With the media increasingly occupied in some of the most remote
parts of the globe, it was inevitable that media training practitioners
would follow them.
Currently working with a number of multinational oil companies in
Nigeria, former ITN foreign editor and Washington editor Vernon Mann
seems to be cornering the market in training in what can only be termed
unorthodox territories.
'There's a growth in realisation on the part of big companies that even
in developing countries there are messages to be put across,' he
says.
However, his globetrotting lifestyle is not all glamorous oilfields:
'It's a case of trying to do a good job in what, for many reasons, are
sometimes very difficult circumstances.'
He cites his previous visit to Nigeria as a case in point: 'Last time I
came here, the porter at the guesthouse in Wawri where I was staying
fired shots every hour out of the door to warn off robbers and let them
know we had a gun.'
His current tour of duty will see him visit Pakistan, Dubai and China,
before returning to Europe early next year.
