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Author: Jo Detavernier, SCMP, APR

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Media trainings

Jo Detavernier will teach a media training course for CSCE in March

CSCE media training

On March 27, Jo Detavernier will give a two-hour online workshop on mastering media interviews for the Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence.

The Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence is an Australian strategic communication training center offering on-demand, virtual, and in-person professional development programs. These programs are grounded in global best practices and align with the Global Standard of the Communication Profession, as well as the defined Career Paths of Communication Professionals established through extensive research by the International Association of Business Communicators.

The intensive two-hour workshop is designed to equip media spokespeople with the skills and strategies needed to successfully navigate media interviews. Participants will learn how to craft media messages aligned with their communication goals, manage interview dynamics, and handle common challenges. The training will cover both non-verbal and verbal communication techniques.

Course outline:

  • Overview of media message creation and alignment with communication goals
  • Introduction to message maps and other preparation tools
  • Verbal techniques: headlining, bridging, and flagging
  • Handling tough interview scenarios: loaded questions, interruptions, and speculative inquiries
  • Non-verbal communication essentials: appearance, vocal delivery, and body language
  • Rules of attribution: written and unwritten
  • Tailored approaches for different media channels (broadcast, print, online, Zoom, podcasts)

The course takes place on 27 March at 5:00 PM CT. Register through this link.

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Media trainings

Jo Detavernier conducts media training course for CSCE in November

CSCE media training

On November 19, Jo Detavernier will give a two-hour online workshop on mastering media interviews for the Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence.

The Centre for Strategic Communication Excellence is an Australian strategic communication training center offering on-demand, virtual, and in-person professional development programs. These programs are grounded in global best practices and align with the Global Standard of the Communication Profession, as well as the defined Career Paths of Communication Professionals established through extensive research by the International Association of Business Communicators.

The intensive two-hour workshop is designed to equip media spokespeople with the skills and strategies needed to successfully navigate media interviews. Participants will learn how to craft media messages aligned with their communication goals, manage interview dynamics, and handle common challenges. The training will cover both non-verbal and verbal communication techniques.

Course outline:

  • Overview of media message creation and alignment with communication goals
  • Introduction to message maps and other preparation tools
  • Verbal techniques: headlining, bridging, and flagging
  • Handling tough interview scenarios: loaded questions, interruptions, and speculative inquiries
  • Non-verbal communication essentials: appearance, vocal delivery, and body language
  • Rules of attribution: written and unwritten
  • Tailored approaches for different media channels (broadcast, print, online, Zoom, podcasts)


The course takes place on 19 November at 5:00 PM CT. Register through this link.

Categories
Media trainings

Jo Detavernier hosts webinar on preparing the C-suite for media interviews

Image camera

On 24 October 2024, Detavernier Strategic Communication organizes a webinar on how communication and marketing professionals can beest prepare their C-suite to media interviews.

The webinar has been designed to help communication and marketing professionals better prepare their C-suite for media interviews.

Jo Detavernier will lead the session, which will be divided into two parts: the first will focus on organizing effective media training sessions for leaders, while the second will provide best practices for ongoing support and preparation for media engagements.

Two of Detavernier Strategic’s expert media trainers will join as guest speakers. Ray Young will discuss optimal preparation for broadcast media interviews, while Sabine Steen-Lakerveld will explore the differences between media interviews in Europe and the United States.

The webinar will cover:

Media trainings

  • Structuring the flow of a media training session
  • Techniques for designing key messages
  • Essential verbal and non-verbal delivery skills
  • Sourcing third-party vendors for media training


Daily media management

  • Coaching and preparing leaders for interviews
  • Staffing interviews effectively
  • Post-interview follow-up procedures


The webinar is open to in-house PR, marketing, and corporate communication directors and managers. It will take place from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM on October 24, 2024.

Click here to register today.

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Crisis communications

Jo Detavernier shares “three things” on the Centre for Crisis and Risk Communications vlog

Jo Detavernier shared three important insights on evidence-based crisis communications on the vlog.

