Crisis Communications & Issues Management Summit 2008

Crisis Communications & Issues Management Summit 2008

Dates: Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th November 2008

Venue: Watersedge, Hickson Road, The Rocks, Sydney

Theme:  Critical time, professional response

Day 1: 9.00 Opening remarks from the Chair, Ross Monaghan, Deakin University

9.00 Opening address: International best practice in crisis communications and issues management

• International case studies: what went wrong and why? Beijing Olympics Torch relay and Tibet protests, Heather Mills McCartney, PETA/museling and Australian wool, Whole Foods, Dell, HP… and more
• Australian case studies: what can we learn from the following case studies?
• GSK and Ribena
• Victorian Liberal Party staff blogs; Jackie Kelly fake letter
• QANTAS, VISY, APEC and The Chaser… and many more
• How will digital media influence crisis and issues management in the future?

Gerry McCusker, Founder & Author, PR Disasters

9.45 – 9.55am  A 10 minute session designed to enable delegates to discuss the Top 5 issues they face in their current role. These issues will be collated and the results used by the Chair to guide the Q&A for the following sessions.

9.55 – 10.40: From war room to newsroom

• Megan is a former senior reporter with Channel 7 and was recently the communications advisor to the NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney for four years, a tumultuous period during which she managed a number of crisis situations, including the infamous riots in Sydney’s Cronulla and Redfern suburbs
• In this presentation, Megan recounts her experiences over the past 10 years and provides advice on the lessons learnt

Megan Miller, Director, Crisis and Issues Management, Hill & Knowlton Australia

10.40 – 11.10 Morning break

11.10 – 11.55 Global perspective on world’s best practice

• Crisis & Issues Management can effectively address critical business and Government issues. PR practitioners can help organizations anticipate, assess, respond to and manage an array of complex situations ranging from product recalls, litigation, natural disasters, workplace accidents, restructurings, environmental crises and terrorist activity; can you manage the brief?
• Strategic planning for crisis management and response planning, training and simulations; from risk assessment to perception management
• After the crisis; restoring confidence

Mike Seymour, International Director, Crisis and Issues Management, Edelman

11.55 - 12.40  Public policy versus politics: do we live in a "media-driven" world?
Background: The medically supervised injecting centre in Sydney's Kings Cross has achieved a number of significant public policy outcomes: primarily, a reduction in heroin overdose fatalities and a decreased burden to the emergency services, referrals of some of the most marginalised drug users to drug treatment programs and an improvement in public amenity. Yet despite the scientific evidence and high and increasing levels support from the local residential and business community for the centre over the past 7 years, it remains controversial, only approved to operate on a trial basis, and still attracting considerable media interest

• What are the media management and crisis communications lessons learnt from this experience?
• Media frenzy when the trial started and the subsequent crisis communications when the centre opened
• Communicating with Ministers and Departmental officials
• A lethal cocktail? If public policy becomes a media crisis and a Minister is drawn in, what should you do?

Dr Ingrid van Beek, former Medical Director of the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre

12.40 – 1.40 LUNCH

1.40 – 2.15  Crisis communications and Leadership

• Advising senior level stakeholders such as CEOs/Directors/Ministers/leaders on when to communicate
• Understanding how and when to use C-Level communicators
• The value of internal communications: working with your internal stakeholders can help spread the “word of mouth” messages during a crisis
• Do’s and don’ts of crisis communication

Rob Hadler, General Manager, Corporate Affairs, AWB Limited
 

2.15 – 3.00  Case study: Immigration

• Background: Cian has handled crises such as unauthorised boat arrivals, detention centre protests, hoax emails and manages the media relations for the Department
• A crisis could involve one, or all, of the following: a private sector company, a Government Department and an organisation based overseas. Your scenario planning should always include these and the Minister and the Minister’s advisors – how should you approach these varied stakeholders?
• Is there always a political dimension to a crisis?

