Jamie is the Head of Communications at The University of Manchester, UK. He's worked at the University for around 10 years and prior to that at other UK universities and in the health service. In his current role he is responsible for managing the research communications, social media and media relations teams. He also plays a coordinating role in communicating major projects and crisis management across the University.
E-mail: Jamie.brown@manchster.ac.uk
This presentation with questions&Answers will be mainly focused on the following themes: Internal Communication, Student Engagement, Social media
Further topics will be wellbeing, media relations, crisis communications, reputation management
Please note this presentation will contain some information on terrorist attacks and sexual assault.
The University of Manchester has had to respond to many major crisis situations over the past six years. In some circles this has become known as ‘the permacrisis’. It is a situation which faces many universities in Europe and which we are all struggling to learn to deal with.
In my presentation I will cover the following events:
- The Manchester Arena Bombing
- A former student being convicted of being Britain’s worst serial rapist
- A global storm that resulted from putting up fences around halls during COVID lockdown
- A major cyber attack
- Other geo-political and ethical issues we have faced
At each turn the University communications team has learned to do things differently. For each example I will provide insight into how we developed in terms of:
- Our crisis response (including dealing with Twitter storms, out of hours working, forward planning)
- How we support our team and their wellbeing
- How we work more closely with our students and staff to include different voices in our comms
- How we also promote the positive work we do as a University
- How we evaluate our progress and work to improve each time
This is a Presentation (low to medium interaction) taking place in ROOM D4 (CLE first floor)