Identify and practice the communication style that works for you.
Courses are designed to meet your exact requirements.
Our courses are realistic, practical, demanding, fun and effective.
We do not create media trained talking robots.
Face to face or online training to meet your needs and timescales.
Really effective. Chris and mark are clear experts in their field, you can tell this not only by the delivery of the course and the content, but simply by their confidence, body language mannerisms and the way that they present themselves. At the beginning of the course I was slightly nervous and apprehensive that I wouldn’t feel confident during the practical aspects but my confidence grew throughout thanks to both Chris and mark. I would highly recommend this course to friends and colleagues. It was a privilege to learn from them both. Thanks Chris and mark!
Ella M 15th November 2024
Great tips
Very helpful to practice the questions
Appreciated the opportunity to share ideas and thoughts
Mike S 6th November 2024
Nerve wracking challenging thought provoking but ultimately essential for my role both as an internal and external communicator
Gavin B 30th October 2024
Crisis tends to strike when it’s least expected.
And each one has the potential to create negative headlines, damage share prices and shatter reputations.
But just because you don't know when a crisis will happen doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared.
Our crisis communication training courses will enable your organisation to communicate with clarity, confidence and compassion when media pressure is at its most intense and there is public, customer and staff hunger for information.
Our expert tutors will guide you through every aspect of effective crisis management, from ensuring your organisation is ready to communicate within minutes of a crisis striking to holding a press conference.
So, if the worst does happen and you are in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, you’ll emerge with your reputation intact and maybe even enhanced.
Our training is delivered by those who know what it takes to communicate effectively – journalists who report on crisis incidents and complex situations for the nation’s media.
And we have more than 40 to choose from. So, your crisis management training will probably be delivered by someone who has covered a crisis in your sector or industry.
They are ideally placed to help you manage the media in the most testing circumstances. And to show you how to prevent threats and risks from becoming a crisis.
Additionally, all our courses are bespoke.
We will spend time getting to know your business or organisation, its vulnerabilities and potential risks. This ensures we base your training on your crisis plans and realistic and believable – yet unpredictable - scenarios.
That might be a tragic accident, a data breach, product recall, environmental contamination or customer complaints and damaging recent tweets on social media – whatever is likely to cause a crisis for your business and put your reputation on the line.
Our training is also practical. Your course students will learn the latest theory and crisis communication thinking. And the skills and confidence to remain compassionate, authoritative, and in control when the media interest ramps up.
They can also expect to be put to the test with hostile questions across a variety of different media interview formats, including doorstep interviews and press conferences.
This is the best way for them to learn how to handle difficult questions and deliver impactful messages in the real world.
Every interview or press conference on the course will be followed by instant feedback and support from our expert tutors.
We have been delivering communication skills training courses and support to our clients for around 40 years.
This includes working with 40 of the FTSE 100, public relations companies, charities, public sector organisations and businesses of all sizes.
Every interview or press conference will be followed by instant and supportive feedback from our expert tutors.
There are different levels of crisis preparedness, risk and experience. And everyone's circumstances are different.
So, a one-size-fits-all approach to training is not effective.
We will work with you to develop a crisis course that meets your needs, knowledge and requirements and those of your delegates.
How that training is delivered is entirely up to you.
This is our most popular course option. We know people love the opportunity to put their skills to the test in broadcast-quality studios. That could be at our office in Reading, or one of our studios in London or across the country.
Our face-to-face training can also be carried out at your offices or any hired room.
Here's our guide to helping you choose the right location for your face-to-face training.
Wherever it takes place, your delegates can look forward to personal coaching, support and feedback, together with seamless playbacks of their crisis interviews, ensuring they reach their training goals.
Our crisis management training can also be delivered through videoconferencing options, like Zoom and Teams.
This allows your senior team and other delegates to access all the brilliant training we provide in our classrooms and studios from anywhere in the world without having to travel.
It proved an invaluable option during lockdowns, allowing organisations to continue to develop their people even though they could not meet face-to-face. And its flexibility means it remains popular.
