When It Hits the Fan:
Critical Communications for Critical Times

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Whether you are communicating the Swine Flu, an economic downturn, executives behaving badly, or disasters of catastrophic proportion, you need a plan for when it hits the fan. Crisis Communications expert Gerard Braud (Jared Bro) opens his play book and shares his top-shelf strategies for coping with your worst nightmares.

This interactive day is guaranteed to send you home with new strategies and new tools to make you the hero when it hits the fan.

Date: Wednesday, October 7 Location: Norfolk Botanical Garden 6700 Azalea Garden Rd Norfolk, VA 23518-5337 Time: 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Pricing

Register by September 4 to take advantage of early bird rates! (Note: member rates are available to PRSA Hampton Roads members only)

	Regular Price	Early Bird (by 9/4)	Register Now! Registration Deadline: September 30
PRSA Member	$89.00	$79.00
Non-member	$109.00	$99.00
Student	$49.00	N/A

Agenda

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast, Networking, and Registration

9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

• Social Media When it Hits the Fan
• Enter the tent-o-pudding
• Untangling twit pics and texts
• Winning the war on the web
• Videos and podcasts and blogs, oh my
• Optimizing to own the story

• Employee Communications When it Hits the Fan
• Circumvent rumors and gossip
• Respect the need for speed in communications
• Plan now to avoid panic in the predicament
• Be the visionary of vulnerabilities

10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Break

10:45 a.m. - Noon

• Vulnerability Assessment
• How to identify what may go wrong
• What to do next
• Collaboration in research
• Down, dirty and fast
• Developing "buy-in" for a plan

• Leadership When it Hits the Fan
• Spot the dangers before they are dangers
• Break the cycle of second guessing and decision paralysis
• Separate duty and action from denial and arrogance
• Be the voice of reason amid chaos

Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Lunch & Panel Discussion: How Local Companies Coped When it Hit the Fan

1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

• How to Write a Plan for When it Hits the Fan
• Explore the crisis in crisis communications
• Learn the secrets to writing a crisis communications plan that is easy to use
• Succeed with speed and break the binds of slow communications and decision paralysis
• See the anatomy of a bad crisis communications plan
• Building notification systems
• Gathering critical information for decision makers
• Selecting the right Crisis Management Team

3:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
Break

3:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

• Media Relations When it Hits the Fan
• Using templates
• Writing templates
• Crisis communications drills

4:30 p.m.
Adjourn

Conference Flyer

About the trainer:

Known as the guy to call when it hits the fan, Gerard Braud (Jared Bro) is widely regarded as an expert in crisis communications and media issues. He is an international coach, trainer, author and speaker who has worked with organizations on four continents.

He has helped more than 50 organizations around the world prepare for potential crises, using his exclusive system that lets organizations write a crisis communications plan by compressing 6 months worth of work into just 2 days.

Braud has been active in the field of communications since 1979. For 15 years, he worked in print, radio and television as a front line journalist, on the scene of every type of disaster imaginable. His affiliate reports have been seen around the world on NBC, CBS, CNN and the BBC.

Since 1994 Braud has specialized in helping organizations communicate more effectively through media training, crisis communications plans, and employee-manager training. His crisis communications plans are used by the Internal Revenue Service and the Library of Congress.

Braud has a B.A. in Journalism from Louisiana Tech University. He is also a Fellow of Environmental Communications from the Institute of Environmental Communications at Loyola University New Orleans, and is a member of the adjunct faculty.

To learn more, visit www.braudcommunications.com.