Future of
Communications
Conference
NOV. 1-2, 2022 • NEW YORK CITY
A COMMUNICATIONS WEEK™ EVENT
Have you reserved your seat?
Meet the moment • Engage stakeholders
Build reputation • Shape strategy • Craft messaging
Join your peers during Ragan’s Communications Week on November 1-2 for a must-attend conference to help you refine and align your strategies with the future of communications, hone your business acumen to position yourself as a future leader and better understand the tools and technology that will get you there. Industry experts will teach you the skills needed to meet the next horizon of employee communications, social purpose and DE&I, leadership communications, technology and more.
This conference will feature real-world tips and tactics from leading communicators. Our speakers will share how they effectively measure and report to reflect the needs of emerging audiences, refine media relations strategies to build stronger relationships amid changing newsroom trends, integrate emerging tools and features on social media to earn more engagement with audiences, foster stronger agency-client relationships and more.
- How to boost the employee experience
- New storytelling techniques
- Best practices for data-informed communications
- Ways to capture the attention of the media and other stakeholders
- New and exciting possibilities in a hybrid/remote work environment
- Intranets and emails: the latest tactics for optimal internal communications
- To incorporate blockchain and NFTs to take your content to the next level
- The next generation of video content – what it looks like and how you’ll create it
- From talk to action: How you can help the industry materially progress on DE&I
- Crisis management in an age of unprecedented uncertainty
AGENDA
Location: Edison Rooftop
Location: South Ballroom
No matter your audience, good storytelling is the key to good communication. But how do you meet every audience, everywhere, in every moment? In this fireside conversation, Joe Benarroch, EVP of Communications, Global Advertising and Partnerships at NBCUniversal, will share how he and his team drive growth for their business and their partners with clear, consistent, and inclusive messaging. From simple, accessible narratives that resonate across the board to tailor-made strategies for every stakeholder, Benarroch will show us how he puts storytelling to work at NBCU… and how you could do the same.
Location: South Ballroom
Being an effective communicator starts with speaking to the needs of the business with authority and expertise. In this panel, we’ll share the best ways for you to get invited into the room where decisions are made. Hear real-world tips on applying your business acumen to develop communication plans that meet the needs of your various stakeholders. You’ll learn:
- Important business language and disciplines that can enhance reputation and ascribe value to your efforts
- Tips for interpreting annual reports and financial statements
- Strategies for tying communication plans to the bottom lines that leadership values most
- Ways to negotiate more budget for your communications efforts and your team
Location: South Ballroom
Location: Edison Rooftop
Muck Rack’s annual State of Podcasting survey is designed to identify the biggest trends and challenges in podcasting today, along with insights to help PR pros and podcasters work better together. This session will explore must-know takeaways from the report, including:
- How podcasters plan content, book guests, and promote their show
- The most common reasons why podcasters will reject a pitch
- The best days, times and channels for PR pros to reach podcasters
- The social media channels that podcasters value most
Location: South Ballroom
If it seems as though chatter about the metaverse is ubiquitous, that’s because it is. This emerging virtual landscape is already changing how brands interact with consumers – with everything from cultivating transparency and community building through virtual meeting spaces to data collection. By and large, communicators are only starting to understand how the metaverse can impact the work we do. That will change with this session.
Location: South Ballroom
Location: Edison Rooftop
At a time of ceaseless national, global and brand crises, a chorus of voices on social media now have unprecedented power to solidify, damage or repair corporate reputation. Thankfully, your responses do, too. In this session, our experts explore the nature of how crises have changed over the past year, look at the sources that start and amplify them and share their strategies for responding to an incident with the appropriate speed, message and action. You’ll learn:
- Recent and future crises that are emerging across industries — and how communicators can safeguard their organizations to lessen the inevitable blow
- How to bring strategy, not just the story by activating your crisis plan and org chart to ensure all internal stakeholders are ready to do their part
- Strategies for crafting holding statements that are situationally specific and appropriate with terms pre-vetted by legal counsel
- Media monitoring tactics that can help you determine when sentiment has reached a threshold that merits a response or action
Location: South Ballroom
With the introduction of each new social media platform and tool, every communicator must decide what changes to their social strategy make sense for their brand. In this session, social media experts from across the changing social landscape will share their successful campaigns and forward-thinking strategies for deciding what trends are worth jumping on and how they integrate social innovations into their comms to build stronger relationships with audiences. You’ll learn:
- The trending tools that communicators are adopting into their social media strategies, including new audio apps and influencer models across Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and more
- Tips for repurposing and cross-posting bite-sized bits of a major campaign or initiative across multiple social channels
- What the future of trust looks like on social media, and how you can use data to build trust with your audiences across platforms
- When it makes sense to participate in a social meme or trend with consideration for your brand voice
Location: South Ballroom
Location: Edison Rooftop
Many employees now operate on a mix of remote, hybrid, flexible, and on-location arrangements, which raises a challenge for how companies can keep individuals connected to the organization, to important messages, and to each other.
