12. PR & Communication Essentials for Biosafety Professionals:

A “how to” guide for working with media and others – media training, key message development and leveraging biosafety & SMEs within your organization

A distance learning opportunity – free for ABSA International Members
March 28, 2024
11:00 – 1:00pm (CDT)

Registration for the live webinar must be completed 1 business day prior to the start of the training.
Registrations received after will receive access to the recording only.

PR Essentials for Biosafety Professionals is a webinar for anyone who communicates with different audiences about biosafety. The course will provide a foundation in public relations practices including practical tips on how to: effectively communicate key biosafety messages to media and others within your organization; craft messages for different audiences, execute media training tactics and effectively position biosafety and yourself as the biosafety SME (Subject Matter Expert) within an organization. The webinar will highlight specific public relations techniques and media strategies, provide real-life scenarios, Dos and Don’ts for working with media and offer real-time discussions to apply lessons in practice-and-critique drills. At the end of this two-hour course, participants will have a baseline understanding of the importance of key message development, how to effectively work with members of the media (industry, trade, consumer) and how to leverage biosafety and subject matter expertise within an organization. The webinar will be led by communications experts with over 25 years’ experience developing and sharing messages with a wide variety of target audiences, including media.

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify why key messages are critical to an organization
• Determine what information needs to be included in a key message
• Recognize the need for key message development for internal and external audiences
• Develop messages for audiences and other groups in a way that resonates with them
• Recognize media opportunities, engage and deliver messages effectively
• Prepare for media opportunities including emerging, ongoing and crisis-related issues
• Advocate for the biosecurity and biosafety profession
• Describe when to ask for help

The webinar will be presented by the following subject matter experts:
Susan Stoga, BA, and Patricia Thomas, BA, Carson Stoga Communications, Schaumburg, IL

• Biosafety professionals in government, industry, academic and other institutions/organizations
• Anyone who regularly communicates about biosafety with the public or non-biosafety professionals

This course has been approved for 0.125 CM points toward RBP/CBSP recertification. ABSA International is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E.^® Program. This course is approved for 2.50 P.A.C.E.^® contact hours. The links to the various invitations for the course will be unique to the user and cannot be shared. The links are for single, individual use only. If more than one occurrence of an individual’s name is on the attendee list for the webinar through Zoom platform, all instances of that person’s name will be removed from the webinar with no refund. The webinar and its associated links are for single, individual use only.