CULTURAL PR CONFERENCE 2012

Keeping a cool head in a crisis How to stay calm and in control when the unexpected happens and things go wrong... This session offers honest case studies and sound advice from colleagues at Arts Council England and the National Gallery.

Who am I? My varied more than 20 year career across the media and arts has seen me programme controlling radio stations, working as a journalist for ITN Radio and as the Business Development Manager for two theatres. I have worked at the National Gallery, London for 6 years as well as running my own PR and Marketing agency Brera (www.breralondon.com) which represents wide variety of clients from airports, theme parks and Cultural Olympiad projects to restaurants and estate agents. I am also presenter on Southend Radio 105.1 and Chelmsford Radio 107.7. And yes, if you are thinking you recognise me I was a contestant on Come Dine With Me.

Headlines There are 2 types of crisis - the ones you have planned for, and the ones you have not! There are situations that you know are going to be high risk to your organisation and so you brainstorm and think about all the worst case scenarios in advance and plan for them And then there are situations where you dont know things are going to happen and so its all about how you deal with them. Its all about having systems in place so that everyone knows exactly what to do when it happens. I am going to touch on the first, but the second is possibly more the killer one....

PREPARED CRISIS

At the NG we are very good at being quite anal and looking at everything and asking the question Is there a risk here we need to be prepared for? and then making sure we have the tools in place Its about getting the right information Deciding the key messages (what you want the public to know / think about your organisation) Putting together Q&A and statements and then getting them agreed so everyone is singing off the same hymn sheet And it is not just external Communications, it is internal Communications too very often that gets ignored.

The best example of this I have is the current Leonardo exhibition. We knew it was going to be huge and we knew it came with problems so 3 months before it opened we all sat down in the Communications team with Front of House, Curator etc and had a brainstorm over what the risks were. Serious threats Attack on a painting Bomb

Reputational threats 30 November public sector unions strike Staff security protest/strike Anti-capitalism protest. Overcrowding Lack of ticket availability Corporate access Late opening Treatment of people with disabilities / old

Intellectual/reputational threats

Salvator Mundi La Bella Principessa For all of the above we worked up draft statements and Q&A, which were agreed weeks before the show even opened and then

the whole Press (and Information as they are public facing too) team were briefed on what they were to answer Thank goodness no bombs or slashing, but everything else we have had to use! Great for staff as they feel confident and prepared when answering questions, and shows we are organised and responsive and most importantly we are all sticking to a consistent line There is nothing worse than you looking woolly in front of journalists if you act with confidence (even if you are panicking like hell) ....even bored with the subject ... you can often persuade them something is a non-story. Dont let them smell the blood!

UNPREPARED CRISIS These are the situations that suddenly happen and have to be dealt with and there are two simple rules to coping with this.... BE PREPARED GOOD COMMUNCIATION Be prepared You might not know what is going to happen and when, but that does not stop you having a system in place in your organisation (however large or small) that people know is what they have to do when a crisis occurs. At the NG when something happens during opening hours, after calling the Security office / Directors Office / Conservation (if required) then absolutely the next step is calling the Press Office and giving them any information they have. If it is Out of Hours, then they will have a sheet telling them who they need to call so you are aware within a few minutes of something happening and can start to react to it. News is SO fast moving these days and with the rise of blogs and Twitter etc everyone thinks they are a journalist so you have to be quick and on it. Its not next day coverage any more, its next minute. Good communication its about all staff knowing this and following procedures when something happens. Sometimes it can fall down (we had an incident during NG open hours and the first the Press Office knew was when Newsnight called asking about it the team leader had got so embroiled in the incident he had forgotten to call the Press Office) but if you are clear with all your staff that in the digital edge the institutions

reputation can stand on a knife edge then they get with the programme. And its all about communication during the incident everyone staying in contact with each other so the information can be regularly updated. Eg, one member of security or staff member is useful at the scene of the crisis to feed back to the Press Office and keep us updated. Getting a statement together That is the first priority so you have something to give to the press asap. Golden Rule NEVER say no comment (they love it give examples from my time as a journalist) there is actually lots of ways you can say loads without actually saying very much! Statement should be purely factual stick to the Golden 6 questions, and it is all you need WHO WHAT WHY WHEN WHERE HOW Always end by saying you will have more later leaves the impression you are trying to help and then keep updating the statement as you go along. Give them time for a next update as part of the statement. You must give the facts that have been gathered from reliable sources and confirmed. Don't over reach and don't speculate Show concern for the public and for your employees always and you are on the right track. If your employees and customers don't feel like insiders, they are going to act like outsiders. Be reactive rather than proactive Be as helpful as possible get them onside offer to call back with more facts (charm really does help!) Often radio would like you to read a statement so they have an audio clip....

Always speak to them straight away if you leave a gap and they are on deadline they will end up running something unsubstantiated just to get it in ... even if it is only to say you are working on it and to ask them to bear with you and ask for a little more time. Be humble, be charming... and there is nothing wrong with flirting! Keep a note of all the media you speak to so you are able to check out their coverage Correct if necessary or it will spread like wildfire and you end up in a worse mess as people rip stories constantly (we had a story about the Leonardo entrance numbers in the Daily Mail Leonardo and within an hour it was global as it was copied again and again and it took us ages to damp it down). Does an interviewee need to be nominated? They are after a story and so if you will not speak to them then someone else will even if it is you reading a statement or answering questions from it might do the trick Always ask the question what do I want people to think / feel about the Gallery as a result of this and reflect it through all you do...? Stay calm and do not get panicked.

The Poussin Incident Statement we used.... At 5.08pm on Saturday 16 July 2011, a panic alarm was set off in Room 19 of the National Gallery. A Gallery Assistant acted promptly and triggered the alarm after observing a person appearing to spray two of the paintings in the room with an aerosol can. The police were called at 5.10pm and arrived at the National Gallery at 5.19pm. A man has been arrested. The two paintings involved are both by Nicholas Poussin, The Adoration of the Golden Calf (1633-4) and The Adoration of the Shepherds (16334).

Both works are part of the National Gallery permanent collection. Prompt action by Conservation staff has ensured very little damage was sustained by the two works. The paintings have now been re-hung in Room 19. I was called right away by Head of Security, and then was asked to call Director and together we worked on a statement that we had within 20 minutes There was a camera phone picture of this done and went to the Observer. We kept updating the statement so within a few hours we were able to say that the pictures were fine and would be back on display which downplayed the story Sadly there has been a lot of publicity since over warding / strikes

Student Sit In Statement we used.... At approximately 4.45pm on Thursday 9 December a group of around 75 students began a sit-in in Room 43 of the National Gallery. They were protesting about the increase in student fees. The group remained in the National Gallery until around 7.20pm, when they agreed to leave peacefully. None of the paintings were damaged. Room 43 contains twenty-five paintings by Impressionist artists, including works by Manet, Monet, Renoir and Sisley. This was the Newsnight example Had lots of press turn up, so I went out to them but no extra people allowed in Social media played a part as they were tweeting from inside the NG

AFTERWARDS Always think how the story will play the next day, people will follow this up in the days and weeks afterwards and it will keep

coming back to haunt you. Have a statement ready. Think internal communications too youve been speaking to the media but what about your staff? Always do a debrief with the people involved asap afterwards to find out how it could have gone better articulate this knowledge in a document that is circulated so you can learn from the experience