Kristin Cabot, the HR exec on the heart of final 12 months’s Coldplay “kiss cam” scandal, is headlining a disaster communications convention that’s scheduled for later this 12 months.
Cabot will likely be seated on the panel, titled “Taking Back the Narrative,” on the PRWeek Crisis Comms Conference in Washington, D.C., on April 16. Particular person tickets begin at $875 per individual.
“Whereas attending a Coldplay live performance in July and unwittingly showing on the kiss cam for just a few seconds, Kristin Cabot’s life blew up instantly,” the description of the keynote presentation reads. “From the surface, it was an amusing, if unflattering meme; however for her, all the things modified that day.”
It continues: “Cabot skilled firsthand the extremity of public shaming that girls have lengthy skilled when within the unfavorable highlight of the media—one their male counterparts usually appear to keep away from.”
In July final 12 months, Cabot advised The New York Times that following the scandal, the meme had left her “unemployable.” She described being referred to as each sexist trope (a homewrecker, a slut) by keyboard warriors and having her telephone quantity doxxed and flooded 500 occasions a day. As well as, her bodily look was scrutinized and torn aside by full strangers on-line. Whereas the opposite social gathering within the scandal was additionally dragged on-line, a lot of the worst criticism has fallen on Cabot.
Cabot will likely be joined within the 35-minute dialogue by journalist and communications skilled Dini von Mueffling, who turned Cabot’s PR consultant within the aftermath of the scandal, and PRWeek senior reporter Jess Ruderman. The panel will unpack “the technique—each instant and long run—that has helped Cabot take management of her narrative and rewrite her story.”
Thrust into the nationwide highlight final summer season (for individuals who had been residing below a rock), Cabot is the previous head of human relations on the tech firm Astronomer. Whereas attending a Coldplay live performance in Foxborough, Massachusetts, final July, Cabot was randomly caught on the stadium’s Jumbotron in an embrace with the corporate’s CEO, Andy Byron.
“Both they’re having an affair, or they’re simply very shy,” Coldplay entrance man Chris Martin stated because the kiss cam zoomed in on the pair, who instantly separated and tried to cover. The embarrassing 16‑second clip turned a serious world viral sensation.
On the time, Byron was married, and Cabot was separated. However earlier than these particulars had been capable of come to gentle, Cabot and Byron had already made headlines around the globe, inspiring numerous memes and mocked even by their very own firm. Each Cabot and Byron resigned from Astronomer not lengthy after.
Cabot stated within the Instances interview: “I would like my children to know you can make errors, and you’ll actually screw up. However you don’t should be threatened to be killed for them.”
