This week has been one of new experiences and ensuring my projects are on schedule.
With regard to issues of note firstly, there has been a lot in the news about America’s potential health insurance reform. I have been quite amazed by some of the comments made by politicians regarding the NHS and it seems some US politicians are telling horror stories of various patients treatment in the UK. The control they seem to have over everyday Americans is unbelievable. Everyone I have spoken to is appalled by the current system regarding healthcare, as have I been, so I hope the issues are resolved and society gets the system they want and in some cases need.
As we are fast approaching our last two weeks in the office here at SPIE I decided to revisit all of the projects I have been working on during my time here. Time certainly slips away from you once you have entered a new week, therefore setting manageable goals and ensuring people are working to the same deadline is critical. With regard to the exhibitions brochure I was working on with one of the PPMs, we have finished working on the copy which entailed discussing messaging used within the brochure to ensure it is appealing to the right audience with an exhibition focus. This has now been handed over to the designers who will bring it in line with the SPIE 2010 rebrand. I am really excited to see how it turns out as it is one of my favorite aspects of marketing to be part of. The lead designer working on the brochure is going to present his ideas to the main stakeholders, therefore I will learn a lot from sitting in on this as he comes from a marketing agency background. Decisions were also made regarding my SEO project, so I now have the task of changing the meta data for a large chunk of the SPIE website! Other than that, I have been shadowing as many people as possible and experiencing as much as I can from the marketing department here, whilst also working on various PR tasks surrounding the SPIE News and Press Releases pages of the Press Room part of the website.
This week I have experienced so many new kinds of foods, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Seafood etc! Living here has certainly opened my eyes to branching out and trying new cuisine, there is certainly more choice in America. At the beginning of the week I had the opportunity to have a meal with Eugene Arthurs, SPIEs CEO, and his wife as well as meet Karin Burger, the Manager of the European Office in Wales. As Eugene is from Ireland and has also lived in Scotland for a number of years, it was a great chance to talk about our homeland and what we miss….and the conclusion was….the banter! Americans certainly have a different sense of humor (and I can’t quite put my finger on what) so it was great to share our experiences with likeminded people and discuss our aspirations for the future. As well as this kind offer, we have had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant with two colleagues and had the all-American experience at Adam, a marketing colleague’s house! He introduced us to Chilli Dogs and S’mores! I hope everyone who is interning in America has tried S'mores as they are simply delicious! A quick rundown….you are meant to do this whilst out camping, but a bbq will suffice…you get a biscuit, break it in half, sit a block of chocolate on top of one half of the biscuit then toast a marshmallow so it’s all nice and squidgy then pop it in the middle then pop the other half of the biscuit on top and press together….hey presto…a s’more! Tonight we are sampling Japanese cuisine!
At the weekend we went to Vegas…truly amazing experience! Visit Alex’s blog for some photos. This weekend LA awaits, I am going to visit Fiona while Alex is going to Vancouver.