Virtual Workshop
Reinventing the Town Hall
Next Practices to Inform and Engage Employees
Reengineer your employee town halls to inform, inspire and engage employees while building the trust, alignment and action that leadership needs.
Too many town halls fall into a familiar rhythm: updates stack up, slides take over and employee questions get squeezed for time. Employees tune out and a valuable leadership opportunity gets lost. That ends here.
Town halls are one of the most impactful channels for leaders to communicate directly with employees. That makes communicators a critical translator between leadership priorities and employee realities, where you bring each into the conversation. Done well, a routine all-hands becomes the place employees learn company strategy, see what it means for their work, ask real questions and build trust in their leadership.
Join us Monday, Oct. 26 for a virtual workshop featuring top experts who will share their secret sauce in creating town hall fandom. You’ll also learn to prioritize airtime, surface employee concerns, prep execs for tough Q&As and create two-way moments that turn audiences into participants and show how your town halls support leadership priorities and business outcomes.
You'll Leave Ready To:
- Rebuild the Run-of-Show: Start with the business outcome and decide what belongs on the agenda, adapting priority content and format for deskless, frontline and global employees.
- Read the Room Early: Mine employee sentiment across channels and build a playbook that incorporates high-stakes town halls (think crises, layoffs and re-orgs) where tone, timing and message weigh more than format.
- Coach for Authenticity: Prep executives so the message lands with both live and virtual audiences as genuine, not performative.
- Inform, Inspire & Engage: Integrate visual storytelling that reflects employee voices and recognition so people have a role in the experience (not just a seat). Learn how to best engage across live, hybrid and virtual formats.
- Extend with New Tech: Use AI and emerging event tools for translation, accessibility, personalized follow-ups, instant recaps and content repurposing that extends the value of every event.
- After the Town Hall: Activate employees post-event and measure business value connecting results back to C-suite goals.
AGENDA
Your role isn’t to choose between leadership priorities and employee concerns. It’s to bridge them and build forward momentum. Start by identifying what leaders need employees to understand and what employees need leadership to address, then build the run-of-show where those priorities intersect. We’ll cover how to:
- Question the Calendar: Identify the business moments that truly warrant bringing employees together live, and when you should recommend going async instead.
- Translate the Priorities: Turn leadership goals into clear employee meaning while bringing workforce questions and concerns into the agenda.
- Name the Outcome: Define what employees should understand or do afterward, then use that outcome to cut pet topics, vanity slides and unnecessary speakers.
- Build the Narrative: Connect leadership updates into a clear throughline, including what’s changing, why it matters and what it means for employees.
- Live vs. Async: Decide what belongs onstage versus in an email, Teams/Slack, the intranet, manager cascades, FAQ or even AI-enabled follow-ups. (Plus: How to adapt the experience for in-person, hybrid and fully remote events.)
Working with a sample agenda overloaded with competing priorities, you’ll start with one business outcome and decide what earns airtime, what moves to async and what needs reframing to connect leadership priorities with employee needs. Then practice making the recommendation to your executive team.
Involving employees starts before anyone takes the mic. Use pulse surveys, manager intel, prior Q&A, search behavior and feedback to understand what employees need from the conversation, then use that intelligence to shape not only what leaders say but also how employees participate. We’ll cover how to:
- Find the Real Questions: Combine employee Q&As, pulse surveys, manager intel, search behavior and feedback using AI to cluster themes and issues to address.
- Segment by Impact: Look beyond generational personas to distinguish audiences by role, location, manager status, deskless work and exposure to the issue at hand.
- Design Employees In: Use live questions, polls, employee stories, peer voices and recognition to give employees a role in the conversation (not just a seat).
- Translate Insight into Airtime: Map employee concerns against exec priorities to decide what’s addressed, what execs must prep and what moves to follow-ups.
- Follow Through: Capture unanswered questions, assign follow-up owners and show employees where their input influenced the conversation and next steps.
Town halls give executives a unique chance to demonstrate how they lead, especially when employees have hard questions. Learn how to prep execs to respond with clarity and empathy, sound like themselves and inspire confidence even when every answer isn’t easy. We’ll cover how to:
- Find Their Voice: Coach leaders to sound natural and credible while staying clear, consistent and aligned with the message.
