Bristol Airport asked Mentor to provide a programme of “Splutter” (secure social media simulation) sessions, focussing on social media responsiveness, confidence boosting customer service training and a crisis communications exercise to test their social media resilience.

“Splutter” offers the functionality of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, enabling you to re-create an engrossing, simulated world of social media engagement, i.e., through scenario-based exercises. Crucially, it all takes place in a password protected, secure environment.

Mentor’s Head of Media Training and one of our in-house social media specialists, (both former journalists), created a crisis scenario with the airport.  We ran timed exercises to test the effectiveness of the airport’s crisis communications messaging.  Highly realistic, 30–40 minute social simulation sessions were followed by ‘hot’ de-briefs, to assess where Customer Services and Airport Duty Managers performed well and offer any learning points for improvement. 

The success of these immersive sessions in a friendly, informal training style, has resulted in Mentor being asked to provide our regular, advanced media training course for Airport Duty Managers and another “Splutter” event for the forthcoming crisis incident response day.