As crisis planning and communications continue to evolve, it’s essential that students studying media and public relations be ready when they enter the workforce. Educators at Kennesaw State University recognized the importance of advanced training and invited CommCore’s Senior Vice President, Dale Weiss, to help.
Recently, Weiss taught an interactive workshop on crisis communications and facilitated a PressureTest™ crisis simulation for more than 200 students and faculty at KSU’s School of Communication and Media. In the workshop, Weiss discussed recent viral crisis situations and their communications response. He taught students how to become aware of a potential crisis, create an effective communications strategy, measure response effectiveness, and how to maximize overall communication skills.
“Bad news travels at the speed of light in the age of social media and citizen journalists,” Weiss said.
To illustrate how a crisis goes viral, Weiss conducted CommCore’s signature PressureTest™ simulation as profiled in The New York Times. As part of the simulation, students had the opportunity to test their crisis communications skills with role playing and analysis. They worked in a compressed, real-time environment, responding to a series of cascading events stemming from an incident that went viral in social media. The drill demonstrated how quickly an incident can become a public event and how it can negatively impact the reputation of a company or organization with its employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
“This was an exciting opportunity not only to educate future communications leaders but to see how invested they were in the simulation,” said Weiss. “The students were so focused that I did not see one smart phone screen light up during the entire two-hour workshop.”
Learn More About CommCore’s Crisis Communications Workshops
- Crisis Communications Planning
- Crisis Communication Examples
- CommCore Crisis Communications Advice Featured in CNN Money
- Crisis Communications Case Study: CommCore Advises J&J During Tylenol Tampering Crisis
- Social Media & Crisis Communications
- Industry Focus: Discover CommCore’s Expertise in Your Vertical
- NYT Reporters Get Pressure Tested
Contact our Crisis Communications Trainers & Consultants
We are available and can put you in touch with the right person to help with your specific communications challenge, or create a crisis communications workshop specifically tailored to your unique issue.
To schedule a PressureTest™ Demo or get answers quickly, call us at (202) 659-4177 or email info@CommCoreConsulting.com to contact our crisis communications firm today.
