Internal
Communications
Conference
- Elevate strategy
- Boost leadership
- Build mixternal synergy
- Harness AI
- Drive change
- Manage crises
- Optimize internets & tech
- Retain talent
- Strengthen employer brand
- Measure & maximize ROI
Learn how to inform, inspire and engage across three communications tracks: Internal, Integrated and Interactive.
Shifting economic realities, AI disruption, political upheaval and constant uncertainty are rewriting the rules—leaving many communicators feeling like they’re navigating rough seas without a compass. Employees and stakeholders at every level look to you for clarity amid change, leadership transitions and the menace of misinformation. Meanwhile, you’re expected to help unify internal culture and external reputation under one evolving “mixternal” strategy.
The pressure is real—and so is the opportunity to lead.
That’s where our annual conference at Microsoft’s iconic HQ—a global hub of innovation—becomes your lighthouse in the storm where you’ll discover practical solutions for aligning internal and external messaging, integrating AI breakthroughs, orchestrating change and boosting your strategic leadership.
And because the demands on communicators keep growing, our new Integrated Communications track unites PR pros, marketers and internal communicators under one roof—unlocking fresh cross-functional strategies for consistent messaging, brand alignment and measurable results. For the networkers in the room, you'll love our community room, filled with activities like speed networking, birds of a feather meetups and roundtable discussions.
It’s time to stop treading water and chart a bold new course for your team and organization. Reserve your seat—and let this event be your guide to lasting impact, real influence and meaningful integration.
Register Today to Secure your Spot! Don’t miss this opportunity to:
- Connect with your peers.
- Access exclusive content and resources.
- Get the ideas & tools to stay ahead in today’s rapidly changing world.
Top reasons to attend
You’ll raise your potential at this event with these keys to INTEGRATED comms success:
I
Ignite “Mixternal” Momentum
N
Nurture Culture & Change
T
Transform AI Integration
E
Elevate Strategic Leadership
G
Grow Crisis Readiness
R
Reinforce Brand Trust
A
Align Channels & Content
T
Track ROI with Data
E
Engage Employees & Stakeholders
D
Develop a Future-Focused Roadmap
FEATURED SPEAKERS
AGENDA
This conference is your blueprint for navigating the comms changes and challenges ahead—keeping your workforce engaged and productive, and your external stakeholders aligned and informed.
Poor communication already bleeds $1.2 trillion a year from U.S. businesses (Harris Research). And fragmented hybrid workforces, AI-fueled misinformation and leaner 2026 budgets only amplify every disconnect between inside chatter and public perception—eroding trust, speed and spend. That ends with this hands-on workshop, where you’ll map out a 360° Content Flywheel with five content spokes that keep one story spinning across your internal, marketing, social media, branded and PR channels—all super-charged with AI. You’ll discover how to position your team as the flywheel’s captain and leave with tools to turn “mixternal comms” into measurable culture, reputation and revenue gains. You’ll learn:
- The 360° Blueprint: How to set goals, audience targets, a core story and channel plan that unites the five flywheel spokes—internal, marketing, social media, branded and PR.
- Smashing Silos: How to replace silos with “flex pods” and a leadership charter that keeps internal communications in the hub while other spokes plug in seamlessly.
- Smart Metrics Dashboard: How to link engagement, reputation and revenue to one narrative that execs can read (and fund).
- AI-Accelerated Storytelling: How to embed AI tools in every spoke of the flywheel to speed creation, personalize content and “spot-then-swat” misinformation before it spreads.
- C-Suite Cred: Ideas for framing internal comms as the hub steward for all spokes to secure bigger budgets and strategic clout.
+ Breakout Flywheel Sprint: In groups, you’ll reframe a live internal update for each content spoke and leave with a reusable 360° Content Flywheel template.
Measurement is still the #1 headache for internal comms pros, according to Use Workshop—but the stakes just spiked. Hyper-personalization demands, hybrid work sprawl and new cost controls mean leaders now expect proof of productivity, culture and ROI on a single slide. If you can’t quantify it, budgets disappear—and it’s only going to get worse in 2026. This workshop gives you the latest measurement tools and business fluency you need to become the C-suite’s strategic advisor. You’ll build a 360° SCOREcard that plugs internal data into an integrated comms dashboard—and learn to translate every KPI into business insights execs trust. You’ll learn:
- SCORE Framework: How to set Strategy, Channels, Outcomes, Results and Executive story for any campaign so goals, data and narrative lineup from day one.
- Integrated Dashboards: How to embed internal metrics (read-times, town-hall reach, open rates, sentiment, etc.) into enterprise BI tools like Power BI, Tableau and GA4 for a true mixternal view.
- AI-Powered Insights: How to use tools like Staffbase Intelligence, Firstup’s Listen, Copilot, ChatGPT and others to scrape, segment and predict employee needs in minutes.
- Business Fluency Deep Dive: How to convert engagement deltas into dollars saved, risk reduced or revenue unlocked so you speak your CFO’s language.
- Data-Driven Storytelling: How to turn raw numbers into concise mini-stories that spotlight the “so what?” for every stakeholder—from frontline to boardroom—so your results and recommendations resonate more.
- Visual Proof Points: Tips for quick-hit data visualization (heat maps, annotated screenshots, one-slide scorecards) and headline captions that land budget asks and headcount wins quickly.
+ Breakout KPI Hackathon: In groups, you’ll plug real numbers into the SCORE template and leave with a customizable dashboard starter file ready for Monday.
- AI as a Daily Habit: Explore the basic ways AI can supercharge communications work—from faster drafting and summarizing to smart calendaring and content clean-up.
- Hands-On: We'll workshop these methods together to help you optimize your daily comms tasks with AI’s help—so come ready with specifics.
- AI as a New Team Member/Intern: Discover how AI can extend your team’s reach—creating visual content, generating audience insights, adapting content across channels and more.
- Hands-On: We'll practice writing precise, strategic prompts that get the best results—and you'll see why AI still needs a sharp human editor, and how clear direction can turn a basic output into breakthrough work.
- AI as an Agent: Learn how AI agents can manage tasks on your behalf—like drafting communications with your leader's voice, tracking employee sentiment over time, coordinating comms for an upcoming town hall or managing multi-channel campaigns.
- Hands-On: We'll share examples of real-world agents in action and offer guidance on when and how to build your own, always with a human-in-the-loop mindset.
Automation and emerging tech is reshaping every inbox, intranet and workflow at warp speed. Your best counterbalance? Authenticity. By doubling down on timeless human strengths—curiosity, empathy, creativity, ethical judgment—internal comms pros can safeguard values and purpose while guiding teams through machine-paced change. This keynote reframes the “old is new again” truth to help comms leaders spark innovation, protect trust and keep culture front-and-center. What you’ll learn:
- Adaptability Playbook: Key “irreplaceably human” rules and roles—and how to map them to internal comms-led change initiatives, channel mixes, culture programs and EX tactics.
- The Authenticity Edge: Techniques to help internal comms leaders turn candid storytelling, empathy and critical thinking into higher engagement and metrics execs will love.
- Ethical Guardrails: How internal comms can draft governance language for emerging tech that keeps transparency, trust and authenticity front-and-center amid rapid automation.
- Timeless Talents: How to re-elevate “soft” skills—listening, curiosity, judgement, creativity—as the new competitive advantage for internal comms when everything else has gone tech.
- Culture Compass: Using purpose and values as your organizational north-star to ground and inspire employees to innovate amid nonstop tech disruption.
Internal comms can’t settle for “send this out.” To earn a seat beside the CEO, you must think like a strategist, speak the language of P&L and prove impact across the business value chain. This session blends “Exactly What to Say” influence tactics with measurement frameworks that tie messaging to revenue, risk and retention. You’ll discover how to help guide complex initiatives like leadership transitions, turn big ideas into reality and position your team as the connective tissue that integrates people, process and profits—so you’re finally seen as more than a cost center. Key areas you’ll master:
- Reframe the Role: How to swap order-taking for consulting by framing every request as a business problem with measurable upside.
- Map the Value Chain: Steps to identify where comms moves the needle—cost, revenue, risk—and then plug yourself in as a business integrator.
- Speak CFO: Exactly what to say when pitching campaigns in terms of EBITDA, productivity gains and cost-of-delay.
- Metric Makeover: How to build dashboards linking sentiment, speed-to-adoption and turnover drops to hard dollar impact.
- Presence Under Pressure: Influence and executive-presence drills that anchor you as the CEO’s go-to advisor during leadership transitions.
Your intranet was meant to be home base—yet many employees treat it like a digital ghost town. A new crop of emerging platforms and technologies promise Netflix-level personalization, built-in communities and real-time analytics. In this braintrust panel, internal comms leaders from healthcare, retail and high-tech brands share how they layered personalization, automation and data insights onto legacy sites—without ripping out what they’d already built. Get practical ideas to transform any dusty intranet or employee hub into an always‑on experience, no matter which toolset you use. What you’ll learn:
- Cross‑Industry Makeovers: Snapshots from hospitals to airlines showing how different orgs relaunched intranets to boost trust and time‑on‑page.
- Personalization Engines: Segmentation tricks (role, location, interest) plus adaptive navigation that surfaces the right content in two clicks or less.
- Platform Mix‑and‑Match: How teams blend tools like Workvivo, Simpplr, Unily, Firstup and Viva Connections for seamless journeys.
- Automation Assist: Chatbots, auto‑tagging and smart digests—yep, powered by AI—that cut noise and free up comms bandwidth.
