Webinars

IABC offers free member-only webinars on the latest trends and best practices in communication. Join the live sessions or watch the session recordings at your convenience. Bookmark this page to stay up-to-date on the latest webinar offerings.

Upcoming Webinars

How to Spot the Most Common Crisis Management Traps and Successfully Navigate Through Them

COVID-19 has reinforced the criticality of getting communication right in a crisis, yet many organizations continue to make the same predictable mistakes in their crisis response. As a consequence, reputations, organizations and their stakeholders are unnecessarily harmed.

As the guardians of organizational reputation, communicators must play a critical role in ensuring their organizations avoid these crisis management traps.

With 25 years’ experience working with organizations in crisis, Jonathan Hemus knows the most common crisis management traps and their potentially disastrous consequences. This session will reveal his ten golden rules to avoid these catastrophic pitfalls and ensure a purposeful and surefooted crisis response.

Through Jonathan’s insights from the frontline and participation in a scenario-based exercise, attendees will learn how to deploy practical, powerful tools, provide sound counsel to leaders confronting a crisis and reduce the impact on both the organization and its stakeholders.

The three key takeaways for this webinar include:

1. The ability to recognize and avoid the ten most common crisis management traps
2. An understanding of techniques such as ‘strategic intent’ and ‘main effort’ to ensure a purposeful crisis management response
3. A fresh perspective on how to support their leadership team or clients to avoid the unnecessary damage caused by a mishandled crisis

Presenter / Jonathan Hemus is the founder and managing director of crisis management consultancy Insignia where his clients include Cathay Pacific, DP World and Lidl. He was previously global head of crisis and issues management at international consultancy Porter Novelli. Jonathan is the author of ‘Crisis Proof – How to Prepare For The Worst Day Of Your Business Life’ which was named as the Specialist Business Book of the Year in the 2021 Business Book Awards. He is a visiting lecturer at Catolica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Henley Business School and the University of Central Florida. He is also chair of the Advisory Board at Aston University’s Crisis Centre where he lectures as a member of the faculty for its MSc in Crisis and Disaster Management. He is a trusted commentator on breaking crises for media including the BBC, CNN, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal and has spoken at conferences and events across four continents.

Date: 9 December 2021
Time: 1-2 p.m. CST
IABC Members

Survey Results: Businesses Value the Role of PR and Communications More than Ever

Organizations value communications more than ever according to the 2021 JOTW Strategic Communications Survey – by Ned’s Job of the Week, an email newsletter and Sword and the Script Media, a PR and marketing consultancy for B2B technology. The fourth annual survey polled 300 communications professionals and found in the wake of a tumultuous year, 80 percent “agree” or “strongly agree” organizations place a greater value on communications. It’s a golden opportunity for our profession and this webinar will review the data and make practical recommendations for seizing the moment.

The three key takeaways for this webinar include:

1. Capitalizing on value. In the wake of a tumultuous year, 80% “agree” or “strongly agree” organizations place a greater value on communications. When asked about specific functions, respondents overwhelmingly said employee communications (93%) grew in importance compared to pre-pandemic times. We’ll walk through the data and discuss what PR and comms can do to build on this success.
2. Too many priorities. The top three challenges facing communications and PR professionals are 1) “too many priorities” (40%), “cutting through the noise” (37%), and working with “leaders that don’t understand communications” (36%). We’ll walk through the data and suggest ways for managing priorities and educating executives.
3. The media relations struggle. Some 60% of respondents say media relations is harder or much harder compared to last year. It’s not getting any easier, so we’ll walk through the data and make practical suggestions as to cut through the clutter.

Presenter / Captain Edward Lundquist, U.S. Navy (Retired), is a principal science writer at MCR Federal in McLean, Virginia, and chief engagement officer of Echo Bridge LLC, in Springfield, Virginia. He served on active duty with the Navy as a surface warfare officer and public affairs officer and has a BA in Journalism from Marquette University and a master’s in journalism and public affairs from the American University. His Job of the Week newsletter is read by 5,700 communication professionals each week. Captain Lundquist is an IABC Fellow and an accredited business communicator. He writes on naval, maritime, defense and security issues for international trade and professional journals.

Presenter / Frank Strong is is the founder and president of Sword and the Script Media, LLC, a veteran-owned marketing consultancy focused on PR, content marketing and social media that serves the B2B technology community. With more than 20 years of experience in he has worked on both sides of the table – both for agencies and in-house – at small, medium and large, global businesses. He has earned two graduate degrees including an MA in public communication and MBA.

Date: 16 December 2021
Time: 12-1 p.m. CST
IABC Members