simply summit | day one

9.30

Welcome from Marc Wright, publisher of simply-communicate.com

9.40

Cutting through the clutter: Creating communications that people will actually pay attention to... and act on!

Steve Crescenzo

Let’s face it: It’s getting harder and harder to capture our employees’ attention with our communication efforts. Limited attention spans, increased workloads, more and more competition... these things are making it almost impossible for our key messages to get through. Almost impossible, but not impossible. Not if you change the very nature of how you communicate to employees. In this dynamic keynote session, leading employee communication expert Steve Crescenzo will draw from dozens of real-life examples to show you:

How to take those tired, old stories and flip them upside down — so that people actually pay attention to them
How to start using the new tools available to communicators — including social media and multimedia channels
How to find and tell the kinds of stories that will cut through the information clutter that is so rampant in your organization
How to start using all of your channels together to reach, engage, motivate, and inform your various audiences
How to start using your vehicles to change the culture in your organization from “We’ve always done it this way,” to “Let’s try something different and see if it works.”

10.20

Engaging for success: Enhancing performance through employee engagement

David MacLeod

David MacLeod and Nita Clarke were commissioned by the Department for Business (BIS) to take an in-depth look at employee engagement and to report on its potential benefits for organisations and employees. He is now the country’s spokesman and key ambassador for the importance of enhancing performance through employee engagement. He will reveal:

How to convince colleagues and bosses why employee engagement is the critical success factor as we emerge from a gruelling and dispiriting recession
The difference between ‘level 1’ and ‘level 2’ engagement and why you need to aim higher
The 4 enablers that were present in all companies that demonstrated high engagement
What communications can do to build trust and engagement

11.00

Morning coffee

11.30

Engagement case study: British Gas

Dave Hughes, British Gas
Alison Quest, The Communications Lab

British Gas has been undergoing a significant transformation programme - people were exposed to a high volume of rapid changes to day to day operations and needed to understand what was happening, why the change was necessary, what it meant for them and most importantly shift to a different mindset – all while still doing the day job.

The challenge was to engage all Premier people so that they really want to deliver the British Gas brand promise in all they do. This case study will focus on how British Gas:

achieved buy in for a broader change communication agenda, rather than the “tick the box” live event that was originally commissioned
provided story telling frameworks to leaders and developed them in their role as communicators
designed task-led, not speaker-led events, incorporating activities that are continuing long after he actual events
kicked-off employee-led change, using employee engagement champions
designed programme measurement using the commitment curve

12.00

Engagement case study: LiVE Tetra Pak

Khaled Ismail, Tetra Pak
Gerard Brown, simply-experience

Tetra Pak are 14 months into the largest global face-to-face engagement programme currently running in the world. LiVE Tetra Pak is a 4 hour experience that has been galvanising employees from Shanghai to Sao Paulo, from Istanbul to Illinois. Hear from the company’s Brand Director, Khaled Ismail, and Gerard Brown, Creative Director of simplyexperience about how they made engagement work across continents and cultures.

In this session you will learn:

Why Tetra Pak decided to embark on an engagement programme for all staff and how it was sold in to senior management
How to use emotional messages from your own staff to communicate a consistent strategy
How to use the techniques of theatre and video to bring your event alive
How to train up your own facilitators around the world to deliver your programme
What are the measures for success for engagement and how to track them

12.30

Revolutionary measurement: Are you asking the right questions?

Peter Agertoft

Employee engagement is continuing to rise up the board agenda yet feedback on the ground is that many people are still feeling disengaged and or disillusioned (a recent yougov survey indicates that only 1/3 of frontliners feel engaged). Yet at the same time traditional engagement surveys are suggesting high levels of engagement, so in this session Peter explores:

Are we measuring the right things?
Are we asking the right questions?
Are we connecting employees, customers and profit arguments to really understand what we need to do and what impact we can expect?

13.00

Lunch

14.00

Panel session: Engagement

Steve Crescenzo, David Macleod, Nita Clarke, David Hughes, Alison Quest, Khaled Ismail, Gerard Brown and Peter Agertoft take your questions on engagement and communication.

14.50

Wanna buy a pyramid? How to cut through the crap and communicate the messages that matter

Jim Ylisela

For anyone who has ever followed a management consultancy into a change programme and has been expected to pick up the pieces, this is the session for you.

Jim Ylisela, the leading US internal comms consultant, will show you how to develop a clear, effective strategic communications plan that wins executive support and produces real, measureable results.

Learn how to:

Speak consultant so you can understand the latest jargon but also interpret it in plain English for others
See through impressive-looking models and sort the insights from the bullshit
Turn half-baked strategy documents into meaningful messages for staff
Plot the use of traditional and Web 2.0 tools to communicate otherwise dreadfully boring initiatives
Make your boss look good when he is one step away from slipping into those Emperor’s Clothes

15.30

Afternoon tea

16.00

Panel session: Women in communication

Women make up over 50% of the workforce in parts of Europe and the US and according to recruitment specialists 70% of the people employed in internal communication are women. So why are there so few women Communication Directors?

Silvia Cambié, author of “International Communications Strategy”, leads a panel of distinguished women communicators and recruiters - Christina Fee, Head of Internal Communications at BBC Technology; Sandra Macleod, Group CEO of Echo Research; Bieneosa Ebite, Managing Director of Bright Star Public Relations and Nicola Stevens, Executive Coach and former President of City Women’s Network - who discuss: