Transcript
Hi Tom, welcome to our studio. Nice to meet you. You wrote the book Communication Come Back. For our listeners and viewers: the book is written in Dutch, published by Pelckmans and available on the Dutch-language market. So, unfortunately, our English-speaking listeners cannot buy the book, but this interview will give them its key insights.
Tom, to start with, I think we live in a kind of paradox. There have never been more tools to communicate than there are today, yet you have published a book that says communication needs to make a comeback. Why did you feel the need to write it?
There is indeed a paradox. Communication is everything. You start communicating as a toddler and you do it every day, but that does not mean we understand one another. There is a great deal of conversation at the moment, but there is also a cry for help: to listen, to communicate and to understand.
Through the internet, for example, we receive an enormous amount of communication and information. Communication Come Back is a call to start listening to one another again, to understand each other and to look each other in the eye, as we are doing now.
The title therefore has two meanings. It is a call to action to put communication back on the table, but it is also a message to professional communicators: rethink the future of your profession and your craft.
There is also a boomerang on the cover. I assume the word ‘comeback’ refers to that as well?
Indeed. It is the idea of throwing a boomerang. I do not know whether you have ever tried it, Kevin, but I started a few months before the book was published. I am left-handed, and it did not work. All the boomerangs I found in shops and online were right-handed. I did not even know there was a difference.
I did not know that either. I would have the same problem.
Exactly. Mine never came back. Then someone told me I needed a left-handed boomerang, and suddenly it all came together. It is not easy to throw a boomerang and make it return. You need the right tool, you need to understand how it works, and then you have to practise, practise and practise.
That is the metaphor: communication is not simply throwing information at someone. It is about receiving a response, listening, making contact and creating a genuine dialogue.
When we apply that to a business, an organisation or an event organiser, many companies and people probably believe they already communicate a great deal. What does genuine communication look like in the sense you mean?
As you say, there is a great deal of communication, and many companies are very good communicators. Belgium has many large organisations and excellent communication professionals. But when you ask people whether they understand the real meaning of the communication, especially during a crisis, the answer is often less clear.
People say, ‘There is so much information, but where do I find the right information?’ With so many channels, particularly digital ones, it has become difficult to see through everything. In organisations, people often ask where they can find the information that is true and specifically relevant to them.
Different people also need different information. What I want to understand may not be what you need. Within that huge bubble of communication and information, we must make things more focused and create real contact with one another.
You say something interesting, and it is something I have been struggling with for some time. People are looking for true information, yet digital channels are full of deepfakes and fake news. Political leaders spread false information and, for some reason, large parts of the population accept it as truth. As a communication expert, why do we believe deepfakes and misinformation instead of honest information?
Because they are made extremely well. That is the problem. In the early days, deepfakes and false information were often badly produced. Today they can look highly professional.
One of the seven chapters in my book is about deepfakes and the use of artificial intelligence to create videos. I interviewed Wim De Wilde from VRT NWS, for example. He said one of their most important investments is in the stage before information is distributed: determining whether material is real or fake.
The same principle applies within a company. You have to separate what is real from what is false and act as a reliable filter of information. This is why I call communication a craft. When you explain something to me, I need to be able to trust you, and when I explain something to you, I hope you trust me.
We need more trust, more openness and more live communication. If we are talking in a pub, I can look you in the eye. We may disagree and discuss something, but we do so in real time. We learn to debate, understand one another and assess information that may not come through another platform.
That is true live communication, and we need more of it.
We have discussed deepfakes and AI in a negative sense, but how do you view the positive use of AI? It can help to write scripts and even create videos. What would you advise people to use it for, and where should they avoid it?
We use it every day in our company, and we have done so for several years. Suppose we filmed this conversation and wanted to create a winter version, with different clothes or even with long hair.
We wish! Imagine that.
Exactly. That can enhance the experience and bring the video closer to the visual result we want. We use AI extensively, but we usually tell the client what we have done: this was adapted from an earlier video or text, and AI helped us create something extra.
The added value matters, but so does transparency about when and why AI was used.
