In our age of distraction, communication leaders in organizations of all kinds are challenged to capture and retain the focus of their hybrid and remote workforces, and other key stakeholder groups. During this presentation, you’ll get innovative strategies to cut through the noise and elevate engagement using social media and AI, as well as practical ways to use tools like ChatGPT and social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram to create content that keeps your remote employees engaged. Led by Kristen Eliason, Director of Corporate Communications at MasterControl, you’ll learn and discuss how to use these tools to capture your audience's attention. We’ll cover topics like: 

• How to make social media algorithms and visual databases work for you to create tailored content that demands attention.
• Strategies for leveraging short-form video content to engage a digitally native workforce.
• Ways to integrate AI into your communication strategy, enhancing the personalization and relevance of your messages.

Explore the digital employee communications ecosystems that make ServiceNow a great place to work, according to Glassdoor and Forbes. A pioneer in digital workflows, ServiceNow uses its digital platforms for communication to nurture a dynamic and engaging workplace. Highlighting the critical role these platforms play in boosting employee engagement, defining ServiceNow's talent brand, and spearheading cultural change, Evan Graner and Spandan Charkraborty will reveal:

• How ServiceNow creates and sustains transparent, two-way digital communication channels.
• How to cultivate a people-centric culture, establish trust, empower employees to contribute to the company's evolution, and foster a sense of pride and ownership.
• Strategies essential for any organization that wants to be a great place to work.

You’ve completed your employee engagement survey and collected a lot of data. But what is the communicator’s role post-survey, and how are they positioned to drive meaningful change within organizations? Erika O’Brien, Director of Internal Communications and Global Inclusion & Diversity at Forcepoint, will present a powerful case study on using engagement survey data to narrate the story of an organization's strengths and areas of improvement to the executive team and the wider business. Erika will discuss Forcepoint’s Impact Campaign and how to significantly grow social connection sentiments, employee engagement, and external brand perception. This session will cover topics like:

• How to use employee engagement data as a strategic tool for action planning, and how communicators can significantly influence internal cultural shifts within organizations.
• How to tell the story of existing company initiatives and programs to drive employee engagement and retention.
• How using digital tools fosters internal communication and social sharing reinforces the communicators' role as experts and influencers in shaping organizational focus areas post-engagement.

In this Q&A session you will learn how one of the top healthcare organizations in the country upgraded their internal communications stack with tech built for internal communications. Having the right tool for the job has freed up this internal communication team from being dependent on IT and HRIS as well as equipped them with real-time data and insights on both their communications and audience engagement.

Led by Aatif Kahn, Director, Ratings Communications at S&P Global, you’ll explore the evolving threat landscape and understand the critical role of creative and out-of-the-box communication strategies in cybersecurity. Drawing on real-world experiences, Aatif will discuss how to craft compelling narratives using a mix of channels to educate and inspire individuals to become cybersecurity champions. You’ll learn:

• How multichannel communications drive cybersecurity at S&P Global.
• How to break through the noise using storytelling, gamification, and other creative techniques to make cybersecurity accessible, memorable, and actionable.
• How S&P global created a community of informed and proactive digital defenders.

Join our sponsor ContactMonkey and Rachel Peifer, Associate Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media of the Chron’s and Colitis Foundation, as they explore what makes stories matter and how stories can elevate the digital employee experience. You’ll learn:

• How storytelling affects the brain.
• Using narrative arcs to create engaging employee experiences. 
• Storytelling’s role in creating an impactful digital employee experience.

Gamification is emerging as a groundbreaking strategy in internal communications for digital organizations. Mary Reyes, Internal Communications Manager for Valley Strong Credit Union, will demonstrate how gamification can turn routine information sharing into a riveting experience, increasing engagement across the organization. You’ll discuss the mechanics of gamification, aligning fun with function, and how these interactive elements can be integrated into daily operations in alignment with organizational objectives. Explore how gamification empowers employees and fosters an inclusive and dynamic workplace culture, and you’ll get:

• Insights on integrating gamification to elevate everyday communications and increase employee engagement.

• Strategies for designing gamification elements that resonate across generational divides within the workforce.

• Methods for measuring the effectiveness of gamification in achieving communication goals and enhancing the overall digital employee experience (DEX).

This panel will explore how communicators play a crucial role in developing digital communities that are inclusive, engaged, and aligned with the organization's strategic vision. Attendees will gain insights into the strategies and best practices that lead to the successful creation and sustainability of digital communities. Topics covered may include: 

• Building communities of collaboration that engage hybrid, remote, and deskless workforces.
• Utilizing AR, AI, and social media platforms so that every employee feels valued and heard in the digital workplace.
• Real-world examples and best practices that have successfully cultivated robust digital workplaces, ultimately enhancing the digital employee experience (DEX).