- Answer the Real Question: Help execs hear the concern behind a tough question, address it directly and add context.
- Give Employees Something to Believe In: Move beyond explaining the strategy by connecting it with purpose, proof points and employees’ roles so they understand why it matters, believe it’s achievable and see how they can contribute.
- Recover in Real Time: Prepare leaders on how to respond when an answer misses, a leader misspeaks or doesn’t have the answer or employee reactions signal it’s time to adjust.
This Flash Fifteen covers town hall platforms, features and AI tools worth building into your setup, from live captioning and participation tools to the recap content that reaches your frontline and global teams. We'll cover:
- Earn Its Place: Decide which tools are best used live and those that can extend your town hall's impact after it’s over.
- Capture What Lands: Identify the moments worth keeping before the recording gets buried and the best answers disappear.
- Same-Day Distribution: Get talking points into managers’ hands before employees start asking questions they can't answer.
- Reach Who Missed It: Pull short-form video, intranet updates and deskless-ready content so everyone gets the same story.
Attendance tells you who showed up, not what changed. Learn how to activate managers for post-event cascade and measure whether employees understood the priority, gained confidence in leadership and took the intended action. Then connect those KPIs to the business objective your town hall was designed to support. We’ll cover how to:
- Start with the Outcome: Define the leadership priority and the employee understanding, sentiment or behavior that needs to change before you pick KPIs.
- Activate Your Managers: Ensure priority messaging and feedback loops are integrated into your town hall playbook so that engagement continues once everyone leaves the room.
- Test What Landed: Use quick post-event pulses, manager feedback and follow-up questions to see what key employee groups actually understood.
- Connect Participation to Action: Tie Q&As, polls and follow-up engagement with tangible behaviors like benefits enrollment, tool or strategy adoption and more.
- Build the Exec Scorecard: Give leaders a concise view of understanding, confidence, participation and action, and how they tie to the business objective.
- Walk Away with Your New Town Hall Plan: The top five next steps that will reinvent your next town hall.
BONUS MATERIALS: YOUR DIGITAL TOOLKIT
- Town Hall Checklist
- 5 Tips for Administering an Employee Survey
- Using Measurement to Prove Internal Comms Has Value
- An Internal Communications Strategy Checklist
- An Internal Meeting Handbook and Facilitator Guide Template
PRESENTERS
| Rates | |
|---|---|
| Registration | $699 |
| Nonprofit/Gov/Edu Registration | $675 |
| Ragan Insider Registration | $645 |
Included: 2.5-hour live workshop, breakout sessions and digital toolkit of bonus materials.
Can't make it on October 26? All attendees will receive a recording of the webinar.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This workshop serves professionals responsible for planning, running and proving the value of employee town halls and other high-visibility internal gatherings, including:
- Internal Communications Directors, Managers and Specialists
- Employee Communications Leads
- Corporate Communications Professionals
- Employee Experience and Engagement Leaders
- HR Communications Directors and Specialists
- Culture and People Team Leaders
- Executive Communications
- Chief Communications Officers, VPs of Communications and Chief Human Resources Officers
WONDERING IF YOU SHOULD ATTEND?
Here’s what past attendees are saying about Ragan and PR Daily Events!
For communications professionals seeking tangible, actionable takeaways, Ragan events are the gold standard.
Ragan Communications knows what keeps communicators up at night. Its workshops, topics and speakers get right to the heart of what we need to elevate our work.
Ragan continues to provide top-notch, professional content that is beneficial to a wide range of employees, senior leaders and executives.
Ragan is the absolute best. I have been a loyal follower of their education and resources for years. They have helped improve communication in my company and increase engagement and satisfaction.
I like that Ragan provides speakers from a wide variety of fields, but their messages can be applied to all communicators. No matter what you do, you can ALWAYS walk away from a Ragan conference with solid knowledge and advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Reinventing the Town Hall: Next Practices to Inform and Engage Employees?
