We are excited to announce the Full Conference Schedule for the World Conference 2022, taking place 26-29 June. Please note that the schedule is subject to change and in order to sort by date, please select and unselect each date to view.
Breakfast
Session Type: Networking + Activities
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Using data to create thoughtful and personal communication
Uncertainty defines today’s workplace—it started with a pandemic that no one was ready for, but has continued to define the continuingly evolving world. Whether it's an unprecedented war, a global recession, climate crises, or ever-changing working environments internal communicators need to be prepared for the unexpected. Join ContactMonkey in conversation with internal communicators, Kelly Connor and Julie Dorsey of CanadaLife as they share how they used data to build a personalized, highly effective communications strategy to engage over 11,000 employees during COVID-19.
In this session, you’ll discover:
ContactMonkey Solution Provider Session
How Communication Can Inspire Our Success
Staff want more than just to be informed – they want to be inspired. They want to do great work that truly matters. And when everyone’s inspired, the results can be amazing. Communications have kept workplaces informed throughout the changes of the last few years. Now it’s time to flip the negative. It’s time to inspire success. In this uplifting session, we’ll share the secrets to an inspirational workplace that fosters imagination and innovation. We’ll present a fresh approach to communications that you can use today. And we’ll show you examples of how to bring this to life. Join us to improve your communications strategy in 2022 and beyond. Inspiration guaranteed!
Snapcomms Solution Provider Session
Plenary Session: Why Influence Beats Intelligence In Communication
If the past few years of pandemic misinformation, fake news, conspiracy theories, corporate corruption, political polarisation and institutional abuse by those we were supposed to be able to trust has taught us anything, it’s that facts alone are impotent and that influence is where the game is won. If you can lead the conversation, you can lead people. Communication is indeed King. We know this to be true intuitively. Though we never quite say it out loud, we know deep down that the best product doesn’t win in the marketplace, the best candidate doesn’t win the prize role or the election nor do the most expert win the hearts and minds of their communities. Rather, it is the one who creates the greatest engagement that wins. This means, it’s not enough to be technically smart or professionally competent, we must be people smart also! In this provocative and inspiring presentation, Dan Gregory & Kieran Flanagan will explain:
Morning Break in the Exhibit Hall
See the list of 2022 Exhibitors here.
The Communicator’s Guide to the Metaverse
The nascent metaverse - the next evolution of the internet - is offering virtual worlds and new social spaces where anything is possible. Just as the birth of social media saw the role of the communicator shift, so too will the metaverse. What do we have to look forward to? How can we prepare ourselves? Do we all need to start wearing VR headsets all day?! This talk takes a whistle-stop tour of the metaverse as it stands today and will ask the audience to start looking at their own metaverse communications plans. It will examine how the metaverse can reignite workplace creativity and how communication can drive innovation through positive, collaborative and creative virtual spaces.
What's Your Belonging Quotient? Transforming Your Team, Brand and Organization into Magnets, Matches and Sellotape
Magnets attract. Matches ignite. Sellotape sticks (but not too hard)! With employee and customer engagement at an all time low, and given the isolation, loneliness and spikes in mental health issues arising in the wake of the pandemic, creating a sense of belonging has become a burning platform but also a competitive edge for those leaders, organizations and brands that lean in to foster Belongingness. In this keynote, Abam unveils her Belonging Quotient framework to teach, empower and ignite organizations, brands and leaders to increase their BQ so they can attract like Magnets, ignite like Matches and retain like Sellotape.
Building (and Losing) Trust in Uncertain Times
One of the long-term casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic was organizational trust. Trust in government, corporations, leaders and brands ebbed and flowed in 2020 and 2021. But mostly it ebbed. Yet through all the the uncertainty, some brands saw significant increases in trust. Our research looked at five Canadian brands that were able to actually increase consumer trust and three that, well, didn't do so well. We discovered that the highly trusted brands had a few things in common, including immediate, authentic, engaging communication. This session examines the tools and strategies used by Lego, Astro Yogurt, Interac, Quaker Oats and President's Choice to connect with consumers and others during the frightening early days of the pandemic. We will explore the lessons learned and how communicators can apply them in the future, proving that Communications Can build trust.
Communication can… transform the NBA’s employee experience from a pass to a score
The NBA’s mission is to Inspire and connect people everywhere through the power of basketball. In turn, our internal communications strive to inspire and connect our people and create a culture that makes them ultimate fans of their workplace.
NBA employees create unforgettable experiences for basketball fans, which requires a fast, reliable and intuitive platform to share information and essential resources, manage their careers, and maximize the benefits and programs available to them to support their wellbeing and perform their best.
They will also cover how the NBA utilizes Interact to:
Interact Solution Provider Session
The Power of Words to Build Trust - Or Destroy It
Inclusion is claimed to be a top priority for organizations of all sizes the world over, but the resistance to changing the status quo is holding organizations back from doing the right thing. True inclusion should be operationalized, informing how people are hired, how products are built and marketed, how corporate donations are distributed and how opportunities are opened up to underrepresented groups at every level of an organization. Communication can - and should - underscore all these efforts, bringing everyone along on the journey to inclusion.
As communicators, we put words in the mouths of leaders, of brands and of public sector entities. We need to make sure we're using the right words that don't alienate or exclude some of the very people we are trying to impact. In this session, I will use real-life examples and analogies to illustrate the power of the words we use to build trust and maintain reputation. You will learn how to be an ally, how to acknowledge and use your privilege for good and how to unlearn bias out loud.
Let's 'Talk' Culture
Culture is the unseen advantage in your team. It's the intangible quality that sets winning teams apart. But what role do people leaders on the front line play in building it and shaping it? And how much does communication influence the outcome? Backed by new research exploring the role of people leaders in building and shaping culture through the lens of communication this keynote will reinforce the essential role communication leaders play in shaping a team culture by design and the five practical conversations they can have to execute it.
How Communication Can be Improved with Humour
How humour can be a very effective tool to connect and communicate? Do you want a critical competitive advantage? Knowing how to use humour is an incredible skill that every professional should include in his toolkit. During this session, we'll explore how humour can be a very effective icebreaker and allow you to strategically approach, enhance and conclude your business conversations.
How Communication Can Inspire A Purpose- and Values-Driven Culture
Global industrial technology company, Vontier, had just spun off from its parent company in 2020 when Sabrina Kropp joined as the VP of Communications & Brand. With Blue Beyond’s help — and despite a global pandemic, market headwinds and societal unrest — Kropp set to work developing and operationalizing a purpose- and values-driven culture, prioritizing inclusion, diversity & equity (ID&E), and championing the company’s leadership behaviors. From aligning key stakeholders, launching a culture ambassadors program and fierce adherence to the aphorism that “perfect is the enemy of good,” Kropp and Blue Beyond demonstrate how communication can inspire an agile and inclusive culture, and deliver value as a business function in its own right. As they seek to connect their purpose, values and ID&E vision to business strategy, the company’s new messaging is clear: “I belong here” signals employees’ shared journey to realize an even bolder promise for the future.
Communication Strategies to support business focus on ESG
The global economy is now focused on creating a sustainable future of responsibility encapsulated in the acronym ESG [Environment, Social and Governance]. Companies are committing to ESG norms as they embrace its value in attracting investors and employees to their business. Business leaders will need to build trust with all stakeholders, and not just shareholders, with purpose at its core in order to ensure business survival and growth. Businesses are also being called upon to respond to the converging imperatives of climate change and social justice to help shape a better post-pandemic world. How Communication can support the new business focus on ESG is the theme of my talk based upon my deeply researched co-authored book on ESG- “Outlast – How ESG can benefit your Business”. My talk will offer insights into the ESG domain, supported by global case studies to uncover the challenges of communication around nuances of ESG and delineate communication strategies.
