Welcome to ALI's Internal Communications Today Virtual Conference.

We'll go over a few details to maximize your virtual experience before we kick things off.

Say hello, share your challenges and get to know a little about your IC peers. You are encouraged to turn on your camera to join in on the fun and interaction.

Teach For America’s approximately 1500 staff members are spread across 45 states (not to mention the District of Columbia). Sometimes each team almost feels like its own separate organization with its own separate culture. When employees expressed a need for connection and collaboration with the broader organization, the staff culture and communications team tried everything from new communications platforms to new event series to staff recognition campaigns.

During this session,  learn from what worked… and what didn’t, including how to:

• Connect and distinguish communications channels, so staff can find what they need when/how they need it
• Build out different types of event spaces for different types of learning
• Foster peer-driven staff recognition in a way that feels less forced (and costs less money)

Employees expect to have the same tools and technology at work as they do in their personal lives. Hear how Asbury Communities developed a communications strategy that relied heavily on an employee app to reach its largely non-desk workforce and engage employees at all levels in multiple locations.

Prepare yourself to:

• Get executive buy-in for an employee app
• Measure its impact & identify opportunities to use the app to not only make employees more productive, but to also save them time
• Find champions to manage local communications

Take a minute to check email, refill your coffee, & grab a bite to eat.

Engaging employees is a complicated process . . . but communicators can play a critical role in making it happen

Creating an engaged workforce is a complicated process that involves the entire organization—from leaders and managers to HR and Communications. The question is, where does communications fit in the process? What is our role? What can we do to drive employee engagement?

In this session, Steve Crescenzo will show you:
• How to use your existing communications channels to reach, motivate, and engage your workforce
• How to tap into the power of the latest communications tools—including social media and multimedia—to drive employee engagement
• How to help coach your leaders so that they are helping the engagement effort, rather than hurting it
• Five things you can do that will help employees feel like “owners” of the company
• How to involve employees themselves in the engagement process—through the use of your communication channels.

Take a minute to check email, refill your coffee, & grab a bite to eat.

Nothing encourages teamwork, critical thinking and high energy intra-group competition like Cityhunt’s virtual team building (think who wants to be a millionaire meets name that tune with a little bit of jeopardy and soul train thrown in for good measure).

Competitive, customized and loads of fun, this session will provide you with team building and collaboration.

Boredom. That's what people were feeling during Fordham University's IT department's virtual all-staff meetings, which began in March 2020 after the institution transitioned from a vibrant on-campus community to a fully remote one. The all-hands sessions have been an essential way to keep 140+ IT staff informed. But after a few months of the same format, they changed it up so that team members would continue to find them valuable and interesting. One of the biggest challenges was how to improve the meetings without a budget and using existing resources.

During this session, you'll learn:

• Ideas for changing the meeting format, so the team stays connected to the company goals and each other.
• Ways for staff to share and present during the meeting
• How to get everyone engaged in an online discussion