The Centre for Crisis and Risk Communications is a Canadian crisis management training center that works closely with Vincent Covello. The centre offers real-time crisis communication assistance, tools, training, and workshops.

The centre’s managing director and principal is Benjamin Morgan, a seasoned crisis communications specialist who has helped Canadian authorities manage the 2013 Calgary floods and the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, among other events.

Mr. Morgan also hosts the Centre’s vlog, where guests share three important insights on a crucial crisis communications topic. When Jo Detavernier was a guest on the vlog, he provided three insights on evidence-based crisis communications.

A deeper elaboration on the insights he shared can be found in the second edition of the Handbook on Crisis Communications (W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry J. Holladay, eds.).

A deeper elaboration on the insights he shared can be found in the second edition of the Handbook on Crisis Communications (W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry J. Holladay, eds.).

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Crisis communications

Jo Detavernier to conduct a PRSA webinar on evidence-based crisis communication

PRSA

On May 15, 2024, Jo Detavernier will conduct a PRSA Learning Webinar on evidence-based crisis communication.

In the webinar, Jo will provide an introduction to established and emerging crisis communication research. Among the established theories he will discuss the Situational Crisis Communication Theory, as well as the Stealing Thunder Theory. The former is instructive about how organizations should communicate critical news while the latter elaborates on when they should communicate it.

His venture into research from emerging and adjacent fields of academic inquiry will also cover recent findings on the impact of vocal cues on crisis communication efficiency, along with insights into how crisis-biased heuristics can lead communicators astray (and what communicators can do to prevent this from happening).

Finally, Jo will also discuss how practitioners can incorporate an evidence-based approach to crisis communications in their crisis communication plans and training programs.

The webinar’s content expands on the contribution Jo wrote in the second edition of the Handbook of Crisis Communications that was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2023.

More information on the webinar can be found on the registration page. The webinar is available to both members and non-members.

Categories
Media trainings

How message maps help spokespeople prepare for media interviews

tv interview camera

Message maps are essential tools for spokespeople who need to prepare for media interviews.

Spokespeople do well to carefully prepare the messages they want to convey in their media interviews in advance. If they fail to do so, the success of their media performance becomes dependent on the journalist asking the “right” questions, a strategy that comes with many risks (journalists tend to not care much about asking the right questions). Here is where message maps come in.

Through a message map, all key messages a spokesperson plans to convey in a media interview are laid out in advance. The key messages are selected in function of the communication objectives the spokesperson wants to achieve; those objectives will always pertain to changing how at least one group of stakeholders knows, feels, or acts in relation to the topic at hand.

Let’s use an example of a company that wants its clients, prospects, and potential investors to know that it is growing rapidly and that even more growth is on the horizon. Media messages at the start of the year could consist of one key message on how the company just finished the previous year with strong organic growth, and another key message on how the company has made strategic investments in the past year for continued growth in the coming year.

Because people can only remember a maximum of five things, message maps typically contain up to three to five key messages. Also, for key messages to be perceived as credible, they need to be backed by facts and figures.

To circle back to our example, if an organization is planning to communicate that it has made strategic investments in strong growth, it will have to disclose a minimum of specifics about what type of investments have been made and what the size of the investments looked like. Without specifics, key messages are gratuitous statements.

In conclusion, spokespeople who are armed with a thoughtfully conceived message map will enter media interviews with a crystal clear view of the information they want to convey, and will – for that reason – perform better than less prepared interviewees.

Coming soon, we will discuss how message maps are crucial to helping spokespeople “bridge” questions that offer themselves insufficient opportunities to place key messages or proof points.

This article is based on the media training module Detavernier Strategic Communication has developed in partnership with the Communication Science Group. For more information on the media training, contact us today.



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Crisis communications

Jo Detavernier speaks at PRSA Houston PR Day

PR Day

Jo Detavernier will speak about evidence-based crisis communication at PRSA Houston’s PR Day.

