Day 6 - Let's take a good rest

Today is a beautiful free day for all of us.
It was strange though, waking up so late without having to hurry for the bus and company visits.   It was a great opportunity for us to enjoy the facilities of the Grace Hotel, including Spa, pool, steam room and gym room, etc.  

Until afternoon, many of us went to the popular beach in Sydney, the Bondi Beach.  Yes, it is the place where the famous TV program, "Bondi Rescue", was filmed.

We had a Yummy dinner in a restaurant called, Brown Sugar.  However, while we were having the dinner, rain fell heavily.  Only one of us brought an umbrella with us!  Even worse is that, the rain continued and turned into a flood!  By the time we had to leave, the flood was getting worse and even flooded the restaurant!!!  The taxi was just in time to pick us all up.  It was scary, but fun!

Day 5 : Climbing the Great Sydney Harbour Bridge

After staying two beautiful sunny days in Gold Coast, it was time for us to moving on.  we took another short flight and arrived the other busy city, Sydney.  Our first destination was the awesome GRACE HOTEL.  Right after dropping off our baggage, we explored the hotel.  we were so impressed with the pool, spa, steam room, and gym room.  Quickly we got changed and enjoyed these facilities.  

The next meeting was the exciting bridge climb.  All of us have been waiting for the climb for a long time.  It was indeed a wonderful experience.  The climb was so much more than what I have expected. We have to be geared up with special equipment.  some simple training is also required before the real climb.  

After climbing for some time, we reached at the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge!  Our team all screamed together to celebrate this moment.  The night view from the top of the Bridge to the inner city of Sydney was fantastic! Although it is still not in any cold season, some of us can feel the breeze as we climbed along the edge of the bridge.  On the way to the top of the Bridge, we cannot bring along with our own cameras!!  What a pity!  the captain took a few photos for us during the journey.  

It was around 11 pm after the Bridge Climb.  We then all headed back to the hotel and have a good rest.  I do believe this Bridge Climb is a Must-have experience for anyone who is going to visit Sydney.  This is really one of the best thing I have done in my life.  

Day 4 : Getting into the World of Sea

Every one has been looking forward to this day.  That's because our company visit today commerced in the theme park, Sea World.  We begun visit with patting and touching their most popular dolphins.  We have taken beautiful photos with the dolphins, especially in such a sunny day.  This is the very first time for me to touch the body of a real dolphin.  It was really smooth but firm.  Thanks to Soo, I now have photo with a dolphin!

During the meeting with the Selena.  We have learnt a lot of this industry.  Synergy is an important to the business, to be successful, one must start off from the bottom position.  This helps the staff understand the entire business.  they have also discussed a lot with the social media and how to approach it.  

The purpose of the social media is to interact with the customers.  If the company know that they are not going to invest time and effort to the Facebook, opening one with damage their brand equity. Sea world understand that the voice of the people on social media can sometimes representing on behalf on the company.  Therefore, it is important for them to keep a balance between the voices from the business and from social media.There must be consistency throughout the voice within and outside the business.  One of the challenge for the business is to monitor and control the language and comments on the social medias.

After communicating with Selena, we stayed the rest of the day in the theme park.  We watched the fasinating show performed by the brilliant dolphins.  At 3:00 pm, some of our MMSP team members joined the diving program with the fish and sharks.  I was lucky enough to shoot photos for them.  Though it was really really really tiring, and seriously boiling hot, photos turned up to be pretty nice.  I  hope I didn't miss out anyone in the photos, as I can't recognize any of them under water....

At the end of the day, we have had a quick dinner and wandered around the night market in the surfers paradise.  This place was selling all sorts of interesting stuff from antiques to handmade items.  

Day 3 : Let's run to the Paradise!!!

Day 3 : From Brisbane to Gold Coast.

Woke up at around 8:45 and just managed to catch the breakfast.  Then we took the coach ride and headed to the Gold Coast.  It only took one hour for us to travel from Brisbane to the Gold Coast City.  We had a good discussion on our group assignment together with Colin, brought me so much ideas in my mind now. 

After arriving Gold Coast, we went straight to the Company visit, Southern Cross Austereo.  To be honest, this company visit was really amazing.  I have never been to a radio station.  This visit revealed how the radio programmes were recorded.  I also noticed how a radio station runs their programmes.  It was so ironic to notice the presenters can switch their voice from an exciting voice to a normal voice and speak to us.

The purpose of the company of using social media is mainly to build up a community between the radio station and the audience.

One of the challenge of the radio is that the radio industry is not visible to the customers.  Social media is one of the platform to build up the visibility of the radio to the audience.  This platform is a two way communication between the two parties.  In long term, social media is building up the brand equity for the company.  According to Austereo, Personality is one of the most important keys to build up the brand equity to the customers.  Different radio station is establishing different personality to attract different customers.  Personality of the radio station is the tool to build up long term relationship with the customers.  This personality is the method to differentiating themselves from the other radio station.  The other way the build relationship is via sponsorship. Third, the most important way of building relationship is the content of radio station.  The radio has to understand the consumer behaviour of their region and provide the suitable content for this  type of audience.

After the company visit, we went to the popular Hard Rock Cafe for our second booked dinner.   The burger was really huge and juicy~~ =)  And followed by a journey to the Haunted House!

But the haunted house was not the end of the night.  We then went to Avenue Bar for a drink.  We all got a beer, and chatted for some time.  Soon after that, we went the the dance pool and all danced crazily!  That was a really fun night!!!  

Day 2 : early visit to Brismark

Day 2 : Brismark

It was another early morning. I woke up at 5:30! It was so terrible to get out of the warm and comfortable bed. There is a reason why we have to wake up so early in the morning. We visited the Brisbane Market, as know as Brismark.

After arriving the market, the first impression was busy and busy.... there are trucks and vans running all around the market with tones of fruits and vegetables. We first started with the visit with a bus tour. Vanessa introduced every part of the market. After that, we walked on our aisle of the market and talked with the different owners of the stores.

After the visit, we now understand much more about this industry.

- demand
- supply
- quality These are the three key determinants to the business. It is important that we know how much our product worth. Consistency is one of the other important to provide value to customers. Quality is the key to keep the long term relationship with the customers. It is all about the expect of customers and the price of the products. What do customers want? They use their instinct to determine what is good for them. This is the nature of human and the basic of this industry.

It was still pretty early after this company visit. We then visited this beautiful and peaceful city. We visited the interesting farmers market, which has raw-milk cheese for sale (illegal in Victoria, but not in Queensland).

In the evening, around ten of us headed to the Casino and played some games. It was so fun and we have won our meals back! Can't believe that!

Day one - Brisbane

First day, it is a really tough early morning! We are all waking up at 5:30 in the morning. It was so lucky that I have managed to get to the the airport in time. After a quick check-in, we took the 2-hour plate and landed on our first city, Brisbane.


Our very first company visit is the popular Super Retail Group. A detailed and professional presentation was purposely prepared for our visit.

The presentation started off with an company summary of the super retail group. The first part of the presentation was focusing on the overview and the structure of the organisation. This includes the overseas expansion in New Zealand. We were also told about how the business put all the different parts into one efficient andeffective organisation. They refer to taking the most out of the relevant business models, leveraging the different businesses, and caplitalizing on the corporate culture.
The second part of the presentation talks about the different offers the company is offer to the target customers. These offers are convenience, product range and price.

Soon after the company visit, we all headed to the restaurant, The Groove Train, for our beautiful dinner. That was the first booked dinner of the trip and we all had some drinks together with our long chats. It was a pretty beautiful night in Brisbane.