Is your organisation change-ready?

Todd Montgomery, Principal Consultant, Mercer Consulting

Reinventing the communication function to add value

With Jim Shaffer, The Jim Shaffer Group

With the uncertain economic climate it's vital to recession-proof your communication department. Attending the SCM Summit is the best way to keep your approach to communication fresh, and to reevaluate what is working for you, and what could be improved. You'll learn how Australia's leading comms teams are shifting away from simply producing newsletters, videos and intranets, and moving towards being the driving force behind strategies to enable the company to compete in more difficult market conditions. You'll learn not only how to keep the business strategy at the core of the communication plan, but ways prove the value of your communication team.

Hear from an outstanding line-up of local communication experts:

• Woolworths - David MacGregor, Internal Communications Manager
• Shell Australia - Helen Taylor, Internal & Management Communications Manager
• Telstra - Rosie Mullaly, Deputy Director News Services & Manager Corporate Employee Communications
• AstraZeneca - Jenny Burn, Organisational Development & Learning Manager
• St. George Bank - Kellie Tomney, Executive Manager Recruitment & Branding Strategy
• GlaxoSmithKline Australia - Alex Gosman, Director, Government & Corporate Affairs
• CGU Insurance - Chris Jackson, Head of Communication
• Bristol-Myers Squibb - Michael Moore, Manager Corporate & Business Communications
• HIP Super - Ross Bernays, CEO
• Sensis - Karina Keisler, Group Manager External Communications
• Aon Consulting - Cary Frost, Principal - Communication at Work
• Department of Justice (Victoria) - Louise Martin, Director, Strategic Communication Branch
• Bond University - Genevieve O'Reilly, PhD, Research Consultant
• Powerlink Queensland - Michelle Berardone, Manager Corporate Communications

International Keynote Speaker from the US Jim Shaffer, The Jim Shaffer Group:

Jim Shaffer is internationally recognised as a thought leader in improving business performance and managing large scale organisational change. His book, The Leadership Solution, has become a classic treatise on leadership and performance. Jim's background is in general management and organisational change, and since 2000 he has run the Jim Shaffer Group, a US consultancy based in Annapolis, Maryland, devoted to helping companies achieve high performance.

Jim is an IABC Fellow and was named Communicator of the Year by IABC's Washington, DC Chapter. His clients have included IBM, Toyota, FedEx, Marriott, 3M, AstraZeneca to name just a few.

Don't miss his outstanding presentation on leadership communication and the role of communication practitioners in helping them get results:

Beyond Talking Points: Creating A Leadership Engine

You can't not communicate. Everything a leader says and does communicates something. Leaders communicate their priorities by how they use their time, what's first and last on their agenda, who they reward and who they promote. They signal what's important by questions they ask, structure they create and bureaucracy they eliminate. In this presentation, Jim Shaffer will discuss the role leaders must play to get results and the new role that communication practitioners must fulfil to help create a leadership engine that goes beyond training and talking points. You'll also learn what other communication practitioners are doing to:

• Help their leaders agree on new communication roles and expectations
• Assess leadership communication performance; and
• Connect leadership expectations to the leadership selection and development process

Keynote CEO presentation from Kevin Panozza, CEO, SalesForce:

The eight enemies of employee engagement
This session explores the secrets behind employee engagement at SalesForce, a company which has been voted "Best Employer in Australia and New Zealand" in 2004, 2005 and 2007. The presentation answers key questions including:

• The secrets to retaining key staff in a skill-short market
• Identifying and satisfying customer, staff and shareholder expectations
• Recognising the eight enemies of staff engagement
• Creating a culture for a high performance workplace
• Bottom line impact - the inexorable link between staff engagement and commercial performance

Full event agenda
More about the speakers

Aon Consulting's communication practice is part of the human capital consulting arm of Aon Corporation. We help companies use effective, measurable communications to attract, develop, motivate, reward and retain their people so they can achieve better business results. Our integrated service covers strategy, content, design and production and means we can develop strategic, creative and engaging solutions that really work.

Contact Cary Frost, Principal, on 02 9253 7497