You’ve registered for the conference and booked your hotel. Your flight is booked. Maybe you reviewed the attendee lists and identified your prospects. Perhaps you even reached out and scheduled some business development meetings before departing for the conference. Bully for you. That is a successful return on your organization’s investment. Or is it?

You see, most people fail to take full advantage of their conference attendance. Sure, the above looks great. But if those business development meetings fail you will end up with an expensive boondoggle on your hands.

Conferences are about more than landing a single business meeting or networking at the event. Conferences are about seeing and being seen — at and beyond the event.

Below are three considerations you should factor into gauging the return on your conference attendance investment:

1. Live Social Media Posts. Social media posting at conferences helps to get you noticed — by attending journalists, by business prospects and sometimes even potential employers. If you want to be seen as someone with their finger on the pulse of industry trends and developments — as someone who can solve problems and leverage opportunities — posting to social media during conferences helps. This includes using the dreaded-but-necessary selfie and use of appropriate industry and conference hashtags.
   1. Ideas for posts include: a picture of and quote from a speaker on the stage, a 15-second video of you talking about a highlight of the conference, promoting an upcoming presentation with a sentence about why you think it’s important, a photo of yourself with one of the speakers afterward noting something of import they focused on or said, etc.
2. Blogs & LinkedIn Articles. A thoughtful and succinct article for your company blog or LinkedIn page about the conference allows you to highlight event content while also shining a light on your expertise, perspective and sometimes even leadership on a topic. With correct tagging and backlinks, you can also use the marketing power of the conference’s coattails to drive your message. Next day is preferable; within a week is the limit for posting content after the conference.
3. Media Interviews. Bigger conferences typically have media in attendance. This can be one of the most productive uses of your time. If you have a perspective or opinion that fits within the theme or topic of the conference, get yourself interviewed. At a minimum, set up a 15-minute meet-and-greet with attending journalists to tell them a little about your organization (3 minutes or less) and what you can offer in terms of insights and opinions as a potential source. Work with your in-house communications team or external public relations agency to do what they do best: putting you together with media and get you prepped for those interviews or background conversations.

While the above may seem extra, the results of leveraging them appropriately can be extraordinary in marketing yourself and your organization. All have post-event marketing uses and can be used several times over, post-conference, to demonstrate your industry leadership … as well as maximizing your organization’s conference budget investments.

In recognition of Insurance Careers Month, we sat down with Alyssa Bouchard, director of education & programming for Gamma Iota Sigma, the premier collegiate talent pipeline for the insurance industry, to talk about the state of insurance talent and its future.

Alyssa Bouchard, CPCU, ASLI, ARM
Director, Education & Programming, Gamma Iota Sigma

Director, Education & Programming, Alyssa Bouchard, Gamma Iota Sigma

1. There’s been a lot of discussion around the looming talent gap in insurance. What are risk management programs, or the industry more broadly, doing to attract talent to insurance careers?

The industry is rallying to preempt the talent gap and strengthen the insurance brand through initiatives like the Insurance Careers Movement and Gamma Iota Sigma’s One Campus at a Time, an initiative conceived to expand and diversify the insurance industry’s talent pipeline and funded by Lead Partners Chubb and the Spencer Educational Foundation. Core programs are Boots on the Ground Month, a call to action for professionals to go “back to school” and share their career stories with students each October and the Security in Risk Tour in partnership with Insurance Information Institute, in which we visit non-GIS, non-RMI/ActSci schools to raise awareness of insurance careers. Both allow us to showcase the industry’s vibrance, its career paths and opportunities, and its potential for the future to students from a variety of majors who might never have thought about insurance as a career before. The talent conversation is not just one for HR. Every insurance professional, from every functional area of the industry, is equipped to shape the industry’s pipeline and future.

2. How has insurance changed in the past five or six years in ways that are impacting what today’s risk management students are now learning in the classroom?

Risk management and insurance curriculum is evolving with the industry. Cassandra Cole, adviser for Florida State University’s Gamma Iota Sigma chapter and Gary Sullivan, adviser for the GIS chapter at Mercyhurst University, recently addressed collegiate insurance curriculum changes in a Property Casualty 360 article; data analytics and cybersecurity are just some of the new focus areas. Zachary Finn, GIS adviser at Butler University, is making the connection between the classroom and real-world experiences by providing hands-on opportunities for students to design a captive and work through real-life scenarios.

