Presented by Swansea Communications + SummersDirect!
The Alberta Communications Forum is the province’s premier event that brings together communication professionals from across the province to learn from experts in the communication field, as well as learning from each other and having the opportunity to network with your peers.
We aim to bring you professional development that is high quality, usable, scalable and relatable. Spend your time wisely and have A LOT to show for it.
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Hotel Information
Westin Edmonton
For the best rate book direct via www.marriott.com
Venue
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Speakers
Peter Pilarski, President,
CIPR Communications
Tim Conrad, APR®, President, Butterfly Effect Communications Inc.
Camille Weleschuk, Vice President, ATB Financial
Kent Waugh, Managing Partner, The W Group
Meghan Brennan, Communications & Projects Coordinator, Town of Taber
Darby Semeniuk, Director, Communications, CASA Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health
Sandra Sperounes, Senior Writer & Editor, City of Edmonton
Alex Scuccato, Digital Story Producer, City of Edmonton
Forum
Monday, May 13, 2024
8:00 – 8:30 a.m. | REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST
8:30 a.m. | WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR
8:45 – 9:45 a.m. | The Leadership Loop – The Power of Relationships, Communication and Feedback
Camille Weleschuk, Vice President, ATB Financial
Leadership is a skill, and like any other skill you hone, you must intentionally learn new ways of deepening your mastery of it. The Leadership Loop presentation focuses on the three key themes of relationships, communication and feedback as an important system for becoming a more effective leader.
- The Power of Relationships: Business is not transactional, it is relational. Explore the benefits that come from developing relationships with the members of your team and the teams around you.
- The Power of Communication: Leaders have various styles of communicating – some that are effective and others that are not. Explore new ways of sharing information and increasing your team’s productivity.
- The Power of Feedback: As they say, feedback is a gift. Explore how to surround yourself with people who will give and receive feedback in highly effective ways.
9:45 – 10:05 a.m. | NETWORKING REFRESHMENT BREAK
10:05 – 11:00 a.m. | Bird is the Word: Leaning into the Absurd and Letting Communications Take Flight
Meghan Brennan, Communications & Projects Coordinator, Town of Taber
When twenty ostriches ran loose in Taber in 2022, the municipality could have stuck our heads in the sand, released a boilerplate statement and called it a day. In fact, they almost did; no Communicator has an “escaped ostrich” template in their crisis communications plan. But with a little creativity, 20 turkeys, and a flock of bird puns, the Town of Taber crafted a response that soared far beyond our expectations.
Their plucky approach didn’t just capture the community’s attention; it hatched an overnight sensation and revolutionized their communication strategy. This three-time, international award-winning feat proved that sometimes, you have to ruffle a few feathers and take a calculated risk to see your message fly high.
Join them as they unfold the feathers of this tale and share how injecting humor into communications not only enhances approachability but also helps to build a robust brand personality. Attendees will also learn the art of balancing professionalism with playfulness and discover that sometimes, the best way to tackle a communications crisis is to go off-script and “wing it.”
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Rev Up Your Community Surveys: Navigating Potholes & Fueling Success!
Kent Waugh, Managing Partner, The W Group
Let’s face it, a lot can ride on the outcome of a community survey! Done right; it can smooth the path to Council approval and project success! Hit a few unforeseen potholes along the way and the community survey can stall the project or worse; create resident pushback and a loss of trust. Not to mention create some political fires that communications will be responsible for dousing.
In this session, you will learn the most common mistakes in community surveys and how to avoid them (including the language you need to convince planners). At the end of this session, you will feel more confident in developing all aspects of a community survey, from research objective setting to questionnaire design, effective communication to attract respondents, and how to secure sufficient quality and quantity of data to support the initiative.
Outcomes:
- Easily identify ‘potholes’ in questionnaires and how to avoid having them derail your community survey.
- Help create measurable research objectives by starting with what your planners want your Council to think, do, believe or understand.
- Learn how best to prepare your survey and all its communications to attract as many respondents and responses as possible.
