8:00 a.m.
Registration, Continental Breakfast & Networking

8:30 a.m.

Chairperson's Welcome & Opening Remarks

Michelle Mahony, Principal
BRIDGE CONSULTING

8:40 a.m.

Winning In The Marketplace Through Employees Who Are Highly Engaged In Your Brand

What could you accomplish in your organization if your employees were all knowledgeable, enthusiastic and passionate about your organization and its product or service? You'd win in the marketplace! A highly engaged staff can make a big difference in helping your organization achieve its goals and increase its bottom line, and developing a powerful internal brand can help you accomplish this.

In this kickoff session, you will see case studies that show how a number of organizations have created internal brands to attract and retain employees and build high levels of employee engagement to drive their business strategy. Don't miss the chance to begin developing your own internal branding strategy and building your toolbox around your own core brand philosophy.

Michelle Mahony, Principal
BRIDGE CONSULTING

9:30 a.m.

Speed Networking

Meet your colleagues in this fun and fast-paced forum! You'll have a chance to meet and greet your fellow attendees.

10:20 a.m.

How To Use Your Internal Brand To Motivate Employees, Develop A Positive Culture And Build A Winning Organization

Canada has been one of the fastest growth markets for American Express' international business. It's no coincidence that the company also ranks high in its internal employee engagement scores and has received external recognition from programs like the Canada Awards for Excellence and listings of the best employers in the country.

• Build employee engagement, commitment and motivation using a focused internal communications program built around your core brand philosophy
• Apply the principals used in building your external brand to developing a clear proposition for internal audiences that supports the development of a positive culture and winning organization

David Barnes, Vice President, Advertising, Sponsorship and Communication
AMERICAN EXPRESS CANADA

11:05 a.m.

How To Dramatically Shift Perceptions And Increase Your Market Share By Repositioning Your Brand Internally

In the late 1990s, despite rapid regional population growth, Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative was experiencing a loss in market share. The 50-year-old health system—which integrates care and coverage—knew this was largely the result of broad-based confusion and negative perceptions.

While most companies would leap to a marketing fix to address this challenge, Group Health sought a strategic, sustainable solution. To grow and increase loyalty, they knew they had to first build credibility. In 2001 they set out on a multi-year journey to reposition their brand.

This effort has involved 27 medical centers and 9,000 staff members. Now in their eighth year of this process, Group Health has experienced multi-year growth, improvements in net promoter scores, awards for customer service, and growing recognition as the innovation leader in healthcare delivery in the region.

• Define your brand promise
• Prioritize brand strategies
• Engage senior leadership and staff in the journey
• Measure and track results
• Sustain the journey

Jay Gusick, Executive Director of Communications & Community Relations
GROUP HEALTH COOPERATIVE

Briana Marrah, Principal
PARKER LEPLA

11:50 a.m.

How To Identify Cost Efficient Ways To Align Internal And External Brand Truths To Build Brand Strength

In these challenging economic times, it pays to draw from and build on the intangibles associated with your brand to make it stronger. This session will discuss why a brand such as AAA, enjoying some of the highest ratings in brand strength and stature among well known brands, still needs to instill in its employees knowledge and awareness of brand value. Capitalizing on their employees' personal pride in serving customers, both on the front lines and behind the scenes, they have created brand loyalty.

• Leverage external brand messages for internal engagement
• Use customer research to identify gaps in employee behaviors
• Align implementation plans and resources around a “big idea”
• Draw from brand heritage to create relevance in the employee experience
• Use employee/customer stories to build emotional commitment

Virginia Vovchuk, Director of Brand Strategy & Design
AAA NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, NEVADA & UTAH

Join a group of your communication, marketing and HR colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated by one of our expert speakers. Take this opportunity to join others in a small, interactive group setting to network and brainstorm solutions to your most pressing internal branding concerns.

2:00 p.m.

Panel Discussion:
Low Cost Internal Branding Tactics You Can Use Now

Looking for quick ways to connect with employees and keep them motivated during challenging and transitional times? This panel discussion, featuring perspectives from both large and small organizations as well as the consulting side, will provide you with easy, low cost internal branding tactics you can implement immediately!

2:45 p.m.

Breaking Through To Employees To Engage Them In Your Brand Strategy And Drive Growth: Using A Comprehensive, Multi-Faceted Internal Brand Program

After over eight decades as an industry leader, Pitney Bowes strategically repositioned itself in the marketplace as a growth company. This complex repositioning, of Pitney Bowes, from a company long identified with the manufacturing of postage meters, to the leader in mailstream solutions, required not only extensive external marketing, but a comprehensive, multi-faceted internal branding program aimed at engaging and involving employees.

• Leverages the full array of its external marketing, from direct mail to events to advertising, with its 35,000 worldwide employees
• Recruits employees to serve as official brand ambassadors for the "new" Pitney Bowes
• Integrates company values into all internal brand communications to link legacy and heritage with future direction
• Develops key metrics to measure the success of internal programs with multiple employee audiences

You’ll leave this presentation armed with a wealth of tactics for breaking through to internal audiences, in channels that include online training, live events, promotions and employee recognition programs.

Thomas Tibbs, Marketing Manager
PITNEY BOWES, INC.

3:45 p.m.

Building Brand Equity Through Strategic, Brand-Aligned Communications To Turn Employees Into Brand Ambassadors

Your company has a brand. That brand has value. Millions of marketing dollars are spent each year on establishing brand awareness in the minds of customers. But often times, it’s your company's internal ambassadors, your employees, who have the greatest power to make or break a brand.

Employees, particularly customer-facing ones, can shift the brand message from a concept to a positive or negative experience. They generate the energy and ideas that produce business outcomes. And if your employees can’t define your brand, they can’t be committed to delivering it. By developing a consistent program of brand-aligned employee communications you can reinforce your organization’s unique culture, brand and business strategies, and turn each message into an inspiration for your employees to meet the success goals of your organization.

• Define your corporate mission
• Align internal communications to fit this mission
• Ensure the company image matches its global corporate consciousness
• Take the consciousness into the stores and convert it into action
• Measure the results

Marylou Ponzi Kay, Director Human Resources
BENETTON USA

4:30 p.m.

How To Create And Communicate New Brand Values During Transitional Times

Change is never easy. Turnover of employees, different management styles, and merging departments or organizations can present a multitude of challenges and obstacles. Changing a brand can be just as difficult. It has to start from within. Whether it is by choice or by mandate, the process for creating new brand value is not an easy one.

• What is a brand anyway?
• How do you tell what your employees REALLY think about your brand?
• Why is it important to create brand value?
• How do you transition to a new brand?
• What are some practical brand-building tips and tools you can use?

Teresa Rivera, PMP, CME, Outreach & Awareness Manager,
Acquisition Services Directorate/National Business Center (AQD/NBC)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

5:15 p.m.

End Of Day One

5:30 p.m.

Networking Reception: Please Join Us!

Let's meet and have a drink as you relax with your peers. ALL conference attendees and speakers are welcome to join us for this special opportunity to meet new colleagues. Don't miss this chance to benchmark ideas over complimentary drinks!

Sign up during the day for dinner with a group. Take advantage of Chicago's fine dining while you continue to network with your colleagues.