For my first day, I analysed the Bendigo Sustainability groups social media and collated a list of the things I liked and areas that had gaps and needed attention.

This list included:

• Instagram/FaceBook: Photos posted with no tags/mentions/hashtags. Images are cut off, and very script heavy in the post - not even in the caption. Many posts without a caption. Not many reels posted. Previous festival had a theme going on with cohesion, however that since dropped off after, and returned to regular posting, seemingly without direction or intent.

• TikTok: Only three videos posted with one of them being a powerpoint video - yikes, not very engaging. Analytics are not great as they're not gaining many views or engagements.

• Website: Has a few spelling and grammar mistakes all throughout, and some of the content isn't as easy to navigate.

• Linkedin: Its pretty good! Gets quite a lot of engagement and the content is relevant to business partners and sponsors.

  
  

I started making plans of what to post and what events to boost their insights and engagement, leading up to the festival. Here were some of my ideas:

• Video series on "what does sustainability mean to you"

• Meet the singers

• Meet the stall holders

• Come with me to the Bendigo sustainability clothing swap

• Interactive voting for the best fashion at the festival

• Behind the scenes of the BSG office - preparing the festival

• Wildlife exposure stall - "Come with me to the Bendigo Sustainability Festival, come meet teacup (hold snake around arms) at the widlife exposure stall!"

• Art expo - showcasing some of the pieces

• WASH AGAINST WASTE - behind the scenes

BENDIGO Tuesday: 10HRS

This was my first day in the office. It started with an hour long introduction meeting, where we discussed the nature of my role, work expectations, and the areas they wanted me to focus on.

These were:

• Social media promo/content development

• App content development

• Scheduling and timelines

• Organising guest speakers.

• Newsletter content

I was also apart of an interview with the local paper, regarding the festival, we used my tripod to take a photo of the team to be promoted. (Article attached)

REMOTE Wednesday: 5HRS

I started working on a newsletter for the month, and created a new template, as they weren't getting many readers clicking into their links. The newsletter included a spotlight onto their TEDx Bendigo talks, where I highlighted some of the most anticipated speakers and linked to where they could buy tickets for the event.

Once this was posted, I started working on the app development, where people on the day could download the app and see things such as: table talk times, locations of stalls, artist run times, activity stalls and event times.

Public Holiday

BENDIGO Tuesday: 10HRS

Staff meeting from 9am-10am, where we discussed the timetable for the day and what we will all be working on/a performance review - They really liked my newsletter! My goals for the day were to collate content while I was in Bendigo.

I visited Valentine's Antique Gallery and took video content of Frankie O's art studio for social media. I was only able to film and edit this during the day, it was saved to drafts and scheduled to post the next day. (See attached video)

I then met with the current volunteering communications manager and worked on creating a theme for across all socials! For the rest of the day I worked on:

• Performer social tiles

• sponsorship tile

REMOTE Wednesday: 5HRS

The focus of today was to push out more content, starting with uploading the Art work shops.

I also started mapping out some more video content:

• Poetry comp with $250 Bunnings voucher prize

• Yoga

• Art show

• Eco-Storytelling

I started this day out by filming a video from my wardrobe about the clothing swap event. This took quite a bit of time with re-takes, editing and voice overs.

I also began scripting promotional videos for/finalising:

• Yoga lesson

• Eco-Storytelling

• clothing swap - scripting, filming, editing.

  
  

I then got to work by creating a schedule for the rest of the week, preparing the TEDx talk speeches and an excel spreadsheet where I collated all the donated prizes for the hampers. With who is providing the goods, and then allocating them into the six hampers (See attached for spreadsheet).

BENDIGO Tuesday: 10HRS

Meetings from 9AM - 10AM, discussing everyone's roles on the festival day and what they have been working on throughout the week. My role was solidified as the videographer and also a talk tent facilitator for one of the talks with four TEDx Bendigo speakers.

I then hit the town, filming content of local street art and the arrived at the Bendigo Visitation Centre.

Here there are displays of local artists, ranging from felts, materials, recycled glasses, homemade bags and toys, leather work, local indigenous art, leaf art, ceramics, paintings and drawings.

