Sharon Bleese, Crisis Communication Diploma

When I did the CIPR crisis communication diploma I was Coastal Manager, leading communications for a coastal partnership of three councils responsible for 92km of some of the fastest eroding coastline in north west Europe.

With a changing climate and an increasing number of storms, it was recognised at board level that we needed some additional expertise on the team.  I had already done my CIPR PR Diploma with PR Academy, had become Chartered and was on my 11th cycle of CPD – so a CIPR qualification was the obvious place to look to gain the expertise we needed. 

 It taught me about planning and preparedness.  I now include elements from the bow tie scenario planning model in every comms plan I do.  For example, we had to deal with a potential difficult situation which was covered by the media but all the pre planning we did I believe resulted in straightforward factual, neutral coverage.

Crisis Communication diploma