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | NETWORKING LUNCHEON
1:00 – 2:00 p.m. | Keynote Session: Authenticity and Authority in Today’s Digital World
Peter Pilarski, President , CIPR Communications
In his session Peter will delve into the dynamic landscape of digital marketing and communications in 2024, emphasizing the indispensable role of Digital Public Relations. He will offer insights into how artificial intelligence is reshaping consumer search behaviors and setting the stage for a groundbreaking shift in online search dynamics.
Through this session you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the changing paradigms in digital marketing and public relations. You’ll walk away with a nuanced perspective on how AI influences online search behavior and the implications for brands and their digital strategies. The session aims to enlighten attendees on the renewed significance of public relations, intertwined seamlessly with modern digital channels, and underscore the vital role of human stories and authenticity in an AI dominated world.
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. | State of Mind: Mental Health and Communication
Darby Semeniuk, Director, Communications, CASA Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health
Mental health is at the forefront of post-pandemic conversations, both personally and professionally. When CASA Mental Health embarked on an organizational rebrand, new website, and visual identity to better align our stakeholder reputation, everything changed when our key audience – the parents and caregivers of the children and youth we serve – provided us with one important detail: their own state of mind when seeking service and support.
In this session, participants will hear how this new dimension of audience analysis informed and improved the organization’s entire brand – from key messaging to web design, logo and brand placement – and how communicators can apply this information to the stakeholders and audiences of any organization or industry.
Session attendees will also hear how detailed stakeholder consultation shaped a new vision, mission, values, and roadmap for the organization based around their emotional needs when interacting with the organization, and the brand story bringing the organization’s goals to life. In addition to audience state of mind, we should also pay closer attention to the mental health and neurodiversity of communications professionals and colleagues. Are team members doing okay after working from home for years? Do they express workplace needs in relation to conditions such as anxiety, ADHD, or other emerging work-life expectations? Let’s have healthy conversations about mental health!
3:00 – 3:15 p.m. | REFRESHMENT BREAK
3:15 – 4:05 p.m. | Humans Writing For Humans
Sandra Sperounes, Senior Writer & Editor, City of Edmonton
Alex Scuccato, Digital Story Producer, City of Edmonton
This presentation is designed to equip participants with the skills to create engaging blogs, media releases and other communication products that connect with people. Through a combination of theory, strategy, and best practices, participants will learn how to develop a human-centric approach to communication that resonates with their audience. In addition, they will learn technical grammar and visual communication tips to enhance their content. By the end of the presentation, they will have the tools and knowledge to create compelling writing that captures their audience’s attention and inspires action.
4:05 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. | Theft, sabotage and protests: How the public’s lack of trust became a disaster problem
Tim Conrad, APR
President, Butterfly Effect Communications Inc.
Disasters love to make everything around them a disaster. Now they are collecting issues we see in our society and presenting novel challenges for emergency operations.
The new disaster sees individualism overpowering community resilience, bullying of emergency responders, and trusted information becoming misinformation.
Join Tim Conrad, APR, President of Butterfly Effect Communications Inc., a master of disasters and crisis communications leader who has worked in some of Canada’s largest and longest disasters and crises, including last summer’s wildfires in British Columbia. Learn how he led the public information role in three regions where evacuations met fierce resistance and sabotage, including the extremely devastating Shuswap wildfires.
The massive loss of trust in government and media is combined with a continual loss of journalism in Canada, Meta’s news ban, and the rise of alternative media and political division to create toxic situations on the front lines of emergency operations.
Learn how Conrad and his team used research, media, and social media, along with community outreach, to turn sentiment from drastically negative to positive in the middle of a record wildfire season that saw his team supporting three regional districts.
4:50 p.m. | CONFERENCE CONCLUDES FOR THE DAY
Workshops
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
OPTIONAL POST-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
Workshops are in person attendance only.
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | Workshop A: Harnessing AI: A Roadmap for Communication Excellence
Peter Pilarski, President, CIPR Communications
This presentation will explore the various facets of artificial intelligence, from its potential to reshape industries to its significance in molding the future for individual businesses. The workshop will cover:
- Making Sense of the Noise: In an era brimming with headlines about new technologies, this part of the presentation will cut through the noise to give you an appreciation for what this AI thing is really about any why it matters to you personally and professionally.
