PR Day 2008 returns to the University of Tennessee Friday, Nov. 14 with its theme: "The Practice and Science of Crisis Communication."

The event is hosted by UT's School of Advertising and Public Relations and Knoxville's chapters of the Public Relations Society of America and Public Relations Student Society of America. Barbara Reynolds, crisis communication specialist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the keynote speaker.

Workshops will take place throughout the day. Topics include:

• Beam Me Up, Scotty-Using Handheld Devices to Assist in Emergency Public Information
  • Oak Ridge Associated Universities' senior technical specialist Ron Edmund and emergency management specialist Mary Connelly present WeB-PIO, a PDA-based application for helping public information officers coordinate by allowing immediate sharing of the latest information concerning a crisis. Participants in this workshop will get hands-on experience creating, downloading, and beaming messages.
    • "One of the best first-session workshops should be the "Beam Me Up Scotty" workshop," Michael J. Palenchar, assistant professor in public relations and 2008 PR Day Committee co-chair, said.

• Crisis as Opportunity: Communicating for Organizational Renewal
  • Tim Sellnow and Robert Ulmer, co-authors of Effective Crisis Communication, discuss the nature and inevitability of crises, followed by a series of lessons on how to get a positive outcome from a crisis, all through communication tactics.
    • "I recommend 'Crisis as Opportunity: Communicating for Organizational Renewal' because the two presenters are nationally recognized experts in the field of crisis communication, who are coming in from out of town to share their respective views," Elizabeth Johnson Avery, public relations professor, said. "The two presenters have been doing some interesting research related to food safety and homeland security."

• Disaster Response: Internal and Cross-Agency Communication During a Crisis   
  • With health care in Knoxville spread among eight major hospitals, coordinating efforts during a high-casualty crisis is difficult but necessary. A panel of five representatives from area health organizations, including UT Medical Center and Regional Medical Communications Center, discuss the planning and communication strategies they employ. 
    • "The cross-agency communication workshop has people from our area talking about what they plan to do if something awful happens right here, to us," Brian Linville, a sophomore in public relations, said. "I mean, public relations major aside, that's gotta be interesting."

• The Next Crisis in Communications-- Not Marketing and Communicating to Hispanics (La Próxima Crisis en Comunicaciones-- No Hacer Marketing Hacia los Hispanos)
  • Four panelists, all actively involved in the growing Hispanic market, discuss the need to communicate with Hispanic people, and how the presence or absence of that communication will decide a business's future success or failure. The panel will also discuss how to communicate during a crisis with a population whose first language is not English. 

• Why Emergency Risk Communication is Different: The Psychology of Messaging During a Crisis 
  • Ron Edmund of Oak Ridge Associated Universities reveals why exactly communicating during a crisis is different than at any other time: People think differently during events that are unexpected, urgent, emotional, and high-stakes. Edmund discusses what organizations and spokespersons should consider while crafting public messages during emergencies.

• Crises, Public Outrage and Challenges of Meeting Societal Expectations: A FEMA Case Study 
  • Mary Beth West, principal of Mary Beth West Consulting, and Mike Cherenson, chair-elect of the Public Relations Society of America, have both worked directly with senior FEMA officials. They discuss FEMA's image after Hurricane Katrina and a "faux" press conference in 2007.  
    • "'Crises, Public Outrage and the Challenges of Meeting Societal Expectations: A FEMA Case Study' sounds the most interesting because it will allow the public to look inside the challenges the daily officials had to overcome during Hurricane Katrina," Morgan Howell, a junior in public relations, said. "FEMA is a prime example of why crisis communication is critical in the public relations world."

Early student registration is $25 and $30 for faculty, which includes lunch, but registration will continue until the beginning of the first session.