Events Abroad - Interview with Ingo Stefes, Public Communications student
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Having previously worked for an advertising agency, German student Ingo Stefes soon developed an interest in a different side of public communication - event management. Arriving in Australia 'by chance' after promising to accompany a friend on his trip abroad in exchange for help with an assignment, Ingo says that life in Australia - and little things like over-apologising, the 'no worries' attitude and assignments which 'hunt you down' - has been an incredible experience for him.
Ingo Stefes,
Public Communications Student
"I got here only by chance you could say. I was sitting in university last year in Germany and I had to do a presentation. A friend of mine was sitting close to me and he had a brochure about Australia.
"I said 'what are you doing with this brochure?' and he said 'maybe I'll take the next semester off and go to Australia'. So I said, 'OK, I'll make you a deal - you help me with my presentation and I'll go with you to Australia.' He left after one week...So that's the story, I just got here by chance."
And so began Ingo Stefes' Australian adventure, comprising of a semester on exchange at UTS, completing Public Communication subjects and adapting to a life of sliced bread, surf and unreliable public transport.
"I always thought about taking an off-shore semester and as this is my last chance for exchange (Ingo is in his final semester of a Masters in Political Communication in Germany), I decided to take the semester off and come to Australia.
"At the moment I'm studying 'Inventive Media Advertising' 'Communicating with Publics' and 'Cross-cultural and International Communication'".
Having worked as an advertising consultant in Germany, Ingo decided to take Public Communication electives as "a refresher" and to provide some theoretical grounding for his passion, event management.
"I organised two events in Germany. The first time I was part of a team and the second time (this year), I led the event with a friend. It was a congress for young scientists which we organised at our university. It was called DFPK (Duesseldorf Forum of Political Communication). We invited scientists from all over Europe who could come and present their studies.
"The second time round was definitely trickier. In my first year of the event, I had quite a small range of what to do, so I was just focussing on that and not really recognising all the other tasks which lay at the edges of the project. The second time, as I led this team, I had to co-ordinate who would do what and when, it was much more work. But although it was tougher, I did it with friends so we could exchange thoughts and it made it a little bit easier to make decisions."
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