We all know the feeling of getting the page in the wee hours to respond to an incident that requires the attention of the public information office.
The attempted car bombing that took place in Times Square in NYC on Saturday evening is one such type of incident where the split second coordination of internal and external information to and from many departments is required.
An interesting incident took place at work late yesterday afternoon. I was sitting at my desk reading a copy of MEDIAWEEK when a colleague came into the office to report on a meeting he had attended. He asked if I had time to chat with him and I told him I was reading an article and could he shoot back in ten minutes. He gave me the strangest look and then I realized that I had committed the most heinous workplace crime of all – reading while on the job.
I always thought OnStar walked a fine line in their radio commercials when it comes to their first responder interaction.
On one hand their service provides motorists the opportunity of having an intermediary act on their behalf in an emergency.
An OnStar advisor, in an MVA for example, is automatically alerted as soon as air bags are deployed. Using GPS, the advisor is able to pinpoint the exact location of the accident and relay the information to a 911 dispatcher. This can save precious minutes in response time, especially when those involved in an accident do not know their exact location, or their injuries are so severe they cannot respond, do not have a cell phone or cannot call on a phone.
On the other hand, and this is where I object, their commercials make their advisors look like EMT’s, police experts and firefighters all rolled into one.
I want to thank Doug Walton who forwarded me this story from Gerald Baron who writes Crisisblogger. Baron’s blog for many years has provided some great insight into crisis communications. The blog should definitely be on your favorites list.
The post reviews the virtual communications response to the recent IRS Austin plane crash.
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