8:00 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m.
Chairpersons' Welcome & Opening Remarks

Gordon Rudow, Co-founder & CEO
Preston Lewis, Co-founder & Director
BONFIRE COMMUNICATIONS

8:45 a.m.
AWARD WINNING

Engage Or Entangle Employees? How To Use Traditional Communication Tools To Create Employee Entanglement

Tasty Catering’s CEO & Founding Partner is a 40-year serial entrepreneur who has started 29 companies, acquired three and currently is the President/CEO of seven organizations.

He has given numerous presentations about corporate culture, leadership, brand image and corporate sustainability.  However, his latest interest involves the nature of employees and the difference between an entangled and engaged work ethic.

A recent Gallup study stated, on a national average, 30% of the work force is engaged in their company’s strategic vision, 53% are disengaged; they do just what is needed and the remaining 17% are actively disengaged, or toxic.

One might be under the impression that having an engaged employee would aid in the success of a business, with hard workers who get their jobs done efficiently and effectively.

However, A Towers Perrin study revealed that 20% of workforce employees are giving full effort on the job and spend their discretionary time thinking about how to improve their organization. Meaning, beyond these employee’s daily work routine they are thinking about the betterment of the company.

These entangled employees are ideal to help foster a successful business and a cohesive work culture. Now, how can you increase that 20% through effective communication tools?

• Help you recognize the damage caused by unengaged employees
• Reveal methods of entanglement used by several award-winning, employee-centric organizations
• Demonstrate communication instruments that speak from staff to staff which develop entangled employees
• Illustrate the impact of entangled Tasty Catering employees which resulted in increased performance, productivity and profitability due to effective communication of their culture
1. The CFO thought the company kitchen should generate revenue 24 hours a day. His private research and discretionary thinking led to designing a formula for a healthy muffin which won a national RFP. He started a satellite company that now produces 5 million pieces per year and is the CEO and an equal shareholder.

2. The Communications Director thought that Tasty Catering’s corporate gift line was not eco-responsible and not in line with Tasty Catering’s culture.  Her private research and discretionary thoughts led to designing a more sustainable corporate gift line. She started a satellite corporate gift company and is the CEO and an equal shareholder.

Tasty Catering’s entangled staff has launched three other companies in the past four years.

Tasty Catering was named in the top 5 Best Places to Work in Illinois the past five years, taking #1 in 2008 and 2009, Inc. Magazine’s Top 20 Workplaces in 2010, Wall Street Journal’s Top 35 Small Companies in 2008 & 2009. Don't miss hearing the secrets behind this successful organization's internal communications strategy and how you can apply them to your own organization's plans.

Thomas (Tom) J. Walter, CEO & Founding Partner
Tasty Catering

9:30 a.m.

Learning From The Top: Applying The Secrets Of CEOs' Communication (And Business) Success To Your Own Organization

Today, executives are under more pressure than ever before to play a demanding communications role … listening to concerned employees, facing relentless journalists, meeting with prospective customers, appearing before inquisitive government officials, recording videos for driven sales people, talking to angry protesters. The global economic meltdown has turned a bright spotlight on the gap between CEOs’ communications skills and the information needs of their various stakeholder audiences.
 
There is tremendous value in a CEO who can communicate effectively … and tremendous risk in a CEO who can’t. Few business schools prepare them for this round-the-clock job. Learn the key tenets of leadership communications from the world’s top CEOs who’ve mastered corporate communications skills.
 
You will hear the results of what top leaders are doing and learn their communication secrets, including answers to the following questions:

• What role does leadership communication play in corporate communication today?
• What advice do CEOs have for other executives who want to master communication?
• What expectations do CEOs have of their corporate communication teams?
• How can you measure and improve your leaders’ communication effectiveness?

Brad Whitworth, ABC, Fellow, Senior Communication Manager
Cisco
Brad Whitworth joined Cisco as a senior communication manager in 2007 and, before that, led communication programs at HP, PeopleSoft and AAA. A former broadcaster, Brad now speaks regularly to communication groups and university classes around the world. Brad served as IABC chairman in 1989-90 and was named a Fellow of the association in 1996. His communication work has earned six IABC Gold Quills. 

10:15 a.m.

Break-Out Blitz! Network And Discuss Strategic Internal Communication Challenges With Your Fellow Conference Attendees

This session will open the conversation by connecting you with other conference participants and gain greater understanding into many similar issues, concerns, and challenges that your peers are also facing. Become acquainted with your fellow conference attendees in this fun and fast-paced forum!

11:15 a.m.

Social Media Take-Off: 5 Steps To Getting Employees Of All Ages And Levels On Board And Soaring

How does a 90-year-old company, with nearly 88,500 full-time and part-time employees worldwide, with longstanding traditions break its own mold to compete for top talent entering the workforce and still capture the interest of senior employees who possess key knowledge and experience?