The annual edition of PRSA Houston’s PR Day will take place on 22 November this year. At this event, public relations and communications professionals of all levels and from all industries gather together during one day to learn from one another.

PR Day 2023 will be held at Hotel Zaza in Houston’s Museum district. Anyone who is interested in attending (PRSA membership is not required) can register on this page.

Focus areas of the 2023 PR day include communications strategies and tactics, digital content trends and best practices, reputation management, and crisis communication. Jo Detavernier will talk about the latter topic – in his lecture he will elaborate on what evidence-based crisis communication looks like and how practitioners can apply an evidence-based approach in all of the work they do helping organizations prepare for and communicate in crises.

Anyone who is interested in evidence-based crisis communication will find more information on the topic in Jo Detavernier’s contribution to the recently published second edition of the Handbook on Crisis Communication.

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Company news

Jo Detavernier will be a guest lecturer at Let’s Talk Science

research

Jo Detavernier will be a speaker at this year’s Lets Talk Science summer school.

Let’s Talk Science is an annual event at which Flemish universities and non-university institutes of higher education help their researchers hone their communicate skills. This year, event takes place from 4 to 6 July and is hosted by the Ghent University.

Jo Detavernier’s lecture will be titled “A media relations survival kit for researchers” – Jo will give the lecture on 6 Juli at 02:00 PM CET.

In the workshop, students will gain insights into:

  • how media organizations produce content;
  • what journalists care for in a story (what constitutes “news?”);
  • how one can best prepare for interviews;
  • what delivery techniques matter the most;
  • how researchers can communicate clearly to a non-academic audience;
  • what to pay attention to when giving tv, radio, print interviews;
  • the written and unwritten laws on attribution and exclusivity;
  • how researchers can work efficiently with professional communicators in their organization;
  • how to correct course when interviews go wrong.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.

Categories
Crisis communications

Jo Detavernier contributes to new Handbook on Crisis Communication

crisis

W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry J. Holladay have released a new, second edition of the Handbook on Crisis Communication. Jo Detavernier has contributed a chapter on evidence-based crisis communication.

The Handbook of Crisis Communication offers students, researchers, and practitioners a timely overview of the crisis communication field. Contributions by 50 scholars and practitioners demonstrate various methodological approaches, examine how crisis communication is applied in a range of specific contexts, discuss the role of culture and technology in crisis communication, and present original research of relevance to the development and evaluation of crisis communication theory.

The second edition of the Handbook contains 38 chapters with fresh insights into existing areas of crisis communication and explores new and emerging lines of research. A plethora of new case studies, practical scenarios, and in-depth analyses of recent crises are integrated throughout the new Handbook.

Jo Detavernier contributed a chapter on how crisis communication can become an evidence-based practice. In his chapter, he offers an overview of scientifically validated insights from (among others) crisis and risk communication and how practitioners can make an evidence-based approach to crisis communication part of their everyday routine.

The Handbook of Crisis Communication is published by John Wiley & Sons. More information on the book (including a table of content) can be found on the publisher’s website.

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Company news

Detavernier Strategic Communication will provide PR support to Belgian trade mission

Atlanta

From June 4 to 11, HRH Princess Astrid of Belgium will lead an economic mission to Atlanta, New York City and Boston. Detavernier Strategic Communication will manage media relations for the mission in all three cities.

With over 540 participants from 270 leading Belgian companies, this will be one of the largest Belgian trade missions ever organized.  The aim of the mission is to explore further opportunities to strengthen partnerships between Belgium and the United States and to highlight the shared focus of the two countries on technology. The companies that will be visited by the trade delegation to the United States will be a mix of subsidiaries of Belgian companies and local companies that have strong ties to Belgium (in the former group of companies one will find AB Inbev (New York City), Solvay (Alpharetta, GA) and UCB (Smyrna, GA).

Detavernier Strategic Communication will provide strategic counsel and on-site support for the mission’s local media outreach. The agency wil inform local journalists on the program of the mission in their respective cities, pitch select events and set up and staff interviews.