Annual Hedge Fund Competition advances crisis communication research

On April 20 at Grady College, “Hedge Fund: Venture Between the Hedges” once again helped contribute to the graduate Crisis Communication and Strategic Conflict Management course at Grady College. In its third year, the “Shark Tank” style inspired competition, funded by a group of industry leaders, challenged student teams to develop theory-based strategies for problem solving in the world of crisis communications.

The Hedge Fund competition started with a crisis scenario challenge tasked by the investors. The student teams were required to develop communication strategies for a retail industry giant to assess and  navigate an ongoing sticky crisis. The teams then proposed a research plan, grounded in their unique crisis readiness approach to the challenge. The winning team’s research proposal will be supported in the coming year for full development and implementation, generating new theory-based, evidence-based insights for practitioners to apply in their practice.

“The Hedge Fund annual competition is a core experience of UGA’s interdisciplinary Crisis, Risk, and Disaster Communication (CRDC) Graduate Certificate Program,” said Yan Jin, who directs the CRDC certificate program and teaches the graduate crisis communication class at Grady College. “Learning by doing and strategic innovation are at the center of advanced crisis communication education at the University of Georgia. Applying crisis theories to solving real world sticky crisis challenges brings life to academic research and showcases the power of theory-based research in developing new strategies for organizational and societal readiness.”

This year’s Hedge Fund investors are Jason Anthoine (Arketi Inside), Lauren Banks (Zeno Group), Chris Berger (Advocate Health), Jennifer Bowcock (Consultant), Shana Keith (Cox Communications), and Elizabeth Rasberry (Smurfit Westrock). Anthoine, Berger, and Bowcock are also practitioner members of the UGA Crisis Communication Think Tank (CCTT).

The interdisciplinary winning team was made up of Amulika Gottiparthy (Grady College), Anna Kapustay (Grady College), Kelly Macdonald (Grady College), Katie Sue Martin-Williams (Grady College), Haven Newbold (Grady College), Bridget Osas (Grady College), and Emilija Ragaine (College of Public Health). They examined how strategic silence, as an emerging crisis management strategy, can be beneficial to an organization, and developed a roadmap for how C-suite leadership can demonstrate internal and external READINESS™.

“This year’s Hedge Fund event continues to highlight the incredible students and the quality of education being offered through the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. This is the third year I have had the privilege to serve as a judge, and each year the content and thoughtfulness continues to rise to new levels, making the decision of who wins tougher each time,” said Berger. “The winning team’s proposal tackled a critical issue every organization grapples with – when intentional non-talking during a crisis event can actually be the most powerful form of speech. I am very much looking forward to seeing the results of the further research that will take place this next year to analyze the real-world application.”

Author: River Gracey, river.gracey@uga.edu