Media Training

Case Study: GE Plastics

Brief: With six large chemical manufacturing plants in four European countries the company needed to ensure that its managers dealt with the press, TV and radio in the event of a serious accident.

Activity: Kestrel created a tailor made training programme based on a potentially real emergency scenario and adapted it to each location in each country. The managers were given training in the local language on how to conduct interviews with newspaper, radio and TV journalists, followed by the introduction of "the problem" scenario which was developed as the day progressed. Situations in the company's offices and factory locations were as real as possible including an invading outside broadcast unit and probing reporter.

Result: Without exception all senior managers said it gave them confidence in their ability to deal with the media under pressure and provided them with a good understanding of what was needed.