What do balloons, ‘shadows’ and Olsen have in common? Good thoughts!

On 18 February 2009 many Latvia’s businessmen, politicians and even the President of State had more than one shadow. And no wonder: in the framework of the “Shadowing Day” students from all over Latvia followed the representatives of their dream jobs to find out if they wanted to pursue the respective profession in the future.

On this date A.W.Olsen & Partners’ cosy office was visited by 12 students from various parts of Latvia: their objective was to get acquainted with the daily work of the public relations agency, observe project managers in action and receive answers to their questions. The ‘Shadowing Day’ started with some snacks – the students were treated to tea and pastries to fuel them up with enough energy for active listening and participation throughout the day.

At the same time, the agency’s employees explained the basics of public relations, shared A.W.Olsen & Partners’ experience and responded to the students’ challenging questions.  Later, the students were in for a surprise – they had an opportunity to implement their own public relations campaign and test their abilities in the role of PR experts. The ‘shadows’ were divided into two groups: one, accompanied by the company’s employees, headed for the Central Station in order to survey passers-by and obtain from them positive wishes for 2009. In turn, the other group, led by the agency’s PR experts, started working on their first invitation press

release, including writing, distribution and calls to journalists. At the lunchtime both groups changed places so that each ‘shadow’ could experience various PR activities.

At 3pm sharp Riga National Theatre hosted the closing press conference of the ‘Shadowing Day’, where its organisers summarised the main conclusions about this day and students shared their experience. At the end of the press conference journalists were treated to a number of surprises. Assisted by their ‘shadow’, the magicians Genadijs and Yelena Palychevski demonstrated their performance – ‘Shadow Theatre’.

In turn, A.W.Olsen un Partners’ team invited all participants to gather outside the theatre building in order to send into space hundreds of balloons with notes of good wishes, which our ‘shadows’ had collected during the day. Our team believes that positive thoughts are the key to success in any situation and life circumstances therefore they should be spread around the world.

Despite the demanding and complicated project, at the end of the day all `shadows` were filled with joy and commitment to study public relations in the future. ‘I would like to thank you for the exciting and, most importantly, useful day! I haven’t experienced so many positive emotions and new impressions, as well as so much joy in a long time.

I gained a lot of new experience, which I`ll be able to apply in the Students`  Council of Riga. Special thanks go to the employees for their encouragement and responsiveness. I’ve gained an in-depth insight into the PR work, and now I am even more committed to pursue my aim. And, last but not least, this day encouraged me to devote more attention to the subjects, which are not among my favourite at school. Now I realise the significance of these subjects in my career path, which will make me change my attitude to them. Thank you for this opportunity,’ said Juliāna Maniševa, one of our ‘shadows’, in a letter.

We, on our part, would like to thank our ‘shadows’:

• Dāgs Hofrāts (Riga)
• Kristīne Strautāne (Jelgava)
• Elīna Šuļeva (Jelgava)
• Melānija Dubra (Piņķi)
• Juliāna Maniševa (Riga)
• Zane Smiltniece (Ogre)
• Laura Martinsone (Ventspils)
• Karīna Lederere (Riga)
• Dace Auziņa (Riga)
• Dita Grunte (Ogre)
• Rolands Romanovskis (Krāslava)
• Digna Škapare (Gulbene)

Apart from the students and A.W. Olsen & Partners, our positive thoughts were also supported by s/c Origo, SIA Reklāmas baloni, Edmund Štenger, Director of the advertising agency Galley Group (Lithuania), and a photographer Māris Kiseļovs.

Many thanks to them!