The McIntire School of
Commerce

PricewaterhouseCoopers Center for Innovation in Professional Services  

"Next Question Please" 
Corporate Accountability 
Mock Press conferences

McIntire School of Commerce
March 21, 2003

FACULTY LEAD Lynn Hamilton  Assistant Professor McIntire School of Commerce

DESCRIPTION

Global communication technologies and the 24/7 news environment make it vitally important for executives to have the necessary skills to respond effectively and quickly when they or their organizations are in the headlines. The corporate press conference provides executives with both opportunities and challenges as they face demanding questioners who will send corporate spokepersons’ words to all key stakeholder groups.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Politics, this second annual business and media event was a series of mock press conferences that placed students in the roles of corporate executives representing Raytheon, ImClone, and AOL/Time Warner as well as government officials from the SEC, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, or House Financial Service Committee. Working in teams, these students held four mock press conferences, taking questions from business journalism students from the University of North Carolina who were invited to the event. McIntire students were required to anticipate likely questions, including hostile ones, plan responses, and consider the reactions of various audiences beyond the immediate one consisting of reporters. A diverse group of media and public relations professionals were invited to observe the mock press conferences and to provide feedback following a lunch in which McIntire students and the invited business journalism students discussed the press conference experience. 

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