Allyship is the New Leadership
As a woman business owner and an employee communications and engagement expert, I am a lifelong advocate of diverse and inclusive workplace cultures. And, as a white woman with two adult daughters, the elder married to a Latino man and the younger married to a Black man, I considered myself fairly “woke.” What I didn’t realize is that my unconscious bias prevented me from being the most effective CEO and business communicator I could be. When “head” knowledge changed to “heart” knowledge I started on a journey that taught me how to be an ally. And that transformation inspired my team and invigorated our mission. This session combines storytelling with data gathered from our global, online focus group on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. I’ll share the four imperatives our data revealed and participants will co-create a plan for bringing these best practices to life in their own organizations.
Communication Can…Elevate Authentic Voices
Just when we begin to feel we have mastered the skills to effectively communicate, the world changes what it needs and what difference we can make. In a world of many-to-many communications, we are less often asked to be the voice of the organization. Instead, we enable, enhance and energize the authentic voices of others: leaders, managers, and front-line workers. Rather than only create communications, we facilitate platforms to elevate others as effective communicators. We can do this, but it requires new skills to: • Listen with authenticity across organizations • Create and deliver storytelling to give truth a voice • Coach leaders to discover and deliver their authentic voices In this experiential learning session - filled with examples, exercises and dialogue - participants will discover how we can drive this change, confront its risks and opportunities, and curate the platforms to amplify authentic voices.
Engaging Men in Gender Equity Initiatives: Communicating with Non-Traditional Stakeholders
We have seen that men may feel anxious to participate in conversations around gender equity. Although many men are supportive of gender diversity programs, they feel unsure what role they can play, and often avoid engagement for fear of saying something wrong. During this session, we will discuss our efforts to engage men in gender diversity initiatives. We will cover how communications can address resistance, inspire participation, and enable change. Through our initiatives, we communicated to create community and overcome various challenges to drive transformational change. We identified common themes we’ve heard from non-traditional stakeholders, and created avenues for participants to express their fears, connect with others with similar concerns, and ultimately leverage their experiences to become effective advocates. Attendees will participate using polls and by reviewing a Readiness Assessment Checklist to analyze where their organization lives in the maturity continuum with respect to engaging men in gender equity initiatives.
When Culture Shapes Communication: Uruguay and the Pandemic, a Story of Success.
When the pandemic broke out, no one could foresee the global impact it had. The world seemed to stop, offices emptied. Communication was an essential element that allowed us to emerge afloat. Uruguay is one of the smallest countries in Latin America, and in this context it demonstrated a great capacity for resilience and adaptation to the crisis at all levels, government and companies. Becoming an example of pandemic management, with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. The secret of success: Communication, based on empathy and freedom. The purpose of this session will be to analyze a real case of how this country impacts local organizations, promoting and inspiring them to overcome the crisis through honest and accessible communication. Also discuss how different organizations capitalized the crisis internalizing values in their organizational culture that today allow them to communicate more effectively with their audiences.
Communication Can deliver business results through organisational listening
Analytics and engagement are core principles of the Business Leader and Strategic Advisor role. Listening to stakeholders on all levels of the organisation and position the information as a tool to influence business decisions, takes some doing. This session will unpack how to put an organizational listening system in place, how to use the data gathered from this system, and how to turn this data into communication strategies that delivers business results. After completing more than 170 communication research studies, Mari will share the lessons learned about using the data to influence business results. Mari Lee, ABC, SCMP will share: 1) A framework and the steps for organisational listening 2) Tips to implement it in your organisation 3) Practical Quill Award winning case studies showing how it is done in practice 4) Busting myths on leadership and budget access 5) How to avoid traps and pitfalls in the process.
Communications as a Catalyst for Climate
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today. Impacting prosperity, planet, people and profit, our changing climate makes for a complex, converging and complicated ecosystem.
As brands, communities, and countries grapple with the multiplicity of risks that is climate change – the urgency and scale of change required, presents a once in a lifetime opportunity. One in which communication professionals and communications have a right and role to play.
