8:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast & Networking

8:30 a.m.

Chairperson’s Opening of Day Two and Presentation:
Harnessing The Power Of Co-Creation: How Leading Organizations Are Using Crowdsourcing And Emerging Media To Engage Employees Enterprise-Wide

One of the most powerful catalysts to engagement is the process of involving employees in the generation of ideas that address an organization’s most pressing challenges. By opening up these important conversations, individuals feel a part of—rather than on the sidelines of—the true game of business.

During this session, you will hear methods for how to drive co-creation efforts within your company to engage employees at all levels. Case studies will be used to lead you through a series of pointed inquiries, facilitating breakthrough thinking and leading to significant improvements in both employee engagement and leadership support.

Some of the many things that you will learn during this informative session are how to:

• Position communications as a catalyst for co-creation
• Build a holistic engagement strategy, supported by multi-disciplinary communications
• Use emerging crowd-sourcing technologies to drive engagement efforts

Preston Lewis, Co-Founder & Director
BONFIRE COMMUNICATIONS
@bonfirepreston

9:30 a.m.

Building Your Internal Brand To Motivate Employees, Develop A Positive Culture And Create 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.
American Express Canada places strong emphasis on building employee engagement and runs a robust employee communication program that considers its own people as a key target audience. To reach this audience, they have created an internal brand that serves as a motivational rallying cry for their workforce.
During this session, you will hear about the strategies and tactics that have helped build a winning organization at AMEX Canada. In addition, you will gain valuable insight into:

• Building employee engagement, commitment and motivation using a focused internal communications program built around your core brand philosophy
• Applying 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
• Leverage a variety of communication tools, both online and offline to build a robust program that engages and involves employees in the success f the company and in their own personal development.

David Barnes, Vice President, Advertising, Sponsorship and Communication
American Express Canada

10:45 a.m.

How To Effectively Manage Enterprise-Wide Change With A Comprehensive And Strategic Communications And Change Management Plan

In today’s ever-changing business environment, strategic communications and comprehensive change management programs are critical to business success. As large corporations expand globally and employees become more diverse, change is the one constant in our lives. Change comes with inherent risks, disruption, lost productivity and uncertainty, which makes a “one size fits all” approach to communications more difficult for global communicators. How can strategic internal communicators deliver timely and transparent information to employees so they are actively engaged and participate in large scale change like mergers, acquisitions or even corporate spin-offs?  Further, what is the best method to show communications’ value proposition and delivery to the business? 

Leaning on peer benchmarking data and extensive research, this internal communications team from ConocoPhillips used both traditional communication channels coupled with innovative and new techniques to support more than 30,000 employees during a major corporate transaction that lasted for more than a year. Despite the typical challenges, the team was able to ensure active and visible senior leader participation and the development of over 4,000 change ambassadors around the world. The results were a measurable increase in employee awareness, engagement and support over the course of the project. In addition, they captured lessons learned throughout the process and were able to adjust communication channels periodically to ensure employee’s needs were being met.  The outstanding results were shared regularly with senior leadership to show the true value proposition of strategic change management programs.

Using examples from ConocoPhillips, you will hear how you, too, can:

• Effectively manage enterprise-wide change with a comprehensive and strategic communications and change management plan
• Create ambassadors for change from your top leaders and key communicators around the globe
• Increase employee engagement and support for large-scale and disruptive change
• Learn innovative measurement techniques for improving communications delivery
• Demonstrate the value of communications to achieve business objectives through robust measurement programs

Nellie Betzen, Internal Communications Specialist
ConocoPhillips

Monica Silva, Sr. Advisor, Internal Communications
Phillips 66
@monicasilva

Alissa K. Hicks, Specialist, Financial Communications
Phillips 66

11:30 a.m.

Internal Communications During A Corporate Rebranding: Don’t Forget One VIP Audience – Your Employees

Iplay is a globally recognized leader in the distribution of interactive game entertainment. Since 2003, the company has successfully delivered personalized gaming experiences that engage, excite, and entertain millions of game players worldwide. In addition to its own Iplay-branded game sites, Iplay powers game centers for some of the world’s most recognized brands including Microsoft, Yahoo!, AT&T, Orange (France Telecom), on the strength of its broad content portfolio and innovative data analytics engine. Iplay is headquartered in New York City with additional offices in Europe, and is backed by Goldman Sachs, Infinity Equity, and Oak Investment Partners.

