Jenni Field, Chart. PR, FCIPR, CIPR Vice-president 2021 & Director, Redefining Communications

Author, Influential Internal Communication

How communication can take your organization from chaos to calm

• What is chaos inside organizations and how does it become toxic
• Why communication is always the solution to the issues inside organizations
• The importance of understanding people in business, the need to understand what it is to be human
• The three steps to go from Chaos to Calm using The Field Model

Salma Dhanani, (She/Her/Hers),
Senior Manager, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB),
Sephora Canada

Sephora, owned by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), is the global leading beauty retailer. At Sephora Canada we believe beauty is for each person to define and ours to celebrate. We support bold choices in beauty, and in life, by inspiring fearlessness. Responding to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic and social justice crisis that reached a critical moment in 2020, we took very purposeful actions that would drive forward our aspiration: To create a world where everyone feels like they belong. Our objective was to inspire, develop and engage our employees, customers, and communities by positioning Sephora Canada as a leader in the space of social inclusion, while being a responsible retailer.

In this session, you will learn about:

The We Belong Social Impact platform, which led to the development of our Diversity and Inclusion Heart Journey Strategy.
Engaging multiple stakeholders in our D&I strategy — employees, clients, and community partners.
Supporting COVID-19’s impact and the Social Justice Crisis with local and national efforts in a purposeful way.

Join us to hear about how we built a purpose-driven program with impactful and engaging activations contributing to our aspiration.

Christine Szustaczek, MCM, APR (she/her)

Vice President, External Relations, Office of the President

Sheridan College

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Sheridan to close its campuses in mid-March 2020 and rapidly shift operations to remote delivery for the first time in the institution’s fifty-year history. Since that time, Sheridan’s people have had to continually pivot in order to comply with changing Ministry directives and public health guidelines. This case study will share our blueprint for real-time, honest and empathetic two-way communication, which enabled business continuity, fueled employee morale, generated a sense of calm and compassion and retained people’s trust, goodwill and sense of connection.

The session will share:

• The guiding principles we used to ensure fairness, consistency and timeliness in our decision making, in the face of rapidly changing circumstances;
• What our primary and secondary research revealed and how, together with our audience analysis, it shaped our strategies, messages and tactics;
• How we supported employees through targeted policy interventions and resources that were provided to managers;
• The SMART objectives we set and the metrics we used to prove that our campaign was a success; and
• How the communications team maintained their momentum, collaborated effectively while physically dispersed, and mitigated the risk of burn-out.

Ananya Mani, Senior Internal Communications Specialist, Ingram Micro

Explore how you can leverage the power of storytelling to drive employee engagement, build the employer brand, and tell your company’s story. During this session you will learn:

-Tips on how to look for stories and the best way to tell them

-How to use stories to create a magical employee experience

-How stories can be central to building the employer brand through the voice of the employee

An IABC Gold Quill award winning case study that digs into how we navigated the challenges of returning employees to the workplace:
Overwhelmed employees who were busy solving emerging COVID-19 crises, dealing with disruptions at home in their work routine, and experiencing new stressors. Leaders who did not have capacity to individually manage and track returns.

Communications competing with a significant amount of other important news within, and outside of, the organization.

Aa significant amount of content, policies, procedures, and other building-specific information to compile and distribute.

Training, technology, and mass-assignment limitations.

Completion of training before entering an office could not be mandated as the organization lacked the proper tracking technology.

No budget to implement a corporate sign in process or technology solution.

Get an inside look into the real-life situations and constraints that shaped our decisions, how we used communications to inspire employee confidence in safety, and how communications practitioners can use what they have to get creative and successfully motivate behavior.

Loretta Lam,
Chief Strategist & President, Focus Communications Inc.

Words are powerful.  As internal communicators, we can unintentionally do a lot of good or damage with our words. Internal communications has the potential to build a culture that encourages open and productive conversations, leading to better outcomes for the organization and people in the organization.

