Live Nation Week 5

This week has finally come to an end and I am currently on the plane on my way to Charlotte, NC to go to The National Convention for The National Association of Campus Activities or NACA. For those of you who follow me on Twitter this is what I have been tweeting about for the past 2 weeks! I can’t believe I am finally on my way and I will try my best to be tweeting and updating everyone on my trip. Also when I have a chance I definitely will be blogging about my experiences here. Pictures and hopefully some videos will be on the way!

Also something really exciting happened on our way to the Airport I found out that I had been selected to be an Orientation Leader (OL) for the upcoming summer! This is an amazing opportunity and something that I have wanted to do every since coming to Quinnipiac. Funny story about that is that both Matt and I who were in the car on the way to NACA had applied to be OL’s and at first we both got emails saying that we had been chosen as alternates. So we were both in the car not too happy about that trying to justify it, but then something amazing happened! We both got emails saying they sent us the wrong email and that we actually got the position. So if you can only imagine there was a lot of screaming and excitement in the car.

Okay so back to what I should be writing about; Live Nation! This week was crazy I feel like everyone in the office was either on a business trip or leaving for a trip at the end of the week, which meant a lot of work had to be done before.

I had to work on the Yankee Harley-Davidson proposal that I had worked on previously and change it to be set up more like The Brio Proposal that I also made. Unfortunately when I went to open it wouldn’t open, which was annoying because I had to start completely over.  I also had to go back into the hard drive and re find the pictures I used, which is not an easy task. The amount of documents and pictures that is found on this hard drive is so immense that it is impossible to find anything.  I spent the rest of the day working on that proposal and after having to redo the whole proposal it looked just as good.

Finally on Thursday I went in and Cindy had a big project for Dave and I to work on. In every proposal that we make we include a slide with a map of the different Amphitheaters around the country that they could chose to sponsor with. For Amethyst Jeans we had to make a specific map of just the amphitheaters in: Philadelphia, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Charlotte or Raleigh (whichever has the bigger market) and Chicago.  These are specific markets that the pop band Big Time Rush will be playing at over the summer. Unfortunately the map that is provided for us is in PDF so we had to make a brand new one. So I spent the whole day trying to find a blank map of the U.S that looked like the previous then make little stars to mark where the amphitheaters are located. This took a whole, but it was really cool at the end to know that I made it completely from scratch. I then had to do the same thing for just the state of California because Brio Academy wants to branch out and market out there.

That was basically all for this week and I won’t be back into the office until next Thursday because of NACA. This week I learned so much more about making proposal and I am now getting better at writing them on my own and knowing what wording should go into them.

**Update we finally found a starbucks after walking around forever because unfortunately there is no Wifi in the hotel, which is such an inconvenience! We are off exploring for the day check out @quspb or my twitter @kristin525 for updates!

plane ride fun:

Live Nation Week 4

I can’t believe that t has already been a month since I have been back at school and a whole month that i’ve been working at Live Nation. This semester has been crazy so far, but I have learned so much and I feel like I have gained so much confidence in my abilities already! This week has been such a long week and I can barely recall what everything I did this week. Clearly all the different things I have going on this semester is catching up to me.

I went into The Oakdale on Tuesday, which was also Valentines day, but no one really did anything for it. Unfortunately Cindy couldn’t be in the office so I couldn’t go over The Brio Proposal that I helped make last week. For most of the day I worked on updating a proposal that was made in 2009 for The Hartford, so it was definitely out of date. I had to go through and update all the information and also make a new proposal based off of that one for Geico Insurance. it was my job to go through the proposal and personalize it with pictures and what not to make sure Geico felt like this proposal was just for them. the point of the proposal was to get them to be an official sponsor of a summer series of concerts.

It has been really cool to go through past proposals to get ideas on how to design the new proposal and to see what looks good. Doing all these proposals has been a really awesome experience especially since I have had the opportunity to basically freely do what I want with them as long as they have the correct information.

Tuesday was a short day since there wasn’t musch for me to do, but Dave and I had to watch a tutorial video on how to use this new program called InsideView. Its a program that basically provides you with any information about companies and their employees. This is going to be very helpful when I have to do research on new companies we want to reach out to. Instead of googling and hoping to find the right contact information it is all in one place. This is definitely a really neat program that I can now say I know how to use.  In a way its kinda like a combination of Facebook Linked In, but to an extreme, since it has so much accessible information.

On Thursday I came in and Cindy was there after coming back from her trip to Chicago. She told me I did and awesome job on The Brio Proposal, which was so good to hear to get some acknowledgment for something that I did all by myself. On Thursday I got to put what I learned about InsideView to test and had to do some research on Hospitals, Insurance companies and Credit Unions in the area. The system actually works pretty well and it saved me a lot of time, but some of the specific companies I was looking for only had a limited amount of contact information and of course were not  the people I was looking for.

Overall I learned a lot this week and both Dave and Cindy told me so far I have done a great job and they are glad that I am there to help them, which is great to hear.

