In Chamber Shoes - Lauren McGurk

Lauren, a third year student from Dundee, is currently studying Festival, Event and Hospitality Management at Edinburgh Napier University. Keen to learn more about DACC and the vibrant events programme we run Lauren will be doing her internship with us over the next 24 weeks. Here she tells us a little more about her first week on the job.

Monday

Monday morning...usually the worst and most dreaded day of the week for many however I couldn’t be happier as today was the first day of my internship at the chamber. I made sure to give myself plenty time to get ready and then had my Dad drop me off. When I arrived at the office I was told that today we’d be busy as it’s the DACC Business breakfast tomorrow morning so we have some last minute prep to get done. Sarah and I started off updating the guest list and table plans and then we set up my laptop and email for me so I could get to work. Lunch time arrived, and I was so pleased until I remembered I had brought a salad. I do not like salad. I thought today would be a good opportunity to start a health kick but I had never regretted anything more in my life. I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep this up! After lunch I had some name badges to make up for the guests tomorrow. 126 to be exact. I was pretty glad when the last one was completed. Sarah and I then gathered some supplies to take along to the venue for tomorrow and we had a walk along to make sure everything had been set up to plan. Seeing the venue all set up for tomorrow was so exciting, I couldn’t wait to see the event in action tomorrow.

Tuesday

My alarm went off at 5.30 this morning and thoughts of ‘do I really need this placement’ entered my mind. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I was awake at this time of the morning and the fact that it was cold and dark outside did not help one bit. Getting out of bed and ready for the day ahead was a struggle until I remembered we’re going to have a nice cooked breakfast at the event this morning, so that definitely shifted my mood :) I arrived at the Apex at 7am and helped to get the registration table ready for the business breakfast this morning. Guests soon started to arrive and me being the social butterfly that I am, could not have been more happy to be greeting guests and handing out name badges. Once everyone had arrived, breakfast was started and I made my way to my table. I was sat in between two members who I had of course never met before however I was quick to make introductions. After a great talk from one of our guest speakers and an interesting Q&A session, It was time to head back to the office. Sarah & I then left to attend a meeting at the DCA. I’m loving how different each day seems to be, with so many different things to do! Once back to the office I got to work on creating feedback surveys for todays’ event as well as some other social media and admin tasks. I don’t think I’ve ever been more tired than I was today however not once did I wish it was home time. So far so good!

Wednesday

I had an early night last night as I was so tired from the early start yesterday however I have woken up more tired than ever! Regardless, I was still looking forward to the day ahead. I’m enjoying my placement more than I ever thought I would and I’m only on my 3rd day. I can’t wait to see what the next few weeks and months bring! Today Sarah showed me how to post News Items on the website and the Social Media platforms so I spent a large part of the day sharing many amazing stories and updates sent in by our members. I also learned how to create event invitations and the events round up newsletter for the week, hopefully I remember how to do it next time however there were so many different things to click on, I think it might take a while to get the hang of it! After another meeting this afternoon, I finished off some of my tasks from today and then it was home time. I decided to have a relaxing night tonight watching the Brit Awards, Sam Smith & Ed Sheeran being my favourite performances of the night. Looking forward to going to see them both in concert in the next couple of months!

Thursday

Usually I can be extremely lazy and stay in bed until the afternoon on my days off however after being up early this week, I was wide awake this morning. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do with myself, I actually missed not being in the office. I decided to spend the morning doing some paper work for placement and then did some work for university. I have to write a 10,000 word dissertation on my placement to be able to graduate so I thought I’d better make a start sooner rather than later. I then got ready to go to Ninewells hospital as yesterday I became an Aunty - well kind of. My best friend of 18 years, yesterday had her baby boy. The only thing is, we weren’t expecting him until May so he was born nearly 10 weeks early! A massive shock to say the least. With baby doing well in the SCBU, I couldn’t wait any longer to visit Megan and baby Charlie. As you could probably imagine, he is the tiniest little baby I have ever seen, He’s only 2lbs 3oz! What a perfect little boy he is though, I can’t wait to watch him getting bigger and stronger everyday! After an emotional evening, I headed home for an early night. I’m not in placement until Tuesday now so looking forward to a few days off before getting stuck in again next week.

Friday

I won’t lie, I’ve had a very lazy day today. I spent most of the day lounging around, trying to be as quiet as possible as my Dad was in his bed after working night shift last night. I spent an hour or 2 trying to do some research on our members, just so I have a better understanding of who they are, what they do and what they might need from us. In the afternoon, my mum finished work and so we took the dogs on a big walk around Camperdown Park, their favourite place. I haven’t been able to get out with them for around 3 weeks now after tearing some ligaments in my foot however it is finally starting to heal so I thought I’d be as well going along. Mia is my oldest dog, an 8 year old black Labrador and Bella is my 6 year old springer spaniel x Black Labrador. I may be biased but they are the best dogs ever and they absolutely live for their walks in the woods. It was a nice sunny day today, although still freezing so I was glad to get home. I then went back to the hospital to visit Megan and Baby Charlie. I can’t stay away! I’m looking forward to the weekend ahead though. I’m going to watch my cousin in the Scottish Gymnastics Championships in Perth this weekend. An important competition in the run up to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, so it should be exciting. My Uncle from Thailand is also coming home for a few weeks so I’m looking forward to spending time with the family. Over all a nice busy week. Can’t wait to get back to work on Tuesday.