3. We are told technology has opened up new career opportunities for tomorrow’s insurance professionals. What are some of the newer roles today’s risk management students aspire to within the insurance industry following graduation?

The data science field is taking off as insurance companies work to analyze a wealth of growing data and use it to make better business decisions. We’re seeing new technologies like drones, blockchain, and telematics impact roles across the industry in risk management, underwriting, claims, and more. A good example of this is claims adjusters who fly drones to survey damages. It is important for students to understand how technology is impacting insurance career paths and opportunities.

4. Can you offer examples of how the insurance industry is responding to millennial and Gen Z workplace styles and sensibilities?

I imagine when some people think of Gen Zs and millennials running the workplace, they envision either foosball tables and free snacks or a 100% virtual workplace. But Gamma Iota Sigma’s Annual Recruiting Survey results show workplace perks and work-from-home capabilities take a back seat to factors like future growth, compensation, culture, training, and development when it comes to influencers in student’s employment decisions. Millennial and Gen Z generations want much the same thing as older generations: a fulfilling, growth-oriented, and stable career. The insurance industry offers all those things, and through collaborative initiatives, training programs, mentorship and more, is working to showcase its breadth of opportunity.

5. Would you share some insights on career opportunities within insurance for those coming from different industries? In other words, are their specific skills or adjacent industries (i.e., accounting) that lend themselves to those seeking to transition into the insurance profession?

The insurance industry is for everyone. Any background. Any major. Seriously! I have a friend who majored in Art History and Museum Studies. She is now a fine art underwriter. The industry is hiring for roles across all functional areas – Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Actuarial, Brokerage, etc. Our GammaSAID Council equips GIS members to be inclusive and intentional in their outreach to engage students of all majors for Gamma Iota Sigma. In fact, the fastest growing segment among our membership of 5,000+ students is about 27% who report their major as something other than Risk Management & Insurance or Actuarial Science. Our message of insurance careers is resonating with a diverse pool of talent.

6. Can you share any statistics or numbers that help to quantify career opportunities in the field of insurance that tomorrow’s professionals should consider when deciding on a career path?

There are many shocking statistics out there about our industry’s need for talent – namely that 41% of students and recent grads change their path due to some form of exposure, whether faculty, industry speaker, peer, or some form of GIS programming. This flings open the doors of opportunity! The bottom line is, insurance career prospects are abundant, and we have tremendous variety in career paths and specialties. It is a great time to pursue a career in insurance.

ABOUT ALYSSA

Alyssa is Director of Education & Programming for Gamma Iota Sigma, the premier collegiate talent pipeline for the insurance industry, where she collaborates with industry, association, and university partners to engage and equip the next generation of insurance leaders. Alyssa is an alumnus of the Rho Chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma and holds her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Risk Management and Insurance from Appalachian State University.

For a few hours on March 30, 1981, chaos overcame the U.S. federal government.

Ronald Reagan, just three months into his presidency, was struck by a would-be assassin’s bullet. As media worked to rapidly cover fast moving events, the Fourth Estate found a young administration ill-prepared for the circumstances of the moment. Absent a clear crisis communications plan, and with the president in surgery, the vice president on a plane being returned to Washington, D.C., and the district largely locked down following the shooting just blocks from the White House, Secretary of State Alexander Haig famously stepped to the White House podium and, unscripted, told reporters asking who was in charge: “As of now, I’m in control here at the White House.” Haig was constitutionally inaccurate while at the same time functionally correct. However, his ill-considered wording set off a flurry of speculation about the severity of the president’s health and contributed, temporarily, to exacerbate a national crisis.

Into the storm
Whether you have news vans swarming your office, incessant phone and email inquiries from eager reporters or angry customers (and sometimes employees; and sometimes all three at once) inundating you with demands for answers, the evidence of a full-blown crisis situation involving you or your business becomes hard to ignore once the word is out.

I’ve stood next to, and sometimes in front of, countless business leaders facing all of the above scenarios (save the Reagan assassination attempt). What I can tell you is these crisis situations are jarring experiences for even the most seasoned business leaders.

