One more week at work and I am still alive and happy with what I am doing.
I still worked on "Guitar Hero: On Tour" on Nintendo DS. I succeeded to get some reporters to publish an article on the product. However, I had a hard time linked to bad planning. I was supposed to send the video games to the reporters so they can try it. I should have received those games at the end of the week. On Thursday, I learnt that I will receive them on the 10th of July. Then you have to find a way to deal with it without loosing the article. It is not easy at all. I really had a hard time with my direct supervisor telling me how efficient we have to be.
In my mind, that job is very wavy. What I mean is that, during one hour you will have 5 journalists that sound very interested in what you are selling them. Then during the next hour, you can not get nobody to answer you on the phone. You can frustrated pretty easily, believe me. So, you called 15 of htem during the day, but when you have to do the feedback for the director, you can see that none of them really said "yes"...That job is a war, you need a strategy, strenght and to have good weapons.
Nevertheless, I have a very good news: The Guitar Hero Star Power Tour 2008 (GHSPT).The new game of Activision (video game company): "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" is available since yesterday in every shop. THe GHSPT is a stand that will take place in the biggest Rock festivals in France. I will be working on some of them. The first is Solidays, the biggest music festival in France. I do not change my job : press relation. I think it can a great experience.
I will write the next article the 7th of July because the festival is the 4th, 5th and 6th.
How can I start...My job is press relation, publicity in the area of video games. First week and I already have a significant amount of responsibility.10 minutes introduction then I started calling journalists to sell them the product. My job is to ensure that our client can be seen in medias:TV, radio, newspaper, and so on.I can sell an event to make sure journalists come or to sell a product such as a new video game. I have worked on two projects that first week:
Rock Band Contest for Micromania
Guitar Hero:On tour Nintendo DS
The first one was my warm-up: to ensure that specialized websites talk about the event. Then, today(saturday) I had to receive journalists on the event. That sounds kind of cool, to say hello and to ensure that on the videos they are doing, there is the Micromania logo. Nevertheless, when the event is badly organized...you feel like you lied to those jourmalists. On the phone, you sell them the event by saying that it will be great, a new concept. Then on the event, yes the idea is good, the people involved are motivated but...the location was badly chosen and, organizers were also sellers of the shop...They were not able to manage efficiently the event. To conclude, it was just a warm-up, videos of the event will be published on internet, announcement were done on some websites...Everybody is happy.
The second one is the new activision musical video game. Activision set up a marketing plan. Basically, they want to open their target market. I have sold a new video game to youth magazines and women magazines. Believe, it is not easy to convince them. I was under pressure on that project. My direct supervisor clearly told he had too much work and that I should be 100% after a couple of days.WHAT???????? I try to do my best. One week: two projects just for me...I wanted to work: I am getting exactly what I want...
However, the good thing in that job is that at the end of day, I am able to see why I do what I do. I know what I work for.
I was supposed to work on the Canterburry budget(a rugby brand), but they do not have it yet. So maybe I will be working in the video games industry for 6 months, why not...
As a conclusion, I think that to choose a medium sized company involves a lot of responsibilty; what means that right now I am learning a lot. I hope it will remain that way. See u next week for another article.
Away from the blog for 2 weeks because I have my final exams of this semester. So I will not be able to write for a while. As soon as I can, I restart writing. However, I do not leave only with that note. I add to my video a clip of a jazz band, enjoy!
I worked there for 6 months. A Caribbean island, the send, the sun and the sea were all together. Moreover, I was a sailing teacher. For the eighteen years old that I was, it is the perfect job and spot. Everything was cheap. It was party, friends and all of what you can dream of. I met some other French that opened a restaurant next to the resort I was working in. I learnt to speak Spanish. An extraordinary experience.
While you are at the end of a work day, the sun is leaving slowly, you look away and you are sure everybody would have thought the same thing as you: “Why do not I stay to live here? An easy life, the work is not hard at all; life is not expensive. They have a cool culture. Why not? I mean really, no joke. No more tests at school, no more duty, no responsibilities, I found a perfect way of life”. Nevertheless, you leave. Why? Because you feel that you can get so much more in life. Society told you how successful you will be. Medias show to consumers what they can be. This is the reason why you came back after 6 months. I am sure that everybody feels like they are on earth to do great things. Every human being feels special. I guess that it could be seen as a lack of modesty. But honestly, who does not feel that way? Not looking for glory or to be famous, just that the day I look back at what I did during my short existence, I want to be able to say that I did something with my life. It sounds like a cliché, the kind of sentence you hear in a Hollywood movie. Whatever, I am sure you get my point.
Dominican Republic is one of the main tourism destinations in the Caribbean. It has known a significant increase in mass tourism, Punta Cana for example. Other spots are developing such as Bayahibe and other resorts. Tourism is recognized as being an efficient way for those kinds of countries to develop. Right now, a lot of constructions are taking place, money is being invested. It does give job to local population. Tourist dollars or euros are entering within the country. Then, where is that money going to? Most likely it goes back to foreign investors and companies.
There is another issue linked to the construction of the resorts. They are built by Haitian that crossed the border. They are in Dominican Republic illegally. They are exploited, very badly paid, and are treated as slave. A look at the camps where they live and you understand. Where is the respect of human rights there? Then people ask to athlete to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing because they are not respected in China. But why are not the tourists doing the same thing for Dominican Republic? If you think about it, a boycott by the tourists would have so much more impacts. Tourism is a significant industry in the whole world. If suddenly people decide net to go to a place because it does not respect human rights, it will have a lot more impact than any political pressure. Nowadays, we live in a world where everybody consumes everything. Modern society is under the influence of Medias and advertising all the time. Customers have the power to make things change by boycotting a product, as everything is run by the economy. That is already taking place, but not in the tourism industry. Population should stop being obsessed with their purchasing power. Customers should focus on the fact they have the freedom to choose what they want to buy or not.
To conclude as mentioned at the start of this paragraph, mass tourism takes place in Dominican Republic. So mass population is not aware of the situation, and if people are, then it is even worst…