This workshop brings together the worlds of strategy design, design thinking and strategic conversations to explore climate change and the power of communication to deepen understanding, inspire action and as a result transform our world. This fast-paced and hands-on session will be guided by your facilitator Suneiah Cullen. In teams, you will work together to co-discover and co-design what’s possible – specifically: how might communication professionals catalyze climate change from within?
You will walk away inspired and with concepts and conversations to test and apply in your communication practice.
Join co-hosts Mike Klein and Danielle Bond!
Be Influential: How to Improve Your Presentation Skills in 60 Minutes
Are you great at communicating successfully? Hint: It’s easier than you think! No matter what trips you up when you’re leading a meeting or giving an important presentation, this interactive session will help leaders at all levels who want to boost and maximize their presentation and communication skills. We connect and inspire our colleagues, clients and customers every day and the way we communicate can help us build successful relationships and even rebuild our corporate culture. You’ll practice and take away actionable techniques and skills to help you convey your message effectively, get organized and calm those jitters. Experienced leaders will discover new strategies and takeaways to refine their presentation skills and delivery. Mid-level leaders will learn techniques and tools to help them be more confident and comfortable. Every leader will take away a clear plan in place for their own successful presentations.
Communication CAN make or break your hybrid teams
Life during and after the COVID 19 pandemic: complicated, frustrating, and very polarized. Most of us have had or will have to return to a "new normal", including working in hybrid teams (hybrid now being defined in new terms). Whether your company is employing a hybrid or flexible remote work strategy, you need to understand the requirements and adjust your practices to be effective. In order to create, maintain, and retain productive hybrid teams, as leaders and team members, you need concrete skills and techniques to support the adoption of standards of practice and maintain successful and sustainable hybrid teams. This session will focus on the dynamics of hybrid teams, the importance of effective leadership, and the critical elements of synchronous and asynchronous communication practices that make hybrid work successful.
Sponsored by Haiilo.
Your Stories Your Brand: How to share stories to take control and amplify your brand for greater career success
Your brand is the stories people share about you when you’re not in the room, and it’s these brand stories that determine if people buy from you, employ you, promote you, work for you, recommend you or invest in you. When the stakes are that high, wouldn’t you want to take control of it? This highly practical session is perfect for individuals who are serious about taking control of their own brand. During the session, they will undertake a process to help them determine their brand. We will also cover how and when you can share stories to amply your authentic brand, as well as what you can do to generate stories. Because we all have a brand, and it is evolving either strategically or organically, the sooner you take control of it, the better. Every participant will also receive a copy of my Your Stories Your Brand journal.
How to Create Pre-Packaged Communication Plans for Internal Partners and Leaders to Speed Up and Manage Internal Comms
With numerous communication channels and countless ways to share information, it's easy to overwhelm employees with messages that are indiscernible from noise. At the same time, internal communicators face a barrage of communication requests from business partners and leaders every day. With everything IC folks juggle on a given day, developing a custom communication game plan for each request is daunting. In this engaging conference workshop, attendees will learn a strategy that involves taking the concept of restaurant combo meals to empower business partners and leaders to choose from “pre-packaged” communication plans that match their needs. Think of it as a “Communications Combo Menu,” a tool that helps internal communication teams and their business partners conveniently and quickly define a communications plan based on the messaging, urgency, and channels at their disposal. This framework can speed up processes, manage workloads more effectively, and start with a foundation of best practices.
Communication can shape culture
Join us to hear how communication can: - Cross borders to involve everyone - regardless of role, location, language or access to technology - Connect people to each other and the business to support and spark change, and - Inspire action helping to shape the business from the inside out In this high energy interactive session you'll get chance to understand how global business Johnson Matthey delivered an award winning conversation programme that has helped deliver their strategy and shape their culture (even through a pandemic). Get our top tips, conversation formula and be ready to share best practice knowledge with your peers in the room so you can use two way communication to shape your culture. This useful and practical session will spark ideas and actions you can take away to use in your own business!
