Blast From the Past | Orchan Heads Back to School (by Fauziah Sandini)

Orchan Heads Back to School | Jakarta Style

Through the Eyes of the Intern | Dini

Craig and I in Jakarta.

Welcome Back to Jakarta!!

What an exciting day it is for this Indonesian intern to return home. However, this is not a simple leisure trip; this is an Orchan project to develop Speaking Opportunities at Universities and Co-Working Spaces in Jakarta. It was just Craig and I on the project, while Farrell, Ravin and Jordan went to Penang for a client event. I arrived four days before Craig, heading-off on Tuesday 24 July 2018, touching down in Jakarta! Arriving after a relaxing flight, I wasn’t looking forward to meeting the jam J. Rather, I took the new train to Jakarta Kota Station, which was way far faster than a taxi. 

Heading Home!

I was reunited with Craig on Wednesday in a small café around Sarinah called ‘Saudagar Kopi Sabang’ (apparently, Craig’s favourite Jakarta food hang out), to have lunch and prepare for the next day. We ordered some delicious fusion food. After our meeting, we went to a Co-Working Spaces called WUHUB to meet Faris (WUHUB team member), to prepare for the coaching session on Saturday. He welcomed us and took us on a tour of the office and found a lot of nice spots to work and also relax.

Craig and I at WUHUB Co-Working Space with Faris.

Here comes the first day of the coaching sessions at WUHUB on Saturday morning. Craig prepared all the material to talk about “PR for Startups”. The talk went very well with Craig telling us about how to start companies and how to make organisations grow smoothly. It is interesting because we met one woman who comes from Aceh who liked the topic and she is the representative of PASKA (The Development of Aceh’s Socio-Economic activities); who wishes to know how to change the perspective of people, especially tourists about Aceh culture. This is because even in Indonesia, Aceh has some unique cultural quirks that causes a divergence of opinion from several people. The topic discussed helped them to organize the team and also provided some strategies in attracting tourists to visit Aceh. I helped Craig in translating the material, and it was a good opportunity for me to improve my public speaking skills.

Craig discussing how to influence public perception through the use of strategic PR.

On Monday, Craig and I went to Tarumanegara University (UNTAR) and BINUS University to have a meeting with the Head of Communications Department of UNTAR, and the Head of Business International School of BINUS, to talk about guest lecturing opportunities that might benefit the students. Both Universities welcomed us enthusiastically, and they both have really nice campuses. They gave us a chance and scheduled some time for us to do guest lectures later in 2018. We’ve learned about new things from both universities and obtained some great information about the Indonesian education system.

Craig and I with the Tarumanegara University (UNTAR) communications faculty.

Craig and Marko, the Head of Business International School at BINUS.

After our meeting with Tarumanegara University, Craig and I made our way to Taman Anggrek to have lunch before meeting with the representative of BINUS later in the afternoon. Craig had satay and I had gado-gado (yummy!).

Can never go wrong with satay!

The next day, Craig and I took a taxi from his hotel to our last meeting at LSPR (London School Public Relations) before Craig heads back to KL. We met the Head of the Department and also the research team to talk about the same thing as we did with the other universities and also to take some photos with the team.

Craig with the LSPR faculty representatives.

We scheduled this project about 2-3 weeks before heading to Jakarta. I arranged the meeting by translating emails, sending them out, followed-up via phone calls and also meeting them personally.

Craig’s-eye view of me – during the coaching session.

Knowing that this will be my last month of Internship at Orchan, it was a good opportunity for me to attend all the meetings and to accompany Craig at the coaching sessions; which I was also a part of the audience to learn and understand the topic. I helped him with translating the material to the woman from Aceh so she could understand the material clearly. I’ve learnt so many things that I never knew before and as an intern, this really helped me grow and to do work professionally. I will be able to apply these skills in the future. One thing that I liked from this opportunity was that I was able to meet a lot of new people, talk with them in person and gained some new information that will help me make new connections.