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 Innovations in Internal Communications: Navigating Through Uncertainty & Change Conference!  

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

When leadership changes happen and new policies are announced, employees often face uncertainty, questions and resistance. In this session, learn how one internal communications team tapped into a century of organizational pride to guide employees through a leadership transition and evolving workplace expectations. By honoring the past while communicating a clear vision for the future, the team helped unify messaging and foster a renewed sense of belonging during a critical time of change. 

What you’ll learn: 

• How to use legacy and institutional pride as a foundation for forward-looking communication 

• Strategies to support leadership and organizational transitions with clarity, consistency and employee engagement 

• Communication approaches that create buy in and employee ownership 

When a major company announced a transition from Cisco phone systems to Microsoft Teams, a change affecting hundreds of employees, one communications leader faced a high-stakes challenge: guiding the organization through a complex technical shift in just three months. This speaker harnessed their expertise to successfully navigate the communication challenges and lead the organization through the change with confidence and clarity. 

This session explores how strategic planning, integrated technical knowledge, and an iterative approach to communication turned a critical moment of disruption into an opportunity for innovation. You will learn the specific strategies used to manage a significant project under a short lead time and how that experience now shapes future communication efforts.
 

What you will learn: 

• How to build a communication strategy that is seamlessly integrated with a technical implementation plan 

• Actionable steps for managing large-scale messaging across multiple departments during a significant operational change 

• Key strategies for overcoming a short lead time by breaking down complex communication goals into manageable steps 

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. 

After 20 years in communications—including roles in public libraries and now leading IT communications for a major university—one leader faced a high-stakes challenge: guiding more than 40,000 employees through a 48-hour planned data center shutdown (which became 72 hours). This disruption affected nearly every function of university business, but strong relationships and a foundation of trust built over years allowed the internal communications team to respond with confidence and clarity. What could have been chaos became “a unifying campus experience,” according to university leaders. 

This session explores how strategic pre-work, long-term trust, and clear messaging turned a critical moment into a catalyst for cohesion—and how that experience is now shaping a trust-centered crisis communications framework. 

What you’ll learn: 

• How building credibility and consistency over time can position your organization for success when everything is on the line 

• Strategies for managing large-scale messaging across multiple departments during a technical or operational crisis 

• Key elements of a crisis communications plan you can take home and adapt to your own organization 

In the face of rapid transformation and change, a compelling corporate narrative becomes the beacon that guides organizations through uncharted waters. Join us as we uncover the transformative power of corporate narratives in redefining organizational communications. The narrative serves as the dynamic DNA of an organization, weaving together identity and strategic direction to craft a story that resonates with every stakeholder. 

Discover how a centralized messaging framework can revolutionize communication across channels, ensuring a cohesive understanding of organizational goals amidst change. We'll also dive into innovative approaches to measure the narrative's impact, revealing how it can help inspire behaviors that propel business results. 

Attendees will learn:  

• How to build a corporate narrative that aligns identity, strategy, and culture 

• Ways to apply a centralized messaging framework to ensure clarity and consistency across internal and external channels 

• Techniques to measure narrative effectiveness and link storytelling to business outcomes 

• How a strong narrative can influence employee behavior, engagement, and alignment during times of change 

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

**Everyone is financially responsible for their own lunch. 

In this session, we’ll explore what it truly means to be a fearless internal communicator—and how a lack of psychological safety holds us back. We’ll examine how culture, habits, and unspoken norms can silence voices and limit impact, not just within our organizations, but within ourselves as well. You’ll gain insight into how internal communication professionals can foster trust, empower people to speak up, and create an environment that promotes learning, innovation, and inclusion. 

Changing times call for creative measures, especially when juggling multiple layers of workplace change simultaneously. So, how do you keep your team inspired and engaged when not just one thing, but everything is changing? This case study dives into maintaining strong employee enthusiasm and connection during these challenging times. 

Join us for a session filled with practical examples and strategies for handling dynamic change in a global setting. Discover how FedEx’s Enterprise Business Services team, composed of operational and finance professionals, embraced change by weaving it into their organizational culture. We’ll share success stories that highlight the power of clear and consistent communication in boosting engagement, resilience, and performance. 

In this session, you'll explore: 

• Securing leadership support to drive the success of your communication plan 

• Tackling inconsistent messaging across multiple leadership levels 

• Creating channels for open dialogue with leadership 

• Leveraging simplicity to build clarity and inspire confidence in a shifting landscape 

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 i

Internal communication is no longer just about updates—it’s a strategic driver. Hear how teams are linking messaging to measurable outcomes like retention, culture, and performance.

Don't stop the conversation!

Join us at the lobby bar to network with your peers and sponsors—complimentary drinks will be provided.

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 Nashville 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.

Enjoy complimentary coffee, tea and continental breakfast as you network with fellow attendees on this final day.

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

In fast-paced, constantly shifting workplaces, internal communicators are often the bridge between complex change and employee clarity. Whether rolling out a new system, updating policies, or driving behavior change across a global workforce, the challenge remains the same: how do you make messages land clearly, consistently, and without overwhelming your audience? 

In this session, you'll learn how one communications lead supports major internal rollouts, from technology upgrades to organizational changes, by simplifying messaging, enabling local communicators, and creating playbooks that scale. You’ll also explore how AI tools and streamlined processes can increase efficiency without sacrificing quality, even when timelines are tight. 

You’ll walk away with: 

• A framework for delivering steady, focused internal messaging that supports ongoing change 

• Practical tips for building scalable toolkits (like Amplification Kits and simple, impactful PPTs) that empower stakeholders to share your message 

• Lessons from real-world internal comms efforts during periods of high urgency, change, or disruption 

• Ways to integrate AI tools into content planning, creation, and measurement workflows to improve impact and reduce lift 

If you’re navigating shifting priorities, tight resources, or tech-driven transformation, this session offers repeatable strategies to help you lead with clarity and confidence. 

Senior leaders are the voices and faces of our companies so, when big things happen, employees look for alignment and answers from the highest levels of the organization. Some leaders are natural communicators who understand the importance of well-crafted messages and others need a little bit more convincing. As communication experts, it is up to us to educate and prepare them. 

Attendees will learn: 

• How to prepare senior-level recommendations 

• Ideas to frame messaging depending on the speaker and the listener 

• Ways to coach leaders so they can reach a broader audience 

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. 

The most effective employee communication doesn’t just inform -- it connects. In this workshop, we’ll explore the power of emotional connection in internal communication: why it matters, what gets in the way, and the small, intentional shifts you can make to help people feel seen, valued, and inspired. 

A candid conversation on the realities of navigating transformations—mergers, restructures, layoffs—and how communication shaped the outcomes.