This summer I was lucky enough to get an internship at the Milledgeville Convention & Visitors Bureau and I could not have asked for a better experience. I began working the middle of May and worked half days until my Spanish 4 class was over.
I cannot believe how much I learned in one summer. I worked on everything from simple media requests for local magazines to helping plan and execute this year's Deep Roots Festival. I got to write a few press releases and design a few different things that I am still working on. I updated all of our websites (we have around 4) and kept up with all of our events coming up and made sure all of the times/dates and other information was correct.
One of my favorite parts of my internship was getting to interact with all of the visitors and getting to know them. I was surprised to see how many visitors we had on a daily basis, but I loved getting to tell them about Milledgeville and fun things for them to do. I ever got better with my "direction-giving skills," which were somewhat pathetic before (and still kind of are, but they are better). Not only was it fun getting to help people, but it also really improved my confidence. Most of you would find it hard to believe that I used to be deathly shy and could not carry on a conversation with a stranger to save my life. Now, that was about 6/7 years ago, but this internship helped me to become more confident with conversing with new people which is crucial in the PR field. This was definitely one of the greatest aspects of my experience.
I was also given the opportunity to attend regional meetings and partake in very productive meetings concerning budgets, advertising, new websites we are working on, etc... I really appreciated that everyone treated me as an equal and not just as an intern with no ranking. The meetings definitely expanded my knowledge of the tourism industry which I have grown to love. Working with the other CVB's and visitor centers within the middle Georgia (Historic Heartland) area has really been an awesome experience.
My co-workers were (and still are) the highlight of my internship. I have formed great relationships with each of them and I feel as though this is one of the most important things in any work environment. If you do not get along with your co-workers, chances are you will not like your job. The four other ladies that I worked with all summer were incredible and treated me with the utmost respect. They appreciated every little thing that I did and never failed to tell me how appreciative they were.
I have enjoyed my internship so much that I have decided to stay and work through the fall. We have two BIG events coming up that everyone needs to check out!
**The first event is the Deep Roots Festival (formerly known as Sweetwater). This is Oct. 24 from 10a.m.-11p.m and the bands line up will be announced Wednesday (before class) the 26th at noon on the Tony & Philip Radio show on Z97.
**The second one is our 9th Annual Haunted Trolley Tour. It will run Oct. 26 thru Oct. 29 at 6:30p.m. and 8:30p.m. each of those nights.
(Sorry had to get my little plugs in)
So, come take a trolley tour one day soon and visit me at the CVB!