Many leaders feel good about their diversity policy when their organization provides D&I training and embeds diversity into hiring practices.  Although your company profile may look good at a glance, it’s important that Diversity and inclusion isn’t superficial.

At this session, Loretta will:

• Share insights from the CMA D&I report published in 2021
• Identify areas where companies and leaders are falling short on D&I strategy and communication, and
• Help you move beyond checking diversity boxes to create a genuine strategy that benefits your organization

From her 25-year experience as a multicultural marketing expert working with a roster of multinationals, non-profit and government clients on diversity marketing and communication, she will share her client experience on formulating D&I strategy, trainings, and discuss some common mistakes.

John Cardella, BA., CHRE, President & CEO, REHVUP Technologies Inc.

The Rise of Strategic People Leadership

In his book, The Rise of Strategic People Leadership, John Cardella discusses the transformation currently under way in HR. John argues that many HR functions and mindsets must urgently evolve in order to leapfrog the existing post pandemic malaise taking root in the workplace. The world of work has gone digital and a failure to retool, restructure and adapt to the realities of tomorrow may well reduce an organization’s overall competitive advantage and its long-term viability.

In this keynote, find out:

• The changing role of the HR Leader
• How to future-proof your organization for a healthy digital future
• The impact of the digitally connected and automated workplace on businesses and their people
• How communication can support HR in driving change and thinking more strategically
• How communication and HR can leverage technology to shape a superior employee experience, nurture a happier workforce, and deliver stronger results

Danielle Norris, SCMP (she/her)
Manager, Marketing and Communications, RTOERO

Join this dynamic and interactive session featuring a Gold Quill winning case study of using communication research to transform internal communications.

RTOERO is a bilingual member organization for those working in and retired from the education sector. It is the largest provider of non-profit health insurance for education retirees in Canada.

With 82,000 members from various roles in education ranging in age from 49 to 109, internal communications comes with unique challenges.

RTOERO uses quantitative and qualitative research to evaluate and improve communications – including the quarterly member magazine, which is the main internal communication tool. Redesigning the magazine was also part of an organizational rebrand.

Workshop attendees will learn how to:

• use research to identify communication gaps and opportunities
• build trust through authentic storytelling
• challenge implicit bias using an inclusive lens

Sara Goldvine, Vice President, Communications, BC Housing 

Making the case and proving your worth: building an employee communications function (during a pandemic)

During this interactive workshop, learn how BC Housing built a case for investment in employee communications and launched the function just as the COVID-19 pandemic struck. This case study will share more about BC Housing’s award-winning approach to developing new two-way communications channels to share rapidly-changing information with a diverse workforce tasked with supporting many of the province’s most marginalized communities.

This session will share ways to:

• Build support for investment in employee communications
• Focus resources on employee communications’ unique value proposition
• Foster Reconciliation and Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging through employee communications
• Measure impact and track progress

Gallagher Canada

Chris Lee and Priya Bates

The Gallagher State of the Sector report identified the key global trends that were shared by Internal Communication professionals from around the world.

Join Chris Lee, Vice President, Employee Communication Practice, Gallagher, and Priya Bates. President, Inner Strength Communication in this interactive session that allows attendees to share challenges and opportunities.

• Understand the key findings of the 2021 Gallagher State of the Sector Survey
• Discuss the four key trends identified: Digital, Employee Experience, Change as the new Normal, and Insights to Action
• Choose a table or breakout of peers to discuss and share solutions around one of the key trends

Advita Patel, Founder,
Comms Rebel

Is the fear of IC measurement holding you back?

In this session Advita will address the IC measurement fears that can sometimes stop our progress. In this session, you will learn:

• Practical advice and top tips to bring measurement into every day practices
• How to use measurement to develop and improve your work
• How accountability and results will help you become a trusted strategic advisor

(until August 6, 2021)

EXTENDED

(until September 30, 2021)

(after September 30, 2021)