Welcome to the first instalment of Thursday’s From the Front Desk.

Please note! Due to the unpredictable nature of the PR world From the Front desk may occasionally be posted on a Friday, after-hours, from my father’s computer. Like today, for instance.

From the Front Desk is Samantha Lovelace’s spin on the PR world from a entry-level perspective.

As an entry-level PR-erson and, indeed, office worker, Samantha sits at the front desk of TFC.

During an average day she doesn’t just answer phones and fix printers; Samantha’s front desk experiences are just short of a full degree’s worth of education in PR, computers and people. This, along with general office antics keep her, and she hopes will keep you, entertained all workday long (and sometimes longer).

Now that being said, and with out further ado, Here’s Sammy!

************************************************************************

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - Welcome to the first ever post From the Front Desk!

I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce myself:
My name is Samantha Lovelace and I work at the front desk at Thornley Fallis Communications.

I was lucky to have been introduced to the job, Alex Milroy, Sandra Cruickshanks and Michael O’Connor Clarke by my most fabulous friend, Ms. Lauren Saliba.

Lauren was “the front desk” at TFC in Ottawa and knew they were looking for “Lauren” in Toronto. After great consideration, she declined the offer to transfer herself and passed on the opportunity to me; a quickly tiring, server/bartender/manager of 8 odd years.

Lauren and I have been faithful friends for close to 14 years. We met, one fine evening, in the yard behind Muchmore public school in Ottawa’s “the Glebe”. I believe it was a Friday.

With a fresh squeezed BBA and a desire for something new I was eager to take on the new challenge and marched in to the Ottawa office for my first “career” interview.

I got the job!

With in the month I left the famed Royal Oak in the Glebe of Ottawa, trained a couple of days in Ottawa and packed up my things, my loving partner-in-crime and our cat. Off to Toronto we went.

It was three days before I experienced my first printer malfunction, learned how to do a mail merge, met my first client and worked past five in a 9-5 job. Lets just say I didn’t find my admin skills they were violently thrust upon me with the fury of one incredibly angry volcano.

I like to think, though I’ve hit many a nasty pot hole along the way, I’ve fared relatively well. Not only have I learned how to take care of normally adminy duties, but I took on some new roles too. Media monitoring, event support, ideation, podcast production and some fundamental accounting tasks are just a few of my weekly activities.

And now I can ad one more notch to my PR agency belt:
Almost a year later, well versed in computer malfunction, telephone manner, morning scans, excel spreadsheets, and with a couple of events under my belt, I am writing my first official post on PR Girlz. I can say, as I sit faithfully at the front desk of Thornley Fallis Communications, I finally feel like I am an official PR Grrril.

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to sharing some front desk antics with you next week.

Until then, take care.

Samantha Lovelace

In what could have been the publicity stunt of the year – but wasn’t – news reports around these parts today feature the roaming elephants of Newmarket. See the Toronto Star and do check the audio.

Think about it. You are going home from the bar, or a late-night trip to the grocery store or wherever and an elephant walks across the road in front of your car to take a munch on your neighbour’s maple tree. And picture the innocent 911 dispatcher who gets a call about an elephant roaming the streets but he doesn’t start laughing. And then of course there is the police “chase” to track down two of the roaming beasts. There is a sense of unreality about the whole thing.

But what could have been an absolute disaster for the folks at Garden Bros. Circus has turned into the most amazingly funny unplanned PR stunt we’ve heard of in years. No one was hurt, especially the elephants. Afterall, it was a warm summer evening, perfect elephant strolling weather. Yes, I know we should be worried, maybe it will be the tigers the next time. Fluffy and Spot may not survive that one. One rumour has it that the Circus, realizing their animal “staff” had demolished some trees and flowers did offer free circus tickets to some home owners.

Interesting that people like elephants so we allow the Circus a little leeway when a couple of them become free roaming. Could you imagine the disaster if it HAD been a tiger? No thanks.

This is not a stunt that any wise PR person would plan in advance. But heck, I have to admit that if I was the Circus PR manager right now I’d certainly be looking for ways to make the most of it. Of course I’d also be apologizing profusely to the community involved and making sure my elephants were not going to be on the lam any time again soon.