Some of you might remember the words of Michael Dame, Director of Web Communications at Virginia Tech, in his letter to his higher ed colleagues (that would be you) he asked me to publish a couple of weeks ago:
I hope that in the near future, we’ll have the opportunity to discuss our experiences to our mutual benefit as a higher education community.
Well, I’m pleased to announced that Mike has accepted my invitation to share his experience at Higher Ed Experts’ Crisis Communication 2.0 Week, a 3-webinar series that will take place on June 26, 27 and 28, 2007.
Composed of three 1-hour webinar, the goal of this professional development series is to help higher ed professionals and executives plan their communication response to emergencies, deal with crises in the age of social media and benefit from the lessons learned after the Virginia Tech Tragedy.
- Crisis Communication 101: How to Prepare and Plan for Campus Emergencies (June 26, 1PM-2PM ET)
Joe Hice, Associate Vice President Marketing and Public Relations at the University of Florida will share his experience planning, testing and implementing UF crisis communication plan set up to deal with the numerous hurricanes hitting Florida. -
Crisis Communication 2.0: How to deal with scares in the age of Web 2.0 (June 27, 1PM-2PM ET)
Andrew Careaga, Director of Communications at the University of Missouri-Rolla, will share his experience dealing with the blogosphere and other social media outlets after an international graduate student claiming to have a bomb and anthrax was subdued by campus police, arrested and charged with six felonies last February. -
From the Inside Out: Lessons Learned in Crisis Web Communications after the Virginia Tech Tragedy (June 28, 1PM-2PM ET)
Michael Dame, Director of Web Communications at Virginia Tech, will provide an insider look and analysis of his institution’s Web communications after the tragedy, helping every institution understand what happened and prepare for the unthinkable and the unplanned.
After many discussions with Mike, I’ve decided to price this special series at $250 – instead of $150 for registered HEE users in 2007 – to honor the memory of the victims by giving $100 to the Hokie Fund of Virginia Tech for every paid attendee. The resulting donation will be made by Higher Ed Experts in the name of the higher ed community.
You might want to register ASAP as the seats for this series are limited. If you’re not a HEE member yet, you’ll need to register first at www.higheredexperts.com/register. Once/If you are a HEE member, just go to the “Crisis Communication 2.0 Week” page and follow the instructions (Payments can be made via credit cards or checks – instructions are included in the confirmation email).
If you work in admissions offices or alum associations, you should probably forward this post to your colleagues in your institution’s PR, Communication and Web departments or even to your President’s office as this professional development series might benefit all of them.