How to Be Your Own Hero at Work (No Matter What)
When difficult things happen in our fast-moving communication careers, too many of us think we either have to find a new job (exhausting), sacrifice personal time to get work done (painful), or just suck it up and deal (a path to burnout, fast). But there's an alternative for today's smart communication professional: learning how to take back control and become the hero of your own life at work. In this high-energy, interactive conversation, Coach Darcy Eikenberg teaches simple, practical ways we can reset how we think, revise what we say, and rescue our careers—and our profession—without waiting for our companies or our world to change. Communication can only make an impact when the professionals in it can manage their careers and lives in healthy, fresh ways, and in this session, you'll walk away with strategies you can use immediately and have the chance to learn from others around you, too.
Communication can be measured
Effective communication programs can more closely connect employees with your organization and instill a greater sense of purpose, while also reminding employees their work matters. A solid internal corporate communications program fosters a more informed and engaged employee base that’s more likely to feel valued and motivated and remain committed to the company. But what about the benefits of measuring those communications? Here are just a few:
Measurement is important, especially in today’s hybrid workforce. That’s more than clear. But how do you know if you have the right data to move your organization forward? It’s more than just open and click rates. It’s about outcomes, not just numbers.
PoliteMail Solution Provider Session
Afternoon Break in the Exhibit Hall
Influence and Impact: How to Step Up as a Leader in Your Organisation
Too often, Communications is the "sending-things-out department" - not experts who can build their greatest asset - reputation. How good are we, really, at persuading leaders of the value communications can bring? How well do we build and manage our reputations inside our organization - both as a function and as individual practitioners? It's not enough any more just to do a good job at writing, planning, and measuring. We need to consciously and strategically work on increasing our INFLUENCE and IMPACT with senior leaders. This session will help you to do that by helping you to identifying what's stopping you from stepping up; and sharing proven strategies for navigating politics, building a strong network, advocating for yourself and securing the resources you need so that communications can take its rightful place as a trusted and strategic partner to the C-Suite.
Make your time count: Communicate for impact
Too often communicators feel they've been spending their time on assignments requested by executives that are either of low strategic value or that could be more effective if the communicator's advice was taken more seriously. This session proposes a quantitative tool that can be used to avoid taking on low-value projects; once the outline is presented, participants will brainstorm ways it can be tailored to their own situations. The second part of the session shows examples of best-practice survey questions that other communicators have used to back up their recommendations to leadership with irrefutable data. During the Q&A for this session, participants can get help in identifying the right audience questions to ask to support their own recommendations. Communication research can make the difference between putting in a lot of time for little results, or making that time count in creating impact.
Ignite
Session Type: Ignite Global Standard Focus: Ethics, Consistency, Engagement Keywords: Marketing and Brand, Digital and Social Media, Trends and Innovation, Corporate Communication, DE&I, ESG, Crisis Communication, Public Relations, People and Culture, Stakeholder Engagement, Communication Skills, Internal Communications
Join us for Ignite, fast-paced, short sessions intended to spur conversation and creativity!
Speakers: Katrina German, Ethical Digital Global Standard Focus: Ethics Keywords: Corporate Communication, DE&I, ESG Communication can impact people every day, in positive ways. We just need to be aware of our effects as content creators. After gathering extensive academic research of the effects of social media on well-being, the team at EthicalDigital.ca has created a dynamic presentation that details how social media is affecting our day-to-day emotions - and what we can do to make sure that your online customers (and potential customers) feel supported by your brand. In this intensive presentation, you'll learn the most interesting facts about the effects of social media on well-being, including sleep, depression, anxiety and overall self-esteem - and what we can do to connect with our audiences in genuinely meaningful ways.
Learning Objectives:
Speakers: Dr. Vishnupriya Sengupta, PwC India Global Standard Focus: Engagement Keywords: Corporate Communication, People and Culture, Stakeholder Engagement Communication can rebuild trust - much in deficit in today's world. On the flip side, it could also provide an illusion of rebuilding trust. To achieve the former, communication needs to factor in Precision, Simplicity and Spontaneity, Pregnant pauses, Breadcrumbing, Non-hierarchy and Action-speak. By way of authentic examples I would like to show how communication can rebuild trust by creating an ambience of transparency. Up your game of communication by availing of these best practices that may be applied to any situation or context to convince the target audience that the walk is the talk.
