The Weekly Read

Khrushchev's Shoe: And other ways to captivate an audience of 1 to 1,000

By Roy Underhill 
ISBN-13: 978-0738206721

Public speaking is a critical part of communicating the preparedness message, delivering important safety information or assisting with the recovery after a disaster. And, whether that audience is the public, elected officials, stakeholders or the media, understanding how to capture the attention of your audience, maintain their interest and motivate them to act are skills that must be developed.

This book, written by Public Television's Woodwright Shop's host Roy Underhill, is an excellent place to begin your training. Underhill strikes to the heart of the matter, offering practical advice on how to read an audience, engage them throughout a presentation and call them to action afterward.

The title of the book is taken from a famous 1960 incident where Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev allegedly banged his shoe on a podium at the United Nations while denouncing an anti-Communist speech. While the incident may not have occurred, the gesture lives on as an example of how to draw attention to your message.

An easily approachable book, this is one that I keep handy and refer to frequently as I continue to polish my public presentation and speaking skills.

Tom Iovino, Public Information Specialist
Pinellas County, Florida
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomiovino

The Weekly Read

Emory's Excellent Crisis Communications on Facebook
Agnes + Day
August 25, 2014

A deadly, highly contagious disease spreading across western Africa. Medical aid workers from the United States contract that illness. A decision to bring them back to the United States for medical treatment.

It almost sounds like a great start to a thrilling book, but it was the reality faced by the Centers for Disease Control, Samaritan's Purse and Emory Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

An ambulance carrying one of the Ebola infected workers arrives at Emory Hospital

While the hospital is well equipped to handle patients infected with diseases such as Ebola, their system to handle public information through their social media outlets - especially Facebook - was untested. How would the public react to the decision to treat these two patients at a hospital in one of the country's largest cities? Would rumor and fear win the day?

This article, written by Melissa Agnes, analyzes how the hospital's brave decision to maintain its social media engagement helped to prevent rumor from taking control, kept the community connected to what was happening and - ultimately - won the respect and approval of the public.

Tom Iovino, Public Information Specialist
Pinellas County, Florida
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomiovino

The Weekly Read

Emergency Managers Stress the Need for Social Media Volunteers

Emergency Management Magazine

May 16, 2014

At this past spring's Governor's Hurricane Conference held in Orlando, David Merrick and the rest of his virtual operations support team (VOST) from Florida State University conducted an exercise to demonstrate how information could be effectively shared via social media. Creating a fictional event - flooding in the city of Duckville - conference attendees were given specific tasks to accomplish with their smart phones. The data was collected and analyzed to show just how effective these tools could be during an actual emergency.

While the exercise went off without too many glitches, one interesting challenged was posed by the National Hockey League. At the time of the conference, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks were in the hockey playoffs, using the same hashtag - #quackattack. While this proved to be a little confusing at times, it showed some of the potential snags using social media.

Tom Iovino, Public Information Specialist
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomiovino

The Weekly Read

The Unthinkable: Who survives when disaster strikes – and why?
By Amanda Ripley
ISBN-13: 978-0307352903

When emergency planners think about disaster response, they often take a look at the sociology of how people as a group respond to disaster. However, as Ripley points out in her exceptionally well-written book, there is a tremendous amount of psychology to study in the individual’s personal response to risk and crisis situations.

With personal stories pulled from the accounts of survivors of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, September 11, Hurricane Katrina and other disasters, she describes the arc of behavior that all of us go through when faced with imminent danger – disbelief, then deliberation, then action.

By studying how we respond to risk and danger, emergency planners can create new, more effective methods of communicating the need for preparedness and the proper response.

Tom Iovino, Public Information Specialist
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomiovino