Tuesday 22 November 2022 |  Wednesday 23 November 2022

Tuesday 22 November 2022

09:00 Registration

---

09:30 Chair’s opening remarks

John Harrington, Editor, PRWeek UK

---

CREATING A NEW STRATEGIC ROLE FOR IC

09:40 PANEL DISCUSSION: We’ve proved our worth; what’s next?: Transitioning internal comms towards a long term, strategic role in the business

• Reinforcing the power of internal communications for influencing your organisational culture and building belonging and community over time
• Pinpointing a role for internal communicators amidst long-term economic pressure
• I’m an internal communicator, an employee and a human: Balancing your feelings with business needs when working on highly emotive topics
• Carving out a route to a seat on the board, as a trusted advisor
• Changing perceptions: What do your colleagues think of internal comms?

Keith Coles, Head of Internal Communications, Brunel University

Sophie Timms, Corporate Affairs Director, Kier Group

Nicola Lally, Communications Partner, BDO UK LLP

---

10:20 CASE STUDY: Reinvigorating perceptions of the leadership team through strategic internal communications

• Building trust and creating a sense of direction for employees
• Driving profitability through sustainable growth and disseminating key employee objectives and goals
• Engaging the whole business on a shoestring: Upskilling people managers to help communicate the vision

Jo Sparks, Head of Internal Communication, ATS Euromaster & Tructyre

---

11:00 Morning coffee break

---

UNDERSTANDING YOUR IMPACT

11:25 Information is giving out; communication is getting through: Measuring the impact of your internal communications on your employees

• Knowing how much, how often employees engage with communications - if they ignored your call-to-action, did they even read it?
• Determining what success looks like in your business, moving from outputs to outcomes
• Understanding the different tools and technologies that are available to support your campaign measurement
• Proving the ROI of your communications to the business - is it possible?
• Continuous learning: Incorporating employee insight and measurement data into your future communications

Vicki Davies, Director of Internal Communications, National Highways

---

FOSTERING COMMUNITY AND PURPOSEFUL EXPERIENCE

11:50 WORKSHOP: ‘Europeans are checked out at work’: creating internal communications that engage employees during a period of disengagement

• Identifying the principle factors in engagement in today’s context, during The Great Resignation
• Bringing in external inspirational speakers and thought leaders for motivation and stimulation
• Understanding the different approaches required to engage the five different generational groups in the workplace

Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua, Business Storytelling Coach and host of podcast ‘thank god it’s monday’

---

12:20 Networking lunch break

---

13:30 Making employee experience meaningful to develop a sense of purpose that will engage and enrich your people

• Using employee voice to deliver your internal communications strategy conversation – ensuring your employer brand reflects the lived experience of your colleagues
• Leading by example: Engaging employee content driven by leaders who ‘walk the talk’ on sustainable vision and values of the business
• Ensuring your employer brand and talent offer is reflecting the lived experience of your organisation
• Understanding the relationship between employee experience and measurement

James Kenny, Head of Internal and Change Communications, LKQ Europe

---

13:55 CASE STUDY: Building a community with purpose in a distributed, multi-national organisation

• Facilitating community and belonging and a sense of common purpose
• Amplifying the good things that are happening in your workplace whilst combating resistance to change
• Acting as a catalyst for positive culture change and as a conduit to the wider market
• Taking a grass roots approach and finding the community opportunities

Armand David, Corporate Affairs Director, Digital and Vicky Crouch, Head of Internal Communications, Digital, BT Group

---

CREATING A SENSE OF BELONGING

14:20 WORKSHOP: Belonging means membership not ownership (the antidote to employer brand)

• How can companies move beyond old-style ‘employer brand’ - to a sense of belonging as membership not ownership ?
• How can comms leaders’ - invariably ahead of directors in awareness of employees’ expectations - guide their boards?

With a mix of presentation and interaction, we’ll look at

• A maturity model for belonging and purpose - and why 'membership' not 'ownership' is so critical to our times
• How comms leaders can best support progress through phases to support belonging and unify purpose
• How our hybrid and unpredictable times require invitation more than instruction
• How to balance the ‘plumbing’ and ‘poetry’ of comms to meet this multi-layered challenge

Isabel Collins, is a leading specialist in culture and belonging. She has pioneered original approaches over the last 25 years and is now helping leaders reframe belonging for our times.

---

15:00 Afternoon coffee break

---

15:20 PANEL DISCUSSION: Embedding diversity and inclusion into your communications, and your organisation, to foster belonging

• Moving diversity out of silos and committees so that it becomes part of everyone’s role
• Creating representative communications - both in terms of language and imagery
• More than a tick box exercise: Tackling inappropriate or non-inclusive behaviours through communications that positively influence your culture
• Responding appropriately as call-out culture advances
• Celebrating your positive societal impacts

Marghaid Howie, Global Head of Social Media and Continuity Communications, Thoughtworks

Kimberley-Marie Sklinar, Communications Manager, AutoProtect Group

Keith Riley, Communications Manager, DWF Law LLP

Sharon Woma, Inclusion Co-ordinator, Integrated Care Board (ICB)

---

16:00 Connecting people with their passion and matching the frequency of their purpose so that they want to belong to your organisation

• Understanding who your people are and NOT what their millennial / zenial labels are
• Busting the myth that people don’t read our communications because they are ‘busy’
• Encouraging belonging by understanding people’s different drivers for being at work; empowering them with knowledge

Keith Riley, Communications Manager, DWF Law LLP

---

POST PANDEMIC STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

16:20 DOUBLE FIRESIDE CHAT, COST OF LIVING FOCUS: Supporting your employees through the significant impact of the cost of living crisis to safeguard their wellbeing at work

• Checking in: gauging how the cost of living crisis is impacting different groups of employees and understanding their lived experience
• Putting yourself in their shoes - empathising with the experience of lower paid and casual staff and those on zero hours contracts
• Mediating effectively between the leadership team and your employees
• Ethically communicating your financial results during the cost of living crisis
• As an employer you can’t completely relieve the impact but what financial benefits / mental health services could you communicate?

Annique Simpson, Internal Communications Manager, Taylor Wessing

Nafisa Ali Shafiq, Communications and Engagement Manager, University of Leeds

---

16:40 Chairperson’s closing remarks and close of Day One

---

Tuesday 22 November 2022 |  Wednesday 23 November 2022