Join this session with Nick Lethbridge, VP, Strategic Accounts at Interact, as he looks at the advancements within modern intranets that are helping communicators to overcome disconnection and reach every employee.
Nick will discuss:
- Why a multichannel approach is crucial for internal communications
- How to cut through the noise and use the channels employees respond to
- How AI is making life easier for communicators
- The new tech powering creative comms
Location: South Ballroom
While matters related to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) have always been a consideration for the savvy communicator, demands of both internal and external stakeholders have set expectations that are likely to only grow in the future. Along with this comes the integral involvement of PR pros in all matters ESG. During this session, you will get to ask Catherine Hernandez-Blades, SVP of Marketing and Communications at SAIC, about how this reality has changed – and will continue to change – her role and yours.
Topics will include how a brand’s commitment to ESG – or lack thereof – impacts:
- The brand strategy
- Organizational reputation
- Recruitment, engagement and retention
- Stakeholder expectations
- The stock price
Location: South Ballroom
What stands between you and the opening reception are these parting thoughts and top takeaways from Day 1.
Location: South Ballroom
Toast to a day well done – rather, a year well-done! Join us for drinks and light fare at the Edison Rooftop for this Communications Week opening reception.
Location: Edison Rooftop
Location: Edison Rooftop
Email remains a powerful tool to enhance the overall employee experience. When it comes to ultimate internal email strategy, though, it often helps to work backward by understanding what the most important KPIs are and then devising a plan to best achieve – even surpass – them. Kick off the conference’s second day with a master class detailing the internal-email metrics you need to focus on – and naturally gain tactical counsel in the process. Tasks you’ll be better equipped to tackle after this session include:
- Determining a solid open rate for your internal emails – and how to craft them to achieve it
- Focusing on the right KPIs for your emails – and weeding out metrics that don’t matter
- Getting inside the employee’s head: Recognizing email content that the workforce will actually read in full, engage with and act upon
Location: South Ballroom
Location: South Ballroom
Once again, Ragan and HarrisX are teaming up to deliver “perceptions” of the role(s) of CEOs and CCOs play on a multitude of hot-button topics, including: taking a stand on relevant and pressing global social issues, the role of organizational purpose in talent recruitment and retention, DE&I, CSR & ESG, and crisis and change comms. The findings from the survey will be released exclusively during this session. You’ll get a deep dive into how CEOs and CCOs from various organizations and industries are working together … or potentially not … to deliver messaging around these topics.
Location: South Ballroom
Only 36% of Americans have either a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in mass media, according to a 2021 Gallup poll. Meanwhile, 22% of journalists say trust in their area of coverage has decreased, according to Muck Rack’s 2022 State of Journalism Report. During this panel, we will discuss how communicators and reporters can work together to maintain and regain audience trust. You’ll hear about:
- How news on social platforms like TikTok co-exist with traditional news outlets to build relationships with new audiences
- Strategies for communicators to help media outlets preserve their vital role as the source of checks and balances to those in power
- How communicators verify which stories they pitch across newer platforms and outlets
Location: South Ballroom
Video is expected to account for 82% of all online traffic, and 84% of consumers have been convinced to buy a product after watching a video. These stats should not be so much enlightening as they are calls to action to make sure you are on the frontlines of the latest strategies and technologies that are winning over key stakeholders. In this interactive session, D S Simon CEO and Founder Doug Simon and AVIXA Vice President of Content Delivery Samantha Minish will share some clips from campaigns they've worked on and explain how their strategies can ensure success for you and your organization. You'll learn:
- Building interactivity into your video strategy through the metaverse environment
- New ways of leveraging video interviews to reach the media, employees and other audiences you're targeting
- When and why and you need to consider accessibility for your videos
- How to plan live videos to make them look unplanned – and the benefits you will reap from doing so
Location: South Ballroom
As internal communications continues to evolve and becomes the main pipeline to reach all employees, organizations need to develop a clear narrative to share with their workforce. Who are they? What do they stand for? Then, they need to know how to reach their employees with that message. Join Lorne Batman, Large Enterprise Account Executive at Staffbase, for a 15-minute Lightning Talk and learn how to:
- Identify your narrative and how to tell it
- Ensure you have the right resources in place