- Measurement Matters: Dashboards, heat maps and feedback widgets that turn clicks into continual EX improvements (and into metrics the CFO loves).
C‑suite videos at dawn, HR blasts by lunch, surprise IT alerts at 4 p.m.—sound familiar? When every team treats comms like an on‑demand content firehose, priorities blur, deadlines slip and burnout spikes. In this fast‑paced session, a veteran comms director who runs daily Scrum stand‑ups will share an agile‑lite approach any comms shop can adopt—without memorizing the entire Scrum manual. Join us to learn:
- Why Agile, Why Now: The three biggest pain points crimping integrated comms workflows—request chaos, shifting priorities, approval lag—and why a time‑boxed mindset beats the endless to‑do list.
- Scrum‑Inspired Starter Kit: Roles, boards and cadences you can steal tomorrow (no Scrum certification needed).
- Live Backlog Triage (5‑min exercise): Together we’ll turn real audience “fire‑drill” requests into ranked user stories—so you practice saying “not now” with data, not emotion.
- Sprint Rhythm Hacks: A snapshot of easy tactics—like two‑week cycles, 15‑minute huddles and quick demos—that can help you keep leaders in the loop and scope‑creep out.
- Prove the Payoff: Simple velocity and cycle‑time metrics that show execs—and your team—how the new flow boosts output and sanity.
As teams sprint toward every shiny new AI tool, engagement keeps sagging—because real traction still comes from modernizing the fundamentals. Relevant internal emails still pull 68% open rates and 37% of employees now tune into workplace podcasts (ContactMonkey, LinkedIn). Pair those numbers with the rise of real-time digital-signage dashboards and recognition walls, and you’ve got the perfect storm for breathing new life into “old” channels with fresh tech. In this fast-paced panel, comms innovators who’ve done the upgrades share their playbooks for re-wiring legacy channels. You’ll learn:
- Smart Newsletters: How others are turning static sends into segmented, analytics-rich touchpoints that hit 60%+ open rates using dynamic blocks and timed sends.
- Recognition Renaissance: How peer shout-outs, points, digital badges and micro-rewards are boosting retention and inclusion—plus the KPIs to prove it.
- Audio 2.0: Tips for baking podcasts and audio content into EX suites to humanize leaders and reach earbuds on-the-go.
- Screens and Streams: How to reimagine townhalls and digital signage as a single, hybrid experience—live polling all-hands, chat-moderated Q&A, real-time recognition walls and lobby screens that sync with your intranet for instant alerts.
- The Innovator’s Mindset: A repeatable audit framework for spotting hidden potential in any legacy channel—so you upgrade strategically instead of chasing trends.
Global engagement keeps sliding—only 21% of employees feel connected to their work (Gallup). Fragmented channels, five generations under one roof and cookie‑cutter personas don’t help. This session shows you how to refresh journey maps with live data, layer in generational insights and even employee Enneagrams (a system of personality types) then push hyper‑personal messages that meet today’s jittery workforce where they really are. We’ll cover:
- Live Journey Maps: How to plug pulse surveys, LMS stats and even help‑desk data into lifecycle touchpoints so maps update in real time.
- Dynamic Personas: How to cluster behavioral signals, generational preferences and even Enneagram overlays to build self‑refreshing personas—no more annual rewrites.
- Engagement Playbooks: How to craft channel and message variants for each persona to boost open rates, clicks and two‑way feedback.
- Smart Automation (yes, that’s the AI bit): How to use machine‑learning signals and autonomous nudges to spot disengagement days sooner and trigger timely manager alerts.
- Proof of Impact: Tips to track engagement bumps, retention gains and onboarding speed to show hard ROI on personalization.
With over 90% of employees admitted multitasking through townhalls, many leaders assume the format’s broken. Not so fast! Over six months, an internal‑comms team rebuilt the experience from the ground up—layering live translation, DVR‑style playback and avatar‑assisted updates onto its legacy platform. The result: View‑through rates tripled, questions flooded in and execs finally felt heard across time zones. This case study unpacks every step of that turnaround so you can replicate the win without blowing up your tech stack. We’ll cover:
- Going Global: Flipping on built‑in interpreters and real‑time captions so every region feels heard.
- New Tech Plug-Ins: Examples of using auto‑recap and scheduled clip pushes to social or intranet feeds so employees can catch up fast.
- Engagement Analytics: Tracking rewind-while-live views, sentiment heatmaps and clickthroughs to prove the new format beats last year’s static one.
- Risk and Governance: Setting guardrails for deepfake detection, disclosure language and avatar reuse so innovation never outruns trust.
- Bonus Avatar Spotlight: A surprise example of capturing an exec once, then deploying avatars for multilingual updates—complete with disclosure best practices.
