Training

Chelgate provides in-house and externally-sourced media, political, and crisis training. We train clients for both Romanian and English-language interactions, and for EU and national-level political meetings.

Media training

Chelgate trains clients for interview on some of the most demanding live broadcast interview programmes, such as the BBC World Service’s flagship interview programme, “HARDTalk”, down to regional radio and television news. Our sessions train clients on basic presentational skills – how to sit, where to look, when to speak, how to pace an answer – to the tactical skills needed to handle a difficult interviewer posing aggressive questions. Our trainers have themselves faced interviews either as politicians or as professional spokespeople, and understand the pressure and unique challenges that come with live interview.

We also prepare our clients for written interview, and pre-recorded broadcast interviews. The latter are particularly hazardous: unlike a live interview, pre-recorded interviews can be edited selectively to suit the agenda of the journalist. In addition to this practical training, we also train our clients when to accept or reject an interview request, how to pre-brief journalists, and how to select an appropriate journalist or outlet for a given topic.

Crisis

We teach crisis preparedness skills in three ways. For all three, we deliver the service using in-house staff – we are leaders in this field, and have experience of a wide array of crises, from kidnappings to large-scale corporate fraud.

Firstly, we offer seminars or talks on crisis communication to management teams looking to improve their understanding and readiness. These sessions are charged at varying rates depending upon the seniority of the staff member delivering the session, upon the duration and depth of the session, and depending upon the size of the team receiving the training.

Secondly, we assist clients with the drafting of their crisis communications plans. The vast majority of crisis communications plans are drafted in ways that make them difficult or impossible to use in crisis: they are often too long to be read by the people who need them most, and too cumbersome to update regularly. Some can be obstructive to successful crisis management: preparation-by-scenario encourages interpretation of new crisis in terms of the pre-imagined scenarios, leading to inappropriate solutions being chosen. We draft short, essentials-only plans tailored closely to clients’ needs.

Thirdly, we run crisis scenario days for clients evaluating their crisis readiness. With the option to include live interview simulations, these days test the management’s thought processes, teamwork, understanding of existing protocols, and communication skills. Scenarios are wholly tailored to the client.

Political training

Chelgate delivers political training to clients preparing to interact with government, often in a face-to-face meeting, committee appearance, or set-piece speech.

Our training prepares clients for the experience they are likely to undergo in their political work, in particular ensuring clients feel confident that they can defend their interests coherently and convincingly when faced with political interest, pressure or hostility.