6-Months Polytechnic Internship Report (DBI) 2019 AUG -2020 Feb

6-MONTHS INTERNSHIP FINAL REPORT

Renee Yeo Zhi Hui

(A) Summary

I started an internship as an Events Marketing Intern at DBI Pte Ltd (Dragon Boat Innovate) I got to connect with them after my school's final year project (Dragonboat Evolution) and started working with them on 22 August 2019, which is a 6-months internship module ending on 10 February 2020. Before the official start of my internship, in June I was asked to support one of the events that the sister company (Ten20 Events) had which was Facebook Summer Games as one of their Events Management Crew. During the fruitful 6 months internship, I developed various different new skills like events management and planning skills where I know how an event is planned from scratch. I was involved with their planning, preparation, and execution of the projects. Having opportunities to do logistics, and operations helped me with managing people. Not just this but I do designs, digital marketing, and branding, social media management which I get to build a brand (Ten20 Events) on social media.

I have gone through the DBI Academy where they train corporate trainers, which can potentially help them to run their events. That is when I was given the chance to coach international clients on how to do dragon boating as well using both English and Chinese language. Having the chance to interact and communicate with corporate people at the same time has helped me develop my social skills.

Dragon Boat Innovate has a sister brand event company, known as Ten20 Events. Which started out in 2019, Ten20 Events does non-dragon boat events for other returning clients, such as Dinners & Parties, Team Building, Sports day, Summer Games, Company Retreats and Family day. I was assigned to help them manage their social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram, which they have yet to develop and come up with ideas to brand their company. It was one of my major tasks during the internship. I have also experienced 8 different major events and many small events in both companies during these 6 months which is very refreshing. I will be sharing my experiences with the events in the latter part of this report. I have also conducted programmes that my company conducts on the basis of learning new ideas and trends in the industry which I have learned quite a number of things that I would like to share in this report in the “issues, trends and development of Industry” section. This internship allows me to widen my horizons, having many opportunities and helps me to develop into a better worker.

(B) Industry Overview

Event companies provide professional event planning services, including event management, event coordination, management and planning, supplier management, pre-and post-event consultation, venue selection, venue layout, on-site operations, entertainment and performances, conferences, exhibitions, signage, themes, decoration, style, talents and master of ceremonies, and manpower distribution. The event company itself needs to understand marketing and branding, social media and management. Therefore building the brand name on social media. In Singapore, there are not many dragon boats as a unique selling point for event companies, less than 5, but they are still competitive. Some event companies like Fun Empire cooperate with us, so the dragon boat program they introduce to clients is also arranged by our company.

(C) Industry/Sector Issues, Trends and Developments

The key stakeholders in the Singapore event industry are relevant government authorities (eg. Singapore Tourism Board), the public, investors, suppliers, sponsors, media and customers. Limited-time events, special events and especially large-scale sports events such as the 2010 Youth Olympics, HSBC Rugby 7s (rugby tournament) in April each year and DBS Marina Regatta in June each year attract many tourists and locals. Hence, this provides the opportunity for Singapore Tourism Board to promote our activities in Singapore and successfully attract tourists as a travel destination. The investors and sponsors will choose to invest in what events will benefit them more, enhance the image and reputation of the brand, etc. Hosting these events can change country imagery, product imagery, and behavioural intent around product purchases and travel. The media will also cover these events and can make readers very interested in buying/reading/viewing the media coverage during that time, not only that but also earning advertising fees for these events. The economy of the whole country will also improve.

Companies that are currently doing activities are slowly turning to the combination of activities and technology with the advancement of technology. For example, in the game "The Amazing Race", each team must guide the island according to the route information given by the producer, and complete the prescribed tasks in the race, with the fastest and most accurate completion of the tasks with the highest score The person who accumulates wins. My company used to plan "The Amazing Race" which required a lot of human resources to complete this interactive game. But now, there is no need for each mission location to have people standing there waiting for players to complete the mission and get points. Now you only need to have the mobile phone software "Goose Chase" to use GPS to check-in at the location to get points. One software can count the games that hundreds of people participated in, which is very convenient and simple. Another big change is to compare with the past, you will find that many activities are not as full of chairs as before, and now most activities are moving towards more casual and comfortable activity space freedom. Today, “engagement” is the number one indicator of success for both large and small events. The number of people that the event venue can accommodate is not critical anymore. By creating an inviting space to encourage interaction and communication between people, why sit down? When there are enough seats, people become less inclined to move around, and frankly, they don't bother to get up from their chairs to meet other people. By reducing the number of seats, you can create reasons for people to move around and interact with others, and eventually meet people they would otherwise not be able to talk to because of them sitting in arranged seats.

