At around 8 am on Monday my boss came to my desk to urge me to take in a daily seminar that was being offered to key members in the casino industry. She had been to this seminar before and without saying too much, told me that the speaker was one I didn’t want to miss. When I asked her what the content of the seminar was she told me that it was about crisis management.

The one-day seminar started at 9am and we were all squished into a small conference room at a Holiday Inn. The audience comprised of casino general managers, those working in casino operations from different properties, and security heads…. and me. With only a quick intro and welcome Dr. Larry Barton started his day.

My first impression, right off the bat, was that this guy knew what he was talking about. At that point I hadn’t even learned his long list of personal accomplishments and career highlights. I just knew, without a doubt, that he was the goods and that I was about to learn an enormous amount on crisis management. Impressive DVD presentation and slide show aside, Dr. Barton knew how to captivate an audience.

The day consisted or running through the various crisis situation a casino could find itself at any given time. Whether it be from natural disasters to human tragedies, he not only had video examples of past crisis situations and how they were handled, but he had his own personal insight that put everything into perspective, preparing you to be in the same frame of mind he is in when asked to consult on a crisis situation. They don’t call him the Crisis Coach for nothing.

Although I can’t devulge the ins and outs of his seminar (because we were sworn to secrecy to preserve the affectiveness of his seminar to future participants) I can tell you that I walked away a different person. It was that good.

When you tie Dr. Barton’s lessons with these kinds of crisis situations it changes everything in media relations. You start to see even more facets to the big story and how you could really affect the outcome in the media just based on how prepared you are to handle the crisis.

Not only were my media relations eyes wide open but on a personal level this seminar helped me to understand how I would be in a crisis situation. Am I the kind to run away or can I find myself called to action? Until you find yourself in the middle of this kind of crisis one never really knows. It’s a matter of trusting your auto-pilot in hopes that you are the acting kind.. not the coward kind. From there, the next step is to call into action those around you for support.

If you ever have the opportunity to take in a seminar of Dr. Larry Barton, it will change your life, how you see people and situations, and how you would deal with a life threatening situation. It’s the personal challenge that I took away from the most and I feel fortunate enough to have attended. Next on the list is to read his books….

Dr. Larry BartonMee