Reinventing the Town Hall is a live virtual workshop from Ragan that helps communicators rebuild employee town halls so they inform, inspire and engage employees while building the trust, alignment and action leadership needs. The session takes place Monday, Oct. 26, 2026 • 1–3:30 p.m. ET and covers building the agenda, reading employee sentiment, coaching executives, using AI and event tech, and proving the business impact of the event.
Who should attend this workshop?
This workshop is designed for professionals responsible for planning, running and proving the value of employee town halls and other high-visibility internal gatherings, including Internal Communications Directors, Managers and Specialists; Employee Communications Leads; Corporate Communications Professionals; Employee Experience and Engagement Leaders; HR Communications Directors and Specialists; Culture and People Team Leaders; Executive Communications professionals; and Chief Communications Officers, VPs of Communications and Chief Human Resources Officers.
What will I learn at this workshop?
You'll leave ready to rebuild your run-of-show around a clear business outcome, read the room before anyone takes the mic, coach executives to respond with authenticity, design moments that turn audiences into participants, extend your town hall's reach with AI and event technology, and measure whether employees understood, believed and acted on what leadership shared.
What is a town hall?
A town hall is a live, all-employee gathering where leadership shares company information directly with employees, often including a question-and-answer session. Done well, a town hall connects company priorities to the work employees do every day. Done poorly, it becomes a presentation employees sit through rather than a conversation they take part in.
Why do town halls matter?
Town halls are one of the few channels where employees hear directly from leadership and can respond in the moment. Without a clear structure, they default to slide-heavy updates measured by attendance rather than understanding and behavior change. Organizations that invest in the format and the follow-through build employee trust, surface concerns before they escalate and give managers a shared reference point for the weeks that follow.
How can communicators use this workshop's approach to improve their town halls?
Communicators can use the frameworks from this workshop to bridge leadership priorities and employee realities in the run-of-show, mine employee sentiment across channels before the event, segment audiences by role and exposure rather than generic personas, prep executives to answer hard questions authentically, and build a post-event scorecard that ties participation and action back to business objectives.
Is this workshop technical?
No. This workshop is built for communications, HR and employee experience professionals — not AV engineers or broadcast producers. The focus is on town hall strategy, format selection, employee engagement and measurement rather than production equipment or streaming platforms, though the session does review tech platform options and AI solutions for live formats and speedy post-event content creation.
How is this workshop different from general presentation or event-planning training?
Unlike general presentation or event-planning training, this workshop is built specifically for communications and HR professionals responsible for running employee town halls. Rather than teaching theory, you'll work through the town hall you already run, with a measurement approach that holds up no matter the format — in-person, hybrid or fully remote.
Will this workshop help me build my own town hall plan?
Yes. Throughout the workshop you'll work through your own town hall live, using a sample agenda exercise to practice deciding what earns airtime, what moves to async and how to make that recommendation to your executive team. You'll leave with a plan specific to your format and a top-five list of next steps to reinvent your next town hall.
Will I receive templates and tools?
Yes. Every participant receives practical resources that can be adapted immediately for their organization, including a town hall checklist, tips for administering employee surveys, a measurement guide and an internal communications strategy checklist. You'll also work through your own town hall live during the session.
Can I watch the workshop later if I can't attend live?
Yes. If you're unable to attend live, you'll receive access to the recording so you can learn on your own schedule and revisit the content whenever you need it.
How long is the workshop?
This is a live, 2.5-hour virtual workshop featuring expert instruction, practical sessions and a peer breakout discussion designed for immediate application. Participants also receive digital resources and access to the recording.
What will I leave with after the workshop?
You'll leave ready to build an agenda where leadership priorities and employee realities meet, read the room before anyone takes the mic, prep executives to respond with clarity and empathy, extend your town hall's reach with the right platforms and AI tools, and measure whether employees understood, internalized and took action.
Who do I contact with questions?
For registration or speaker questions about Ragan's Reinventing the Town Hall: Next Practices to Inform and Engage Employees please contact the appropriate member of our team:
Registration contact: Shallon Blackburn, Director of Client Services
Programming and speaking inquiries: Alyssa Smith, Senior Director of Event Programming
How do I register?
Register directly at the event registration link.
