Come fly with me

Semester 4 of my Creative Communications journey will be kick start with a work placement at Winnipeg Airports Authority.

As I recollect the events in the fall of 2005 until winter of 2006, I couldn't help but wonder where I would have ended had I pursued a career in aviation. When I left Providence College, I vowed I would return to the aviation field once more. This work placement is key to achieving that dream.

The first round of work placements for second year CreComms start on January 3 to January 21 with the second round happening in April 11 to 29 with the hopes of landing a job after the three week placement.

Getting placed in WAA was exactly where I wanted to be. Students were able to choose from different types of organizations varying from corporate, not-for-profit, government, to name a few. They were asked to number their preference and a work placement advisor was assigned to each CreComm student.

Melanie Lee Lockhart is my work placement advisor and was able to get me a spot in WAA. I will be reporting to Melanie and keeping her updated with my learning progress at WAA. Christine Alongi, Director, Communications & Public Affairs, will be my contact and supervisor during my work placement in January.

Looking at WAA's web site, I am amazed by the number of social media outlets WAA has. WAA has a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and a YouTube channel. How cool WAA!

I don't have expectations of what I'm going to be doing at WAA but I'm hoping I get to do some social media and communicate the idea that travel by air is safe and passengers can actually have a pleasant experience at the airport if they are better prepared.

Having previous experience flying in planes allow me to be the passenger, the pilot, and the flight attendant. OK, maybe not a flight attendant. True story: I applied to become an air traffic controller in 2008. Working at WAA will be very interesting and engaging for me because of all these previous experience in the aviation industry. This time around, I can't wait to be learning from and working at the organization that controls how airports in Winnipeg are operated.

To get my head in the clouds, I'm posting some pics from my flight training experience at Harv's Air in Steinbach.

A fraction of Harv's fleet

Airplanes have names called identifiers. This airplane is called Delta Tango Alpha (DTA)

Cessna 152s only have room for two people

As the airplane climbs from the end of the runway

Not a lot to see out in Steinbach, Manitoba

View as the airplane leaves the runway behind

Are puzzles editing too?

Yes they are.

We went through three different types of vacuums in the last seven days, trying to find the one that sucks the most - haha.

In an effort to return the products in its original packaging, I had to carefully remember how the vacuum was positioned and packaged in the box.

The first one was a Hoover and it was easy. The box was nice and big and the vacuum itself was sandwiched between two Styrofoam wedges with all the attachments and instruction manual thrown on top. We had to return it because it kept shutting off on me after just five minutes of use.

The second vacuum felt just right - it had a good price and it was feather-light. The only problem was it sounded like a lawn mower. My neighbour four houses down would know when vacuum day was; it was so loud. So back to Canadian Tire it went. This was were I struggled.

As you can see, the people at Dirt Devil invested more time on designing the packaging than making sure the vacuum operated on a satisfactory noise level. It was such a pain to figure out how to put this demon back into its original packaging. It felt like I had to cram 100 pieces in a square the size of a shoebox. It was very annoying to say the least. I wondered if this was part of Dirt Devil's effort to dissuade consumers from returning their product for a refund.

That's when I thought trying to figure how this thing fit was like a puzzle and how a puzzle was like editing because you keep editing your steps in order to reach the end point you had drawn in your mind.

When you have an idea of how a puzzle is supposed to look like, you put that image in your head then try to recreate that image by working backwards. Before you know it, the image you had in your mind is created before your eyes. Puzzle solved! Amazing Eman!

So, armed with post-modernism in one hand and patience with the other, I solve the vacuum puzzle and managed to find the proper place in the box for all the tools. The boxed closed nicely and taped back together. The beast was put back into its cage.

The third vacuum was eventually purchased from Future Shop and proved to be the winner of the vacuum challenge. It was another Hoover brand vacuum, top of the line in its class ;)

The CreComm connection

As the semester wraps up, I can't help but think about my future outside of CreCommland. I'm sure gonna miss it!

I was speaking with Desiree earlier this afternoon about how CreComm forced us to make friends; forced to mingle with, and eventually got to know the people in our major.  There are a lot of amazing people, not only in my PR class but also in all of Creative Communications.

