Saturday, June 02, 2007

FIR Interview- Ike Pigott, American Red Cross: June 2, 2007

Communicating with residents of areas struck by natural disasters is a challenge, but Ike Pigott—communications director for the American Red Cross’s Southeast region—has found that blogs can play a significant role in improving the flow of information. Ike and Shel Holtz talked about the introduction of blogs to the mix, the spread of the idea to other regions, and the potential for other social media in disaster communication as well as the possible other uses of blogs.

About our Conversation Partner

imageIke Pigott is the Director of Communications and Government Relations for the American Red Cross in the southeastern U.S.  As an in-house communications consultant, Ike counsels 107 local chapters on strategy, training, and crisis communications.
 
A 16-year veteran of broadcast news, Ike won several awards (including an Emmy for news writing.)  He left television - but not his passion for helping others tell their story to the world.  Ike is self-taught as a blogger, a web-designer, a site administrator, and a social media enthusiast.  He tells others that if he can learn it, they can too.

While making the transition to the non-profit world, Ike started freelancing as a media trainer and interview coach - and continues to hone those skills working with Red Cross volunteers who deploy across the country in disasters.  In the little spare time his family and work afford him, be blogs about whatever crosses his mind at Occam’s RazR and teaches Kung Fu at his home.  Ike is married with two young children who teach him more than he teaches them. He’s a regular on Twitter.

download for immediate release podcast

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If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, email us at fircomments@gmail.com; or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America) or +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe); or Skype: fircomments; or comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR; or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Podsafe intro music - On A Podcast Intrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox. Photo of Ike Pigott by Kami Huyse.

Posted by shel on 06/02 at 06:02 AM
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