Week 5:

Ok so I went to the Wakestock Festival this weekend and it was an experience! First of all, when we got there the forecast was rain all day with heavy rain and wind at night. All I brought for shoes were flip-flops! Luckily the rain held off for the first hour or so, so the guys at the magazine gave me a Flip camera to go around and interview people at the festival. This was my favorite part. Going up to people and just start talking to them! And the questions that I had were a hit. I decided to try them out on random people before asking the bands. Once the rain started, we pretty much stayed on the stage which, thankfully, was covered. After Fightstar finished their performance, which was all acoustic, I was able to conduct my interview. Of course I was nervous but it went really well, I just hope the rain wasn't too loud in the background that you can not hear the interview! After that I was able to interview another band, The Haunts. This one wasn't on camera but the guys were really sweet and they were still excited to be there even though the conditions weren't ideal. By the end of the night, my feet were caked in mud, my clothes were soaked but I still had a great time! The camera man said it should be about a week before I get the footage. I can't wait!

Week 4:

This week's planned tour was the City of London tour. Here we basically walked around central London and got to see all of the sights and learn the history behind them. We saw Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, etc. While I have already seen all of these sights the last time I was in England two years ago, I did not learn any history behind them. For example, Buckingham Palace is famous for the home of the Queen but she is only there on Tuesdays and for any major public function. Otherwise she considers Windsor Castle, just outside London, her home and she spends the majority of her time there. And as many times as I have seen and visited these sights, they never get old. I still enjoy them just as much as I did two years ago.

Week 4:

This week I was doing the same with all of the social networking sites when I was told that I would be going to a wakeboarding/music festival over the weekend to interview bands for the magazine. The festival is called Wakestock and it is in Northwest Wales, about 4 hours away by train and another hour by taxi. I'm a little nervous because I have never interviewed anyone before let alone rock bands! So the second half of my week was me prepping for the weekend. The PR company that invited us, Shine PR, is representing Jagermeister so we will be interviewing the bands after their performances on the Jager stage. I came up with 12 random different questions to ask the bands. I found out that I would definitely be interviewing a band called Fightstar so I did my research and listened to a bunch of their songs before I left.

Week 3:

This week's planned day trip was to Bath and Stonehenge. We took a coach bus to Stonehenge first. We didn't stay here long, just long enough for everyone to take their pictures! Next we went to Bath. While we were there we got to take a tour of the Roman Baths, as well as explore the city on our own. I took a city tour and found out where Jane Austin lived, a lot of history about how Bath used to be the 'posh' place for people to travel in England. Bath is out in the English countryside so everything was at a much slower pace unlike fast-paced London. After the tour we did some shopping before heading back to London. It is crazy to see how different the cities are from each other even they are only a few hours apart. Bath and Stonehenge are a complete 180 from London.

Week 3:

This week at work I was able to start putting pieces of the magazine together as far as helping with what photos should be used for what pages, and some of the wording for our top gear section. I have also been busy keeping up with the online networks. Since the magazine is a weekly magazine, every wednesday I usually spend to entire day updating the sites so that the new material is on there and the previous weeks is archived. I have also increased their fan base by at least 500. My goal is to double the number of fans they had when I started my internship. There was also a presentation that was given on how to increase marketing online and how to benefit from it!

Along with my internship, the University of Dreams also sets up activities around London for all of us to do, so we can get a chance to experience all of the city. This week they set up a tour of Shakespeare's globe theatre, followed by ticketes to one of his plays, As you like it, that was currently playing at the theatre. I found it extremely interesting because the theatre was built almost identical to the original, thatched roof and all. The day we went on our tour it was supposed to be raining, which in London is obviously very typical. Our tickets for the play were standing tickets so not only did we stand for the three and a half hour play, but if it would have rained we would have gotten extemely wet! (The theatre is completely open, except for the small roof that covers the stage.) Luckily the rain held off until later that night, and the play was excellent! If anyone has not read As you like it, I definately recommend checking it out!

During my second week at my internship, I was still working on their social networking sites making sure they stayed updated. But I also started working on certain parts of the magazine. For example, there is a section called top gear in the magazine and each week we feature five different products (new gadgets, clothing, etc...) that have recently come out onto the market. We are sent samples of them and we write a review on them for the magazine. This week I was actually in charge of researching, contacting, and writing the reviews for the products. Since I am working for a magazine who's readers are mainly males, I had to find products that would appeal to that demographic. I was able to get samples of: a Sony Rolly, TomTom sat navigator, the Mongoose cricket bat, a pair of 'trousers', a few tee-shirts and a jacket. So far I have written reviews on both the TomTom and Sony Rolly. The reviews were also a little tricky because I had to write in a way that would appeal to men, which was obviously a little difficult for me! I know I summed up my week in only a few sentences but it took me nearly all week to get in contact with people and get them to send samples of their products over to me! My reviews should be in one of the upcoming issues and when they are I'll put them here on my blog!

My first week as an intern at Dennis Publishing:

When I first arrived at my internship on day 1, I was extremely nervous but my immediate supervisor, Eoin, was extemely friendly and introduced me to the rest of my co-workers. The first few days were spent learning the ropes at Dennis and how I would contribute to my team. Since Dennis is starting to focus more on digital magazines rather than print, one of my main tasks is to increase readership through different social networks, the main ones being facebook, myspace and twitter. Some of the magazines, such as Monkey Magazine, is generally focused on the younger generations between 20-35, so being able to market and compete in these social networks is key. Also when I looked at their different accounts on these networks, I could tell they had not been updated for quite a while. So for the first week I spent the majority of my time updating their accounts and working on marketing the magazine through these social networking sites.