It has also helped prepare spokespeople for an evolving media landscape where many broadcast, print and telephone interviews continue to happen.
These training sessions are typically shorter, with more breaks and a greater focus on one-to-one coaching. But they still include everything you’ve come to expect from our face-to-face training, with practical sessions that are recorded for playback and coaching and full-written feedback of every delegate’s performance issued after the course.
The training is delivered by current working journalists who are all kitted out with professional video, audio and lighting setups and high-speed internet. And they are supported by our in-house technical training team who ensure the course isn’t interrupted by annoying glitches.
This course option combines the best of our face-to-face training with the ease and convenience of online learning.
During the first part of this training, you and your delegates will attend a ‘self-study’ online course. This will take you through all the theory and management techniques needed to handle crisis situations.
It will take about an hour and is ready when you are – it just needs to be completed before the second part of the course.
And then your students get to put what they have learnt to the test in a session with our journalist tutors that includes crisis interviews.
Those interviews will be played back for feedback, analysis, support and coaching to enable delegates to achieve their goals.
Our courses are for everyone who needs to be better prepared for crisis incidents. Typically, we provide training for:
But everyone in your organisation should have some understanding and awareness of crisis management.
If something goes wrong in your organisation, would your receptionists, security officials and maintenance staff - who all tend to wear branded clothing - know what to do if they were approached by a journalist?
There are many benefits of crisis management training, both for your organisation and your delegates. Here are just a few:
Effective crisis communications and crisis management require more than a training day.
And we are great believers in the importance of continual learning, support, access to new resources and the ability to stay on top of your crisis skills.
So, you will have the option to give your delegates access to our online learning Essential Crisis Management course for 12 months after your course. This self-study course is a great way to keep your crisis communications skills sharp.
Sign up to our blogs, and you will have access to regular analysis of how organisations have managed their reputation in the crisis spotlight. As well as tips and advice on what could have been done differently.
The blogs are hugely popular with PR and communications professionals. And they often contain practical resources to aid your crisis response, including risk register and holding statement templates.
If you like the sound of our training and want to join the growing list of organisations that trust us to best prepare their spokespeople for the media spotlight, have a chat with one of our account managers.
They’ll answer any questions you may have, take you through all our training options in more detail, and help you start to build your course.
As we’ve come to expect from media First, their contribution was incredibly professional, well thought out and extremely well executed. The expertise of their journalists really helped our fictitious scenario come alive and provided some valuable lessons which we have been able to fit directly into our future planned crisis response.
Want to join the growing list of organisations that trust us to improve their crisis communications skills?
Speak to one of our account managers. They’ll answer any questions you may have.
And they will discuss all our face-to-face and online learning course options in more detail and help you start to build the right course for your organisation.
Excellent training ! Thanks very much.
Sarah S
16th November 2024
Really effective. Chris and mark are clear experts in their field, you can tell this not only by the delivery of the course and the content, but simply by their confidence, body language mannerisms and the way that they present themselves. At the beginning of the course I was slightly nervous and apprehensive that I wouldn’t feel confident during the practical aspects but my confidence grew throughout thanks to both Chris and mark. I would highly recommend this course to friends and colleagues. It was a privilege to learn from them both. Thanks Chris and mark!
Ella M
15th November 2024
Make ot more frequent the training
Panayiotis Y
14th November 2024
Great tips
Very helpful to practice the questions
Appreciated the opportunity to share ideas and thoughts
Mike S
6th November 2024
Nerve wracking challenging thought provoking but ultimately essential for my role both as an internal and external communicator
Gavin B
30th October 2024
Built some confidence
Could the course be longer ?
Jonathan S
29th October 2024
When your organisation is facing a crisis, good communication is crucial. Do it well and it can reduce fear and uncertainty and gain some control of the story. But how do you ensure your customers,…
Get in touch to discuss your training needs 0118 918 0530 or hello@mediafirst.co.uk or tell us how we can help…
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