Cian Manton, Media Director, Department of Immigration  

3.00– 3.30 Afternoon tea/coffee

3.30 – 4.10  How to communicate with key political stakeholders during a crisis

• Keeping the communication channels open and honest: how should you regularly brief a Minister and his team on issues that may (or may not) lead to a crisis?  
• When a crisis occurs, what is the best approach to informing the Minister and how should you work with the Minister’s team?
• How Parliament and Parliamentary committee’s are used to raise issues and find answers

Eamonn Fitzpatrick, Communications Director, Hawker Britton  

4.10 – 5.00  Panel session: Key issues for crisis communications

• Planning; understanding where the weak links are
• Dealing with the media
• Managing key stakeholders: Government, Politicians, staff, pressure groups and more

Gerry McCusker, Founder & Author, PR Disasters
Mike Seymour, International Director, Crisis and Issues Management, Edelman
Eamonn Fitzpatrick, Communications Director, Hawker Britton

5.00 – 7.00 Evening drinks reception and networking function

Day 2:  Thursday 6th November 2008   

8.50 – 9.00 Opening keynote address: Taking a leadership position on issues and crisis management: what’s been done to address recent Australian incidents

• What are the current key steps for issues management advice to front line managers, CEOs, their boards and other key staff on matters relating to potential and realised issues critical to the business in Australia?
• This presentation will include examples of what’s been used effectively in recent Australian incidents

Amanda Little, Managing Director, Edelman Australia

9.30 PETA, Pamela Anderson and the campaign against KFC

• How did PETA bring its global attack on KFC to Australian soil?
• How did the media cover PETA’s activities?
• What was KFC's response?
• What are the lessons for all PR practitioners?

Craig Badings, Director, Savage & Partners, An Ogilvy Financial Company

10.10 Message management and crisis campaign management

• Monitoring your issues and how they change over time, and managing your messages during and after a crisis should be documented and available to others in your organisation and to PR agencies if you use them; this presentation discusses the role of the latest software tools to help you with your issues and crisis management  
• Managing the huge volumes of media releases, photos, audio and video grabs/files
• Case studies: key lessons learnt

Ken Hickson, Author, Lecturer & Strategic Communications Consultant (ABC Carbon, Newsflash/Ether-ray and WWF)

10.50 Tea/coffee break

11.20 Panel session: key issues for issues and crisis management

• How to co-ordinate large scale responses over long periods of time
• Best practice crisis management
• Tracking your messages and the responses over time
• How online applications can support the communications process

Ken Hickson, Author, Lecturer & Strategic Communications Consultant (ABC Carbon, Newsflash/Ether-ray and WWF)
Victoria Walker, Public Affairs, Parramatta City Council
Andrew Kirk, Executive Council, Hill & Knowlton

12.00 Could you handle a crisis? Test your skills with this crisis simulation program!

• In this session, Zoe will showcase a computer program being developed by a group of leading organizations to role play a crisis that tests your response to a variety of challenging situations
• On Day 1, Zoe will seek 4 volunteers from the audience who will be briefed on how the program operates, and who will then role play a crisis simulation in this session
• This crisis simulation software program is being developed by the Australian Research Council, Charles Sturt University, the Australian Defence Simulations Office and Burson-Marsteller. This project is intended as a “whole-of-Government” simulation and training program that will enable PR practitioners to develop the skills they need for crisis management

Zoe Hibbert, Director, Public Affairs, Burson-Marsteller

12.40 – 1.40 LUNCH

1.40pm Discussion of outcomes from the crisis simulation program
In this session, Zoe will discuss how the participants responded to the computer simulation program and explore ways delegates can apply these learnings to their organisations.

Zoe Hibbert, Director, Public Affairs, Burson-Marsteller

2.20 – 2.50 It’s not a crisis until it’s in the media

• When journalists get a whiff of a crisis
• Leaks and tip-offs - how they get their information
• How best to engage/respond to the media
• An issue vs a crisis - what's the difference?
• The language to use in a crisis
• Jayne-Maree will discuss the media's handling of some high profile crisis stories including Masterfoods' Mars and Snickers recall and “Iguana-gate”

Jayne-Maree Sedgman, Principal, Media Savvy and former ABC journalist

2.50 – 3.20 PANEL: Media insiders discuss how organizations have approached a crisis; the good, the bad and the ugly  

• Why 24/7 media loves a scandal and how the media will always make it a crisis 
• This session is designed as a Q&A with delegates; Jayne-Maree and Peter will discuss the media coverage of some of the highest profile stories and suggest how and why they became a crisis rather than an issue

Jayne-Maree Sedgman, Principal, Media Savvy and former ABC journalist
Peter Wilkinson, CEO, Wilkinson Media

3.20 Wrap-up and any last questions

Lucky door prize draw and close of conference