Next, one of the current trends I'm seeing across multiple events I attend is the adoption of event management software. Now, there are several event management applications in the market, such as Aventri, Event Bank, Whova, Jublia, etc. Now you just have to scan the QR code after checking in on the app and get in, there is no queue, unlike events in the past where attendees queued for 20 minutes (hours in extreme cases) and did not queue at the event venue. Management software significantly improves check-in efficiency. Event management software has changed the way communities network and improved interactions between organizations and participants.

Finally, let me share some interesting trends I've found over the past six months, in the area of ​​dragon boating. I heard a lot of people in the industry share with my boss, that is, many big technology companies and big four accounting firms are very fond of dragon boats. At present, the big four accounting firms Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY) and KPMG all have dragon boat teams locally. And the people who work there, all say that when the company sees dragon boat experience on your resume, they will give priority to you, which means that dragon boat is helpful for entering these big companies. This is because these big companies are very eager to get good results in big dragon boat races (eg. DBS Marina Regatta). At present, local Facebook companies, Google and Shopee have all formed dragon boat teams. The dragon boat teams of Facebook and Google are trained by our company, Dragon Boat Innovate. This will have a great influence on future dragon boat racing activities. When big companies join in, it will set off a boom and make future dragon boat racing activities more and more popular. It will also help our company in marketing.

Our company, which is focused on developing the "dragon boat event", is going to celebrate their 10th anniversary, our company scale considered to be very small as compared to other companies that have been running for 10 years. this is due to us having only one full-time employee, excluding bosses and interns, our company's employee turnover rate is very high on average every two years. This is the biggest difficulty facing our company and requires solutions and advice. I found that the business of just doing dragon boating activities is not very ideal, although there are not many competitors in Singapore. That's why they want to open another branch to earn money for other corporate activities.

(D) Company Profile

Established in 2010, DBI Pte Ltd (Dragon Boat Innovate) is a leader in providing dragon boating activities in the Asia Pacific region, co-founded by Jason Chen and Gavin Chian. DBI has been the provider of choice when it comes to team building and collaboration in dragon boating. This innovative event, suitable for all ages, especially in the corporate world, attracted more than 80,000 participants. Dragon Boat Innovate's services include dragon boat team building activities, dragon boat races, games, event management services, supplier management, pre-and post-event consultation, venue selection, on-site operations, entertainment and performances, talent and master of ceremonies, and manpower allocation. Dragon Boat Innovate is the first company in Asia to create "Dragon Battle" and bring it to Singapore, which was reported in newspapers and TV that year. They want to bring the concept of "dragon boating as a way of life" rather than just a sport. After the event, you can take the good experience back with you. In the past 8 years, whenever the DBS Marina Regatta (DBS Marina Regatta) came, the newspapers have been covering this annual large-scale event. In fact, we initially contacted DBS Bank and joined hands to organize this 2 million project. This event attracted 6,000 athletes and provided a lot of new content to the media because the theme of the competition is different every year. Participants included many international teams. It has also become a commercial media platform that allows companies to socialise and creates exposures. Not only that, but a group of breast cancer survivors in pink (BCF- Paddlers in Pink), which has been reported by the newspapers Today and Straits Times in recent years, is also a project of our company, which advocates the spirit of not giving up. The role of our company is to use dragon boats to bring people closer and create topics with innovative ideas and provide fresh and interesting content to the media.

In 2019, Dragon Boat Innovate established a branch, Ten20 Events. The main activities of Ten20 Events are not related to dragon boats. The company plans things like company day, company party, corporate family day, summer sports meeting and team building activities, etc. The reason for the establishment of Ten20 Events is to satisfy and encourage the old customers of Dragon Innovate to come to our branch to do other events. Some may ask, why not keep doing those activities under the name "Dragon Boat Innovate"? It is because they do not want other people think that this company only does dragon boat activities.

