Timely TV News Interview Advice (from Another Time)
[by Howard Fencl] On Halloween, I will travel to Columbus to attend a TV newsroom reunion for WBNS-TV reporters, producers, videographers, engineers and news managers. It promises to be a horrifying, creaky affair – no costumes, just the unwelcome mask of old age necessitating name tags with our headshots from the 1980s in the event we […]
6 Tips to Making Your Presentation More Memorable
If we ourselves are faced with the task of presenting to an audience, we definitely don’t want to be forgotten. We want our message to make an impact. How can executives make their presentations interesting and engaging, short of doing what Bill and Ted did and showing up in a time machine? Here are a few […]
5 Patterns of Popular TED Talks
Ever wondered why some TED talk recordings on YouTube gather a respectable few hundred thousand views while other go viral and attract many millions? Is there a difference in content, facts and figures or information shared that is more compelling and pertinent to a wider audience? Does one speaker have more name recognition than another? Or […]
The Ultimate Media Interview Checklist
A large, broadcast-quality camera is aimed at you. Lights blind your vision. And a perfectly made up and coiffed reporter is holding a mic under your face. You try hard to look cool, but you can feel the sweat dripping down your back. Your breaths are shallow. You can barely remember what you wanted to say, […]
How to Proceed When Your Spokesperson is a Dud
[By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications] For decades, clients have come to Hennes Communications to learn how to communicate better with reporters, stakeholders and the public. The gold standard is when a speaker says the right thing and delivers it to their intended audience in an interesting, conversational manner. To do that, we often spend as much […]
Lessons from Ferguson: Are You Listening?
[By Thom Fladung, former managing editor, The Plain Dealer] A year after Ferguson, the lessons continue to reverberate. Is anyone listening? At the recent National Association of Black Journalists convention in Minneapolis, a panel of journalists spoke about the lessons they learned in Ferguson, Missouri, covering the shooting of Michael Brown, its aftermath, and how […]
Beyond the Chaos: 3 Stories of Those Under the Gun During Major Crises
From our colleague, Jim McKay, editor of Emergency Management Magazine: In this feature, we look at three separate disasters through the lens of someone in command. All three of these emergencies were incredibly tragic and difficult or impossible to predict. Besides the tragedy, these emergency managers share lessons learned, some of which we discuss here. Frank […]
Why First Impressions Stick
By Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D, writing for CommPro.biz: Two seconds – thirty seconds, tops – that’s all the time it takes some to assess your confidence, competence, status, likeability, warmth, and trustworthiness. That’s how much time you have to make a first impression. In fact, it’s impossible for us not to make these snap judgments about […]
Breathing Is the Key to Persuasive Public Speaking
From the Harvard Business Review: Have you ever wondered why two people can say exactly the same thing in a meeting, but only one of them gets credit for it? Many times it’s the way we sound that makes the difference between whether or not we are actually heard. We all know when someone sounds nervous or […]
OP3 Conference – For Ohio Companies Concerned About Disaster Prevention, Response & Recovery
Ohio Emergency Management Agency Ohio Public Private Partnership Conference Cleveland State University June 23, 2015 In an effort to increasingly serve Ohioans before, during and after a disaster, the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS) relies on strong partnerships between citizens, government, and private business. To strengthen these partnerships across the state, ODPS created the Ohio Public […]