How IBM builds connections through in-person events in a hybrid world

A huge company like IBM is no exception. But even for a company built on the idea of technology, IBM has still found that bringing people together has a massive internal comms benefit.

“There’s benefit to working remotely. There’s benefits of being in the office together,” said Anthony Colucci, AI for Business Employee Communications Lead at IBM. “And so if people are going to be present in person together, we want to capitalize on all the great parts about being together.”

Speaking at Ragan’s Virtual Communications Boot Camp, Colucci shared a number of practical tips for using in-person gatherings for better internal comms — including for remote workers.

For a company as massive as IBM, no single event will ever be able to include every worker in-person. But simply having some employees in the room for company-wide broadcasts or business unit broadcasts can inject more energy into simply watching a talking head on a screen. So whenever possible, Colucci suggests getting at least some workers into the room for broadcast.