The Crisis Room

The Crisis Room

Introduction

In 2026 London Careers Festival and City of London Corporation collaborated with immersive theatre producers Ball Productions to create an immersive skills experience that would challenge young people in a real-world crisis scenario encouraging them to analyse, influence, communicate, and collectively problem solve. It was a 3-hour session that would have them practise, review, and ultimately describe and evidence the skills they gained.

Get a feel for the festival

A brand new immersive skills experience from London Careers Festival.

The session starts with some icebreakers and activities to get the young people connecting and talking to each other. Using their interests, they are then split into four teams that cover finance, environment, community, and public relations.

The Challenge Scenario

The scenario starts with discussions on some day-to-day council business before the crisis is announced. The mood changes and the actors in the room and on screen start to feed information to the four groups 'as it happens'. Brown folders land on each team's table containing key information, and the challenge begins.

All four groups must work together to make decisions and take actions on the developing crisis. They will have to present to council leaders, speak 'live' to a radio news station, and debate the final outcome.

Feedback from the Professionals

A key element of The Crisis Room is to involve feedback from the people who do the real jobs that are being simulated. It is recommended that between 2-4 professionals from your organisation observe the session so that real feedback can be given once the young people have completed the scenario.

Eligible for Subsidy

The City of London Corporation is subsidising the programme for more than half of its total cost. Organisations that can apply for subsidised workshops include local authorities, government organisations, community groups and charities, not-for-profit youth organisations.

Impact

The aim of the programme is to short-circuit the usual ways of providing work experience through a reality-based scenario that gives young people a chance to practise their skills in a difficult situation and gain the vocabulary to talk about their experience to others.

The skills explored include:

Negotiation and influencing.
Information analysis.
Communication – internal to a team or organisation.
Communication – representing an organisation externally.
Problem solving under pressure.
Managing conflicting priorities.

If you are a youth organisation, charity, or government organisation and would like to know more about subsidised sessions of The Crisis Room, please contact jamie.hannon@cityoflondon.gov.uk

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