Schön! Magazine internship

For the last couple of weeks I have been interning for Schön magazine as a copywriter. The magazine title means 'beautiful' in German and is based in South-West London. The content focuses on art and culture as well as high fashion. So far I have been having a great time, gaining insight into the process of putting together a magazine as well as promoting the issue through blogs, and online networks. 

My aim is to work in the magazine industry through the publishing/editing side and so working with  Schön  is the perfect opportunity for me to understand how the process works. The week after I began working with  Schön, the magazine held a pre-Olympic event on Wednesday 25th July evening. All the major creative workers such as photographers, models, artists and writers were in attendance - a great chance for me to network! 

Here's my account of the event:

Schön magazine organised an event scheduled to take place on 25th July 2012 in celebration of the latest issue of the magazine as well as a general appreciation of the creative industries ahead of the London Olympics. Various types of important people included in the creative industries were invited to the event from photographers to models to stylists, writers, etc. As an intern for the magazine I was fortunate to be automatically invited to the event, where I would be expected to help out before the event was due to take place.

The event took place on MS Deutschland, a famous German-registered cruise ship that docked into the West India Dock near Canary Wharf a couple of days before. The ship is an Olympic liner which will be used to cater for the German athletes and committee members during the games. The ship launched in 1998 and carries 513 passengers. It is used for the German drama Das Traumschiff ‘The Dream Ship’, upon which the show is filmed. The show along with the scale and grandeur of the ship is what attracted a large number of German guests connected to the creative industries to attend this event.

The ship provides a luxurious five-star experience as I realised visiting the boat hours prior to the event commencing. The security was strenuous as the ship has such prestige and technically guests are stepping off UK borders when they board. During the day the interns were instructed to compile the goodies bags in preparation for the evening. We worked systematically and efficiently allowing us time to return home and get dressed for the event. The goodie bags were filled with products sponsoring the event such as leaflets for drinks, an issue of Schön magazine, a Wilkinson Sword razor and some beauty/hair care products.

The event was located on the deck of the ship on the 9th floor and luckily the weather was perfect for the evening, warm and sunny, with a pleasant sunset to follow. I brought my brother along with me as my plus one; he wants to establish a career in journalism so I thought this was a good opportunity for him and I to gain a taster of the industry and type of people involved. As we arrived, the queue of guests stretched along the bank. After a while we finally reached the 9th floor, greeted with waiters serving champagne/wine and canapés on a tray – straight away you are welcomed into the extravagance that is MS Deutschland!

Music was pounding over the casual conversation that filled the open air. Every guest was friendly and open to engage with someone new, a great networking environment. There were flamboyant dancers on the balcony of the deck encouraging the guests to bring out their party moods and it worked – by the next hour the middle of the deck was a dance floor and everybody was moving and fraternizing away having a great time.

I managed to talk to a couple of people within the creative industries, a freelance stylist, an artist and a photographer, gaining a slight insight into the work they do which was interesting. Next time I attend a networking event I will now be more prepared to engage with others and understand what it takes to establish a successful career within the magazine industry which is primarily the direction of work I would like to follow.

By the end of the event, no one really wanted to leave and the party atmosphere continued into the night with guests heading to bars and clubs around London. This was an amazing, unique, experience for me and gave me an insight into the future careers within the creative industries I may take on. I was able to meet people I would hopefully be working alongside one day and I hope I will be able to attend another Schön event in the next months to come.