I filmed a lot of content there for a video promoting the art show, where people could bring their art to display for a chance to win a hamper price, or collaboratively make art on the day.

I then had the privilege to go over the poems entered for the Poe-Tree competition with the other intern, Maria, and select a runner-up and winner.

Maddy, the communications volunteer, and I then had a meeting to discuss the theme for all the signage at the festival.

We created Canva signs for the following:

• Entry points x 2 “Welcome etc…”

• Activities - Large signs for activity tents 

• Talk tents - Large signs for talk tents 

• Festival program schedule - A5 Printed and placed on ticket tables and placed at stalls

• Sign to meet for tours 

• Signs for bins - What goes in them - 10 x red, 10 x yellow and 4 x organic 

• Signs that say - “More stalls this way —> “ which we put in a variety of locations 

• Signs that say “Food this way -> “

REMOTE Wednesday: 5HRS

I finished off the rest of the signs this day and sent them in to be printed off on big display boards.

I edited and published some more promotional videos for activity stalls, and got into contact with some more stallholders, seeking prizes for the competition winner hampers.

I began drafting up some vouchers for the hampers, where prizes such as Trishaw Rides (A three-wheeled pedal-powered machine, with a bike on the front and lounge seats on the back for people to be leisurely ridden around to look at the community), food/coffee vouchers for the festival day and the Remakery Shop vouchers.

The Poe-Tree winner and runner-up were announced on social media with a dedicated post, they were also emailed about their big win, where to meet on the day and how to claim their prizes.

We then had an online meeting for festival day, this included the following:

• How the day will proceed

• Volunteer processing

• Checking in stall holders via an app - download the app and learn how to use it.

• Scheduling (Where people will be, what events need to be covered, and what needs more promotion)

BENDIGO Tuesday: 10HRS

Finalising the Hamper prizes from late entries, fixing up and creating voucher tickets on Canva (except the Trishaw Ride where the organisation created their own), Content promotion creation (saved to drafts for later posting). Posted video for promotion about the events of the day. More video planning for Sunday.

Maria, the other intern, and I went out into the community and dropped off over 200 festival flyers in local letter box's and visited local cafes/shops, putting up flyers.

I then created a promo social media post for Soul Care Healing about their mini wellness concert, teaching kids songs and dances that help them to tackle big emotions.

REMOTE Wednesday: 5HRS

Two videos were posted to all social media this day, and I began studying the analytics, comparing their old content to the stuff I have been filming and posting.

Typically their regular posts would only receive under 50 views and only pop up on their current followers fyp, whereas my content reached a wider audience of 60% non followers - increasing their audience and the views over time - and sustained over 500 plays for two weeks, their previous content dropped off within a day. The content engagement was much higher, with more people actively liking/saving and sharing the content as well.

I then got to work on creating a small personal map of where I need to be and at what time/what to film on the festival day:

• Stall content

• Events that need exposure

• Handcrafted

• Artists

• Parade

This is the day, the moment we had all been working towards and it was a fantastic experience. Here's everything that happened:

I had a call time of 9AM, so naturally I got there at 8:30AM to be prepared, on time and ready to help! I got rushed right to work, helping stallholders enter the festival grounds, navigating where they needed to park/set up, checking them in and collecting any hamper prizes they were donating.

At 9AM, Maddy and I went around and did a thorough check through of all the stalls, helping with any questions or queries, checking for prizes, and helping with any table and gazebo set ups.

The hamper prizes were then set aside and allocated into the designated hampers. These were then delivered to the correct location where the winners would be announced.

From 10AM - 11AM, I worked at the entry gate inviting in visitors, collecting donations, helping people to download the app and advising/directing them to specific events and tents.

11:30AM I facilitated a table talk with some incredible guest speakers and TEDx Bendigo talks. These included Aidan & Kayley (A mother and son duo talking about collaborative community), Dr. Greg Moore OAM (Urban Trees and biodiversity) and Sally Pymer (Fitting in to community). This was an incredible experience to help boost my interviewing and hosting skills, especially on such an important level, to a crowd.

