Latest News and Articles
Looking Back to Move Forward: What 2025 Reinforced About Crisis Preparedness
As the year draws to a close, it is natural for organizations to reflect on what they accomplished, what they endured, and what still feels unresolved. For many leadership teams,…
Surprise! – Its Hurricane Season
“With every mistake, we must surely be learning.” ~ George Harrison (While My Guitar Gently Weeps) The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season is becoming one of the most active seasons on record, thanks to a stretch of long-lived, destructive hurricanes over the past five weeks. It was the first time in…
While Rome is burning… Are you Nero?
Guest blogger: Brad Cole, CFE & LPI, Executive Director & Senior Coordinator, K9 First Responders, Inc. (K9FR) A crisis unfolds. A hurricane hits your facility. You prepare and respond. So far… under control. A natural gas line ruptures, fire starts and an explosion occurs. 5 dead and 10 seriously…
VW and United Airlines: Lessons for Crisis Communicators
They’ve weathered the storms, but could their crises have been avoided altogether? What lessons can crisis communicators draw from the recent VW “dieselgate” crisis and United Airlines’ spate of public relations disasters, most notably its violent removal of a passenger from one of its planes? These are crises where company…
What should media engagement look like in the first 60 minutes of a crisis?
Guest contributor: Jo Detavernier, SCMP, APR – VP and Partner with Swyft. When a crisis hits, the spokesperson or (in a larger organization), the Crisis Communications Team, sees itself under immense pressure to respond quickly to demands for information from media. The first hour of a crisis is often called…
Social Media – A Double-Edged Sword
How will your organization handle social media during a crisis? David Kalson of PreparedEx recently presented, “The Internet, Social Media, and Crisis Communications”, at the International Crisis Management Conference in Boston this past April. During his presentation, he discussed the pros and cons of social media during a crisis. Negatives:…
The 3 Year Crisis Management Exercise Program
A Three-Year Crisis Simulation Exercise Program That Validates Preparedness is an Approach Every Organization Should Take Does your organization just “check the box” when it comes to conducting crisis simulation exercises? Do you really understand the true value of conducting effective simulation exercises? Do you take the annual “one…