I also learned what not to do as an intern at Live Nation. Apparently two other interns that work in a different department were given tickets by there boss to The Steve Aoki show on tuesday at The Oakdale. From what I was told they were asked back stage by the band and stayed backstage until 2:30 am. This is one of the things as intern I was told never to do especially since you are representing the company and it just looks bad on your part. So I have taken note of that and I definitely won’t be going backstage ever. To be honest I would’t have even wanted to go back stage for that show, but if it was like Nicki Minaj or some one famous then thats another story haha just kidding.

Thought this was funny even though its not necessarily true

Bamboozle, Dunkin Donuts and Live Nation Internship

Another week has gone by and I have found that I am getting into the groove of things with my crazy schedule. I get through monday with my five classes and look forward to going to Live Nation on tuesday and then I get through wednesday with my four classes to go to Live Nation again on Thursday and now it is thursday night and its basically the weekend with only two classes tomorrow  getting in my way.

I never really gave sponsorship sales a thought when thinking about what I want to do one day, but this internship has already opened my eyes to this possibility. I find it so interesting of the whole process of pitching a proposal to a company to have them sponsor with Live Nation seeing it from the beginning to the end. Just a thought but I am only finishing my third week there and I feel like I have learned so much.

This week was exciting and like I mentioned last week I worked on the proposal to have Dunkin Donuts be the official sponsor for Bamboozle and their interactive site BoozleTwist. When I came into work on tuesday Cindy told me that she had a conference call with Dunkin Donuts later that day at four so we would be spending the whole day working on this proposal making sure it was perfect. Tuesday was a hectic day to say the least.

First I had to construct the Dunkin Donuts concert cash that we would use as prizes to the Dunkin Donuts Facebook sweepstakes that were proposing to them. Then I had the responisibility to put together the final proposal that Cindy would be sending to the people at Dunkin Donuts later that day. She sent me three different proposals one just for Bozzletwist, one for Bamboozle in general and one too use for an example of a proposal for a different company.  So I edited the proposals into one going from what Bamboozle is to how its a an ideal brand marketing opportunity for Dunkin Donuts, then explaining the sweepstakes and finally explaining BoozleTwist. It was cool to put it all together and know that it was my responsibility to make sure all the information flowed and made sense. I was also in charge of making sure it looked nice and putting in the pictures and graphics.

Unfortunately I could not stay for the conference call with Dunkin Donuts, but the proposal I made was sent over to them so thats really cool! But hopefully next time Cindy has a big conference call I can sit in on it and see what happens after you send them the proposal. That would be a really cool learning experience.

Live Nation not only has big sponsors like Dunkin Donuts, but also smaller local clients. Today I worked on three different proposals: Yankee Harley-Davidson, Gengras Harley-Davidson (We are sending proposals to both to decide who will be the official motorcycle for The Oakdale/ Comcast Theater) and then finally Brio Academy (If you live in New England you know these commercials with the annoying jingle that says “See yourself at Brio”)

Since Cindy wasn’t there today because she is on a business trip in Chicago I had to take the initiative and use what she has taught me so far to make these proposals. The Harley-Davidson ones where identical besides the name and pictures so I just had to copy one over and change the information and then make sure they looked presentable, The Brio proposal I had to make from scratch. On tuesday Cindy had written out what she wanted on each slide (her hand writing was not easy to read though), but she told me to decide what I though sounded best. So I spent the day working on that one which was cool because one of the perks would be having students from their school on the day of an event come give “mini makeovers” to people.

Overall this week was crazy, but I am glad I am being given more responsibility and being trusted to take the initiative to make some of these proposals.  That’s all for next week!

 

Internships are about the experience, not the money; InternQueen

As some of you may or may not know The Intern Queen or Lauren Berger came to Quinnipiac, Wednesday February 8. I for one have been following @internqueen on twitter for awhile and find her tips, advice and internship posting to be very helpful. She also runs her website: Internqueen.com

For those of you who could not attend Lauren talked, told stories and gave advice on internships emphasizing on how important they are in order to obtain a job in a field you love after graduation. Lauren had an astonishing 15 internships within her four years at college! At this rate I have only had one and I am finishing my sophomore year i’m not sure I can compete with that, but after hearing her speak it sure makes me want to. Lauren was an amazing speaker and really had some great experiences and advice that really got not only me, but the whole crowd motivated  to take chances and put yourself out there.

Just by putting herself out there Lauren had some amazing experiences and one that she talked about involved Ken Baker, who at the time was Chief of US Weekly coincidently Laurens dream job. Lauren found his business card while she was interning in LA and  by putting herself out there she sent him an email explaining that US Weekly was her dream job and how she would love to intern for him. He called her back months later and on a whim asked her to go to Barbados for him and find all about  Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards trip there. To make a long story short she got an all expense paid trip to Barbados while going undercover to get some dirt and later got a freelance job at US Weekly. This all happened because she put herself out there and contacted him. My mouth was dropped during this whole story I can only hope that when I start to put myself out there that an amazing opportunity comes my way like this one.

