Get back into the event and share lessons learned from day 1.

What Father of the Bride teaches us about storytelling in the workplace

It’s a surprisingly simple story of a daughter’s upcoming wedding, told from a father’s perspective, yet it continues to capture hearts seven decades and three feature films later. When the new Cuban-infused version of family wedding pandemonium debuted this year, we couldn’t get down the aisle fast enough, collectively creating HBO Max’s biggest audience ever for a streaming-only film. Has that happened with your most recent communication efforts? Whether you’re a romcom fan of the flick or the “party pooper every party has,” you have to wonder: What is it about the Father of the Bride story that continues to captivate, and what can it teach us about organizational storytelling? In this session, we’ll explore the foundations that keep people coming back to this endearing narrative and how they can inspire your incredibly important work.

• Discover the power of personal perspective to make it real
• Tap into multiple workforce generations and evolving cultural norms, making room at the table for traditionalists and those ready for new experiences
• Anticipate the chaos and know that someone will always push for the swans and flamingos
• Learn to question and to accept that it doesn’t have to be perfect to be amazing

Communications and marketing are two worlds that should work together seamlessly in organizations, but often times, don’t cross paths. However, from audience segmentation and calls-to-action to strategically developed storytelling techniques there’s so much that we can learn from one another.

In this session we’ll discuss:

• The importance of starting with a strategic, marketing-led communications strategy
• How to create a full-funnel approach for your content distribution
• Segmentation & channel distribution

Internal communications should build employee trust, boost engagement, inspire action and make staff feel seen and valued. Before employers can accomplish these goals, they must understand the power of storytelling to reach employees on a core level. How can you do this? First, by being proactive in seeking diverse thoughts, opinions and feelings. Second, by listening to determine who doesn't feel seen or as if their voice matters. Third, by telling authentic stories that inspire an emotional connection.

In this session, you will learn how to:

• Break bad communication habits and explore alternatives to spark consistent interest
• Simplify and make your stories grab and hold attention
• Better anticipate what is top of mind for your audience and answer unasked questions that are crucial to gaining trust

Companies purposefully humanize their brands to better connect with customers every day. Internal storytelling that tugs at heartstrings and celebrates achievements can have the same positive influence on your employees. But are some stories just too emotional to tell?

In this session, Entergy Mississippi shares how their communications team uses emotionally challenging stories to highlight some of the toughest workers in the utility business…and how those types of stories can transform your company’s culture.

You will learn:

• How to find emotional story gold
• Ways to leverage your company culture to get employees to open up
• Strategies to maximize this kind of content beyond internal channels

Company leaders understand the value of giving back to the communities they serve and the power of a civically engaged workforce. While community involvement may be encouraged or even expected, it can be difficult to motivate employees to support company philanthropic goals that are outside the scope of their daily work. This can be especially tricky with remote, hybrid and undesked workers. We’ll explore how storytelling can connect employees to your corporate citizenship goals and motivate teammates to serve their community behalf of the company.

In this session, we’ll use Duke Energy’s annual giving campaign to explore what works—and doesn’t work—to inspire employees to get involved in their community. Specifically, we’ll cover how to:

• Share your vision with employees without dictating
• Use personal storytelling to inspire your workforce
• Turn inspiration into community action