In my recent series of articles on crisis communications, I’ve noted there are four essential stages of a crisis: discovering the crisis, disclosure of the crisis, managing the crisis and completion of the crisis. Here I’ll talk about the most challenging stage: managing the crisis.

Who is in charge here?
Once the underlying issues are front and center for your audience(s), you will quickly find yourself in full-fledged crisis management mode. There is a lot to do, and never enough time to do it.

And if I haven’t beat this drum enough in other articles on this topic, let me again note that this stage is significantly less horrifying if you already have a crisis communications plan in place.

Assuming you do not have a crisis communications plan in place and have not had a lot of lead time to prepare for this crisis scenario, there are several things you will need to do all at once after related details have made it into the wider world. The first is to establish a chain of command.

Often, in a crisis, the CEO may not be the best person to lead the crisis response. He or she may have other mission critical responsibilities or may serve as the spokesperson in some situations. What you’ll need is a small but empowered group to keep the assessment and response process moving. Every organization will approach this differently, but legal counsel and your public relations representative are essential members of this team.

What’s going on?
Next you need to quickly, but accurately ascertain the facts of the situation. Gather as much verifiable information on the situation as possible. This includes speaking to those involved, reviewing any related documentation, and in many cases trying to establish a timeline of events. In fast moving situations, you typically have about 15 to 30 minutes to do so.

While you’re gathering the facts, you’ll also need to prepare a holding statement to respond to inquiring media, as well as for use on your brand’s social media channels. You may also need a slight variation on your holding statement for internal audiences (e.g., employees, managers, vendors, boards of directors, investors, etc.).

Once you’ve compiled your facts, you need to more fully respond to the media beyond your holding statement. Attorneys will advise most business leaders to say little or nothing at all. They are thinking about potential litigation issues, and rightly so. However, as we advise clients facing crisis situations, there is the court of law and the court of public opinion. One of those allows you many appeals. The other, just one.

During any crisis, your legal team and your public relations professionals should work together to determine what can be included in a statement that still addresses any legal concerns. There is always something you can say. Under no circumstances should a business ever issue a “no comment” to a crisis situation. The negative publicity a “no comment” generates can be substantial.

What can we say?
Every good crisis statement should follow another simple formula:
• Acknowledge the situation
• Tell the truth
• Tell what you know/lay out the facts as you have them
• Don’t speculate on what you don’t know
• Highlight any immediate, corrective action the business is taking to address the current issue
• Reference, if possible, what steps you will take to ensure such a situation cannot happen in the future

You also have to decide if your statement will be written or delivered by a spokesperson. If it is written, how will it be delivered? If it’s meant to be read, who will read it? Has that person been media trained? Will they take questions? What will they do if they get a question for which they are unprepared?

Throughout all of the above activity, you also need to ensure your organization is speaking with one voice as well as directing inquiries to the right personnel.

Who is handling customer calls or complaints? Do they have instructions on how to reply to certain issues? What if reporters start dialing your phone tree randomly? Does everyone in the company know what to say and to whom they should direct any random media inquiries? What’s been told to the employees, board members, investors and other staff? What about vendors? Has anyone reached out to them? Who is monitoring your social media? And has that person made sure to cancel any scheduled social content that has the potential to worsen the current crisis situation?

Who is talking about us?
From the outset, you need to begin monitoring what is being said about your company. On social media, in the press, by employees, etc. Your response to any crisis can define the situation in many cases. How the public at large reacts to your statement, what they say online and off, will shape all that comes after for your business. This is precisely why a crisis communications plan is critical. No company that wants to remain in business should be “making it up as they go” while trying to save that business during a crisis. How a statement is received, how it is believed, and how it is shared plays an outsized role in any crisis situation.

To monitor effectively, companies in crisis should use monitoring tools for online media as well as social channels. Google Alerts are a simple, free tool. A range of social media dashboards can help ascertain what is being discussed about your business, which is often not on your business’s social media channels. Your communications team or outside public relations agency should be able to provide other professional monitoring tools to assist with keeping an eye on timely press coverage and social channels.

Talk to employees. Get feedback from managers. Contact your most trusted vendors and ask what they are hearing. It’s also possible, through this monitoring process, that your business may have to issue future statements or updates to the press and others to best manage the situation.

