Budget Simulations for PIO Training…

Most PIO’s and their managers are aware of the various types of media training that are available. Our firm, along with many others, can prepare elaborate simulations, complete with actors (many of them former reporters) throwing out questions for your staff. The simulation is enhanced with multiple cameras, bright lights, and even surround sound playback that can literally make the PIO feel like he/she is in the middle of a real breaking news event.

That’s great if you’ve got the budget, but many departments don’t. This usually means that PIO training is limited to being part of a larger annual exercise. Little or no thought is given to trying to simulate the environment that the Incident Commander, PIO, and other staffers might face in regards to the media.

Fortunately, there are some low cost options available that can go a long way towards preparing your staff to deal with a media firestorm. Various agencies of the government have produced similar simulations for use in their own excercise, and shared them with the larger EM community.

For example, the Department of Homeland Security produced these Windows Media Clips. Most deal with requests from the public, the media, and other stakeholders affected by a pandemic or bioterror event. But with some adjustment, they can still be useful for almost any scenario.

https://hseep.dhs.gov/hseep_vols/default1.aspx?url=home.aspx – on the
left look under multimedia Library – Video

Or these fake news clips, produced by the CDC to give a more realistic look at how a pandemic might play out on local newscasts.

http://jcrcny.org/Training/tabletopPanFluMOCK_NEWS.wmv

You can even find mock disaster footage on sources like YouTube. Try typing in searches for phrases like “mock disaster drill” or “Fake news stories”.

To make these materials more useful, consider asking someone to bring in a loud stereo or home theatre system from home. Some simple connections to your computer’s sound card, and you can fill a conference room with frightening sirens, and alarms…or simulate the sound of a large group of reporters.

The point of all this is to induce some of the physical and physcological effects of being involved in a real incident. Immersing your team in the sounds and visual environment of a crowded press conference will not only insure a more realistic exercise, but you’ll help to prepare them better for the real thing. All for little or no money.

Of course, none of this is a substitute for professional media training. Being able to handle the pressure of a press conference doesn’t prepare you for how to answer probing questions, or teach you to build critical relationships with the press before an incident, but it can go a long way towards building confidence in your team’s ability to handle such events.