Identity to Share Crisis Expertise at PRSA ICON 2023

Identity is heading to Nashville this week for PRSA ICON 2023! Not only to learn from the best and brightest in our industry, but to share our own expertise as well. 

ICON is the Public Relations Society of America’s international conference—an annual industry highlight where public relations practitioners from across the country and around the globe come together to discuss our industry’s latest trends and solutions. PRSA ICON isn’t just an opportunity to connect with fellow PR pros. It’s an amazing educational opportunity with a behind-the-curtain look at campaigns and other strategic planning, including those we’ve admired and others we’ve architected ourselves. 

PRSA ICON 2023

This week’s PRSA ICON is extra special, because Identity will be presenting as part of the Crisis Communications Boot Camp. This full-day interactive session will feature expert insights from leading crisis communications specialists from across the U.S., all digging deep into an ever-important aspect of PR. 

Andrea Trapani, Brandon Chesnutt and I will share valuable lessons learned from our agency’s role in navigating impactful crisis moments, with a particular emphasis on the times when local incidents became national news. As part of our panel, we’ll talk about the expertise, perspective, and experiences that have led our team to build strategic, authentic, and nimble crisis responses in real time. 

Why Focus on Crisis

Reputation, issues, and crisis management is a small piece of the broader public relations spectrum, but this necessary skill requires us to be both thoughtful and lightning quick in any response. As an agency, we take great pride in the myriad ways we have operationalized and refined our approach to crisis management, particularly in the past three-plus years. 

Unexpected moments happen all the time, both inside organizations and out in the world. Being prepared is a non-negotiable. Over the years, we have built a proven process for these types of situations, from internal communications to external messaging and modern and effective media relations strategies. As part of that process, we deploy a wide range of different tools and reports to package information quickly and efficiently for clients and stakeholders. 

Our expertise helps prepare brands and organizations navigate some of the most heartbreaking and difficult situations, and to back up their messaging and communications with meaningful and authentic action. We are regularly at the helm of complex crisis situations spanning from labor and employment issues to fatalities, helping clients across our portfolio in industry verticals ranging from hospitality and commercial real estate to food service and civic work. 

While often sobering, crisis and issues management work is also rewarding. The dedication of our team to our craft has enabled us to emerge as a trusted partner and expert source of crisis communications counsel for clients who need guidance in unexpected and challenging times, and gain recognition as an industry leader and go-to resource.

Continued Learning

To be leaders in our field, we embrace the journey—one of our core values—to continually further our education and development as individuals and as a team of gamelovers. We always strive to make thoughtful and intentional moves to expand and evolve our perspective, and sharing our expertise with others is an important part of that process. 

At PRSA ICON 2023, we’ll be both active participants and learners. We’re proud to put our hard-earned crisis expertise to work this week, to enlighten others with what we know about this fast-changing industry segment and to contribute our own experiences to the crisis communications conversation. After all, discussing shared challenges and outcomes enables us to ultimately create better strategies and provide better counsel.