Changing clothes is still a relatively harmless use of AI, but you can go further and rewrite someone’s sentences or generate their speech. At what point does a viewer say, ‘This is no longer real or authentic’?
That comes back to craftsmanship. As a communicator, you need values and a framework within which you use AI creatively. You need clear boundaries.
Communication professionals are developing guidelines for how to proceed with AI, but you also need an honest dialogue with your client and with everyone involved in creating the material. If you cross a boundary, what is the effect? What is the result? Do we all still agree with what has been created?
AI is an unprecedented opportunity for communication professionals and for society as a whole, especially because it enables personalised communication.
If any tool can do that, it is AI.
Exactly. But tell people what is authentic and what has been generated. I have no problem talking to a chatbot when I know it is a chatbot. Do not pretend it is a real person. Be honest. Used that way, AI can amplify communication in a way we have never seen before.
In addition to being a communication expert, you are also a prevention adviser and crisis communicator. We published one of your columns yesterday about what happened in the event industry last weekend. For people outside Belgium: we had a heatwave followed by a severe storm, and many events were cancelled. You had a strong opinion about how organisers should deal with situations like that.
Communication is the common thread running through every event. We saw events being cancelled, while in other cases people asked why an event was still going ahead when it was 40 degrees.
We need to regard an organiser as a professional who is not making these decisions alone. The organiser works with local authorities, safety experts and other partners. You must bring all of that expertise together and start with the risks.
Forty degrees in itself is not necessarily the problem. You may happily sit on a beach in that temperature. The real question is: with this type of event, this audience, this atmosphere and this organisation, what are the threats and risks?
That means an event for 10,000 elderly visitors may need to be cancelled, while another event for younger people a few kilometres away may still be able to proceed.
Because they may also have taken different preventive measures, such as sprinklers or additional water?
Exactly. You consider the safety measures, the audience, the visitor flow and whether shelters are available. You also have to consider what happens if you evacuate or stop the event.
At one event, everyone may be able to get on a bicycle and go home within five minutes. At a major event, ending two hours early creates a completely different challenge. Are there enough trains and buses? What happens when 80,000 or 100,000 people leave at once? As an organiser, you remain responsible.
That is why communication is so important. When an event is cancelled, I always listen for the explanation: why was the decision made, and what are people on site being told?
It led to frustration in some cases. Look at Defqon.1 in the Netherlands: people were already at the campsite, some had flown in from different countries, and then they heard that part of the event was cancelled. What is the best way to communicate such a message? It will never be easy, and there will always be frustration.
There will always be frustration. Imagine being a student who has just finished exams, paid €100, €200 or €300, and planned to celebrate that weekend. I would be frustrated too.
You cannot eliminate that frustration, but you can communicate openly and explain why the event was stopped and what the decisive reasons were. Everyone involved must then communicate the same message.
Too often, the governor says one thing, the mayor another, the organiser something else and the fire service something different again. You need one voice and a shared position. That is not easy, because the organiser will naturally be unhappy, but everyone must understand the decision and tell the same story realistically.
This is why organisers need scenarios. If you do not have a scenario for ending your event several hours early, you have a problem. These situations must be planned and practised in advance.
If the mayor suddenly says the event must stop and you then have only five or ten minutes to create a communication plan, choose channels and determine the tone of voice, you are already too late. Simply saying, ‘We are stopping the event,’ is not enough.
Some cancellations last weekend were announced live on stage. That creates an immediate reaction from the audience. You have to be prepared for people to boo, and you have to allow that emotion to flow.
I saw a video on Instagram of an organiser announcing from the stage that the event would not take place that weekend. What I liked, although I do not think it was intentional, was how visibly emotional he was. He was essentially saying, ‘We have spent years building this event. I am devastated, but we are cancelling it for your safety. I do not know what will happen next, but we hope to return.’ It was so honest and authentic that the video received a huge amount of support.
Yes. The frustration remains, but people understand the organiser. They see the tears and understand that months of work went into creating the experience. The message becomes: we are all in this together.
The organiser, the firefighters and the medical teams are all dealing with the same situation. That creates authentic communication without minimising what has happened.