Trust gets shaky in periods of uncertainty—but people still listen. The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that public trust has shifted to peer-to-peer, valuing company experts and employees—essentially “people like themselves”—as honest and relatable sources on a company. But when your brand, executives and employees post on LinkedIn with disparate messages, that credibility fractures. In this session with Microsoft’s employee advocacy team, you’ll learn how to synchronize social narratives so your organization speaks with one voice and scales authentic content from the inside out. What you'll learn:
- Right Time, Right Channel: How to think about the unique but coordinated roles that brand, executive and employee voices play in a particular moment.
- Trust Pillars: How to develop themes and practices that anchor executive and employee posts—even during layoffs and leadership changes.
- AI Assist with Guardrails: How to use AI and other technology to draft and post thought leadership content faster without sacrificing voice and authenticity.
- Measurement Matters: How KPIs like reach and engagement can help your execs and employees maintain a healthy signal-to-noise ratio and prove the “ROI of trust.”
- Thought Leadership Examples: Snapshots of trust-building thought leadership posts—and tips for ensuring your thought leadership program drives results regardless of platform.
The strongest brand narratives don’t begin with a press release—they’re sparked by authentic values that employees, the public and the press can rally around. Join us to discover how Katherine Cheng (VP of Culture at the Seattle Mariners) ties it all together with her fresh “Culture Compass” program and a powerful “mixternal comms” framework that shapes every facet of the business value chain. You’ll learn how to move beyond “just the messenger” and truly help steer the value chain—so you score wins in the headlines and on the bottom line. We’ll cover:
- Mixternal Methods: A playbook for aligning HR, internal comms, social media, PR and the C-suite—ensuring your culture-based efforts become compelling external stories.
- The Business Value Chain: How to integrate culture and communications at every business stage—from product ideation to marketing, PR, distribution and service—so they become revenue drivers, not just support functions.
- Culture as Content: Strategies for turning genuine moments and everyday wins into viral storytelling—with visuals that captivate journalists, influencers, business leaders and communities.
- Measuring What Matters: Insightful methods to track cultural sentiment across internal and external channels—and prove the ROI of your “mixternal” approach.
In an era defined by hybrid fatigue, eroding trust and the rise of generative AI, even the world’s most admired companies face unprecedented challenges in aligning their people. At Microsoft, these forces catalyzed a bold, decade-long reinvention of internal communications—tested first on its own employees through a pioneering “Customer Zero” model. Join a senior exec with a strategic role in Microsoft's Global Employee and Executive Comms (GEEC) team for a candid exploration of how Microsoft reimagined the role of communications as a strategic driver of culture, clarity and trust. You’ll walk away with actionable insights—and a fresh perspective on what it means to lead communications in a time of transformation. What you’ll hear:
- Lead and Trust: How Microsoft builds resilience and alignment through transparent, two-way dialogue.
- Listen at Scale: A modern listening ecosystem that turns frontline signals into strategic foresight.
- Empower with Safety: Balancing innovation and risk in a digital-first workplace.
- Cut Through the Noise: Prioritization strategies that elevate what matters most.
- Accelerate with AI: Real-world lessons from deploying Copilot and GenAI to scale personalization, speed and governance.
Funding may vanish and acronyms may be banned, yet employees still crave belonging and a mission they can trust. In this candid panel moderated by a change expert, communicators from finance, aerospace and tech reveal how they anchor culture in purpose and inclusive behaviors—without triggering policy red-flags—all while steering teams through layoffs, AI upheaval and regulatory about-faces. Hear the hard-won tactics that keep engagement high, innovation flowing and top talent rooted when external forces undermine traditional DEI language and budgets. We’ll touch on:
- Rebrand the Rationale: How to frame culture as risk mitigation and revenue protection so it gets budget—even when “DEI” is scrubbed.
- Purpose-First Messaging: Phrases that signal inclusion and respect without the banned vocabulary.
- Change-Comms Integration: A checklist to weave culture touchpoints into every reorg, RTO drive or tech rollout.
- Amplify Hidden Voices: Methods to crowdsource stories from your ERGs, run “culture sprints” and spotlight diverse talent across internal channels.
- Prove the Payoff: How to link belonging scores, idea submissions and retention savings and other results to the business value chain.
What if your employees cheered for their Monday standup like it’s the home opener? Only 31% of U.S. employees feel engaged—the lowest in a decade (CFO). Meanwhile Seattle’s sports giants keep fans (and staff) fired up season after season. In this fireside panel, integrated comms leads from the areas' leading sports teams (think NFL, MLB, NHL, WNBA and more) share the locker‑room stories, rituals and metrics that transform game‑day electricity into everyday culture—and turn coworkers into die‑hard brand believers. Join us to hear:
- Inside Locker Room Lore: Candid stories of how Seattle franchises forge teamwork and a winning culture that steals hearts.
