As we are in the thick of March, the long-awaited FIFO Breakfast Event at The Future of Work Institute is fast approaching. The FIFO Breakfast has been the overarching event, in which most of the company resources, projects and task force has been centred around. Seeing as it is only a week until the big day, I wanted to explain what type of work goes into such a big event, in particular, the type of work that I am involved in.

In this blog post it is my aim to highlight the importance of completing the smaller tasks during big events, and convince all of you that it is these tasks that form the bigger picture and bring the whole event together.

Basically, one of my tasks in this big event is “pretty-ing things up.” In essence, I handle documents, PowerPoints, flyers, brochures, social media posts, email signature banners and make them look pretty! Although this doesn’t seem like the most glamorous or important, this task is quite crucial as making these documents look presentable, is mundane and time consuming for my supervisors and others in the office. It can take hours to make get these documents event ready, or can cost a bucket load of money to get it done externally. While I’ve been focused on these smaller tasks, my supervisor and others around the office can focus their efforts on preparing for the event day and other tasks to keep the business running.

Here’s an example below of my work. This is the PowerPoint for the big event. The image on the left is the original slide, and on the right, is the newly edited version. You can see for yourself, these slides are quite different with only a few tweaks.  Another document that I “prettied up” is the event brochures and booklets, which needed to be formatted correctly and align with Curtin University’s branding. These documents are planning to sit on the tables during the event and distributed amongst those who attend.

Finally, before I sign off for today’s blog, I wanted to give you all some tips and tricks when designing professional documents. Firstly, it is important to remember that less is more. Although certain elements might look appealing, if any document has too much going on, it tends to look messy. For a more professional look, stick to a minimum amount of graphics. Secondly, keep your fonts at a reasonable size. I know, sometimes things just look better when the font is small and can fit into an image perfectly. However, the audience still need to be able to read what is written, and not all people have 20/20 vision. Thus, in terms of font, bigger is in fact better. Lastly, ensure that you are following the wishes of your supervisors. At the end of the day you can have creative control, but you must consider what your supervisors vision, and how they want things done.

That’s all for now stay tuned for next week’s recap of the FIFO event!