Desiree and I discussed that the connections you make in CreComm are invaluable connections because without CreComm, we all wouldn't have met. CreComm is a place where every single person in the program was hand selected by a panel of instructors who thought they all had something in common. In my first year as a Creative Communications student, I looked around my class and thought if it weren't for CreComm, I would never be friends with some of these people - they are just not my type. When in reality, we are all the same type - the CreComm type.

As the program ends next semester, I'm already thinking about what I would miss the most - the everyday interaction with my CreComm-type friends at Red River College. Only in CreComm are we able to see each other EVERYDAY, partly because we have to for class. It is because of this consistent time together that we are able to get to know each other, some even forming bonds that would last our lifetime.

It is also nice to know that there are other types like myself: creative and competitive, and that we have dominated the Manitoba market. I'm not sure yet if this is good or bad because dominating means fewer jobs for our graduating class. What I do know is that if I ever need support, the CreComm Mafia is always there to help - and occasionally, take out a few people.

The connections you make in Crecommland could come in handy later on when you are working at your dream job. Even if you feel you haven't made enough friends or feel that you haven't come out of your shell to show everyone what you're really like, rest assured the words "I went to CreComm!" goes a long way in making new friends.

Make the last semester count!

Auto correct function on cellphone more like auto mistake function

Ever tried to text a message only to send the wrong message, making you think you should have not sent a message at all?

I was told about the website called "Damn You Auto Correct!" and there's some truth in there.

If you ever thought you were safe with your predictive text feature on your cellphone when composing text messages, think again. Even though you'd probably never make a spelling error, you have an increased chance that you wouldn't get your message through. This was because the predictive text feature would try to predict what you were trying to spell by the pattern of your keystrokes.

See below for the unfortunate (but funny) auto correct victims:

This hasn't happened to me personally because I know enough to set my sms composing options and turned off predictive text capabilities.

If there was one thing to learn here, that would be never to trust your cellphone's auto correct function (or computer's) and always check your writing by giving it a read :)

Happy textile texting.

How to create a public relations plan

I was driving on the way to the airport to pick up my sister when I thought about what to blog. Then I thought about the word 'relations' in PR and how that pointed to building relationships.

So for the sake of my own amusement, I Google searched "How to make public relationships". Here was a snapshot of the website I found:

The article from the website was titled "How to Create a Public Relations Plan" actually had some useful information. It talked about the key points to know like finding a person in the organization to represent the company; developing a media contact list; determining your organization's key messages; knowing your company's key audiences; support the key messages by using effective tools like news releases and corporate events; and finally, have a plan for crises.

Was this how public relation-ships were built? By doing all these things effectively?

When I was interviewed for a seasonal position last Christmas, I was asked why customer service was important. I replied:

"I think customer service is important because there are a lot of companies competing for the same market these days (in retail). I think companies should focus on having excellent customer service values to retain the store's customers. It is more expensive for companies to acquire new customers than to retain the ones they already have. By having excellent customer service, you build loyal customers, and loyal customers are repeat customers. Customer service is important because it builds relationships."

I thought this was a different approach of building relationships. In some cases, the sales representative was his or her own company and the method he or she did to make the customer interaction a memorable one was the PR tool in the plan. What I meant by this was that a sales representative might use the tactic of answering questions properly and well. The sales representative could also make the customer's shopping easy by being their personal assistant in the store - not so much as tail them around the store but being available when the customer needed assistance and anticipating that opportunity when the customer might need it.

This blog post was not to educate people about how to be better sales representatives but to emphasize that relationships must be built in order for public relations to be present.

Needed: quick edits

When I worked for a telecommunications company in the summer, I was required to work on a tight deadline. That meant editing internal communications articles that were posted on the company intranet every week. During the festival season, I had to edit festival write ups every Monday so I could get my manager's approval on it then send it to translation. It became so routine that I knew to input my changes as soon as possible whenever I saw that piece of paper sitting on my chair. That meant my manager has input his edits and it was time for me to accept them and send the article to be translated to French the next day.

