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Speaker: Laurence Simard, Communication advisor, PCN Physio Are you hoping your organization was a little less hierarchical? Is your organization in the process of flattening its structure? Have you joined a self organized team? If so, you may be wondering how to maximize your impact as a communication leader in this less traditional business model.  Get inspired to reinvent your role as leadership structures shift in your organization. A 200 employees healthcare business lets you in on strategies and tactics that brought efficient communications into its new leadership structure.  Get insights on how to: - Understand how your internal clients will evolve and how to adapt to their changing needs - Help colleagues navigate the high information flow by ensuring cohesiveness of the messages, timing and relevance. - Coach and provide the right tools to colleagues so they can communicate efficiently  It's about time traditional leadership models evolve and when they do, communicators will be ready! Read more

Speaker: Kelley Teahen, Vice President, Communications and Marketing, Parachute Leading up to cannabis legalization in Canada in 2018, there was a concerted public relations effort to show the relative harmlessness of cannabis. As an injury prevention charity, however, Parachute could see from the evidence the harms that increased with more-open cannabis use: unintentional childhood exposure in the home; and increase in impairment-caused injury on our roads. We received funding from our federal government to address these two issues in national public relations campaigns: But how to reach cannabis users who are dismissive of any kind of fear-mongering about their now-legal recreational drug of choice? Parachute VP Kelley Teahen will walk you through the research, campaign development and execution of campaigns "Know What Impaired Means and "High and Locked", where we used humour and a peer-to-peer approach to reach our audiences. The presentation will use participant polls and chat Q&A to engage with the campaign process and creative asset review. Read more

Speaker: Maliha Aqeel, Director, Global Communications & Digital Channels, Fix Network World Purpose-driven brands see more market share gains, grow their competitive advantage faster and achieve higher employee and customer satisfaction. A global study from Accenture found that consumers support companies whose brand purpose aligns with their beliefs and reject those that don’t. But how do consumers know what is the brand’s purpose? Content!  Marketing and Communication own the brand story; it’s about time they placed Purpose in the center of their content strategy. Each piece of content should articulate why the organization exists, what problems it is here to solve and how it creates deeper connections with consumers and the community through the work it does.   This session breaks down the DNA of purpose-driven brands with examples of how these brands use content to bring their Purpose to life.  Read more

Speaker: Judith Quin, Vocal Confidence Specialist, Your Whole Voice You work in communications, right? So when was the last time you avoided a challenging conversation? When was the last time you avoided delivering a presentation, speaking in a meeting or at conference, or had your video turned off because you hate being seen?   It's about time that ALL company staff know how to verbally communicate with clarity because the stress of speaking up, sharing your voice/ideas/opinions/challenges is destructive to too many people.   However, as someone who works in communications there is obviously more pressure for you to be good with your words, to deliver a point clearly, or speak in public with ease and confidence.  This doesn't mean that you have those skills though.  This session will destroy the myth that public speaking is scary, give you tools to manage nerves when speaking 'in public' and help you turn those challenging conversations from confronting to constructive. Read more

Speaker: Caroline Kealey, Principal & Founder, Results Map This active learning workshop is a deep dive exploring how communicators can adapt agile methodologies to help elevate their performance.   Refreshingly practical in its approach, this session will provide an overview of agile mindsets, capabilities and practices specifically designed to apply to communications teams. Participants will gain insights and proven resources on how to incorporate agile into their day-to-day work, including tools such as Kanban boards, sprints and design thinking. It will also address head-on what winning conditions are required for agile to succeed, such as governance and culture.   The centrepiece of the session will be a reverse workshop - an immersive experience driven by participants’ priorities and interests. It's a unique opportunity to learn about agile through an agile experience.   Everyone’s talking agile these days - it’s about time communicators understand what it means for our community, and explore how these methodologies can help us raise our game. Read more

Presented By: Isidro Reyna, Senior Communications Specialist, NASA’s Johnson Space Center NASA’s Johnson Space Center has served as the iconic setting to some of humankind’s greatest achievements. For nearly 60 years, as part of NASA’s nationwide team, Johnson has led the world in human space exploration. By capitalizing on the latest social media features, newsworthy content and trending topics, the space agency aims to share its mission with the public in broader ways than ever before. But they also have an important stakeholder – their employees – whose work to leap to greater heights and new destinations makes them the leader in human space exploration. Often, NASA employees are on the go — consuming what they want, when they want and on a multitude of platforms. The Johnson External Relations Office reimagined its internal communications products to serve a multi-generational workforce while being responsive to today’s technology platforms. This focuses resources on better serving the needs of the Johnson team with products that help employees and retirees lead the charge as the American space program’s most knowledgeable ambassadors. Plus, it’s a business best practice that will ensure Johnson operates as a well-informed center with a strong sense of community.   Read more