While many organizations go to great lengths – and expense – to ensure a smooth transition process for external audiences, most fail to consider their most important corporate asset: their own employees. As an organization’s most important brand advocates, employees understand the word on the street about their organization and frequently practice the best techniques in promoting the organization.

As the communications leader, you are expected to deliver a clear, concise message on behalf of senior management, but where does one set the bar? It’s imperative to engage your employees, evaluate their thoughts, and monitor their buy-in.

• How frequently should one communicate with employees during the process?
• What are the best methods and media for communicating to employees?
• How valuable is employee input during the process?
• What if there is negative feedback… how can you turn it into a positive?

Steve Hammer, Vice President
IPLAY
@Iplay_Buzz

Join a group of your colleagues for a themed lunch with an informal discussion surrounding a specific topic. Take this opportunity to join others in a small, interactive group setting to network and brainstorm solutions to your most pressing internal communications concerns.

1:45 p.m.

Group Exercise: Brainstorm Solutions And New Ideas You Can Use

You asked for it, you got it! Interact and discuss solutions to your internal communications challenges with your fellow attendees and our experienced speakers. You will leave with new tools and hands-on experience and ideas for more successfully applying best practices to your own internal communications initiatives.

2:30 p.m.

Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break

2:45 p.m.

How To Develop A Social Media Plan To Achieve Your Strategic Goals: Objectives, Tactics And Success Measures

Conservation Halton isn’t your parent’s government agency. Nestled in an increasingly urban setting – Canada’s official fastest growing city – they tow the line between a government regulatory body and a community organization focused on recreational activities and public engagement. They’re never more than a tweet, “like,” follow, pin, tag, reblog or check-in away. Like the environment itself, what good is social media without the people that make the conversations rich and the experiences worthwhile?

Conservation Halton is an environmental agency responsible for flood control, environmental planning, forest management, ecological monitoring, education, and recreation. They do everything from issuing building permits to operating Ontario’s fifth busiest ski and snowboard centre. Their stakeholders are varied, and their staff is just as diverse. From engineers and ecologists to educators and administrators, they encourage their staff to become official social media contributors as well as unofficial brand ambassadors, with some explicit guidelines of course.

While their foray into social media has been cautious, it was never without a clear plan – several plans in fact. It’s all about having a flexible style within a rigid framework. As Facebook and Twitter became popular destinations for brands to showcase themselves and engage their customers in image-building, they took a strategic approach, complete with objectives, tactics and success measures.

You will leave this session with new ideas to integrate social media into your traditional communications, including:

• How social media is relevant to every organization
• The benefits of social media, even when your employees are not able to access it at work
• How to get started on Facebook
• How to overcome the fear of negativity on social media platforms

Hassaan Basit, Director Communications  
Conservation Halton
@Sci_Comms
@Ch_Comm

3:30 p.m.

How A Unified Communication Platform Can Support Real-Time Collaboration, Productivity And Efficiency Across Your Entire Organization

Non Linear Creations (NLC), a web development and professional IT services company based in Toronto, faced an interesting dilemma in 2010. Riding a tide of expansion from a small shop to a team of 80 employees across multiple offices, the company was looking for a consolidated approach to internal office communication and integration. The basics of seeing, talking and sharing were becoming painful as a result of inefficient and disjointed technology platforms, and third-party service disruptions. There was a pressing need to unify the disjoined communication systems in order to improve upon worker collaboration (office and mobile) and reduce operational costs.

In this session, you will learn how you can apply NLC internal tactics to your own organizations communication plans, including:

• Using a unified communication platform (Microsoft Lync) to make face-to- face communication possible and efficient across the hall or across the country with only a computer, headset and internet connection.
• Empowering employees to seamlessly collaborate from any location
• Controlling costs and improved productivity using IM, video conferencing, and enterprise voice functionality

Shannon Ryan, CEO
non-linear creations inc.
@ShannonRyan

4:15 p.m.
Chairperson's Recap & More "How To's" To Help When You Get Back To The Office

We'll recap the highlights of the past two days and ask you to share key insights and next steps with the group. Also, need to dive deeper into specific topics? Want more details? Here’s your chance! Digest what you’ve learned and apply it to your own initiatives to get feedback and ideas for improvement.

Preston Lewis, Co-Founder & Director
BONFIRE COMMUNICATIONS
@bonfirepreston

4:45 p.m.
Close of General Sessions