- Fan‑First Rituals: How to adapt hype videos, tunnel walks and even victory songs to spark pride across your own organization.
- Scoreboard Gamification: Ideas to roll out real‑time dashboards, leaderboards and playful incentives to keep wins visible.
- Coaching Coalitions: Explore ways to draft cross‑functional coaches to keep messages aligned across every channel.
Answer engines—Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT Browse, Perplexity and others—now rewrite brand stories into bite-sized summaries, often without a single click. Gartner warns that traditional search traffic could dip 25% by 2026 as users rely on these “zero-click” results. That means every townhall recap, CEO memo and FAQ you post can surface externally—shaping perceptions before PR or marketing even hit “send.” This session shows how internal comms can help steer those summaries, protect accuracy and keep purpose-driven messages intact while dipping a toe into external SEO. You’ll learn:
- Zero-Click Basics: How answer engines gather and rewrite internal content—and why that matters for trust and employee advocacy.
- Easy AI SEO Wins: Simple ways to tag intranet posts, leader quotes and fact sheets so LLMs lift your wording, not a critic’s.
- SEO-Ready Storytelling: How to craft messaging that connects with employees yet still lands in AI answer boxes with context and credibility.
- SEO Sync Up: How to partner with PR and SEO marketing leads on shared keyword sets, schema templates and approval flows so each intranet post, press pitch and FAQ aligns.
- Search Visibility Scorecard: How to track impressions, citations and sentiment inside zero-click panels—and then link the data to engagement and share-of-voice gains.
RTO mandates, DEIB rollbacks, tariff ripples, CEO shakeups, AI job fears and employee activism continue to put internal and external stakeholders on edge. And when internal, external and policy messages around these issues diverge, trust (and share price) wobbles. Join four senior comms pros who’ve steered brands through the turbulence will unpack the strategies their organizations and others are using to successfully address these issues, gauge employee activism, align stakeholders and steady the ship. What you’ll learn:
- Rapid-Response Lessons: Candid pivots, success stories and practical fixes that helped keep teams onside and on-message during critical flashpoints this past year.
- Beyond Checklists: Why ADKAR and other step-by-step models stall at social-media speed—plus cross-departmental suggestions that can close the gap.
- Stakeholder Alignment Map: Best practices to brief execs, managers, staff, investors and the press from one single source of truth—and why a “true north” matters.
- C-Suite Credibility: Ideas for turning workforce sentiment and risk intel into metrics and recommendations that execs respect and the board trusts.
- Top Turbulences Tracker: The most pressing disruptive topics today—from RTO mandates and DEIB rollbacks to employee activism—and strategies for addressing each in real time.
A new Brunswick report flags a collapse in trust, AI's impact on job security, polarization, cyber breaches, data privacy lapses and even AI/bot swarms as today’s top brand nightmares—but when they strike, employees feel the first shock waves. This panel brings together crisis, change-comms and security pros to share how internal comms can prep the workforce, calm nerves and keep business moving when threats hit back-to-back. Hear real-world tales of phishing storms, ransomware, layoffs and brand-impacting deepfakes, plus frameworks to hardwire resilience into every internal channel and conversation. You’ll learn:
- What's Coming: Top threats impacting brands and employees now and in 2026, including how to mine IT tickets, rumor channels, dark web chatter and social listening tools to spot threats early.
- Panic-Proof Messaging: Tips for drafting breach and layoff scripts in plain language, picking empathetic spokespeople and syncing with legal when crises hit.
- Change Comms Under Fire: Proven steps to help you merge crisis and transformation playbooks so you can launch reorganizations or rollouts amid turbulence.
- Secure Channels: Ideas to help you protect internal platforms, segment audiences and verify leadership posts when deepfakes hit Slack or Viva.
- Tracking Tumult: Sample dashboards for employee sentiment, rumor spread, phishing-sim click rates and time-to-readiness—so finance sees the “ROI on calm.”
Forecasts are flagging slower global growth, more policy-driven volatility and increased recession risk—so 2026 comms budgets will certainly face the scalpel. Little surprise then that execs now want irrefutable proof that every message, townhall and trade story moves the business needle. This integrated ROI session shows how to connect channel data from media, web, CRM and even employee-sentiment systems into a single business-intelligence dashboard, apply internationally accepted attribution models and package the insights into funding-ready stories—before next year’s cuts hit. What you’ll learn:
- Frameworks & Formulas: How panelists blend AMEC’s Integrated Evaluation Framework with PESO weighting to trace connections from awareness to sales and talent pipelines.
- Unified Dashboards: Recipes for linking media-intel tools, GA4, CRM suites and pulse-survey apps to a single BI platform for real-time mixternal KPIs.