Some helpful hints from The InternQueen herself:

• Those who have internships during college will get a job faster after college and start with a higher paying salary
• If an employer asks for something (i.e resume & cover letter) send them right away do no wait!
• Use career services for all resources especially for mock interviews, you never know if you have a weird habit
• Send handwritten thank you notes, never email!
• Don’t give up when someone tells you you can’t do something
• Always update your resume
• Form relationships with your fellow interns, make connections they will be essential for networking later
• Internships are a time for you to be selfish and figure out what you want to do
• At your internship set up five minute informational meetings with the executives in the company and find out how they got where they are today
• Stay in touch with all your contacts at least three times a year so they don’t forget about you (simple email)
• PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE, TAKE CHANCES, DON’T BE AFRAID OF REJECTION
• Be careful about staying at an internship for too long should be for one semester and ask yourself what will I ge out of this that I didn’t before?
• Keep all your contact information in one place (i.e. excel document)
• Make a dream list of all the places you want to intern at and go for it. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there
• Tell people what you want they can help you make it happen (how InternQueen started)
• Network and meet professionals because you can stay in contact with them your whole life even if you aren’t getting paid for it now it will all pay off in the end. Think of the big picture!

Hope that helps for anyone who missed out! Now get inspired and put yourself out there and get the internship of your dreams! I just bought Laurens book All Work No Pay Can’t wait to read it! I know that from her talk it has really inspired me to go after what I want no matter what anyone else says!

Lauren Berger, CEO of Intern Queen, Inc., a website that helps students find and apply for internships and make the most of their experiences, offered internship advice on Feb. 8 on Burt Kahn Court on our Mount Carmel Campus. (Photo by Alex Toombs '13.) — at Quinnipiac University.

Oakdale Theater Week 2

This week has been a crazy week especially since the school work is picking up and this semester is well on its way to be one of my busiest semesters! From now on I will most likely only be blogging once a week (thursday or friday)and I will recap on my experiences unless something really exciting happens!

Since I last updated everyone from my first day at Live Nation I have learned so much already and I love everything about this internship! Even though there is a lot of research and normal intern stuff involved it is still very interesting!

Last thursday I finally got a tour of The Oakdale Theater which is an indoor venue and can hold approximately 4500 people. Which is a lot more people than I expected  and the venue itself is actually really big! I never would have thought such a big venue would be found in such a small town like Wallingford. I got shown around the theater and got to go into The VIP boxes which are so nice and I can only dream of ever getting to watch a show from in their. The coolest part of the arena is definitely The Dome, which holds general admission concerts

The dome is the entranceway before you walk into the actual arena but the way the ceiling is shaped in a dome makes live music sound  amazing. Something really cool is if you stand directly underneath the center of the dome and talk everything gets echoed! One of the guys working in their told me to be careful what you say under it since the whole theater can hear you!

Anyway this week I did a lot of research for Cindy who is the Senior Director of Sponsorship Sales. I am helping her update her client files to make sure she has the most up to date contacts for the Marketing Directors of each company so that way she can reach out tot them and try to make a deal with them to sponsor us.  One project in particular I worked on this week was trying to find new sponsors for The Dome Shows. I had to go onto the different local radio stations, such as Kiss 95.7 and  WCCC  to see who advertises with them, since we would be targeting the same group of people.

Some of the companies I found and then later researched were Plato’ Closet, Tire Depot, Lasik Plus, New England Ski and Scuba and even Quinnipiac University!  Since most of these I couldn’t find out their marketing information online I had to actually call them. Which to me is not a fun thing to do. I would rather text and email someone any day than call them, but clearly that is something I am going have to get over and get better at soon!

Today was really cool and currently Cindy is working on closing a deal with Dunkin Donuts, so she had me help her put together the proposal that we are going to send to them. This proposal is for a Txt 2 Win sweepstakes that Dunkin Donuts and LiveNation would do together to promote Dunkin Donuts at all LiveNation events, on the website etc. I found it really interesting to see how social media is now taking a huge part in this since part of the sweepstakes is that you must “Like” The Dunkin Donuts Facebook page and Follow and Retweet them on The Dunkin Donuts Twitter. It was really cool to read through the proposal, help put it together and I was able to help edit it and make it look presentable.

Now A final project that I am about to start but didn’t have time this week is also for Dunkin Donuts, but it is a proposal for Dunkin Donuts to team up with The Bamboozle 2012  featuring Bon Jovi, Bling 182 and The Foo Fighters as headliners! Starting next week I am going to help put together the whole Power Point Proposal to send to Dunkin Donuts. It would propose to Dunkin Donuts that they would be able to sponsor the whole festival and be apart of the Boozletwist game where you can own points and prizes for interacting with Bamboozle and Dunkin Donuts. I will write more on this next week since I haven’t really started on it yet!

Sorry this is long hopefully I start getting the hang of this soon! Oh yeah and kinda cool I am currently known around the office as the intern who looks like Kirsten Dunst… I don’t see it but I’ll take it as a compliment.