Crisis Communication

It's that time of year for many corporate communicators when they dust off the "bad weather" portion of the crisis communication plan. I can remember having to go through the process of verifying all of the secret codes with local TV and radio stations to report closings and delays - you know - the fun stuff. 

But in all seriousness, it is important the employees to know what the "inclement weather" policies are. Once your crisis plan is verified, you have to get the word out to employees. And communicators know that it's not the most exciting...Read More »

I've never had the chance to attend the National Restaurant Association Show so yesterday was my first time. Our digital signage technology is tucked away in the AT&T booth (#5666) in the Technology Pavilion.

Yesterday I was pleased and surprised at not just the sheer volume of attendees looking at digital signage for to improve communication with customers (including menu boards) but more importantly the variety of companies. There was everything from smaller "mom and pop" restaurants looking to jazz up their customer communication all the way...Read More »

It's been a busy week at MediaTile, but I didn't want to miss a big announcement we made earlier this week. Later this month, we will launch and add a new emergency broadcast triggering system to MediaCast (our digital signage Software as a Service).

What's unique about the Emergency Media Trigger (as we're calling it) is that in integrates within legacy emergency communication systems. This is especially huge for educational institutions and corporate communication departments who are always looking for effective and simple ways of delivering...Read More »

I enjoy speaking in front of large groups. But that doesn't mean it's easy. At the 6th Annual Summit for Emergency & Disaster Planning, the audience was largely from educational institutions. But there were teachers, and administrators, and principals, and health and safety directors, and fire chiefs, and you get the point. It's tough making a presentation that's then relevant to all of those groups.

Plus, I had the second-to-last slot so I was pleased with many stuck around for the full day. I was surprised to see so many hands raised when I...Read More »

That's the title of my topic at the 6th Annual Emergency & Disaster Planning conference in Toronto. The folks at the Strategy Institute always put on a good show.

I'm honored to present at the show, but am equally interested to hear what the other speakers have to say. I would imagine this is a hungry audience, especially with so many public institutions concerned over a potential flu epidemic. The two-day conference is focused on the education sector. Just glancing through some of the other topics and you see words like "infectious...Read More »

I'm out at MediaTile HQ in Scotts Valley, CA, this week so I'm a bit tied up in meetings. I thought it was a good time to pull together another list of my "clicks that click." These are a smattering of news items I've picked up over the last week or so that are related to communication in the workplace, social media AND/or digital signage.
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At last June's IABC World Conference, I was asked about the trends I was seeing in corporate communications and what did I see around the corner. My response was that eventually communications would...Read More »

I was asked this very question on a conference call yesterday. It's a company who's already doing a lot with communication. They have an electronic newsletter that comes out once a week, driving traffic to their intranet, which is also updated on a daily basis. They cut the weekly newsletter but are now doing a monthly magazine. Once a quarter, executives host town hall meetings.

So, yes, they are DOING a lot and are concerned that digital signage might be overkill. The problem is that it appears as though employees are not responding to the...Read More »

Everybody has fears. It's okay to be afraid. It's human nature. My greatest fear? Llamas. Don't trust them. Never have, never will.

But what are your corporate communication fears? I'm sure that the economy has many corp comm professionals uneasy but that's not unique the in the communication field. That's everybody across every industry and profession.

Because of the economy, are you afraid to take chances or challenge the status quo? Probably so. At the end of the day, most of us need that paycheck so we don't risk our jobs for the sake of...Read More »

Growing up, I couldn't tell you how many times I heard that when I was a kid. AND it was always an annoyance because it seemed interrupt my GI Joe cartoons. And thankfully, it always only seemed to be a test. But the Emergency Broadcast System was in place a valuable crisis communication tool, giving the government the ability to alert communities if there was a crisis at hand.

We are now giving that same ability to MediaTile digital signage network operators. Just announced last week, users can now implement what's called an Emergency Media... Read More »