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Author: Jo Detavernier, SCMP, APR

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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.

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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.

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Company news

Jo Detavernier participates in Crisis Comms Mastery event

Crisis Communication Mastery

Jo Detavernier will talk about how crisis communications can become evidence-based at the upcoming Crisis Comms Mastery virtual summit.

From March 24 until March 26, crisis communications experts will once more share their insights on how to prepare for, respond to and resolve a crisis like a PR master. From having the right tools, to getting a rock-solid crisis plan in place, to managing the story, attendees will learn how to make their brand or client ready to weather any storm.

The Crisis Comms Mastery virtual summit is organized by Agility PR Solutions. Attendance is completely free. Among the speakers at the previous edition of the Crisis Comms Mastery virtual summit are Melissa Agnes, Deborah Hileman, and Brad Phillips

Jo Detavernier’s session will revolve around how crisis communications specialists can make their profession a truly evidence-based one through the application of insights from the behavioral sciences, but also by embedding and nurturing a culture of evidence-based practice in their organization.

Anyone who is interested in registering, can do so here.

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Company news

Detavernier Strategic Communication among 19 best Austin PR firms

Austin

Expertise.com ranked Detavernier Strategic Communication among the top 19 Austin PR firms.

Expertise’s research and selection process identifies the top service professionals in over 200 different industries across the major cities in the United States. Every month, Expertise helps over 1 million customers find the best qualified service professionals.

52 PR agencies in Austin have a profile page on Expertise and of those 52, 19 have been selected by Expertise as the very best PR agencies on the Austin market. Among the criteria that Expertise uses to grade agencies are:

  • Reputation: A history of satisfied customers giving excellent recommendations
  • Qualifications: Established in their industry with licensing, accreditations, and awards
  • Experience: Masters of their craft, based on years of practical experience and education
  • Engagement: Approachable and responsive to clients and available for new business
  • Professionalism: Dedicated to providing consistently quality work and impeccable customer service

Detavernier Strategic Communication received an A for Reputation and an A+ for Professionalism (the firm did not receive scores on the other criteria).

A crowded market in an unregulated industry comes with a great many challenges for PR service providers to stand out (I talked about this challenge in this article about PR accreditations) – my team and I will continue to invest and work hard towards providing our domestic and foreign clients with high-quality strategic counsel and support.

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Media relations

Webinar: Introduction to American tech media relations

TechCrunch

On March 25th, Detavernier will host a webinar on American tech media relations with as a special guest Omar Gallaga (WSJ, CNN, Washington Post, NPR).

The webinar will focus on how European tech companies can be successful building their brands and activating demand through media relations on the American market. It is suited for entrepreneurs, marketing managers and PR managers. Topics that will be covered are:

  • The American tech media landscape
  • The American tech media relations toolbox
  • Crafting and pitching stories to American tech media
  • B2B thought leadership in American tech media
  • B2C product pr in American tech media
  • Media relations in times of COVID-19
  • Preparing and giving media interviews
  • Picking the PR tech stack
  • Sourcing consultancy services on the American market

SPECIAL GUEST Omar Gallaga (WSJ, CNN, NPR, Washington Post) will share his thoughts and experiences receiving media pitches on “the other side” and will be available to answer questions during a 15 min AMA session.

No public recording will be made available afterwards to anyone who has not registered.

To register, visit this page.

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Media trainings

Detavernier Strategic Communication hosts open media training at FINTECH BELGIUM

Fintech Belgium

FINTECH BELGIUM welcomes Jo Detavernier for a remote open media training on March 2nd.

The content of this evidence-based media training has been developed through an exclusive collaboration with Communication Science Group.

The training will take 75 minutes and will consist of:

  • a look at what the media wants: news value, “desk opinion” and media coverage as a product
  • a look at the Belgian media market (with a special focus on fintech)
  • parenthesis: preparing for media relations abroad
  • preparing for media interviews: message maps, Q&As and “tough questions”
  • evidence-based techniques for designing and delivering messages during a media interview with among others attention for headlining, flagging and bridging
  • one tailor made mock interview with a spokesperson
  • unwritten “rules” concerning attribution, scoops and exclusives
  • following up after media interviews

Anyone interested can register on this page.

Categories
Media trainings

Detavernier Strategic Communication and CSG are developing an evidence-based media training

Image camera

Detavernier Strategic Communication and Communication Science Group (CSG) are developing an evidence-based media training module together.

More often than not, what executives learn in media training sessions about verbal and non-verbal delivery will for a variety of reasons be based no more than partially (if at all) on empirical research. Trainees will be told that they can not express themselves in negations for example, that they need to repeat messages a magical three times or even that the words they use account for no less than eight percent (!) of the impact of their communication.

Jo Detavernier has been rigorously filtering out all non evidence-based content from his workshops over the last few years, but is now taking things a step further. Detavernier Strategic Communication has entered into a collaboration agreement with Communication Science Group for the development of a one-of-its-kind evidence-based media training module. 

Communication Science Group is a UK-based consulting agency that makes available academic thinkers in applied behavioral science to help marketers and communications professionals become more scientifically grounded. The agency was founded and is led by Richard Chataway, who is one of the most experienced practitioners in behavior change communications in the United Kingdom and has worked for the UK and Australian governments in public health comms. Richard is also the author of the recently published The Behaviour Business (Harriman House) and is a Member of the Board of the Association for Business Psychology.

The module will be in development during the month of July 2020 and will be available exclusively for trainees of Detavernier Strategic Communication from August 2020 on. The content will be taught through both the existing remote and on-site training formats. 

Categories
Media trainings

Virtual media training on June 4

media interview

A new, unique online session will teach participants evidence-based media interview preparation and delivery techniques.

In the 1 hour long online training session Jo Detavernier will explain in clear terms and offer examples and demonstrations on

  • how spokespeople should prepare for media interviews (15%)
  • what the key media interview delivery techniques look like (80%)
  • how interviewees should follow up with the journalist (5%)

Among the delivery techniques that will be taught are bridging, flagging and headlining. Participants will also hear how they need to best prepare and structure their messaging, how the media works (news value, attribution, exclusivities etc.) and what to do once the interview takes place.

Special attention will be given to message development and delivery techniques that are ‘evidence-based’ meaning that psychological research has validated the techniques as being efficient.

After the session, the participants will receive a video recording of the session that will not be made public to anyone else .

Ten percent of the proceeds will be donated to Bookspring, an Austin, TX based non-profit that makes slightly used childrens books freely available to low-income children in central Texas.

TO REGISTER: click on this link to the Eventbrite page.

Did you enjoy this piece on the upcoming virtual media training?

You might also like our article on the importance of evidence-based media trainings.

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