After this, I was FREE to roam around the festival - for work not leisure! - and got cracking on filming some content.

I visited many stallholders and filmed their products, what they handmade and created or what they were selling.

Activities and events were on left, right and centre, and I almost needed to clone myself into a million Isabella's to attend them all, such as the clothing swap, insect hotels, face painting, food vans, wash against waste, basic footage of the overall stalls, art, climate change posters and many many more. That's only a snippet of them all...

While this event was amazing to the everyday attendee, it was also pretty stressful to organise, and the team worked relentlessly to achieve a high quality event. To celebrate the hard work and document the wonderful people who collaborated to work together, I made a fun little video of behind the scenes, introducing all the people you don't get to see and honouring their hard work! - all be it, in quite a fun way (See attached).

Day off to rest from the festival on Sunday. I spent some time sorting through the hundreds of photos and videos I took, as well as Liz (the photographer), allocating them to relevant folders in my phone and a shared google drive such as, stallholders, activities and volunteers to edit in the following days.

BENDIGO Tuesday: 10HRS

Morning meeting/festival debrief 9AM -10AM, where we discussed the feedback from attendees from word of mouth and the surveys that were posted.

Here's some of the general feedback:

• "Absolutely loved it! the people were so kind and the stalls were very informative. great food and singers too!"

• "Very noticeable ‘new, young faces’. Of course nothing wrong with ‘older’ faces, just wonderful to see younger people involved, clearly learnt from past people but bringing different ideas."

• "The kitchen table talks were great. So many amazing speakers and such a broad range of topics. The attendees listening were good and feedback was also great. Helping with feedback from attendees. Started editing and posting onto socials media from the event, such as stallholders and sponsors. Started mapping out the festival video of activities."

  
  

After the debriefing and meeting, we got back to work, emailing attendees and members some survey to collect data for the next newsletter.

I also began to tackle the big task of putting together some videos, starting with a "Everything I ate at the festival" vlog for social media.

REMOTE Wednesday: 5HRS

Working on video clip placement/editing and voice overs. Once this was done, it was posted and I began working on the next one! - While this is taxing work it's also been some of my favourite.

On the day of the festival, I was asked by the Bendigo Sustainability Group president to conduct an interview with a member of ASQ Landscaping regarding their businesses ethics and sustainable practices. I began to formulate my questions and do some background research of the business.

As well as this, I put together a collage of 15-20 images from the festival, to include in the newsletter as a little snapshot overview.

During my last week at BSG, I completed and posted video content about the activity stalls, including a voice over narration, to social media.

Interviewed ASQ Landscaping for the newsletter about their sustainable practices in their landscaping business, how this positively affects the community and what support they get. I then wrote up a 400 word article as a spotlight piece of the community.

BENDIGO Tuesday: 10HRS

Final day in the office! - This was quite emotional and sad as this was a fantastic team and experience.

Morning meeting 9am - 10am regarding the sustainable house day that is upcoming, plus following up on all the loose ends and last minute things I need to put together before finishing up at the organisation.

I added my ASQ interview in to the newsletter and helped Maria, the other intern, to draft this months copy, along with accompanying visuals of the festival (last weeks attachment), call to action groups within the sustainability group, analysing other newsletters to see what works for them and what we can implement and change to increase readership.

Such as:

• Spotlight article on a sustainable organisation in the area

• Social days/upcoming events eg. Harmony day, and relate it back to sustainability - including things people to do/change in their everyday life

• Including a lot more media and interactive things rather than a text heavy newsletter that, let's face it, many people are not reading all of it.

• Recap of the festival and a peak into the upcoming events to add to their calendar.

I began editing the final video for BSG socials of the festival stallholders and artists. collating images and calling up stallholders who didn't have any photos taken of them at the festival by our team, to see if they had photos of their stall.

Post: table talk photo montage, sponsors. Finish up the collage grid.

REMOTE Wednesday: 5HRS

Finalise sponsor posts and table talk posts in canva (making them look pretty and interactive!) and schedule posting for later in the week.

Finish editing and post stallholders post on socials.

Not including the two hour drive to Bendigo and back every Tuesday.

Total hours: 124 Hours of Placement