In an era when social media spreads news instantly, an NGO caught in a PR crisis has a golden response window of just 4 to 6 hours. Yet, when an incident breaks, many NGO practitioners tend to default to traditional routine of prioritising careful communication and team consensus over speed. This might miss the opportunity to set the narrative, handing control of public opinion to whistle-blowers and the media. By streamlining processes and strengthening real-time response capabilities, organisations can better seize critical moments to communicate proactively and shape public narrative.

This course breaks away from conventional statement-driven thinking and re-centres crisis response on one goal: rebuilding stakeholder trust. Participants will also learn to turn AI into your "crisis war-room advisers": analysing the situation in real time, drafting messages, and simulating how different parties will react.

The course distils crisis communications theory into simple, memorable field mnemonics, paired with the "service scandal" scenarios most commonly faced by the sector. Working in teams, participants will take part in hands-on response exercises that sharpen the decision-making, drafting and on-the-spot response skills. 

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

• Identify the nature and type of a crisis: learn to distinguish a "crisis" from an "incident" and a "complaint", and master the five major NGO crisis types and the response logic for each
• Build framework-based decision-making: use field mnemonics to make fast and effective communications decisions
• Partner up with AI: co-produce crisis statements, stakeholder messages and sentiment monitoring
• Develop stakeholder-map thinking: learn to prioritise different stakeholders and protect your most critical relationships from damage
• Strengthen your decision-making nerve: through simulation, practise making trade-offs under competing pressures: and explaining them convincingly 

1. Spotting a Crisis at a Glance: How to Correctly Identify a PR Disaster

• Recalibrating the definition of a crisis: what fundamentally separates a "crisis" from an "incident" or a "complaint"?
• The five major NGO crisis types: the crises Hong Kong organisations most commonly face, and the response logic for each
• The PR Crisis Thermometer: set subjective fear aside and use an objective framework to gauge the right level of response: read the crisis "temperature" and master the four major crisis communication strategies 
   

2. Controlling the Tempo: The Four-Step Protocol 

• The four steps: how to respond to a PR disaster appropriately
• The stakeholder map: when negative comments flood in from every direction, who deserves your response first? 
   

3. Telling the Story with AI: The Seven Building Blocks of a Crisis Statement 

• Five response postures: stand firm or apologise?
• The seven building blocks of a crisis statement
• AI's crisis role and red lines: guide AI to map context and simulate responses, while avoiding input of sensitive data and hallucination risks
• Tone calibration worksheet: six rapid rewriting exercises to experience how the same message lands completely differently in different tones

4. A PR Disaster Erupts on Threads: Full Simulation

• Live Threads crisis simulation
• Fictional crisis, real takeaways: absorb practical experience fast through team debates, live voting and "Why Vote" follow-up discussions
• AI-powered simulation and response: during preparation, teams use AI to draft multiple message versions and war-game stakeholder reactions

【Remarks】

• Tools and access: confirm that your  access has been activated, or prepare a personal account for  mainstream AI tool (e.g. Microsoft 365 Copilot,Gemini, Perplexity, or Poe on a paid plan); bring your own device on the day: Notebook, tablet or mobile phone.
   
• Organisational self-diagnostic questionnaire: complete an online questionnaire before the course; the trainer will calibrate the complexity of the case materials based on the results.

【Application】

The course does not operate on a first-come, first-served basis. 
To be considered fully enrolled, applicants must complete the following procedures:
1. Register via this webpage;
2. Submit the course fee; 
3. Complete the 【Pre-course Questionnaire】by clicking here.
(Only Chinese questionnaire available)
(The information collected through the questionnaire will be used by HKCSS Institute
 and the course instructors for selection purposes.)

Please note that failure to complete the questionnaire will result in your registration being deemed incomplete, 
and your application will not be considered.

【Reminder】

• Applicants have to use the online membership system of the HKCSS Institute for enrollment. The membership is on an individual basis, for the application of the courses and activities of the HKCSS Institute only.
• Staff from HKCSS Agency Members will not automatically become members of the HKCSS Institute. The membership is not equivalent to the membership status of HKCSS Agency Member.