One incident, five stories: what flydubai FZ1073 tells us about who owns a crisis
March 2015, October 2026 On 26 March 2015, two days after Germanwings flight 4U9525 crashed in the French Alps, the Marseille public prosecutor met the families, then stepped in front of the press. Until that moment, we at Lufthansa had been communicating about an accident. But within minutes it had become something else entirely –…
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We Are All Disaster Survivors Now
We have hosted more than 40 events since the Crisis Communications Network was launched in 2021. There are too many highlights to list here. But for me personally, the chance to interview one of my crisis and disaster management heroes, Professor Lucy Easthope, is right up there. Lucy is the UK’s foremost authority on recovering…
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Genesis: Looking Back at the First Five Years of the Crisis Communications Network
It started with a simple idea. By late summer 2020 the world felt like a very different place from the one we had known only months before. All the old rhythms of life had stopped but nothing had yet replaced them. The atmosphere was saturated with uncertainty, dread and a genuine sense of chaos. Confidence…
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Sixteen Time Zones, 10 Key Themes, And Four Experts in The Field: Our Back to Work Reputation, Risk and Resilience Symposium
This is the fourth year of our Special Advisor, Rod Cartwright’s, ground-breaking report, which essentially provides an annual summary and analysis of the most important global reports on reputation, risk and resilience. Rod’s 2026 edition covered 12 major publications – almost 850 pages of original source material – from organisations including Aon, AXA, Edelman, International…
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Crisis Communication for Boards: A Handbook for Good Governance – Key Take-Aways from the Pre-Launch Preview Event
Panel: Katherine Sykes (Chair), Farzana Baduel, Philippe Borremans, Amanda Coleman, Kerry Knight, Stephen Waddington The pre-launch preview of Crisis Communication for Boards: A Handbook for Good Governance on Friday, 11 September 2026 brought together leading practitioners and governance experts to discuss one of the most pressing challenges facing modern organisations: how boards can better anticipate, prepare for, manage and recover from crises. Hosted…
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Strategic Communications and Good Governance: Why Every Boardroom Needs Communications Expertise
For decades, boards have understood that finance, audit, legal and risk expertise are essential to effective governance, while treating strategic communications as optional, something to be consulted when needed rather than embedded in decision-making. However, that assumption is no longer tenable in today’s risk environment. Crisis Communication for Boards: A Handbook for Good Governance, published by…
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From Prediction to Recovery: Why the Crisis Lifecycle Matters to Boards
In a world of fast-moving risk, heightened scrutiny and narrowing room for error, boards need to understand the full lifecycle of crisis and why strategic communication is central not only to response but to risk management, preparedness and good governance. The Crisis Communications Network’s new handbook, Crisis Communication for Boards: A Handbook for Good Governance, has…
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Crisis Communication for Boards: Introducing a New Handbook from the Crisis Communications Network
Hold the date! Join us on 11 September for an exclusive pre-launch preview of Crisis Communication for Boards, written and published by the CIPR Crisis Communications Network. Our new handbook, which is published by CIPR in association with the Institute of Directors (IoD), promises to shift how directors, trustees and non-executives think about the role strategic…
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When You Can’t Control the Story: Transparency in a Cyber Crisis
There is a moment in every serious cyber incident that communications teams rarely talk about. It is the moment you realise the story is already being written elsewhere; and the author does not have your best interests in mind. Imagine that someone has posted a countdown on a dark-web leak site. A researcher on the…
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Takes from BledCom 2026
BledCom is an annual international public relations and communication management symposium held in Bled, Slovenia. Established in 1994, it bridges theory and practice by bringing together scholars, practitioners, and students from around the world to discuss key themes in corporate communication, public affairs, and reputation management. This year, 2026, BledCom focused on disaster, health and…
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