Marketing & Communications Working Group - 02 March 2016

The Marketing & Comms Working Group met for their first time this year on 02 March 2016, at International Confex, Olympia London. Member venues were well represented at the meeting, and the group also welcomed some new members.

At the last meeting it was agreed a speaker on crisis communications would be arranged for this meeting. The AEV, with help from the Chair of the group Jazmin Beale, arranged for Magnus Carter, principal consultant of Crisis Mentor, to present to the group.

The presentation covered how to safeguard your reputation when things go wrong, including looking at examples of how companies and individuals have dealt with crises, and whether these were handled well or not. In his presentation, Carter also covered the different stages of a crisis, how to manage your reputation, how to identify the risks and how to handle things when they go wrong. Also included was a page-by-page guide on how to get started with a crisis communications plan. Following on from this presentation, members provided the group with updates from their respective venues. The group has decided to add CRM systems and value of trade advertising as discussion topics for the next meeting