20 reasons why leaders are investing in creating modern employee experiences. Organizations have been focusing on employee engagement and communications for many decades. However, workforce expectations are changing faster than ever, and leaders need to align - quickly. Join this inspiring session and learn:

• How to build a business case for evolving your work tech stack.
• What leading companies are doing to evolve beyond traditional internal communications.
• New ways to inspire leaders to take action.

After successfully migrating to M365, BioBridge Global’s communications team was still challenged by too many manual processes and too little engagement. In this presentation, you’ll hear how BioBridge Global used digital employee experience tools to drive significant growth in employee engagement and employee retention—a key metric for the communications team and critical to sustaining BioBridge Global’s mission to deliver life-saving blood and tissue products, lab services, and biomanufacturing services. You’ll learn: 

• How to find the right technology partner for your organization’s communications needs.
• How BioBridge Global’s communications team optimized their IC workflows.
• How to tie employee engagement to employee retention, a strategic concern for organizations of all kinds.

Stories have the power to create magic, moments, and memories that enhance the employee experience and cultivate strategic value for organizations. Joseph Lopez, a seasoned internal communications leader with a background in television and Communications Manager at PrimeSource Building Products, will share how to create narratives that do more than disseminate information across multiple digital platforms—they captivate, connect, and create lasting impressions. Come away with practical tools and actionable strategies to breathe life into stories and make them powerful experiences that resonate on a deeper level with employees as you learn to:

• Sustain the magic with techniques that keep stories alive and relevant, transforming everyday communications into memorable experiences.
• Tailor your tales to suit different digital channels, ensuring each story creates its unique moment and memory.
• Enchant, captivate, and understand diverse internal audiences by turning data into compelling story elements.

According to Gallagher’s 2023 State of the Sector report, only 11% of organizations have developed internal audience profiles or personas. While there’s an ever-growing list of things internal communicators need to look at these days, internal audience profiles should be non-negotiable. In this session, Tillamook’s Internal Communications Specialist, Hannah Brown, will share how Tillamook’s internal communications team has evolved their multichannel digital communications approach by building out internal audience personas to better meet the needs of the organization. Walk away understanding how to:

• Create a framework for building out internal audience profiles and take the guesswork out of communicating with diverse audience segments.
• Be a stronger advocate for the employees you're representing and build credibility in front of organizational leadership.
• Back your intuition with data by cultivating a deep understanding of unique internal audiences, and speak with clarity, purpose, and confidence in making recommendations on the best channel, tone, details, and timing for disparate internal stakeholders.

Focusing on the period from 2020 to 2022, this case study delves into the lifecycle of digital engagement initiatives within an organization. It examines how these initiatives, initially aimed at enhancing organizational culture and communication, began to lose effectiveness and faced disassembly. Central to this discussion is the role of the Employee Experience (EE) team at Kitu Life, Inc. Super Coffee, which works across various departments like Marketing, Human Resources, and Operations to bring cultural initiatives to life. The case specifically reviews the EE team’s COVID initiative, which launched a digital engagement platform to make up for reduced face-to-face interaction. Despite initial success, employee and leadership feedback eventually led to the platform’s dismantlement. This process raised critical questions about the cultural impact of such changes and the importance of listening to employee feedback, fostering shared digital experiences, and clarifying ownership of initiatives. You’ll learn:

• How to adapt and enhance shared experiences with a digital context to meet the “new normal” of reduced face-to-face interaction.
• How to identify clear ownership of initiatives under the employee experience umbrella. How to encourage cross-departmental collaboration for successful implementation and strategic alignment.
• How dismantling the digital platform served as an opportunity to demonstrate the company’s commitment to acting on employee insights.

Communications leaders are often tasked with driving change that fosters a positive digital employee experience, from digital transformations to workforce cultural shifts. During this interactive panel, you’ll bring your most pressing internal communications challenges and questions for discussion by a group of your professional peers. You’ll hear about topics like:

• Crafting and conveying a compelling change narrative that aligns with the organization's digital ambitions.
• Constructing a coalition of change agents to cultivate an environment conducive to skill development and digital fluency to proactively address resistance to change within the organization. 
• Implementing evaluation techniques to accurately measure digital adoption and celebrating successes to reinforce a culture of continuous improvement.