When will we know more?
Crisis events can be brief or linger for weeks. They can also come roaring back into the spotlight months and even years later if managed poorly during the original event. Each crisis has a life of its own, and each is subject to the nature of the situation, time and circumstance. No one should assume a crisis facing their business will only last a single news cycle.

With all things related to business crisis situations, my advice is always to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

In my final note on this series about the four stages of any crisis, I’ll detail what must be done when the crisis ultimately subsides. I’ll talk about how to gather lessons learned to both better the organization and how to begin the hard work of repairing any reputation damage the business and its leadership team might have suffered.

The biggest mistake business and other organization leaders make during a crisis is not knowing they are already in a crisis. It sounds odd, but it can be alarmingly easy to miss the early stages of an unfolding crisis and devastating for those caught unprepared.

As I have written previously, expertise in managing crisis communications is essential. So too is having a well-considered plan.

Too many business leaders believe a crisis doesn’t start until the excrement hits the oscillating unit; in other words, when the situation is discovered by shareholders, customers, the media, the public at large and so forth. And while news spreads fast, bad news travels 10 times as fast thanks to the eternal 24-hour news cycle and omnipresent social media.

Photo by Dario Veronesi on Unsplash

A Test for Crises

It’s not complicated to determine if your business or organization is in crisis. If you answer yes to two or more of the following questions, your crisis has already begun whether you realize it or not:

1. If I do nothing, could this situation get worse?
2. Will the business or its leadership be viewed negatively if word gets out?
3. Does any aspect of this situation have the potential to attract media attention?
4. Could news of this situation hurt or hinder normal operation of the business?

Once you determine you have a crisis situation on your hands, it’s important to know every crisis, regardless of its origin or complexity, follows a cycle. Different crisis communications firms have different ways of classifying the stages of a crisis. For me, the essential stages of any crisis include: Discovering the crisis, disclosure of the crisis, managing the crisis and completion of the crisis.

Stage One: Uh-oh

The first stage is when someone realizes there might be cause for concern. Using the four questions above, this is when an individual or group of individuals begins to recognize the organization has a problem.

This is also the stage where, if you have a crisis communications plan already in place, you can best prepare your team to weather the crisis and mitigate damage. Absent a plan, organizations need to engage experienced crisis communications professionals as soon as possible. Even a few hours or days to prepare with the business’ leadership team can make a significant difference in any outcomes.

However, too often, business leaders believe this early stage doesn’t yet signal an actual crisis that requires action. I’ve heard a range of rationalizations for hesitating: Maybe it will go away; no one knows yet; there’s still time to figure it out; I don’t want to spend money dealing with something that might not happen; we’ll deal with it when and if something happens; etc.

Valuable time is wasted by not acting quickly at this early stage. What many business leaders fail to realize is even if the situation doesn’t come to light immediately, that doesn’t mean it won’t pop up at some undefined point in the future. And sometimes that delayed revelation adds to the damage because then it is clear that leadership knew something was wrong and failed to act. Also, by working to address the urgent issue at hand, businesses without a crisis plan in place are laying the foundation for handling future crisis situations. As they tackle the issue of the moment, they are essentially making it more manageable and, sometimes, more affordable to later build a long-term crisis communications plan.

Waiting until the situation is disclosed (by forces either within or outside of the business) puts your organization at maximum risk. At that point, any crisis communications professional you engage can only help business leaders ride the wave. The opportunity to define the narrative, to mitigate some of the damage, has passed. Once disclosure of the situation occurs, absent some form of a plan, most businesses risk being defined completely by the crisis rather than defining how it addressed the crisis and how it plans to resolve it.

Don’t Wait

The best advice is this: If you use the litmus test provided here and find your business or organization is at risk, recognize you are already in a crisis. Don’t wait until that situation causes irrevocable harm to your business or its reputation. Act quickly.

Being as proactive as possible will help ensure you can weather the crisis at hand, and possibly provide the beginnings of a plan to avoid or at least better manage another crisis in the future. Like insurance, spending money to prepare a crisis communications plan is never wasted. Absent insurance – in this case, a crisis communications plan – the costs are far higher.

In my next post I’ll talk about the disclosure stage of a crisis and what that sometimes looks like. Meanwhile, if you have questions or believe the time for your business or non-profit to prepare for a crisis is now, please contact our office at (610) 559-7585 or email me at rhughes@kimballpr.com.