(E) Key achievements and learning outcomes

During my time as an event marketing intern at DBI, they nurtured me and I held a variety of different skills set such as event management, planning events, and learning how to plan and execute an event from scratch. I also had the opportunity to participate in their event meeting sessions and the operations of the company. This helped me learn to manage people and participate in planning, preparation and execution. Not only that, but I also do translations for our company presentations, design, marketing and social media management, building our brand on social media. Having the opportunity to interact and network with business people from multiple countries, while honing my social skills gave me confidence. Next, I will share some larger and special events.

The 4 major events include "SAFRA Dragon Boat Race 2019", "Club HDB 30th Anniversary Dragon Boat Race 2019", "SAFRAN Dragon Boat Race 2019" and "SAFRAN Dragon Boat Race 2019" in January this year. Chinese Taipei Dragon Boat Team Training Camp 2020". Dragon Creative also has some small activities, and I have also participated in it. I am also a "corporate dragon boat trainer", responsible for teaching business people how to row a dragon boat. In addition, I have participated in planning several events at Ten20 Events, such as "Facebook Family Day 2019" and coordinating "Partners Group Corporate Day and Dinner 2019 (Partners Group Asia Pacific Corporate Day 2019)" etc. . The first event was "SAFRA Dragon Battle 2019", which was held at SAFRA Toa Payoh. I worked as an event manager and race timekeeper. Responsible for recording when the war started and ended. Assist "Dragon Master" in dragon battles to ensure fairness and accuracy of the game. I was involved in assisting the logistics, including transporting the dragon boat back to Tampines SAFRA. Learned how to assist the company to execute activities smoothly and ensure that everything goes well. It is not easy to do "Dragon Battle", especially to help with logistics and transportation.

Another event is "Club HDB 30th Anniversary Dragon Boat Race 2019" I am responsible for all the design of the event like the event logo, banners, flags, thank-you gifts for VIPs, etc. I am also the event administrator, referee and timekeeper. It is a very different feeling to have the opportunity to participate in a dragon boat race for the first time. It is very refreshing to see the preparation and participation of a dragon boat race.

The next event to share is "SAFRAN Dragon Boat Race 2019", this event is one of the meetings I have participated in the most with clients. At that time, there was a change in our company employees (Valerie left), so I need to participate in this event with Gavin, and Valerie planning. When planning the event 3 weeks ago, Gavin was not able to attend the event day to coordinate the whole event, so I was the only general executor who could help the event day in this event planning, which is my boss Jason. In this event, I was responsible for assisting Jason in carrying out the activities of the day. There was another emergency that day, and one of our interns was completely unreachable that day, without any information and news until the next morning. One less helper to help us carry out our activities. I am also the fabric design and coordination supplier responsible for this event, to ensure that our event venue can be arranged. I was also responsible for the task of the event administrator that we invited, and the photographer took the photos of the event. That day I had a bigger responsibility than before to assist Jason with the event.

During my 6-month internship, what helped me the most was being able to understand and translate Chinese and English in my work. I coordinated an international training camp involving business people from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as students and 40 dragon boat athletes from the Singapore national team. We held the "Chinese Dragon Boat Team Training Camp" in January this year. I am solely responsible for handling course registration, inquiries, payment, taking videos and photos, translating the content of the class materials (PowerPoint presentation) and video translation, and publishing them in the Chinese version. Add English translations to PowerPoint presentations. It's an advantage for me to use the translations I learn in class in my work. Because in the current company, they do not have people who can translate between Chinese and English to do this work, and I happen to be a dragon boat paddler hence I can understand and accurately translate many of the terms of the dragon boat. During the 3-day workshop, I also worked as a translator and worked alongside with Gavin to translate the content of the class to the participants. In addition to this, I also helped with the design of posters and banners for the workshop. I think this event campaign is one of the proudest achievements within the six months and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to coordinate and execute this event campaign.

