really my fault. I think not only me, most students born and raised in Hong Kong have the same problem of shifting responsibility. We are afraid of getting judged by our teachers, supervisors, parents. We are scared of confronting what we did wrong and letting everyone knows.

 

Related to Course Material

All these reminds me of an article and I am glad that I have read it before starting my first ever internship. I still remember before starting the internship, I was given an article by the English department. At first, I thought it is just another boring article. Anyway, I have time to read the article, so I did. As time goes by and my internship is already started, I found out the content is brutally true. What I am saying is nothing negative, it reminds me to always keep an eye on what I do because this is not only an internship, it can turn into a full time graduate job in future or having bad reputation can simply ruin my life in future. Not only the game of six degrees of separation, I do realize within the same industry, say Public Relations, everyone knows everyone in the industry.

There are four main points I learned from the articles and I want to share with others. The first one is “Learn on the job” that means to get a record of what I have learned and done during the internship, this is really good. When I have to go to a job interview, I have something to show and I remember exactly what I have done. The second one is “Open your eyes”, being an intern does not mean I am just there for the summer and waste their time. I have to make sure I know the company rules or culture. Going to different events together after work and blend in with other people in the company. Third one is “Keep the relationship going” building good relationship with the clients and the company, I heard of other people getting job opportunities from their clients. And I have friends being made redundant before and he is hired by his clients company to be a programmer again. So I do believe keeping the relationship is of utmost importance for career. Just like making new friends, you always try to make other people happy and at least have a good impression of you. I am lucky enough to have done all these because I always remind myself to be careful and humble. Last by not least, “use your internship to understand what kind of professional you want to be and what kind of company you want to work for.” After working for this internship, I know for sure that I should try jobs that require interpersonal skills and networking in future. I know my weakness that I couldn’t be an editor, I am not careful enough however when it comes to talk to people, I am really good at it and most importantly enjoying all the precious experience with them. In terms of company, I think I am more suitable to work for multi-national companies or companies based overseas. Since I enjoy a more flexible work environment and being able to fly for work trips is my dream.

I really want to thank everyone that have helped me once again, I know success would not come to a careless person like me without the help of nice and talented people. Thanks for assisting me in this valuable experience and I hope everything will be great after this experience.