My First Crisis Simulation... What happened and Why?

I had the chance on Wednesday 27th February at University to be involved in a Crisis Simulation (A crisis simulation is experiencing and reacting to a situation when it goes wrong, being careful not to damage the company or organisations reputation).

It was an exciting day because I got to work with some students I hadn't worked with before. It was a really good way to talk and communicate with people who I wouldn't with usually. The people in my group were made up of PR, Marketing and Masters students.

Although it was great to socialise, the day was also stressful because we were under a lot of time pressure which made the jobs to do throughout the day really intense.

At particular parts of the day, we were given a new set of information and work to do by a certain deadline. The first one was set at 10:15am. We had to create some materials to promote an event happening at an organisation. However, we were then set with the crisis of a call which had come in at 11am. After hearing about this call, we were then creating content, keeping an eye on social media followers and reflecting on the day all at the same time as well as trying to keep the reputation of the organisation positive.

We had to create a presentation to present at the end of the day what we learnt and all of the findings. Our group won which gave me alot of confidence and made me feel great because if this happened in real life, I feel in myself I would be able to respond to a crisis simulation in a positive and strategic way.

We also met one of the Chancellors of Solent University, former Dragon Theo Paphitis and we got to tell him what we were up to during the day. He was a really lovely guy and is a great person to represent Solent.

Overall I had a great day and I believe that crisis simulations are really important and would help companies and organisations prepare for these types of situations because you never know whats round the corner.