We’ve learned in the past year that no brand’s bottom line is immune from the damage a crisis can inflict on it. Even a brand that seems to hold a monopoly in its market will inevitably see its quarterly earnings falter if it manages its crises poorly. We’ll share recent research in how brands’ bottom lines have been hurt by crises—data you can bring back to your organization that will inspire a newfound belief in the power of expert crisis preparedness.

We'll share:

• Data connecting recent brand crises to subsequent financial performance and market value
• Market research showing how public perception changes during and after a crisis
• Research showing how brand reputation influences consumer actions

Risk communication is the proverbial ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure—it enables organizations that are vulnerable to crises to make informed decisions to protect themselves, their employees and their customers. We’ll shine a light on the differences between risk and crisis communications, and how the former can minimize the need to do the latter.

What you’ll learn:

• How to reconfigure and relaunch an internal risk communication program
• How to benchmark and measure the impact of your risk communication program
• Use internal surveys to test stakeholders of their awareness of potential risks to your organization
• Determine the extent to which external stakeholders should be made aware of risks associated with your organization
• How companies in highly regulated industries can benefit from risk communication programs

Social media is a battleground where reputations can be made or ruined in the blink of an eye. Is your brand prepared to react just as quickly? In this crisis experts will teach you how to closely manage your brand’s online reputation, prepare digital assets ready to deploy at a moment’s notice and deftly tailor your response across all relevant platforms.

You’ll learn how to:

• Employ social media listening tactics that warn you of potential crises
• Create social posts and other digital assets in anticipation of a crisis
• Activate the latest tools, apps and services that have become essential to measuring and managing a crisis
• Protect against unwanted abuse from social media accounts during a crisis
• Measure social and traditional media channels to track the effectiveness of your work
• Use data to visually understand how your crisis was discussed on social media
• Build a foundation for measuring brand sentiment, in good times and in times of crisis

Hear real-world case studies in effective crisis communication from a B2B agency or from a consumer brand. We’ll take you behind the scenes with a communications department to show you how award-winning crisis management is done. 

Hear real-world case studies in effective crisis communication from a B2B agency or from a consumer brand. We’ll take you behind the scenes with a communications department to show you how award-winning crisis management is done. 

For this keynote, we'll hear renowned crisis leader Mike Sitrick explain why thinking outside the box during a crisis has made the difference between success and failure—not only in terms of the PR campaign, but in achieving the clients’ overall objective— on such things as liquidations of businesses, the potential closing of a hospital because of wrongdoing by a staff member and even in protecting the life of a whistleblower.

• Identify the influencers, from journalists to bloggers to analysts who will have an impact on your brand during a crisis
• Craft a core message that is communicated across all channels
• Engage with journalists on social media and adapt your messages to specific platforms
• Implement social meedia as your new press release

Serious crisis experts are serious about their crisis teams—and when we say “team” we’re referring to more than just communications professionals, or even just internal stakeholders. A serious crisis team encompasses marketing, HR, sales, legal, IT and the C-suite—not to mention brand partners and influencers who will have your back when it counts. You’ll learn how the best crisis teams are formed, trained and kept on alert.

What you’ll learn:

• How to build a crisis team with corporate communications leader at the top of the org chart, branching down to group leaders (HR, legal, IT, marketing, sales), the corporate executive team and the communications team
• How to build a social media command structure
• How to create and conduct a crisis simulation exercise
• How to rely on external partners when you’re a crisis team of one
• How to treat external brand partners and influencers like members of your crisis team
• How to implement a cascade strategy to communicate with your crisis plan internally

When was the last time you revisited your crisis preparedness plan—assuming you have one? Now that you’ve learned more in one day than all year, it’s time to put your plan together. We’ll provide a broad methodology for creating a crisis preparedness plan that suits the needs of your organization. We’ll also share examples of crisis plans that you can take back to the office and use as models for your own plan.

You’ll learn how to:

• Get internal buy-in to devote resources to the development of a new crisis plan
• Work internally across departments to identify potential risks to your organization, as a starting point for your crisis preparedness plan
• Create a crisis communication process map—a physical document that can be shared internally
• Analyze your plan to see if it is flexible enough to address challenges such as changes to crisis command locations and availability of personnel and technology
• Establish written-out guidelines and responsibilities for social media messaging during a crisis
• Decide what media monitoring and social listening tools you need before, during and after a crisis
• Include in the plan guidelines for a content strategy to be used during a crisis
• Build physical crisis go-kits that might include laptops, office supplies, portable printers, power supplies, printed contact lists, snacks, water and personal protective equipment

Social media conversations about a particular brand crisis ultimately subside. We’ll share case study examples and recommendations of when and how to return to normal social media operations after a crisis. No two crises are exactly alike but this session will put you in the best possible place to identify and prepare for that moment when it’s time to shift from crisis management to brand repair.

You’ll learn how to:

• Carry a message developed during a crisis into future messaging
• Keeps post-crisis messages bold, clear and transparent across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and on company sites.
• Determine the optimal time to reengage social media audiences with non-crisis-related content
• Conduct and share a post-crisis review of the effectiveness and efficiency of crisis communication activities
• Assess the sentiment of post-crisis earned media and its SEO impact

We’ll share the top 20 takeaways from the day’s presentations and discussions and every attendee will receive a special gift and a copy of the Crisis Management Guidebook.