I knew time was of importance when it came to editing my festival write ups because of the process involved to get it onto the intranet site. There were some things in life that required consistency and a regular schedule. This could be experienced while working for any company.

Take for example working for Shoppers Drug Mart. Whenever they put on a sale, someone would have to 1) put on the sale tags before the sale (before they opened) and 2) take the sale tags off when the sale was done. Why? Because they wouldn't want anyone asking for the sale price when in fact the item is no longer on sale. It was very important for them to remove the sale tag prices after the sale was done to avoid negative customer interactions.

But how about the example below? Why would a billboard company like Pattison or Viacom wait to edit Judy Wasylycia-Leis's old mayoral ad on Portage Avenue and Sherburn Street?

reads: "Because you deserve better, Judy for Mayor"

Maybe there was a signed contract? Maybe Judy wanted it left on to make people in Winnipeg think she won? Maybe Judy was not aware this actually exists? Maybe it was taken down and Sam Katz paid to put it back on? I don't know.

Either way, someone has to act fast.

My first IPP shoot was a realization that I am a communicator

Let me tell you a story...

Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010 was my first shoot for my Independent Professional Project (IPP). I booked a video camera, sound kit, and light kit from our department to prepare for my first round of interviews for the promotional video I was shooting.

My experience that morning was one I'll never forget. I was very nervous and anxious while waiting for the interviewees to arrive at Princess Street Campus. As I set up the tripod and three-point lighting (with the help of Chase Gouthro and Steve Dreger), I quickly realized that filming was not an uneasy undertaking, especially when you have to do it all by yourself. In TV class, we usually worked in pairs or in groups of three. Setting everything up by myself was definitely a challenge and I didn't want to miss a step like doing the white balance on the camera or the sound check on the microphone.

I finished setting up by 12:30 p.m. and my first pair of interviewees were scheduled for 1 p.m. I had lots of time to look over my interview questions and thought about how they might answer. The promotional video I was producing was for the Cultural and Language Mentor Program at Red River College. The video would help promote the program by encouraging students, faculty, and staff at RRC volunteer their time to meet either an international or immigrant student and help them get acquainted with Canadian customs and Canadian living. So essentially, the stories that were going to be shared in the video were happy, feel-good stories.

I was very nervous at the beginning of the shoot, worrying that the lighting and the set up wasn't good enough to be RRC-approved. I needed this video approved so the department I was producing it for could eventually use it when it is completed. The first couple of interviews were definitely a realization for me that this IPP was on its way to becoming something that I could show other people. It was really weird for me to be directing my subjects to do what I wanted them to do in the video and they looked back at me like I knew exactly what I was talking about; like I was an expert. I explained to them that this was just a school project. But for me, it wasn't just a school project: it was my IPP. It was the project I chose out of four other IPP ideas.

At the end of the video shoot, I would say that something awesome took place in me - that I gained more confidence in being a communicator armed with a video camera, a microphone, and fancy lighting. Until now, I've only wrote and designed communication pieces for school and at my previous job. Directing, producing, and editing videos was a whole new area that I would now need to explore in order to be the all-encompassing communicator I need to be.

After the shoot, I sat in amazement in what CreCommland allowed me to be. Eman Agpalza learned something new this weekend and that was: I know more than I think.

Headline writing: more than one way to write them

As we learned to write headlines in Editing Print and Online Media class, I couldn't help but try to edit all the titles I saw around me. I really found the Canadian Press Stylebook's topic on headlines really useful in writing good headlines that attracted readers. Gone was the excuse that "I didn't know" because now I was informed of the proper techniques to write engaging headlines. Now, I just couldn't write the first thing that came to mind as my title. I have been given the knowledge to write better and more interesting headlines.

Headlines have so many different uses: it could be used in a news release; in an advertisement copy; in an article or a news story. The purpose was to grab the reader and entice them to read your article. Without a good headline, your article or news story could fall by the wayside and not be read. The good thing about headlines was that there was no one way of writing headlines and that encouraged me to keep looking for a better way to write them.