Our sister company, Ten20 Events partnered with Facebook in October and ran their Facebook Family Day 2019 live on the same day. We helped them set up the floor the day before, moved furniture, placed baby mats, baby proof the corners and sanitised floors throughly the company. We only have 4 people, but Facebook has 4 floors, which is very hard work. The bosses said that another hygiene company should actually handle the work, but because of communication problems, it became us doing it. We have a stall where children can try out the remote control electric car. I am in charge of designing the track and layout of the remote control electric car. On that day, we all ran around the Facebook company, helping Facebook staff deal with things that needed help, and after the event was completed, we cleaned up the venue and helped them with logistics-related matters. From this activity, I learned that communication with customers is very important. It is necessary to discuss the content and consider all the small details so as not to cause such communication problems.

Finally, the largest "Partners Group Company Day and Dinner 2019" I coordinated, 300 participants from all over the world, including Singapore, China, Japan, Korea, India and Australia. The theme of our online party is "Golden Age of Aviation", so a lot of the design is done by me, designing a series of props and so on related to the theme. The overalls that our staff wears are also made by me for the whole team, with the badges I designed according to the theme of the party. Our "Partners Group Company Day and Dinner 2019" is divided into two groups of members, one is responsible for the LaSalle conference seminar activities in the morning, and two, is responsible for the evening dinner party at Wings Over Asia, and I am in charge of the stage manager in the evening Manager section. The dinner starts at 7 am and ends at 2 am. The layout of the venue started from the afternoon of the previous day until 9 pm. Gavin and I coordinated with the furniture rental, the layout supplier and the lighting effect supplier. I was in charge of setting up the prop table that we had specially prepared for the client, and I added the small details. This is the largest project in our branch.

What I've learned is that when I'm doing design, the bosses like to see a lot of different design ideas and let them compete and choose the design they like. I think my confidence in communicating with business people and others has improved a lot in the past 6 months. It is helpful for everything to have the courage to speak and to communicate in a more tactful way. Also, during these six months, I also saw how different people work, which has given me a better understanding of what it is like to work in society.

I think the translations we learn in the classroom are very useful in our work industry, and make our Chinese media students the first choice for other companies. Our students in the Department of Chinese Communication have been trained in school with the basic foundations such as how to present themselves in social situations and how to talk to corporate people, which was learnt in Business Communication. Training us over the years to use different software such as Adobe Creative Suite has helped me a lot in terms of design and marketing.

(F) Recommendations

After a 6-month internship, I saw my shortcomings and thought of some suggestions that can help my juniors in the future. We had a concert in our second year of public relations. But I don't think it's very efficient for us to learn how to do an activity. Not every student can do every part like sending emails (how to write a corporate email) and having the opportunity to engage with partners (venues, sponsors, performers, etc.) and participate in meetings and discussions. I suggest having each student experience writing a collaboration email as a small assignment, which will give them a better understanding of what they are doing. I think having the opportunity to participate in a meeting with a partner can be very good for the details of the event and understanding how to discuss the content and details of the event with those different partners, which will allow our students to better understand what they should do and pay attention to some small details. Only then can we use the skills and observations we have learned in our work, and we will be better able to help colleagues and bosses at work.

In this event industry, I don’t think we can do a single event. We need to do more different events to compete with other companies. We must have stable employees to stay in the company to handle operations, and we must continue to innovate to be able to continue. Retain customers and attract new customers to your door. I mentioned the issue of employee turnover earlier. I think the current company can improve the benefits of regular employees and pay overtime pay based on hourly wages instead of only 50 dollars for overtime on weekends. Because employees will be more willing to help with the company's weekend activities.

For the event company, you will need to brand yourself well, so that new customers know what your company is and what kind of services can be provided to them. Ways to attract new customers to your door using search engines like Google, Bing, etc. on the Internet to find your company easily. One of the types of marketing is Search Engine Marketing. Search engine marketing is a form of internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites, mainly through paid advertising to increase the visibility of websites on search engine result pages. Companies should adapt the use of this method of keywords that leads to the company website. For example, our company, Dragon Boat Innovate, is doing team building activities, so we should use the keyword "team building activities" to find our company. That costs a fee to get on the front page. These are my recommendations for the industry.