- Successfully deliver and connect with your workforce
Location: South Ballroom
Location: Edison Rooftop
In last year’s Ragan/HarrisX CEO-Communicators Competencies Survey, communications leaders said that writing was the skill they value most in their direct reports, underscoring the need to sharpen the proverbial pencil. In this interactive workshop, our experts will guide you through exercises that focus on:
- Approaches to writing with a brand voice that fits the needs and preferred style of your audience
- Tips for writing concisely about technical, convoluted or dense topics
- Writing across platforms, from Twitter to your intranet, and how to edit your own writing
- How to build better relationships with digital and audience development teams by championing SEO writing best practices across the organization
Location: South Ballroom
In a competitive job market, the right social channels and platforms is crucial to build employer brand while ensuring you attract and retain top talent. In this session, we’ll discuss the importance of being present where your prospective talent expects your branding communications be crafted with thoughtful consideration for channel mix, post structure and cadence, and brand voice. We’ll discuss:
- Channel-specific formats for celebrating culture, highlighting your employee value proposition and more
- Strategies for identifying and activating employee influencers to share their positive stories and experiences
- Tips for partnering with HR and other teams to spotlight policies and procedures that matter most to today’s job-seekers without overpromising
- Approaches to ensure your company branding and voice lives on in your intranet platform
- How to coach your workforce to become your company's greatest brand asset
Location: South Ballroom
When it comes to measuring comms efforts, the question is no longer about “if.” It’s about “how” and “how much.” One of the biggest obstacles, though, seems to be time. According to Ragan’s 2022 Communications Benchmark Report, 58% of industry pros cite LACK OF TIME as their biggest obstacle. Point blank: this isn’t acceptable. You must make the time for this table-stakes requirement for the communicator of tomorrow. To help you solve this challenge, we bring together leading minds to discuss:
- Whether daily, weekly, or monthly, mapping out a schedule to build in time for efficient, effective measurement activity
- The latest tools and tactics that are helping communicator measure in a way that both boosts the brand and their own discipline’s status with the C-suite
- How to develop new KPIs that address real business needs and how to measure them with a balance of quantitate and qualitative data that gets the C-suite's attention
Location: South Ballroom
Location: Edison Rooftop
Whether your workforce is remote, hybrid, in-office or flexible, communicators across all organizational configurations have been forced to rethink their strategies for working, collaborating and thinking about the role of communications on a global stage. In this session, we’ll examine the myriad ways that communicators can embed their skills and competencies across the organization to drive digital transformation and foster a sense of community, even across great distances. You’ll learn:
- Tips for building and refining your communications tech stack
- Remote work considerations around optimizing the medium and cadence of team engagement for maximum impact on strategy, planning and comms initiatives
- How to reconsider the impact of new tools, collaboration workflows and artificial intelligence on the way we work
- Strategies for partnering with HR to process the insights from employee listening and implement forward-thinking policies that reduce attrition
Location: South Ballroom
As more communicators get the need for diverse staffing is a business mandate, not just a philanthropic desire, how do we better explore the issues that drive our employees to disconnect with cultural imperatives and, most importantly, understand what employees from all backgrounds are feeling? In this session, we’ll talk about how comms can play a strategic role in understanding what progress looks like at your organization by making sure your DE&I agenda aligns with the agenda of your stakeholders.
We’ll discuss:
- Better active listening strategies to ensure we know what all people are experiencing in our employee community through honest feedback
- How proactive DE&I comms can combat the ‘quiet quitting’ phenomenon
- Strategies for measuring progress and impact to ensure that employees are not only seeing change, but feeling it, too.
- The role that communicators play in fostering psychological safety for all employees
Location: South Ballroom
Location: South Ballroom
As countless research shows employees will leave organizations that don't cultivate a culture of purpose and belonging, communicators are in a prime position to meet the moment by partnering with HR and other leaders to ensure that company culture is heard, felt and embraced by everyone. In this session, a panel of communications leaders will share how they collaborate across business functions to ensure the employer brand captures the culture and evolves the employee experience through everything from their organization's values and policies to benefits and career development opportunities.
