Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau

Placement organization

Name of organization: Daegu Convention & Visitors Bureau
Town/city: Daegu
Country: Zuid-Korea
Website:

Name of student: Kirsten Drop

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2017-2018

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Convention Bureau, DMO
Organization’s activities: The main activity is to support clients in hosting conventions and/or conferences. All side tasks related to that, bidding on events, city promotion etc are included.
Target group of the organization: Convention tourism
Company culture: There is a hierarchy within the bureau and there are three teams with a clear division. This is part of the Korean culture. However, the atmosphere within the company did not feel like a strict hierarchy.
Number of employees: 11
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

The company has three separate teams of which I was placed in team support for the MICE team. However, it did happen that I would help another team with something, particularly when this was concerning English.

Brief description of your daily activities: I have been working on some bigger projects mainly based on marketing and promotional activities. In the company most of the work is done in Korean so daily activities as taking phone calls, answering emails etc was not for me. This is something to keep in mind. Also, you will work on editing English content: press releases, website etc.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment is a combination of a marketing plan and a promotion plan.Each team already has their own marketing strategy but asked was for 1 general promotion plan which would be hard to do. Thus we agreed upon a marketing research based on the current strategies and from there on recommend promotional steps.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision was great! Supervisor is open for question, helps where needed and not just limited to work things. I also got a lot of help with visa application, house search etc.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Working independent within a team, flexible, sociable, open minded for different culture
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office, Internet
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: In case of knowing some Korean this would be perfect.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Myself with some help of the company
How did you go to work every day? Public transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes, a working visa
Do you need a work permit? Yes, part of your visa
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Embassy
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 3 months
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Not necessarily, but if interested some Korean

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 500
Accommodation (monthly): € 350
Local transport (monthly): € 1.00 for one way
General costs of living (monthly): € 300
Costs of visa: € 60
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation is a lunch fee of 150,- per month

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
A friend of mine is Korean so I knew some general aspects already. Some preparation is recommended because of the big difference.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Not that much. It is not that hard to adopt to the culture, as long as you are open minded about it. My colleagues were patience with me and were aware that some things I simply did not know. They did not expect me to behave like a Korean and gave me time to adjust. Along the way of adopting to the culture they were very helpful in explaining.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: kirsten_baloe@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: I would say orient yourself already on the Korean culture. It is very different from the Dutch, or any western culture for that matter. When knowing some aspects of it, might ease the culture shock a bit. Also, if interested, learn some basic Korean before arrival. It is not necessary but will make things easier. Some Korean speak English, especially younger people, but not all of them. They also appreciate it very much if a foreigner tries to speak some Korean. Most of all, just enjoy everything that comes along and be open to it all!
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Daegu is a great city that has a lot to offer! The nature is stunning, the nightlife is amazing, the food is just too good and it bursts of culture. Korea as a whole is beautiful and very interesting to discover. The transportation is top notch, and relatively inexpensive. Daegu is also pretty central so you can get to many places relatively easy. Korea is not that big anyway.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link