Congress Report: Experts' Recommendations on Enacting Best Practices in Risk and Crisis Communication

Experts' recommendations on enacting best practices in risk and crisis communication research can help practitioners deal with the ambiguity, contradiction and imperfection inherent in risks and crises (Palenchar, 2010), but only if research reaches practitioners. To help transition academic research to practice, researchers often craft lists of best practices. In 2006, Seeger compiled a list of the top 10 risk and crisis communication best practices from a literature review. To update those best practices, as well as formally validate them, we analysed interviews and documents from a 2-day workshop, held in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 2012, which sought ways to bridge the knowledge gaps in risk and crisis communication practice. The workshop brought 21 experts in risk and crisis communication together to discuss the field's current state, where best practices currently exist and where to make improvements to build future trainings. Eleven experts were academic researchers and 10 were practitioners. Also attending were four facilitator–researchers who were also experts in risk and crisis communication and the Department of Homeland Security project sponsor. Participants were selected based on a variety of factors, including their recognized risk and/or crisis communication expertise, extensive experience researching and/or managing a wide variety of crises/risks, and geographical diversity.