What I do not understand is a mayor or authority saying only, ‘We are stopping the event because it is 40 degrees.’ That is not the real explanation.
No, because that is not the reason in itself.
Exactly. It is a combination: the heat, uncertainties, transport, the timing of the audience leaving and perhaps the risk of a storm later in the night. The event site itself may be perfectly organised, but once tens of thousands of people leave, you may no longer have the same lighting, sound or infrastructure to communicate with them.
That is why an event might need to stop two or three hours early. Communicate that complete picture. For organisers who have worked on an event for months, a cancellation is heartbreaking.
And for some companies it can mean the end of the business, not only emotionally but financially.
Indeed.
That is why I found one response very strange. Many events communicated well, saying, ‘This is what is happening, this is what we are doing, and we will look into compensation and return with more information.’ Yet Belgian minister Rob Beenders said that same evening that organisers should immediately explain when people would receive their money back. To me, that was the wrong message. The organisers had already said they would investigate it. Give them at least a few days to work it out.
Belgium is known for having some of the best organisers and festivals in the world. We have experience, creative talent and a strong community. But the climate is changing, and organisers need time to understand what happened and what the consequences are.
Despite the problems, more than a million people attended events that weekend. The conversation should not focus only on the negative. Many events were well organised, many people had a wonderful time, and some events could continue precisely because appropriate measures had been taken.
The media should not focus only on the tip of the iceberg. Even at events that were affected, sometimes only one evening or a few hours of a three- or four-day programme were cancelled. Talk about the professionalism of organisers too. Belgium has something exceptional in its hands when it comes to events.
Even the Belgian consumer organisation Testaankoop said organisers should be given some breathing room. That was a remarkably supportive message from an organisation whose role is to protect consumers.
It was heart-warming. These situations are complicated. You may have bought a ticket and seen most of the artists but missed the final act. Does that mean the entire event was cancelled, or did you miss ten per cent of what you paid for?
Organising events is complex. Do not reduce a complex organisation, in a complex situation, with complex communication, to a black-and-white judgement. There is almost always a grey area.
Talk to the organiser. Organisers have a direct relationship with their customers, visitors and fans. Bring communication to the table where strategy is being shaped, rather than adding it only afterwards.
Statistically, anyone who organises events regularly will eventually face a situation in which crisis communication is necessary. You may already have answered this, but what can organisers do now to prepare? Is it mainly about the scenarios you mentioned, or is there anything else?
Scenarios are essential, as are frequently asked questions: what will happen if a particular situation occurs? Since the Pukkelpop storm in 2011, severe weather has been part of our exercises. Climate change, communication challenges and drug-related incidents are all realities at events.
Events are also becoming larger. Audiences of 50,000, 60,000 or 80,000 are no longer unusual. Organising a major event is like organising a temporary city. You need food, medical support, the fire service, police and transport. Good organisers work on that for months.
Scenario planning means repetition, communication and learning from one another. Look at how other festivals handle similar risks. Major organisers increasingly come together, share knowledge and invest in preparation.
Is that happening enough already?
Not enough, but it is happening. Through organisations such as the Event Confederation, festivals open their doors to one another. Particularly in the festival sector, it is less about competition and more about recognising that everyone faces the same problems and often serves the same audience. Organisers learn from each other much more than they did ten years ago.
One final question about the book. If there were one message you most want readers to remember after reading it, what would it be?
Do not limit communication to the execution phase. Bring it in at the moment you begin thinking about growth, strategy, change or a difficult conversation.
Every strategy starts with an idea or a spark. That is when communication must begin. Ask immediately: how are we going to communicate this, which channels will we use and who is our audience?
Put communication at the front of the table, where decisions are created - whether you are a parent in a family, a CEO in a company or a teacher in a classroom. When you develop your strategy and vision, start communicating at the same time.
Tom, thank you so much for coming to the studio. And to everyone listening or watching: do not forget to order the book. It is an excellent read, and we have included it in our list of books to read this summer. Thank you, Tom, for joining us.
Thank you.