IDEATION BOOTCAMP! 16 brilliant content ideas in 60 minutes
Want 16 content ideas in 60 minutes? Of course you do. But sometimes communicators feel like we’ve already thought of everything. Like there’s nothing new under the sun. Like our ideas bank has been plundered and there’s only dustballs and pencil shavings remaining. If one of our career purposes is to communicate with a variety of audiences in a range of styles, we must create content that feels fresh and new... and that can be relied on, consistently, for clarity and effect. Using her MICRO-TARGETING METHODOLOGY, Tiffany Markman comes up with clever content ideas, angles and hooks that never seem to run dry. Or at least, that haven’t slowed much in 16 years. Now you can too! In this relentlessly practical session, copywriter and speaker Tiffany will teach her never-before-shared ideation technique – and you could walk away with 16 clever, inspiring ideas to use immediately.
How communication can inspire a culture of belonging and inclusivity in a hybrid world.
The world of work is changing. Since the global pandemic, the priorities of many have shifted. No longer are people prepared to sacrifice their personal time for work, nor are they prepared to travel hours to sit in an office all week without any flexibility. Organisations are battling with retaining and attracting talent because people have more options than they’ve had before. For the first time, we’re now seeing a workforce with four generations and with hierarchies being destroyed and more autonomy being offered through Hybrid working, communicators have a big challenge on their hands. In this interactive and practical session, you’ll learn the five steps on how communication can help connect colleagues and cultivate a culture of belonging, so people continue to thrive in their work. You’ll leave the session feeling confident, empowered and motivated to demonstrate how communication can have the power to influence change in your organisation.
Cultivating Honesty and Trust Through Storytelling (CHATTS)
After eighteen months in a global pandemic, disconnection and isolation have grown, while opportunities to build authentic, trusting relationships have stagnated. CHATTS is a narrative framework designed to address these critical workplace challenges by bringing people together to share stories that matter. In this dynamic workshop, we will engage in a hands-on experience of CHATTS. We will explore storytelling as a vehicle for openness, authenticity and vulnerability, which are key components of a mentally healthy, engaged and productive workplace. We will reflect on past challenges and share stories of failure and resilience, universal experiences which are essential building blocks for success. Research shows that sharing our story promotes empathy, compassion, and human connection, while decreasing stress and isolation. On this basis, CHATTS seeks to improve morale, reduce burnout, and improve teamwork and communication among participants. Participants will learn to use the CHATTS framework in their organizations to cultivate authentic connection.
Plenary Session: Changing the Conversation: Communicating Climate Science
The climate emergency is a global threat requiring innovation from everyone committed to change. Much of this relies on governments and businesses committing and acting to achieve net-zero targets. This will not only impact our environment but also the way we live, work, and interact. Great communicators know that this needs productive conversations, which include both talking and active listening.
To be most effective at translating technical scientific concepts into accessible language that connects with a variety of audiences, leaders and professional communicators may have to listen more and then make the case for addressing the very real threats to everyday life with targeted messages. How might an active listening approach augment communication and change efforts to ensure that messaging from climate change organizations is resonating and properly targeting the right audiences? This panel comprised of climate change communicators will discuss the evolving approach to change the conversation.
IABC Celebration & Gold Quill Awards Reception
Join us to celebrate all the accomplishments of IABC and your peers from the last year (or three years since we've last been together)!
Join us to celebrate all the accomplishments of IABC and your peers from the last year (or three years since we've last been together)! We will toast each other and recognize our Gold Quill Award Recipients with a short program sponsored by Play Play. The evening is your chance to mingle with fellow attendees, learn about the great achievements of the Gold Quill Award recipients, and unwind over hors d'oeuvres and beverages!
Attire is smart casual, leave your ballgowns & tuxedos at home this year!
Sponsored by PlayPlay.