In this fast-paced opening session, you will get to know your fellow peers, hear their biggest internal communications challenges, and can learn a few fun facts.

Before you can share compelling and authentic stories with your team, you have figure out what voices are missing, hear what those people have to say, and then help them share their stories in a way that feels authentic for them. Basically story telling starts with story listening. When Teach for America assessed their internal communications, they realized that the voices missing were of the students impacted by staff members' work every day.

This case study will take a look at what TFA's Staff Communications team tried and what they learned, offering tips for:

• Identifying what voices and stories might be missing from your internal communications work
• Crafting a storytelling approach that helps new storytellers find their voice
• Picking a storytelling format that feels authentic, both for the storyteller and the audience

Stories make great communication, change and advocacy tools. In this deep-dive workshop, Kevin explores how stories serve important functions in everyday human life, a reality that internal communicators can harness as an advantage and competitive edge. From the role of stories in communication to the human brain’s response to compelling narrative, this workshop will illuminate the “why” and "how" behind humanity's love for stories.

Many former journalists have made the jump to communications and bring with them skills to identify and create deeply compelling stories. But all communicators have the ability to generate that human interest, especially internal communications. You have the tools tucked in your toolbox, sometimes you just need the right inspiration.

During this session, you’ll learn:

• How journalists look at a story and why they’re effective storytellers
• Why emotion is created through your questioning
• How to draw your audience in from your very first sentence

When we think of storytelling in business, do we save our most magical words for our external audiences? This case study will help you transform your organizational, external-facing messaging into storytelling skills that run throughout the organization.

During this session, you'll learn:

• How to make your team care (what's in it for them)
• How to mix it up (try different channels, meet your team where they are)
• That leadership and CEOs can be great storytellers, but they're not the only ones

Saying that the workplace has experienced tremendous change over the last two years is a gross understatement. There have been ups, downs, variables and unknowns at every turn, and organizations are struggling to adapt to a hybrid work model. But, maybe the secret to overcoming a lot of these obstacles is simpler than we think, and something we’ve had all along.

Shared values, a sense of purpose and belonging, mutual trust and respect – these are the ingredients that make a workplace culture thrive, regardless of where we work. By staying true to who we are, we can reinvigorate our cultures and flourish in a hybrid workplace.

In this session you will learn how to:

• Lean in to who you are and let that north star guide your workplace philosophies
• Develop a platform that allows employees to share their stories
• Use communications strategies that foster a deeper sense of connection
• Equip leaders to lead through change

Hear from a panel of communications peers who will provide tips and practical advice to tackle your biggest challenges.

Moderator: Kevin Finke

Panelists:
Lori Croy, Director of Communications, Missouri Department of Commerce & Insurance

More panelist details coming soon.

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.