Effective Public Communication Following Emergencies

Understanding the risk environment and educating across the prevention, preparation, response and recovery spectrum

Campbell Darby DSC AM Director General Emergency Management Australia

Context
A social contract between Governments and their

society Challenges of the Information Age and the social media landscape Public expectations In complex crises how do we service the requirements levied by differing events, audiences, outcomes, and expectations.

Australian Strategies
National Strategy for Disaster

Resilience o Risk information to enable better decision making at all levels Consistency in leadership messages, warnings and preparatory advice Education programs

Multi layered communications

Some Takeaways

Be prepared to sell the hard message Use verbal pictures Refresh the messages regularly Once you have the credible spokesperson who connects with the public hang onto them Once in the media space fill it and stay there (there are multiple information sources for the public understand them) Information will be out there work with that and value add to join up the pieces Risk education during the peace will ease your task during the crisis.

Thank You