Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea and continental breakfast as you meet your fellow attendees.
Sign-in, pick up your materials and enjoy a continental breakfast before we start the day.
Be sure to stop by and visit your sponsors! 

Welcome to the 13th Annual Strategic Internal Communications – East conference.  

In this fast-paced forum, you'll get to know your fellow peers, their biggest internal communications challenges, and a few fun facts. 

Attendees will explore the critical role of people leaders in bridging communication between senior leadership and their teams, with a focus on overcoming common challenges like bandwidth, uncertainty and skill gaps. Through practical examples and actionable resources, participants will learn how internal communications can empower managers to confidently cascade strategic messaging and bolster team performance. 

Russell Evans will share key lessons from his first year as Head of Communications for M&T Bank’s Commercial Bank on aligning internal communications with business strategy. Using examples such as the redevelopment of Commercial Town Halls and the launch of a Commercial performance dashboard, he will show how strategy‑led messaging can create clear line‑of‑sight to priorities and drive measurable results. He will also cover how his team measures the impact internal communications has on the business, moving beyond engagement to outcomes leaders care about. 

Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea, and other refreshments as you network with your peers. 

Be sure to stop by and visit your sponsors and be sure to fill out your evaluation forms. 

When disruption strikes—whether it’s a cybersecurity breach, leadership transition, workplace incident, or public relations challenge—employees look first to internal leadership for clarity, direction, and reassurance. This seminar equips communication professionals with the tools and frameworks needed to respond quickly, confidently, and strategically during times of crisis. 

Participants will learn how to develop proactive crisis communication plans tailored to internal audiences, establish clear roles and decision-making protocols, and craft messaging that balances transparency with organizational priorities. The session explores best practices for maintaining trust, minimizing misinformation, and supporting employee morale while navigating uncertainty. 

Through real-world case examples, attendees will gain hands-on experience in message development, channel selection, stakeholder alignment, and post-crisis evaluation. By the end of the seminar, participants will leave with actionable strategies to ensure their organization is prepared to respond with consistency, empathy, and control—no matter the challenge. 

Practical frameworks for communicating transformation while maintaining credibility and morale.

Reservations have been made at a number of local restaurants.
Don't miss this opportunity to have lunch with your peers at a local Boston hot spot!
 

**Everyone is financially responsible for their own lunch. 

Culture can feel nebulous — something organizations talk about constantly, but struggle to define, measure or meaningfully change. For internal communicators, that ambiguity often shows up as a familiar challenge: being asked to “drive culture” without clear visibility into what actually shapes it. This session is designed to bring clarity to that complexity.

We’ll share insights from bink’s 2026 national study of U.S.-based Communications and HR senior leaders examining how culture is actually defined, governed and experienced, especially in moments of pressure, change and competing priorities. The goal: to uncover what truly drives culture inside organizations, and how communicators can play a more proactive, strategic role in shaping it.

In this session, you’ll discover: 

• How senior leaders are really defining culture and where those definitions break down in practice 

• Where alignment between leadership intent and employee experience is strongest and where it fractures 

• The role of leadership behavior, incentives and accountability in shaping culture  

• Why internal communications alone cannot “fix” culture — and where communicators can have the greatest strategic influence 

• The uncomfortable truths leaders shared about what’s actually happening inside their organizations 

We’ll translate these insights into clear guidance for Internal Communications, helping you better understand what drives real culture transformation, where to focus your efforts and how to more proactively influence the systems and behaviors that shape outcomes. You’ll leave with a clearer, more grounded perspective on how culture actually operates inside organizations today and a sharper point of view on how to help drive meaningful, lasting change. 

Frontline teams don’t have time to hunt for information, wade through channels, or “keep up” like desk-based employees. In airline environments, time-sensitive operational updates, regulatory requirements, and culture-building all compete for attention, so internal communications has to be built to move fast, drive action, and still feel human. 

In this fireside chat, you will learn how Alaska Airlines has approached modern frontline engagement by intentionally evolving a frontline communications capability stack. They started with utility and measurement, built toward governance and compliance, and then layered in findability, learning, and culture before exploring what comes next. 

We’ll walk through the progression of communications capabilities, including: 

• Utility, measurement and governance
• Compliance, clarity and acknowledgement
• Findability, engagement and learning
• Culture, recognition and belonging
• Future-facing experimentation

Attendees will leave with a practical blueprint for sequencing investments, so new technology strengthens a solid foundation instead of magnifying noise. 

Take advantage of this interactive break to connect with our sponsors and experience their products and services firsthand. Each sponsor will host live demos at their table—giving you the chance to explore innovative solutions, ask questions, and find the tools that best support your work. 

A wide-ranging discussion on the common pressures, roadblocks, and realities communicators are navigating — from competing priorities to evolving employee expectations. Panelists will share how they’re adapting and what they see ahead for the profession. 

Don't stop the conversation! 

Join us at the lobby bar as you network with your peers and sponsors in the adjacent at the #ALIcomms 

Participate in raffles & sign-up for dinner with your peers! 

Want to keep the conversation going? Join a group of attendees for dinner at a local Boston hot spot.
 

Sign-up at the registration desk or during the networking reception to join a group at tonight's dine-around. Reservations have been made.
 

**Dutch treat. 

Together we will recap yesterday's top takeaways and set the stage for this final day of learning. 

Internal communicators lead through influence every day. This session explores how the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership can help communicators strengthen credibility, align strategy and messaging, build trust through change, and empower leaders across a matrixed organization—reinforcing leadership as a daily practice, not a title. 

In this session, we’ll explore how a thoughtful mix of digital and physical communication channels can drive stronger engagement and adoption across an organization. We’ll share how our internal communications platform has enabled effective, company-wide communication, highlighting the strategies that led to strong enrollment and sustained usage. 

Attendees will gain practical insights into evaluating communication tools and channels, implementing them in ways that support, not hinder, organizational goals, and creating a layered communication approach that increases visibility, accessibility, and engagement across diverse employee populations. 

Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea, and other refreshments as you network with your peers. 

Be sure to stop by and visit your sponsors and be sure to fill out your evaluation forms. 

A candid conversation about what works, what doesn’t, and what professionals wish they had known earlier in their careers. Panelists will share practical insights, mistakes that shaped them, and advice for communicators at any level.