8:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast & Networking

8:30 a.m.

Chairperson's Opening of Day Two & Presentation:
Harnessing The Power Of Co-Creation: How Leading Organizations Are Engaging Their Employees

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.
 
This session will share methods for driving co-creation efforts within your organization to engage your 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, including 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

Gordon Rudow, Co-founder & CEO
BONFIRE COMMUNICATIONS

9:30 a.m.

Enabling Employees To Effectively Converse And Collaborate In The Digital Age— And Reap The Benefits For Your Organization

There’s a digital conversation going on right now. All over the globe, individuals are sharing information, expertise, making decisions, building relationships, and more, without even leaving their seats. Sentiment and knowledge are being created around topics that could have a direct impact on your business. Are you out there? Are you part of the conversation? Are your employees? Are your competitors’ employees?!

In today’s digital world, the employee and the relationships and conversations that employee has in the digital space is defining the brand. Because of this, we need to ensure that our employees have the tools they need to reach out so that they can effectively participate in it: from conversing about topics they are experts in, to relationship building, to globally collaborating on projects with other employees, partners, clients, peers, and the general public. The more digitally active your employees are both inside and outside your company, the more current, credible and responsive your company will be viewed.

Using examples from IBM, you will learn lessons on how to:

• Enable employees to build and share their expertise inside and outside the company
• Generate, aggregate and promote social conversations of interest to your company
• Create a globally collaborative employee culture both internally and externally

Kevin Winterfield, Social Systems and Digital Influence
IBM

10:35 a.m.

How To Communicate Through Major Changes
And Live To Tell The Tale

Aviat Networks is a leader in wireless transmission solutions. Their products and services are used by mobile operators around the world to connect people and technology. Over the last year, the company underwent a significant restructuring program. Throughout this process, it was vitally important to keep employees informed of decisions and changes so they could focus on delivering results. But with more than 1,000 employees residing in over 30 countries, keeping the team aligned with the strategic vision of the company was a big challenge. Using multiple communications vehicles and an integrated approach, employees tracked company progress and understood the impact individual actions can have on results.

• Make your messages more meaningful
• Identify advocates in every office
• Reach the hard to reach remote and mobile employees
• Use every option in the Communicator’s Toolbox
• Measure, analyze, adjust, repeat
  

Jennifer Graybeal, Internal and Leadership Communications Manager
AVIAT NETWORKS

11:20 a.m.

Taking Steps To Make Your Intranet Valuable, User-Friendly And Trusted

Wells Fargo And Company is a diversified financial services company providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 branches, 12,000 ATMs, and the Internet across North America and internationally. In 2008, Wells Fargo announced they were acquiring Wachovia Financial. Starting in 2010, major work began on integrating the two corporate intranets into a centralized home using the SharePoint MOSS 2003 platform.

In this presentation, you’ll learn how your organization can add value to your intranet with basic best practices that (many times) can solve user frustration with the typical internal site, making it easier for them to do their job. 

You will also learn lessons for your own organization’s intranet, including:

• Why it’s not just about technology. Steps will show you how to increase value to the site without spending much more then you are today.
• Steps to take to ensure your site is valuable BEFORE you look at changing systems
• Ask people what they need – then ask them again
• The lost art of “Findability” – how to build it with the assumption that search will never work
• How to make it a trusted source for all online content
• Governance – yes it’s boring but is has to be built
• Information management – what it is and how this new discipline will lead to intranet value

Brad Bellaver, Communications Manager
Wells Fargo and Company

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.

1:30 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.

2:00 p.m.

Friending, Sharing, Tweeting And Building Community: A Social Media Approach To Internal Communications And Employee Engagement

Social media takes center stage in the internal brand development process. This session will focus on how a network of 50 schools in the United States, including La Salle University, harnessed the power of social media to support the network’s strategic internal communications to transform the system’s culture. 

For three years, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been enlisted to educate and engage stakeholders in the brand development process and to foster a passion for emerging media. The end result was an adopted brand strategy embraced by a diverse community of stakeholders well-versed in the powers and charms of social media.

This session will reveal lessons you can apply to your organization, including:

• An understanding of the role social media plays in the brand development process
• Insight into how social media fosters buy-in for branding in complex organizations
• The ability to determine which social media platforms complement brand building
• Actionable ideas for creating a community of brand champions
• An evangelical enthusiasm for developing and executing brand strategy through social media

John Dolan, Vice President for Enrollment Management
LA Salle UNIVERSITY

Rex Whisman, Founder and Chief Strategist
BRANDED CONSULTANTS GROUP

2:45 p.m.

Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break

2:55 p.m.

Reinvigorating The Brand From The Inside Out And Igniting Growth: The Strategic Value-Add Of Your Organization’s Internal Communications

Xilinx, Inc. is the world’s leading provider of programmable platforms in one of the fastest growing segments of the semiconductor industry, with 3,000 employees across the globe. After 25 years in business a major initiative was launched to refresh a brand that had become outdated, while reigning in more than 38 sub-brands that existed in the company.

However, from the outset, the communications team knew that reinvigorating the brand had to be more than a visual identity effort. The company also understood that its people were what made the Xilinx brand special and differentiated. Employees were dealing with many changes, including the introduction of a new corporate strategy (Xilinx XV) and culture changes, the need to aggressively drive growth, as well as an updated brand.

So how do you align your employees to recommit as brand ambassadors and take ownership for their role in driving growth – all in times of turbulent change? And how do you do this while building a new internal communications function from the ground up?

• Philosophy and strategic approaches to solving the problem
• Critical elements for driving employee alignment in your organization
• Programs and tools that drive alignment and significant increases in your employee engagement
• Lessons learned throughout the process

Finally, you will learn how to achieve much with little – smaller companies can still do great things!

Rachel Watkins, Director Employee Communications
XILINX, INC.

3:40 p.m.

When Initiating A Two-Way Conversation With Employees Is A Bad Idea: How To Balance Social Media And Traditional Communications During Times Of Change

State Compensation Insurance Fund (State Fund) is the largest provider of workers’ compensation insurance in California and one of the largest in the nation, with more than 7,000 employees across 18 offices in California. After navigating a reputational crisis and launching a new brand, State Fund began to explore how it might use social media to engage employees and customers. Just as the communications department was settling on a plan, the company’s new CEO initiated a plan to restructure the company’s geographic footprint, closing some offices and consolidating others. This plan is anticipated to save about $200 million in annual operating costs over the next three years, but will require many employees to relocate (and as some will either not be able to relocate or will choose not to, will result in a smaller workforce).

This presentation will cover the benefits and risks associated with traditional and newer communications channels, and specifically, will answer the following questions:

• When does it make sense (and not) to open a new communications channel?
• When is inviting two-way conversation a good idea – and when is it not? What are the risks and benefits?
• How can companies and your leaders encourage employee influencers to model “positive” communications, and what effect can that have on employee morale in your organization?

Jennifer Vargen, Senior Vice President,
Marketing and Communications
State Compensation Insurance Fund

Beth Haiken, Senior Vice President
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

4:25 p.m.
Chairpersons' Recap: Key Takeaways And What To Do 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.