- Insight Automation: A quick peek at the AI features inside today’s media-intel suites and data hubs that surface anomalies before leadership asks.
- Monthly KPI Clinics: How each team runs “insight sprints” that flag lagging channels, recommends quick fixes and keeps stakeholders hooked on the numbers.
- Budget Blueprint 2026: How others are converting metrics into ROI scenarios and talking points to justify spend.
When tariffs threatened fundraising at a global nonprofit healthcare organization, misinformation ricocheted across donor forums and staff inboxes. Instead of issuing separate statements, the organization created a rigorously fact-checked blog post, then repurposed it for employees, social feeds and donor comms—winning conservative donors’ praise and giving staff a single source of truth. This session dissects that playbook so your marketing, social and PR teams can smash silos and deliver one consistent narrative—fast. You’ll learn:
- Objective & Audience Map: How to set one revenue goal, define audience segments and pick priority channels for each.
- Channel Playbook: How to lay out a schedule that feeds blog, intranet, email and social slots in lockstep.
- Content Creation: How to build an anchor blog from SME interviews, then slice it into reels, graphics and internal snippets.
- Distribution Details: How to arm staff and superfans with pre-coded share links, UTMs and a small paid-boost budget to extend reach.
- Measurement and Fine-Tuning: How to pull sentiment, clicks, donation upticks and employee-share rates into one dashboard to adjust copy, spend and cadence in real time.
Economic headwinds, restructurings and a talent crunch mean every hire—or departure—now hits harder than ever. Candidates and customers alike scan Glassdoor, Indeed and even TikTok before they click “apply” or “buy.” In this candid session, Navistar’s comms leader reveals the organization’s enterprise‑wide One Voice Strategy, a framework that syncs recruiting, PR, social and marketing so every stakeholder hears the same clear story about the company’s vision, culture and strategy. Walk away with a playbook to safeguard reputation, speed hiring and keep customers confident—even when markets wobble. You’ll learn:
- Objective & Audience Alignment: How to link a single brand promise to hiring KPIs (application volume, offer acceptance rate, etc.) and business KPIs.
- Advocate Network Build: Tips to identify frontline “Voice Champions,” train them on disclosure rules and onboard them to an employee-advocacy platform like EveryoneSocial.
- One-Voice Content Hub: Steps to create a shared library of pre-approved blog snippets, social tiles and talking points that Marketing, PR and HR can pull from daily.
- Activation Toolkit: How to run monthly “share drives” (org-wide posting blitzes), supply ready-to-share captions with tracked UTM links and extend reach with small paid boosts.
- Reputation Dashboard: Ways to combine Glassdoor and Indeed review scores, social-listening sentiment and referral traffic to prove lower cost-per-hire and stronger trust.
Our next presenter didn’t believe in AI. As a finance-minded communicator at a global pharma giant, she feared hype, risk and cost—until an AI pilot halved revision cycles and spiked clickthroughs. Standard dashboards missed the story, so she led a cross-functional drive to audit workflows, launch controlled tests and craft scorecards for quality, voice and EX sentiment. This session retraces that skeptic-to-champion journey and shows how any marketing or comms leader can implement AI, transform processes and prove ROI Finance can’t ignore. What you’ll learn:
- Secure a Seat at the AI Table: How to join (or launch) the enterprise AI taskforce, speak finance and risk, and set comms-centric objectives from day one.
- Run an AI Audit: Steps to inventory every message touchpoint, quantify time/cost waste and flag high-value content ripe for automation.
- Pilot & Prove: A 30-day testing playbook to trim bounce rates up to 20%, boost opens up to 15% and capture quality scores before rollout.
- Rewire Workflow: Ways to embed prompt libraries and auto-approvals that can shave up to 40% off campaign lead times.
- Measure What Matters: Tips to build dashboards for draft-time savings, revision cuts, brand-voice coherence and internal/external sentiment—and translate them into ROI formulas that Finance trusts.
New privacy laws, automated content risks and rising labor lawsuits mean one off-brand tweet can trigger fines or walkouts. External communicators can’t wait weeks for Legal, HR or IT to weigh in—nor can they risk going rogue. Four leaders who’ve smashed approval bottlenecks will share the exact governance models, tech stacks and trust-building rituals that cut launch time by up to 40% while safeguarding compliance and culture. What you’ll learn:
- Common Challenges: The cultural and structural barriers that stall cross-functional collaboration—and proven fixes for each.
- Governance Blueprint: How to prevent bottlenecks and finger-pointing using a two-page RACI chart and clear escalation paths that cut approvals from weeks to days.
- Agile Sprints: How to run two-week Scrum cycles—backlog, daily stand-ups and sprint reviews—to keep Legal, HR, IT and Comms moving in sync.
- Fast-Track Tool Stack: How to pair Kanban boards (e.g., Trello, Jira, SharePoint) with e-sign workflows to move content through Legal redlines faster.
- Unified Scorecards: How to link time-to-launch, rework costs and risk-incident savings to campaign KPIs in one business intelligence (BI) dashboard.
Kick off the conference with 60-second chair-swap intros—just enough time to trade names, roles and one fun fact (see our hashtag challenge below) before the timer dings. Treat it like speed-sampling: Snag bite-sized contacts today, then decide who to circle back with tomorrow. You’ll enjoy:
- Shift-and-slide: Two rows of chairs—and at each time, everyone pivots and slides one seat left.
- Flash-prompts: The emcee throws out a single cue word (e.g., “AI,” “culture,” “fail”) to spark lightning replies.
- Hashtag-and-track: Grab a blank sticker, add a one-word hashtag for your comms superpower and slap it on your badge (e.g., #CrisisPro, #AIwhiz)—a fun, easy visual shorthand for jotting follow-up notes :-)
Four 25‑minute peer‑powered roundtables where you crowd-source fixes for your biggest comms challenges and leave with a pocketful of proven hacks. You’ll enjoy:
- Quick casts: Four lightning rounds on: org charts, crisis playbooks, CEO transitions and layoff comms.
- Sticky sheets: Butcher-paper brainstorming—so your ideas stick (literally).
- Instant catch: Real-time photo recap in your inbox by lunch.
A 75-minute café-style mingle that channels the ’85 detention classic. Share passion projects, hobbies, life hacks—but drop the word “work” and Principal Vernon’s coin jar claims your spare changes (coins provided). You’ll enjoy:
- Role-call stickers: Sport a “Brain,” “Athlete,” “Basket Case,” “Princess” or “Criminal” badge to spark off-duty convos.
- Barista boosts: An espresso cart keeps ideas percolating while you dish hobbies.
- Detention donations: Every “work-word” or convo costs a coin—good karma and laughs for a local nonprofit.
Note to Gen Z and beyond: If the movie’s before your time or feels dated, give it a quick search. Some 1980s cliques haven’t aged well, but the core takeaways still lands: Labels fade when people talk.
Couldn’t make yesterday—or ready for deeper dives? This five-minute rotation round picks up where the sprint left off. Swap real challenges, scan LinkedIns on the spot and bank allies before the morning breakout begins. You’ll enjoy:
- Tempo turns: 5-minute rotations paced by a visible timer and a hype playlist—plenty of runway for substance.
- Hot seat openers: Our room emcee lobs a rapid-fire icebreaker (fave AI tool, biggest comms faux pas, etc.) to kick things off.
- Link n’ sync: Scan a QR or tap phones so your new crew sticks long after the session ends.
Crowd‑source the conference wrap‑up instead of making our editors do all the heavy lifting. Step to the mic, drop either your own actionable gem or the best tip you heard, and watch it roll into the post‑event tip sheet everyone gets. You’ll enjoy:
- Quick mic: Step up with your 30-second share-outs—no speeches, just pure actionable gold.
- Idea gallery: A scribe will pin each gem to a butcher-paper wall, then star-sticker voting lets the room crown the standouts.
- Playbook drop: Top-voted tips will be compiled into a ready-to-use PDF delivered to your inbox post-event.
SPEAKERS
INTERESTED IN SPEAKING?
Please reach out to Director of Event Programming
Alyssa Smith.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- Strategic Leadership & Influence: Elevate your value and secure a permanent seat at the table.
- Mixternal Integration: Unite internal comms, PR and marketing for a more consistent 360° brand, culture and comms strategy.
- Change Comms & Management: Discover proven frameworks for guiding teams through restructuring, M&A, layoffs and other disruptive transitions.
- Crisis Preparedness: Stay ahead of AI-driven misinformation, cybersecurity attacks, deepfakes and other emerging threats to protect your brand and workforce.
- AI in Action: Go beyond basic prompts to adopt agentic AI that dramatically improves workflows, content creation and audience engagement.
- Doing More with Less: Learn how to tighten budgets, maintain morale and position internal comms for success during 2026 budget planning.
- Internal Comms Toolbox: Get updates on email, intranets, newsletters, town halls, collaboration suites and more—keeping employees connected and informed.
- Brand Storytelling & Thought Leadership: Infuse compelling narratives across everything from newsletters to executive social media, ensuring consistent, authentic messaging.
- Winning Workplace Cultures: Craft and deliver messaging that resonates with on-site, hybrid and dispersed teams—while tackling RTO rollouts and other roadblocks along the way.
- Organizational Impact: Forge cross-functional alliances, navigate complex org structures and drive enterprise-wide collaboration that broadens your influence and reach.
- Dashboard Confessionals: Explore measurement best practices, new KPIs and real dashboards from other organizations to prove—and improve—your impact.
