Last year, Beatriz Duarte had the chance to work in one of the greatest events in Brazil, the annual Comic Con Experience. She watched major international stars, such as Neil Patrick Harris and Nina Dobrev, be interviewed and literally experienced all the event could offer to its spectators. Now, she tells us a bit about her internship at Comic Con and how it was to participate in such a big event.
Name: Beatriz Duarte
Major and Year: Journalism 4th
Age: 21
How long have you been working in your current internship? About four months, almost five now. I started on September 1st, 2016.
How did you get your current internship and where did you worked before? I worked for a year as a scriptwriter in a company called The Plot Company. Using the concept of storytelling, I prepared scrips for corporate presentations, publicity videos and even short movies. Once my internship contract was almost finished, I started to send my resume to differente places and I saw the job position to work for Comic Con, but I took a while to actually apply, because I didn’t consider myself to be nerd enough. A friend of mine also saw the job post and told me to apply, because I have nothing to lose with it. It was during my interview with my current boss that I realized that indeed I do have a nerdy side to me and that direct or indirectly, Comic Con and Omelete were part of this.
Is it a communications internship? The internship is a marketing writer for the Comic Con, which was another reason I reconsidered applying for the position, as I study Journalism and not Marketing. However, this is also something I appreciate in communication, you get to migrate to different areas without difficulty.
How was the experience of working in such a large event? It doesn’t feel like it happened. Helping to build this event for more than 19,000 people and seeing the happiness in their faces is truly wonderful. We make dreams come true. I never thought I would be part of something so special before event graduating.
What was your job during the event? I was responsible for writing marketing pieces, writing pieces for Facebook and help to create contect for Social Media. I also helped to upload all content to the official app and respond in the client information service. Furthermore, Comic Con has another event called CCXP Unlock, which are two days of pannels about entreneurship in the areas of culture and entertainment. I was responsible for creating its Facebook page and informing on how to buy tickets, who were the pannelist and doing the client information service. During the event itself, I kept the app updated and did the coverage of the Unlock on social media.
Were there challeges? Sometimes I find it difficult to adapt my writing style to be less journalistic and more publicist wise, but this is something the team has been helping me with and I am starting to understand better. Another thing was trying to ease my ansiety for the event.
How is a normal day in your internship? A couple days are more journalistic, you open a Word document and write. Others you have to research Batman pictures and do a Gif about it, or watch episodes of a specific show to separate pieces or even watch Chaves to be inspired.
What have you learned so far? And what can you bring from your internship to the classroom and vice-versa? Responsibility and team work, basically. In an event as big as Comic Con, you need lots of people to make it work and we have to learn how to work with them and understand our differents in order to avoid stress and get to the best result possible. I think these two things will help me to shoot and edit the documentary I will deliver as my graduation project. Do you have any tips for those wishing to work in these events? My tip is to know that during an event like this, you don’t have only the function they assign to you, but you can do also everything. You are the person that updates the app, tell people where the auditorium is and grab food for the entire team. Do you have any funny or interesting episodes during the event you can share? I was walking in the hallways of São Paulo Expo and I hear an “Excuse me”, I looked behind me and I saw Milla Jovovich and her husband, Paul W. S. Anderson. Another thing was that Neil Patrick Harris attended the event on the last day, I got to say hi and he said he loved my T-shirt (I was wearing a shirt with the saying ‘Have you meet Ted?’, one of the his most famous lines from How I Met Your Mother). These are some of the epic and surreal moments Comic Con can offer you.