The 2010 Gulf Oil Spill (BP Spill, Deepwater Horizon, Macondo, etc.) was a singular event in emergency management and crisis communication. It was and is a game changer in public communication management like few other events.
My role in this event started in June of 1999. As a public affairs contractor to a major oil company, I was directly involved in the communications following a three fatality pipeline explosion in my hometown. Seeing the challenges of communicating in this kind of event, particularly in an event managed through ICS and where Joint Information Center protocols were used, I created the PIER System–Public Information Emergency Response. The first and still only full-spectrum web-based communication management system. My first customer for it was the US Coast Guard which went on to deploy it for agency-wide public affairs use. One of the first (of many) major oil companies to use it was BP. Consequently, the PIER team had worked with both the Coast Guard, BP and numerous other major oil companies in setting up PIER, strategizing public engagement using it, preparing PIER crisis sites for large events, and using it together in numerous major events including accidents, hurricanes, shipping accidents and many more.
On April 20, 2010, when the events began in the Gulf of Mexico, PIER was used by both the Coast Guard and BP to immediately begin their communication activities. Unified Command quickly engaged a PIER site which was the primary communications platform for, initially unified communications, and then government-directed communications until September 30.In addition to providing and supporting the platform, PIER Systems in coordination with its new parent company, O’Brien’s Response Management.
“Unending Flow” was my attempt to capture some of the important information about public communication in this event. It also attempts–admittedly an early one–to draw some important lessons learned. There are two versions of the case study available: a seven page executive briefing and a detailed 60 page report.
Since then, I have made numerous presentations to executives and public affairs personnel about the gulf spill, both in person and via web meetings. In these presentations, the focus is on helping executive leadership understand the tremendous changes that have gone on in the public information environment, the new way in which news organizations present the news, and a new and troubling time of public antagonism between major corporations and the federal agencies that regulate them. If you are interested in getting a copy of either version of “Unending Flow” or in scheduling a web meeting or in-person executive briefing, you can contact me at:
Gerald Baron
Agincourt Strategies, LLC
gerald.baron@agincourt.us
360-303-9123
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