September 2010

And now I will bring you up to date on what I am doing now, in my role as junior pr officer. With my colleagues, I am organising the fateful Press Day. As you may imagine, this is a day dedicated to the press in which we present the collections of all our different brands. The journalists arrive in droves from morning to night, and we show our designs, clothes and accessories, and maybe offer a snack or two, depending on the time of day (fantastic brownies, and delicious caramelised grapes, I counted 21 last time...). It all seems marvellous, but when you have to set the date it’s a nightmare. And if another fashion brand is holding an event on the same day (and the journalists go elsewhere)? And if they organise other press days in other parts of the city so the journalists don’t come to visit us, this far out? In the end, experience suggested a strategic solution (didn’t I mention that you need strategic skills for this job?): a rapid exchange of emails and opinions with the different press offices in the centre. Right after the shows we began to write to each other suggesting dates, solutions, references and checking up. It’s not easy: if it’s good for you, someone else has an event on in Istanbul. When we finally agreed, someone realises that they don't have the sample collection, it's in a different showroom somewhere else in the world. Having set the date (22nd October), finally we can... call the catering company. But first, after thousands of emails between colleagues and friends, we decided to organise an aperitif, just for us. Because building good, pleasant and collaborative relations, and sometimes even friendships, with our PR colleagues, is important for our job, but also for our life. Ciao!