Are you in the midst of a breaking crisis? Call +1 (514) 458-7101

In the midst of a crisis? Call +1 (514) 458-7101

Speaking Engagements

Speaking Engagements

Delivering memorable presentations that both educate and entertain your audience.

Melissa Agnes educates businesses and organizations on what it means to be crisis-ready in today’s wired world. Her speaking style is vibrant, personal, energetic and engaging. Every presentation is customized, both before and in the moment, in order to meet the needs and level of comprehension of each audience. Melissa leaves her audience with actionable takeaways, so that they can do what matters most: begin to implement key strategies right away.

About Melissa

Melissa Agnes

Melissa Agnes, President and co-founder of Agnes + Day Inc., has developed an international reputation for crisis management and crisis training by helping large global brands prevent and manage a range of corporate issues and crises. Her client list includes Fortune 500 companies, as well as public, private and not-for-profit organizations. Read more+

Presentation topics

Each presentation topic below is customized for your audience, and available as an engaging presentation or as a hands-on workshop (Click on each for more information).

Internet risks and your organization

Today’s always on, social world presents many new risks to organizations, both internally and externally. This presentation can work two ways: either internally where Melissa explores the risks that pertain directly to your organization and team, along with best practices for managing these risks; or in a conference setting where the group discusses and explores the many risks that social media and the Internet present to organizations and/or the common industry in general. Whichever setting this presentation takes place in, Melissa leaves her audience with clear takeaways and actionable steps for managing new, existing and potential online risks.

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The new rules of crisis communications

The new rules of crisis communications include things like: two-way, real-time, optimization, Twitter-friendly and responsiveness. However, these best-practices and minimum requirements have proven easier said than done. In a crisis, an organization’s audience has certain expectations of that organization. Failing to meet these expectations can amplify the crisis, send it going viral, and can result in many more long-term negative consequences on the organization’s reputation and bottom line than needed. Within this presentation, Melissa explains the depth of the public’s expectations in a crisis, and shares the 10 new rules of crisis communications that, when used proficiently, will enable the audience to be seen as a crisis communications pro.

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Master customer service in today’s social world

Customer service is no longer limited to answering the phone and dealing with customers face to face. Today’s leading organizations have learned to leverage tools like social media and the Internet to position their brand as having top quality – and memorable – customer care. But with these tools come new risks that customer service teams need to be aware of and able to manage. Within this presentation, Melissa focuses on teaching customer service representatives:

  • What it means to provide excellent customer service in this digital age
  • What social media platforms best serve as excellent customer service tools
  • The types of risks and issues that are prone to arise – and how and when to respond

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The frontline’s role in your issues management

An organization’s frontline has unique and important responsibilities today: to develop relationships with key audiences, to answer questions in real-time, to properly represent the brand… and the role of issues management. Within this presentation, Melissa discusses the impact the frontline has on an organization’s issues management. The goal is to leave the frontline understanding:

  • Their responsibilities
  • The consequences of their actions
  • How to detect developing issues
  • When to jump in and respond, and when to allow the conversation to develop on its own
  • How to turn an issue into a positive PR opportunity for the brand
  • When to escalate the issue to the organization’s crisis management or executive team

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Master issues management in this digital era

There are crises and there are issues. Crises have a level of urgency and impact that make them worthy of their title. Issues, on the other hand, have three possible outcomes: to die out on their own, to develop into crises, or to be transformed into positive PR opportunities for the organization. With the introduction of social media, issues management has become a skill that organizations need to leverage more and more frequently. Within this presentation, Melissa teaches her audience:

  • The difference between a crisis and an issue
  • How to detect the red flags of a developing issue
  • How to assess and evaluate the potential impact of any given issue
  • How and when to respond to an online issue
  • The key steps to turning an issue into a positive PR opportunity

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Manage your online reputation

Your online reputation is your reputation. Point finale. Everything you say and do online impacts your reputation – and everything your employees, team members, colleagues and clients say and do online risks impacting your organization’s reputation as well. So how are you supposed to manage your online reputation in today’s wired world? How can you enable your organization’s online reputation to be crisis-ready, crisis-strong and not vulnerable to what others may or may not publish about you online? This presentation will teach your audience what they need to know when it comes to protecting, managing and strengthening their online reputation.

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Learn to leverage and manage Twitter in a crisis

Twitter is the social media platform that dominates the dissemination of news, information and discussions in a crisis. In fact, no matter where a crisis originates, one thing’s almost always for sure: that it will have some sort of presence on Twitter – a presence that your audience needs to be able to respond to, manage and leverage. Within this presentation, Melissa discusses the importance of Twitter for crisis communications, and provides your audience with key strategies and tactics to, not just manage Twitter in a crisis, but to go a step further and create crisis communications that are Twitter-friendly.

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Crisis simulations

Agnes + Day’s crisis simulations are more than just a presentation or a workshop, they’re an unforgettable experience!

With the clock ticking and the crisis unfolding before the audience’s very eyes, it is up to them to assess the situation, communicate effectively with their key stakeholders, and ultimately, work together to resolve the crisis in the least amount of time and with the least amount repercussions as possible.

These simulations can work one of two ways: either for specific key members within an organization’s crisis management or senior executive team; or for a group of attendees, all from different organizations, who are interested in putting their crisis management skills to the test.

In a crisis simulation everything seems real, blood pressure is raised and invaluable crisis management lessons are not just learned but experienced first-hand.

Prior to the simulation, you will work closely with Melissa to identify the most targeted and strategic crisis or issue situations to simulate for your audience.

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