Summit Program

Internal communications has grown rapidly as a discipline in the past 15 years so that most organisations now have some type of internal communications support. But are we actually achieving any professional credibility or are we just creating a lot of annoying 'stuff' that is choking organisations?

Jo Alexander will share her personal view on where we are now as a discipline and what it will take to establish internal communications as a strategic board-level function. She describes where we've come from, how we compare to our colleagues in other functions such as Marketing and HR, the potential scope of our role and how we can add real value. She also poses the realistic question: are we up to the challenge and, as individuals, have we really thought about the role each of us plays in advancing the discipline. In her presentation Jo will share personal insights and examples from her last three years as Global Head of internal communications at HSBC.

Key topics include:

• The potential scope of the internal communications role vs other functions and what IC owns/doesn't own
• Insights into creating a global function and delivering global alignment

Communicators will often lament that their leadership team don't really understand or truly value what they do. Long gone are the days where comms people are just senders of notes, ghost writers and party planners. We know we're capable of more, but the jury's still out on whether our leaders know how to extract the best value from us.

In this session learn:

• 3 powerful questions to ask your leaders
• How to gain credibility and earn your seat at the table
• Shifting perception of our value from tactical to strategic

The decentralisation of information production is rising and employee engagement is falling. In these challenging times it's never been more critical for organisations to excel at their IC game. Is this now the dawning of the age of the IC value-creator? If so, how do you play the IC value-creation game?

This session focuses on three ways to play the IC game for value creation:

1. Business is a numbers game; IC is perceived not to be a numbers game. How do you shift that perception?
2. Research is a core strategy of playing the numbers game. How do you apply that strategy to your IC game-plan?
3. Building your brand as an IC game-changer is a differentiator. How do you make it worth the effort?

What is our internal world, how does it sound, how does it feel, would I want to be its friend if it were a person?

The internal organisation is like any other brand, and has far more impact on the success of any product or service and ultimately the company brand equity.

The core identity of the internal brand says one thing, but the marketing says another, my goodness, what a mixed basket of messages and communication we create.

What is the external market thinking, what do we ideally want them to think, what are our emotional and self expressive benefits.

Is our internal brand culture contributing to or subtracting from the value proposition basis for brand value and credibility.

This is where from a gestalt perspective the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts, however it is the parts which make up the whole and the more powerful our internal identity the stronger the value proposition, the stronger the brand. This is an interactive session, bring your pens and the inner you.

We live in an exciting time with social media creating massive changes both internally and externally for organisations and the Communication function is no longer the exclusive content generator in most organizations. Does this mean a loss of control? Not necessarily. Communicators add value to the corporate conversation when they find the common threads of dialogue and weave together the full story for the employee.

So how do we embrace these tools and platforms to open channels for conversation and innovation but keep some kind of balance and overall perspective through a planned approach and what tools could add real value and support for senior leaders, managers and all employees in their day-to-day communication?

In this session learn about:

• The emerging role of social media coordinators as change agents
• Helping employees make the most of online tools and channels\Using social media to improve day-to-day business
• How do you balance governance and the autonomy that social media-enables
• The role third party sites such as Twitter and Facebook play within the ABC
• How to implement social media training in a diverse workplace
• Using a social media checklist when planning your strategy

In a time when receiving messages instantly and regularly is the norm, good quality communication can often be either taken for granted or go unnoticed.

This session will look at a case study where identifying a communication need for the most senior audience provided the perfect opportunity to achieve three things:

• Fill a communication gap and be seen as a proactive, valuable contributor
• Shape the messages being delivered from the top and;
• Gaining access to the decision makers on a regular and ongoing basis.

Panel Discussion:
The digital workplace and its future in internal comms strategy

Delegates are encouraged to debate and discuss their own challenges with the panel around key areas including:

• The evolution of the digital workplace and the role of IC
• The impact these changes will have on productivity, resources, budgets and day-to-day behaviours
• Who takes "ownership" for tools that are designed specifically to be cross-departmental in their reach?
• The practicalities of collaborative platforms; what works, what doesn't and what's still to come?