- What is AI: Demystifies the complex world of artificial intelligence, breaking it down into understandable concepts, and illustrating how it’s not just a technological tool but a revolutionary approach to problem solving and innovation.
- AI for Your Organization: Explores how you can leverage AI to enhance your organization’s objectives and goals while fostering growth and community engagement through smart, data-driven strategies.
- AI Impact on Businesses and Jobs: Understand the dual nature of AI as both a disrupter and enabler, reshaping industries, redefining roles, and creating a landscape of new opportunities and challenges.
- How to Discover AI Superpowers: Invites you on a journey to uncover the latent potential of AI in your business, revealing how to harness these capabilities to create unparalleled competitive advantages and operational efficiencies.
- Embrace Digital, Stay Human: Emphasizes the crucial balance between technological advancement and maintaining the human touch – its a guide to integrating AI into your business ethos while preserving the core values that make your brand uniquely human.3 Key Takeaways
1. Understand the real-world implications of AI for individual businesses.
2. Discover strategies to harness AI’s potential for your business advantage.
3. Learn from real-life examples and case studies on AI’s transformative impact.
About Peter
With 20 years of experience in digital marketing, communications, and government relations across diverse industries, Peter excels as a versatile strategist. His standout quality lies in an unwavering dedication to simplifying technology while embracing innovation.
Peter’s mission is to demystify the AI landscape, enabling individuals and businesses to navigate it with confidence. His approach is centered on understanding the big picture and translating it to specific corporate goals and challenges that AI can solve.
Peter believes that while AI will cause disruption, organizations and individuals who take a systematic, fact-based, hypothesis-driven approach, coupled with strong change management practices, will succeed in using AI to streamline operations, enrich customer experiences, and achieve success.
1:00 – 4:00 p.m. | Workshop B: Allopatric: An intense practice for the EOC Information role in a disaster
Tim Conrad, APR®, President, Butterfly Effect Communications Inc.
Drop your ego and title at the door. It’s time to enter the Emergency Operations Centre to learn how to build a functioning Information Officer team rapidly. Be immersed in scenarios where you are vulnerable to the unknown as the emergency shifts and new challenges appear. Failure isn’t an option. It’s a default setting in this disaster.
Prepare to be challenged by Tim Conrad, APR President of Butterfly Effect Communications Inc., a master of disasters and crisis communications leader who has worked on some of Canada’s largest and longest disasters and crises. Conrad is a globally recognized expert in emergency communications, backed by over 20 years of experience completing work from mitigation to recovery.
You should consider whether you are ready before taking this workshop. Do you fear the unknown, or does your adrenaline pump at the speed of an emergency? Maybe you’ve managed information in a wildfire emergency. Are you willing to wear a red vest when wildfires compete with more wildfires? Do you believe strategy eats tactics or prefer a buffet of tactics?
This workshop will take you outside your comfort zone, pushing you to function in unfamiliar roles and instantly come up with solutions to challenges as they appear. Expect to be gamed by the master, who constantly introduces new elements and information to force you to feel what it is like inside a major disaster. Are you ready? Not likely.
3 Key Takeaways:
- Practice at a fast pace
- Understand the impact of unknowns
- Learning the value of process improvement
About Tim:
Tim has held leadership roles in emergency management, communications and post-disaster engagements in some of Canada’s largest disasters. These include record-setting 2023 wildfires in BC’s Cariboo, Squamish-Lillooet and Columbia Shuswap regions, health care and post-secondary during the pandemic, the 2013 Alberta floods and three record-setting BC wildfire seasons from 2017 to 2021.
Sponsored By
Interested in Sponsorship? Please contact us by emailing andrea@swanseacommunications.com.
Register Here
Cancellation & Refund Policy
Substitution of delegates is permissible without prior notification. Refunds will be given for cancellations received in writing no later than 10 days prior to the conference date subject to an administration fee of $250 plus $12.50 for GST. After this time, you are liable for the full registration fee even if you do not attend the conference. If you register during this 15 day period, you are also liable for the full fee. Summers Direct reserves the right to change program date, meeting place or content without further notice and assumes no liability for these changes.