Integrate! Marketing Communication 2009
6 February 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania, Crowne Plaza Vilnius (M. K. Čiurlionio 84, Vilnius)


Crisis Management and PR


Andres Wittermann (Germany) is Executive Vice-President for Europe, Middle East and Africa at LEWIS Global Public Relations, an independent global PR company.
Mr Wittermann has already spoken in Lithuania twice: he presented findings of a corporate blogging survey at the marketing conference E-Virus 2007 and led a full-day seminar in 2008 in Vilnius. On both occasions, he was highly evaluated by Lithuanian marketing and PR professionals.

Mr Wittermann started his career as a journalist in 1988 and worked for Die Welt, VDI Nachrichten, F.A.Z., etc. He has been working in PR since 1990.

In 1997, Mr Wittermann founded LEWIS Communications Germany as the first international LEWIS subsidiary. He was General Manager for LEWIS Germany from 1997 to 2003. Then he took the position of Vice President Operations Europe at LEWIS with the overall responsibility for managing European offices outside the UK: in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. He currently also leads LEWIS‘s expansion and opening new offices.

Mr Wittermann is responsible for strategic leadership of pan-European and global PR campaigns including Siemens UGS PLM Software, Sanyo Fisher, Second Life.

9.00-9.30          Registration and welcome coffee

9.30-11.00        Session 1. The Age of Crisis PR: why Web 2.0 Puts Crisis PR at the Centre of Corporate Communications

The corporate communication function becomes a central part of crisis management. In the Web 2.0 era companies and organisations are more exposed and easily accessible to consumers and other target groups. Public monitoring of, and access to, company information becomes more readily available.

Therefore, in such business environment dealing with crises has become a key element in PR. In the introductory session, the lecturer will provide crisis management case studies: examples of recent crisis scenarios and crises that gone right or wrong.

11.00-11.30      Coffee break

11.30-13.00      Session 2. Getting Ready for Crises

The best crisis management strategy is to prevent a crisis. This is possible if due preparations are made and preventive measures are in place. Session 2 will cover how you can spot, and deal with, a crisis before it hits you. To succeed in crisis prevention efforts, companies need to monitor trends, names and issues prevailing in their business environment.

Pre-crisis PR: crisis team members and their roles, crisis definitions and categorisations. The seminar participants will hear practical advice how to get ready for a crisis and crisis PR.

13.00-14.00       Lunch

14.00-15.20       Session 3. Dealing with a Crisis

How to deal with a crisis when it actually hits? Session 3 will provide recommendations, crisis management checklists and a summary of typical crisis PR training how to handle the media in a crisis.

15.20-15.40      Coffee break

15.40-17.00       Session 4. Dealing with the Social Media

The nature of media relations function should change in line with the changing media landscape. The rising social media bring in new rules. Social media are comprised of consumers rather than professional journalists. They may be opinion leaders whose impact on other consumers may be enormous. Information travels very fast within online communities.

How to deal with negative comments, blogs and opinions in social networks? How to pre-empt negative information about the company on the internet? These issues will be covered and some useful tips will be provided in the final session of the seminar.

17.00-18.00       A farewell glass of wine