Location: South Ballroom
Location: Edison Rooftop
When brands stand up for an issue or cause, do their employees take note? In this session, we’ll discuss how effectively communicating and living your brand purpose goes far beyond “walking the talk” to take action — and how incorporating employee listening and embedding purpose communications across business functions can positively impact employee retention and your bottom line. You’ll learn:
- How to navigate whether you respond to issues with respect to your employee feedback, business imperatives and reputational considerations
- Employee listening strategies that identify emerging employee concerns and potential employee activists before they escalate
- Insights on how to ensure purpose communications have credibility, and authenticity, for meaningful and measurable impact
- Tips for ensuring your purpose communications are not ‘one and done’ or siloed to one department
Location: South Ballroom
Regardless of where you and your team are in the pursuit of that “seat at the table,” we can all agree: Earning – and maintaining – the trust and reliance of the C-suite is crucial to the PR function. Communicators must establish themselves as indispensable counselors to the C-suite when any and every business decision is being pondered. The best way to achieve that status is to hear directly from CCOs on what the C-suite expects and needs from the communications team. In this session, you’ll learn:
- Managing up. Getting comfortable and effective at being the boss’ boss when the situation calls for it, which it will
- When to – and not to – push. The CEO’s personality and preferences must be factored in all communications planning
- Making an impression. This isn’t just about CCOs. Every member of the comms team can grab the C-suite's attention. Make sure you do so in the best light.
Location: South Ballroom
Location: South Ballroom
- The 2022 Ragan/HarrisX CEO-CCO Perceptions Survey
- The Ultimate Corporate Communications Internal Email Broadcast Best Practices Guide
- Guide to Change Communications During Mergers and Acquisitions
- Guide to Building a Better Business Case For Internal Communications Software
- Ragan/Peppercomm Corporate Character Barometer Findings Report
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:
SPONSORS
If you are interested in sponsoring this industry event and discussing the numerous
opportunities available to showcase your organization and product contact us at
HannahL@ragan.com or 312-960-4628.
SPEAKERS
Interested in becoming a 2022 speaker at this event?
Please reach out to Editor-in-chief Justin Joffe
GET RECOGNIZED!
Each registration comes with a personalized Future Comms Conference Certificate of Completion for attending.
Plus, all attendees receive:
All slides and presentations from speakers and connection to our esteemed speakers.
BACK LIVE AND BETTER THAN EVER!
Beyond the conference, enjoy exciting networking events and experiences around the city.
NETWORKING COCKTAIL PARTY
The Rooftop at Edison Ballroom
Tuesday, November 1
4:30-5:15 pm
Join us for this reception for all conference attendees. Mingle with colleagues, PR and communications leaders at this can’t-miss networking cocktail party.
Reconnect with colleagues and make new friends as you are enjoying great conversations, superb food and drink.
| Full Rate | |
|---|---|
| Standard Registration | $1799 |
| Ragan Insider Registration | $1549 |
| Nonprofit/Gov/Edu Registration | $1599 |
| Conference Recording | $1049 |
| Full Rate | |
|---|---|
| Standard Registration | $1699 |
| Ragan Insider Registration | $1449 |
| Nonprofit/Gov/Edu Registration | $1499 |
| Conference Recording | $999 |
Get your tickets early and save. Discounts are also available for the following:
Nonprofit/Gov/Edu Discounts
Save an additional $200 off current rates.
Group Discounts
Would you and your team like to attend? Group pricing is available when registering!
RAGAN COUNCIL MEMBER DISCOUNTS
Membership includes free registration passes. Contact Shallon Blackburn for more information on becoming a member.
RAGAN INSIDER DISCOUNTS
Insiders receive $250 off current rates. Not a Ragan Insider? You can become one during registration for this event!
For those who can’t attend the conference live, an on-demand option is available during the registration process
You should attend if you spend at least a quarter of your time in any of these areas:
Public Relations • Brand Management • Internal Communications • Public Affairs
Executive Communications • Reputation Management • Crisis Communications
Issues Management • Social Media • Storytelling • Media Relations
240 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
212.201.7650
edisonballroom.com
HOTELS
For your convenience when booking travel, here are some hotels that are near the Edison Ballroom in NYC.
Hotel Edison
discounted rates available
Hotel Riu Plaza New York Times Square
The dress code is business casual.
#CommsWeek2022
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
If you are interested in sponsoring this industry event and discussing the numerous opportunities available to showcase your organization and product in front of hundreds of corporate wellness, HR and communications professionals contact Hannah Lavelle at HannahL@ragan.com or 312-960-4628.
PRESENTED BY
REGISTRATION
SPONSORSHIP
312-960-4628
PROGRAM
