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Speaker: Elizabeth Williams, Co-founder, The Academy of Business Communications and Andrew Brown, Co-founder, Academy of Business Communications Let's face it, most employee town hall meetings are pretty terrible. Even before the pandemic forced our leadership teams to find the mute button, filling a room full of people and talking at them for hours on end was really not working in most organizations. It's time we got our leaders off the hamster wheel of roadshows and all-hands meetings and started helping them build trust, engagement and purpose that sticks. This session will look at why our leaders need a new communications toolkit and the skills to go with it. Using real-world examples and group discussion, we'll talk about: Communicating with a hybrid workforce Why executives need to stop cheerleading and start listening Communication tools that build trust Outcomes: Define new tools to evolve leader communications Understand the building blocks for a measurable strategy for remote and in-person communication between leaders and employees   Read more

Speaker: Tiffany Markman, Copywriter, Trainer & Speaker, Tiffany Markman Writing & Training Employees, it is time to act like CEOs! The world has changed. And to survive in it, we must learn from the lessons of the thriving gig economy – especially if we’re employed. We must find our niche and, once we’ve done that, we must self-promote. This is how we will stand out. This session will share a new philosophy, while guiding attendees through an interactive process of developing their own personal ‘opening line’ (a twist on the elevator pitch). At the same time, attendees will see how one of the Six Principles of the Communication Profession can be used to season the freelance mentality, via the presenter’s own challenges and techniques for using freelance methodologies to enhance positioning on the job.  On completion, participants will be: Able to identify and verbalize their own specific niche Better equipped to promote their personal-professional brand Able to use freelance techniques to boost their performance   Read more

Speaker: Patti Sanchez, Chief Strategy Officer, Duarte, Inc. According to research conducted by Duarte, Inc., during 2020, communication has grown more important since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Why? The pandemic—plus other social, economic and political shifts—forced businesses to reframe their goals, communicate new strategies clearly, and transform faster than ever. Given this environment of disruptive change, it’s time for leaders of all kinds, at all levels of organizations, to step up their communication game.   In this talk, story expert, Patti Sanchez, will teach you how to use empathy and storytelling to inform, inspire, and activate people. You'll hear lessons from Patti’s book, Illuminate: Ignite Change Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies, and Symbols —plus new insights from her experience in helping Duarte and its customers pivot to virtual communication. Patti will share the strategies she's used to develop effective communication for both Duarte, Inc. and some of the biggest brands in the world, and how you can too. Read more

Speaker: Gary Magenta, Chief Change Architect, Root Inc. It’s time to close the door on survival mode. 2020 put the world through the wringer and organizations were thrown into survival mode—working overtime to keep doors open and support people personally and professionally. We must now move from survival to strategy in a way that inspires understanding, and engages people in the critical role they each play in a business’ success. Communicators must motivate people to adapt to an always-changing marketplace and then help sustain this engagement through the twists ahead. Today Gary Magenta will dissect the challenges faced by communicators and share common organizational “canyons” that lead to disconnects and ineffective execution at leader, manager, and individual contributor levels. Attendees will close the window to this session with a deeper understanding of how to re-engage people in their organization’s current state and accelerate strategy activation to achieve results that will help them outpace the competition. Read more

Speaker: Barbara Fagan-Smith, CEO and Founder, ROI Communication, ROI Communication Employees today want to work for companies who have a positive impact on society, who value their employees and treat them with respect, and whose purpose extends beyond profit-making. Business leaders of today are being asked to do more than they signed up for in terms of managing mental and physical health, social injustice, socio-economic crises, and political upheaval. Which is why NOW is the time to discuss what it means to have an Enlightened Workplace, and to take an insightful look at what drives and sustains employee engagement and high-performing teams that result in business success. Professional communicators are at the forefront of this movement.     This interactive workshop will discuss how to create an enlightened workplace, the importance of bringing the “whole self” to work, introduce The 7 Elements of an Enlightened Workplace, and will offer assessments for attendees to take followed by interactive breakouts to discuss concepts shared. Read more

Speaker: Mari Lee, Founder and CEO, DevCom Today, no continent, no country and no communicator can ignore the impact of social issues - against the backdrop of challenges like disease management and health services, poverty, unemployment, education and literacy failures, climate change and environmental issues, and access to infrastructure. Now, more than ever, development is and must be part of the strategic communication professional's job. This presentation will give you the correct paradigm to work from, with 5 tools for social impact communication and the templates to instantly show meaningful results. I will also share some multi-national case studies, showing the tools in action.   The session will be interactive, sharing tools and allowing space for interaction filling in tools and templates relevant for the audiences' specific social and business need. I will also share small videos on case studies, and include a question and answer session specifically for their own application. Read more