Get back into the event and share a ha moments from day 1.

Let's talk about the real challenges we have as communicators to create compelling storytelling—and how to make it happen anyway!

Tiffin Jernstedt, who has led communications at several top fashion brands, will discuss some of the hurdles she has experienced, including:

• Department structure issues
• Talent management
• Competing priorities
• Messages communicators need to manufacture that have to be "authentic"
• Budget restrictions
• Creating content that readers will remember when they scroll for 2 seconds!

The novel coronavirus forced organizations into new ways of working, disrupting in-person connections and stretching bonds with workplace culture. At Duke, a university and health system with 43,000 employees, many staff in non-student and non-patient facing roles transitioned to remote work arrangements during the outset of COVID-19. Now, two years after the pandemic erupted, many employees want to continue a hybrid work schedule. But a challenge in a post-pandemic workplace is how to build community and culture when staff and teams are geographically dispersed?

During this session, you’ll:

• See several examples for how Duke’s primary employee communications channel, Working@Duke, engaged employees during the pandemic to support well-being and build community and through proactive storytelling
• Learn why data is key for context in strategic storytelling
• Learn how to incorporate and amplify messages on employee social media channels

One of our greatest opportunities as internal communications professionals is to tap into the power of data. While our colleagues in Marketing have long used data-driven insights to set and refine strategies, communicators have lagged behind. Now, as internal communications tools and resources become increasingly sophisticated, we’re gaining access to more and more powerful data about our people's communications preferences and behaviors. But it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the volume of data and how to pull out the most important insights.

In this session, discover how to apply storytelling to help you pull out key insights from your internal communications data and present them in a visually compelling way. The session will cover specific tips and techniques for:

• Distilling and translating data - from newsletter opens to open-ended survey comments into actionable insights. 
• Choosing the right kinds of visuals to illustrate different types of data points. 
• Tailoring your data story for a leadership audience, highlighting the information that matters most. 
• Using your measurement story to make the case for resources, budget and support!

We know storytelling can be a powerful way to share a message. It’s not enough to have a story—how it’s told and who tells it can be vital as well. In this session we’ll explore the importance of authenticity in internal communications.

• Aligning a story with an organizational goal
• Communicating for non-communicators
• Cool story, now what?

1:45-2:10 p.m.

The ability to motivate and influence people by what you say is one of the most powerful skills communicators possess. The best storytellers among us use simple language, draw on personal experiences, and make the most of modern media to connect with their listeners.

During Michael's presentation, learn how to leverage all three of these skills to tell the kinds of stories that make the biggest impact.

Our event chairperson Kevin Finke will summarize the most impactful take-aways, and answer any final questions.