Evidence from real-life events bolstered by research demonstrates that people increasingly use social media to get and share information in urgent situations. At the same time, anecdotal experience also bolstered by real-life incidents shows that many organizations are not using social media well—or at all—to communicate in crises. In general, they either think it’s not … Read more
Hill+Knowlton Canada (H+K), the top-ranked public relations and public affairs firm in Canada, is pleased to announce two new senior leaders in its corporate practice. Effective immediately, Jason MacDonald and Susan Schutta join as vice-presidents in the firm’s Ottawa and Toronto offices, respectively. “Corporate communications work is one of H+K Canada’s cornerstones. We are delighted … Read more
The Calgary Zoo found itself under water when tragedy struck Southern Alberta with heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding—the worst flood in Alberta’s history and most-costly natural disaster in all of Canada. Though the Zoo’s flood response was ultimately successful, with very few animal lives lost, Zoo staff recognized the value in evaluating its efforts to … Read more
Every organization, whether in the private or public sector, will one day face a crisis. The nature and severity of the crisis may vary—from a product recall to layoffs to a cyber-attack—and the crisis might be limited and specific, or it could be catastrophic and put the health of the entire organization at risk. As … Read more
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on the global community to work in unorthodox ways, by collapsing institutional barriers and pledging $1billion to the UNMEER mission in response to the Ebola crisis. This is pretty weighty and, of course, headline-grabbing stuff. Amid the accolades and praise swirling in the latter half of last week … Read more
Here is a recent feature from The Lobby Monitor where our corporate and crisis lead Jane Shapiro weighs in on the recent rumblings to toughen up the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for the food industry. Jane offers her advice on what the industry’s next steps should be to mend relationships and get the program back up and running. … Read more
Here is an article from our national crisis preparedness lead Vlad Grigore that proposes companies take a different approach to testing emergency preparedness. This piece was originally published at Oilweek.com on January 29, 2014. Emergency preparedness is a funny business. We plan and think and practice and train, getting ready to do a job that … Read more
Our Alberta general manager Lisa Walker recently spoke to Alberta Venture magazine to offer some perspectives on how to best manage communications in a time on crisis. Here is a copy of the article that shares Lisa’s insights. This piece originally ran at AlbertaVenture.com on February 1, 2014. Ka-boom! It happened. It doesn’t really matter … Read more
This piece was originally published at Oilweek.com on January 14, 2014. Applying the successful start-up model to crisis management Strong crisis management is a lot like building a start-up. It typically takes at least two to three years for most successful start-ups to reach profitability. During this arc, there is a journey that many of these … Read more
Jane Shapiro, our national service leader of corporate and crisis communications, talks to Canada AM about how flight delays and cancellations can be handled better. This video was originally published on CTVnews.ca on January 8, 2014.