The HR Communications team at American Airlines (AA) answers that question with a suite of interactive online, print, video and in-person channels. There is something for everyone – even for senior leaders who don’t want to commit to a full-time blog. Now in place for more than a year, new evidence that employees are eager to learn, share and lead AA into its next 90 years is starting to emerge. That’s great news for AA customers, stockholders, and the people who make it all possible, the AA employees.

• A company is never too old to try something new
• The five steps towards convincing upper management that now is the right time to open the social media gates to employees
• Making internal social media mirror what employees experience externally, yet building a unique company “communication identity”
• Knowing the most important question you should ask before starting something new
  

Don Meissner, Manager, HR Communications
American Airlines

12:00 p.m.

Low Budget Ideas For Creative High-Impact Internal Communications: Getting The Right Messages To The Right People Using The Latest Tools And Technology

San Francisco Water, Power and Sewer (also known as the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission) provides water to 2.5 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area. It also provides municipal power and treats waste and storm water for San Francisco. With over 2,000 employees spread across California at various offices, strategic internal communication is vital to maintain our operations.

You don’t need a big budget for creative, high-impact internal communications. Take advantage of simple, high-tech tools that get your important messages to the right people for little or no cost!

• In-house videos: Many standard office or personal cameras have good quality video recording capabilities. Free video editing software can help you produce free to low budget videos you can share at meetings, online and at office locations.
• Animoto videos/presentations: Create beautiful multi-media videos using photos, text, video clips and music. Get rid of your sleepy Power Point presentations by using Animoto! The annual subscription is affordable and worth the small investment. Animoto integrates with social media for easy promotion externally, too.
• Social Media: Social media technology can be free and useful tools for internal and emergency communications.

12:45 p.m.
Lunch On Your Own -- But Not Alone!

Join a group of your 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 communications concerns.

2:15 p.m.

How To Communicate To And Engage With Employees At All Levels: Aligning Employees With Your Strategy

The LEGO Operating Model is the platform where all leaders across the value chain gather to make the key, cross-functional decisions in the company. The challenge presented is to educate and engage employees at all levels about the Operating Model, especially those that are finding themselves implementing cross-functional decisions, even when these decisions are not rooted in their respective departments. Therefore, it is crucial to communicate strategies successfully and engage employees across the entire company. The success of a company lies in the employees’ understanding of the overall strategic direction.

• Create strategic framework maps for leaders to see how the big picture fits into the concrete activities
• Communicate the key decisions in an editorial content - SharePoint articles, newsletters, etc.
• Report the key decisions to the team leaders across the value chain who in turn, are responsible to cascade the relevant information down to their employees
• Utilize the creation of a board game to educate employees about the Operating Model
• Interview leaders across the value chain to explain how the Operating Model impacts different areas of the business
• Incorporate the Operating Model to the corporate E-learning, which explains the key process at LEGO

Manel Romeu Bellés, Senior Communications Consultant, Operating Model Development
LEGO

3:15 p.m.

How To Use Social Media And Traditional Communications To Foster Positive Employee Satisfaction And Improve Morale

Retaining a qualified and effective workforce can be challenging within the limitations of the public sector, especially during tough budget times. Employees who feel appreciated and know senior managers are listening to them are more content and productive, and internal communications plays a vital role in fostering employee satisfaction.

Both traditional and new media communication tools can enhance the interaction between employees and senior managers and help improve employee morale and cultivate a positive work environment.

In this session, you will learn how to use effective communication tools, internally, including blogs, videos, and anonymous suggestion boxes to:

• Keep employees engaged, connected and informed
• Help employees accept change and transition
• Recognize employee achievement
• Improve employee health and productivity
• Maintain high employee morale

Sarah Lane, Internal Communications & Social Media Manager
Washington State Office of the Attorney General

4:00 p.m.

Developing The Best Communication Model To
Help Your Business Succeed

Business moves with amazing speed these days, and organizations survive and thrive only when they quickly adapt to evolving business priorities and goals. How should you design your communication model to respond to these changes? How do you position yourself to powerfully support and drive business objectives?

• Learn about different models for developing a global communications community
• Redesign the way your team works together to provide innovative, specialized, efficient communication service to the company

In this dynamic session, you will gain an insider’s perspective on Cisco’s innovative agency approach and how it is being implemented as well as the valuable lessons learned along the way!

Aliza Hutchison, Director, Strategic Communication
Cisco

Sheryl Lewis, Managing Director
ROI Communication

4:45 p.m.

More "How To's" To Help You Get The Work Done: An Interactive Panel Discussion With Today’s Speakers

Need to dive deeper into specific topics?  Want more details?  Here’s your chance!  Available speakers from today’s sessions will answer your questions to help you innovate your own internal communication plans.  Digest what you’ve learned and apply it to your own initiatives to get feedback and ideas for improvement.

5:15 p.m.

End of Day One

5:20 p.m.

Networking Reception: Please Join Us!

We invite you to join us for a drink as you relax with your peers. All conference attendees and speakers are welcome to join us for this special opportunity to continue networking. Don't miss this chance to benchmark new ideas over complimentary drinks!

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