- Future-Focused Roadmaps: Develop near-term tactics and long-range plans for emerging tech adoption, culture-building, channel optimization and strategic leadership.
PRICING
| ADVANCED | EARLY BIRD | VIP | REGULAR RATE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conference All-Access Pass includes the Pre-Conference Workshops | ||||
| Standard | $3,495 | $3,595 | $3,695 | $3,795 |
| Nonprofit/Gov | $3,395 | $3,495 | $3,595 | $3,695 |
| Ragan Insider | $3,345 | $3,445 | $3,545 | $3,645 |
| Conference Registration - Individual | ||||
| Standard | $3,095 | $3,195 | $3,295 | $3,395 |
| Nonprofit/Gov/Edu | $2,995 | $3,095 | $3,195 | $3,295 |
| Ragan Insider | $2,945 | $3,045 | $3,145 | $3,245 |
| Conference Recording On Demand | ||||
| Includes pre-conference workshops and conference sessions | $1,999 | $1,999 | $1,999 | $1,999 |
| Vendor Registration | ||||
| $4,999 | $4,999 | $4,999 | $4,999 | |
For those who can’t attend the conference live, an on-demand option of the conference recordings is available during the registration process. The recordings will be delivered 10 business days after the conference ends.
Download this letter to convince your boss you should attend The Internal Communications Conference.
Group Discounts
Would you and your team like to attend? Group pricing for 3 or more is available when going through the registration process!
RAGAN COUNCIL MEMBER DISCOUNTS
Membership includes free registration passes. Contact Shallon Blackburn for more information on becoming a member.
RAGAN INSIDER DISCOUNTS
Insiders save on all Ragan events. Not a Ragan Insider? You can become one during registration for this event!
Building 92/Learning Center
Microsoft
15010 NE 36th Street
Redmond WA 98052
Top Things To Do in Seattle:
Take some time to enjoy Seattle while you are in town! Here are our top things to do:
- Space Needle
- Pike Place Market
- Washington State Ferries
- Seattle Great Wheel
- The Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour
- Woodinville Wine Country
- T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field
- Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room
- The Guide for Ethical AI Usage in Communications
- Measurement Guide to Proving Internal Comms Value
- Internal Meetings Handbook and Facilitator Guide
- LinkedIn Executive Thought Leadership Guide
- Six Steps for Change Communications in a Volatile World
- How to Run an Internal Communications Audit
SPONSORS & PARTNERS
Premium
Want to become a sponsor? Get in touch with our team to discuss sponsorship opportunities.
WHO ATTENDS
Communications professionals from these organizations have attended the Internal Communications Conference:
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
You should attend if you spend at least a quarter of your time in any of these areas:
- Corporate Communication
- Employee Communications
- Executive Communications
- Manager Communications
- Change Communications
- Crisis Communications
- AI Integration
- Brand Management
- Brand Journalism
- Public Relations
- Marketing
- Content Creation
- Social Media
- Storytelling
- Writing and Editing
GET RECOGNIZED!
Each registration comes with a personalized "Internal Communications Conference" Certificate of Completion for attending.
REGISTER NOW
Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® recertification activities.
This program is valid for 16 PDCs when using Activity ID: 25-2E2SN.
WONDERING IF YOU SHOULD ATTEND?
Here’s what past attendees are saying about Ragan and PR Daily Events!
I had an incredible experience at the Ragan Internal Communications Conference. It was a rare and valuable opportunity to learn and connect with fellow internal communicators from a wide range of industries. The sessions were insightful and provided me with intense knowledge, reaffirming my passion for internal communications. I walked away with great insights that I could immediately take back and apply to my team. This conference truly stands out as a highlight in my professional journey.
I thoroughly enjoyed attending the Ragan Internal Communication Conference. As a communication specialist responsible for internal communications at the Panama Canal, everything I learned was incredibly valuable, useful, and enriching. The speakers, sponsors, moderators, emcees, the punctuality, and the networking opportunities all exceeded my expectations. I can't wait to attend again—this was the first of many. Ragan rocks!
Ragan provided the perfect opportunity for fellow communicators to listen to experts and share insights into what is going on in our field. I left with a renewed vision and sense of excitement!
This conference was absolutely worth the trip! The Ragan folks are very well organized and prepared. I learned a ton.
We left the conference energized with new ideas, empowered by peer validation, and inspired to pursue deeper learning and engagement through Ragan’s CLC. This is already a valuable investment for our team and the employees and communities we serve.
Wow! The 2024 Internal Communications Conference at Microsoft Headquarters was an invigorating experience. There were so many lively discussions and dynamic sessions that left me feeling energized and inspired. I cannot wait to see what Ragan plans next year.
The conference fun doesn’t start and stop at the event! Follow us on socials and sign-up for update emails.
Contact us for group rates and share with friends!
