Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea and continental breakfast as you meet your fellow attendees. Sign-in, pick up your materials and enjoy a continental breakfast before we start the day. 

Welcome to the Internal Communications Strategies for Frontline Employees Conference.  

In this fast-paced forum, you'll get to know your fellow peers, their biggest internal communications challenges, and a few fun facts. 

Many organizations attempt to solve frontline communication challenges with new tools, but struggle because foundational gaps still exist. This case study explores why traditional channels fail deviceless workforces and how to build awareness and connection using low tech, high touch approaches. It sets the stage for how and when digital platforms can actually succeed.

Many organizations struggle to reach employees who do not have company email or daily computer access. In this session, learn how communications teams introduce mobile platforms that give frontline employees timely updates, easier access to information, and stronger connection to the organization. Speakers will share lessons learned from launching and scaling a mobile communication solution across distributed teams. 

Key Takeaways 

• Key considerations when introducing mobile communication tools for frontline employees
• Approaches for driving adoption across locations, shifts, and job roles
• Lessons learned from launching a new digital communication platform

Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea, and other refreshments as you network with your peers. 

Frontline employees often work in environments where traditional digital communication channels are ineffective. This session explores how communications teams combine multiple channels to ensure important updates reach employees consistently across locations and shifts. Learn how organizations design communication ecosystems that meet employees where they are. 

Key Takeaways 

• How to build a multi-channel communication strategy for deskless teams
• Ways to deliver consistent messages across large and distributed workforces
• Practical approaches for improving reach without relying on email

Reservations have been made at a number of local restaurants.
Don't miss this opportunity to have lunch with your peers at a local Chicago hot spot!
  

**Everyone is financially responsible for their own lunch. 

Groups test common assumptions (e.g., "Frontline workers don't use intranets"), labeling them as myth, reality, or in-between, and explaining why. 

Many leaders reflexively react to an external event, reputational crisis, product problem or industry issue by crafting messaging for media, investors or social media. Two senior leaders of a highly respected national law firm will discuss why you need to pause and put internal communication first on that list. Together, Romanucci & Blandin Chief Communications Officer Jennifer McGuffin and Managing & Senior Partner Gina DeBoni have navigated headline making cases and highly-charged issues like the death of George Floyd and the death of Renee Good by a federal agent in Minneapolis, along with mass shootings, human trafficking and toxic environmental exposure in highly populated areas – always keeping their internal team informed on what’s happening, what’s known and not known and what next steps will be before addressing national and global media and lawmakers.

Key takeaways will be:

• Understanding what’s a game-changing issue and what’s not, and using instinct and experience to anticipate possible issues from various stakeholders… why waiting for things to blow over can blow up
• Strategies for sequencing communications to prioritize internal leaders and staff as your organization’s ambassadors
• The key to being decisive on solutions: Knowing how much to say, how quickly to say it and how to frame major change as a unifying event for the team

Take advantage of this interactive break to connect with our sponsors and experience their products and services firsthand. Each sponsor will host live demos at their table—giving you the chance to explore innovative solutions, ask questions, and find the tools that best support your work.

In this "no-pressure" setting, you'll be able to ask your most pressing questions and receive honest feedback from your peers. Frontline employees often receive information from many different sources, making it difficult to identify what matters most. In this discussion, communications leaders explore how organizations simplify messaging, prioritize critical updates, and ensure employees receive information that truly supports their work. Panelists will share lessons learned from communicating in fast-moving operational environments. 

Key Takeaways 

• Approaches for prioritizing communication for frontline teams
• Ways to simplify messaging in high-volume communication environments
• Strategies for aligning leaders around what employees truly need to know

Don't stop the conversation! Join us at the lobby bar as you network with your peers and sponsors in the adjacent at the #ALIcomms 

Participate in raffles & sign-up for dinner with your peers! 

Want to keep the conversation going? Join a group of attendees for dinner at a local Chicago hot spot.
 

Sign-up at the registration desk or during the networking reception to join a group at tonight's dine-around. Reservations have been made.
 

**Dutch treat. 

Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea and continental breakfast as you network with fellow attendees on this final day. 

Together we will recap yesterday's top takeaways and set the stage for this final day of learning. 

DePaul University serves nearly 20,000 students, alongside faculty and staff. Many of these audiences share a defining trait with deskless workers: they check phones rather than sit at desks and are often disconnected from traditional internal channels. A year ago, DePaul's new Internal Communications team inherited the university's internal newsletter, a long-running publication with a mixed reputation, low readership and near-total student disengagement. The team split the newsletter into two distinct editions, one for students, one for faculty and staff and then rebuilt the student edition around a simple idea: let students speak for themselves. Student employees now drive the voice of the newsletter through their own photos, quotes and recommendations in language no communications team could replicate on its own. The result: student readership at an all-time high. This session walks through that transformation, the strategies behind it and fresh survey data on what's working now.

Join us for an insightful exploration of the complexities facing internal communications in a fast-growing healthcare organization. This session will unveil the strategies employed by Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital as it navigated its growth from 4,000 to 10,000 employees. The presentation will delve into the paradox of declining employee engagement alongside rising patient outcomes and illustrate how communication infrastructure either carries culture through transitions or allows it to erode.

Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea, and other refreshments as you network with your peers. 

Flip charts with broad questions are posted around the room. Attendees add answers and comments, then the chair reviews common themes. 

Trust plays a critical role in how employees receive and respond to communication. In this panel discussion, communications leaders explore how organizations strengthen trust through transparency, leadership visibility, and meaningful employee listening. Panelists will share lessons learned from supporting frontline teams during times of change. 

Key Takeaways 

• Approaches for strengthening trust through communication
• The role of leadership visibility and transparency
• Methods for building stronger connections with frontline employees