Internal Communications Master Class
September 15, 2015
9:00 am-4:00 pm
University of Chicago's Gleacher Center
450 N Cityfront Plaza Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
In one information-packed day you’ll learn how to craft internal communications relevant to all of your employees, find and tell stories that cut through the clutter, know how to use employee-generated content, ensure internal communications are aligned with your organization’s goals and master the tools to measure your results and get the insights you need from employees to fuel your plan.
Social media strategies for internal and HR communicatiors
November 09, 2015
12:30 pm-2:30 pm
Ragan Conference: The Role of Communications in Creating Best Places to Work
Gleacher Center
450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
The verdict is in: Those companies that have embraced and encouraged internal social media reap the benefits—in both employee communications and human resources. In everything from recruiting programs and communicating benefits to online collaboration and leadership communication, social media can play a crucial role.
In this practical session loaded with case studies, noted communication expert Steve Crescenzo will show you:
- How to build communities of like-minded people who use social media tools to share information, collaborate, and solve problems
- How to use social media tools such as blogs and Yammer to communicate important HR information so that people actually pay attention to it
- How to harness the power of social channels to improve your leadership communication—and spur employee engagement
- How HR managers use social media in hiring and onboarding at their companies
- How corporate communicators and HR professionals use external social media to recruit employees—with amazing results
Storytelling techniques for today’s communicators
December 09, 2015
4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Ragan Conference: Corporate Communicators Master Class
Gleacher Center
450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
How to reach, engage, and inform your audiences
It’s not easy to be a corporate storyteller… but it can be done. In fact, in this day and age, when attention spans are shrinking and the world is saturated with content, it has to be done. The good news is, you can do it!
In this closing keynote, noted communication expert Steve Crescenzo will show you how to:
- Find the right stories in your organization—and get the information you need to turn those story ideas into compelling content
- Take boring, “same old, same old” corporate stories and turn them into something people will actually pay attention to
- Help your employees tell your organization’s best stories—to each other, and to the outside world
- Find the compelling hook in any corporate story—and use that hook to build an audience
- Master the “Four Cs” of great storytelling, and make your stories Creative, Compelling, Conversational, and Concise
- Turn your stories into conversations—by encouraging the audience to participate in the storytelling process
- Convince your leadership that you need to change the way your organizations approaches content
Successful communication starts with listening: How to use research and measurement to create a communication plan that works
February 11, 2016
12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
The Role of Communications in Creating an Engaged, Collaborative Workforce
CHG Healthcare Services
6440 Millrock Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84121
No communication plan is perfect. Nothing works all the time. That’s why it’s crucial that communicators find out what works and what doesn’t. Want to change behavior? Are you hitting your goals? Do your communication channels work? Join Cindy Crescenzo of Crescenzo Communications to learn how to put together a strategic communication plan that is agile, effective and gets results.
During this session you’ll learn:
- What they think vs. what they know—how to use qualitative and quantitative research
- How to interview executives, (which, done properly, establishes you as a business partner) and gain support for your plan
- The best strategies for conducting focus groups that don’t turn into gripe sessions
- Survey dos and don’ts—write a survey that fuels your plan
- How to use the relevance formula to make sure your content grabs your audience
- How to tie it all together —research as the basis of your communication strategy
Winners and Sinners in Social Media
March 10, 2016
8:30 a.m.-8:45 a.m.
Disney World, Florida
You can learn a lot about using social media from the organizations who do it right… and the ones who do it wrong!
Social Media is a powerful communication weapon to wield. Do it right and it can help you achieve your communication objectives. Do it wrong, however, and you could give your organization a massive black eye. In this fun keynote session, leading communication expert Steve Crescenzo will take you on a romp through the best and worst that social media has to offer.
You’ll learn:
- What three mistakes you absolutely must not make when diving into social media
- What some of the smartest companies are doing in this area
- How to convince leadership that it isn’t just a fad . . . it’s changing the way organizations communicate to their most important audiences
- What not to do when trying to launching your social media campaigns and channels
- The fundamentals skills you need to have to succeed as a social media-savvy communicator
Employee Engagement: The Communicator’s Role
March 15, 2016
1:00 p.m. Central-2:00 p.m. Central
Webinar
Engaging employees is a complicated process . . . but communicators can play a critical role in making it happen
Creating an engaged workforce is a complicated process that involves the entire organization—from leaders and managers to HR and Communications. The question is, where does communications fit in the process? What is our role? What can we do to drive employee engagement? In this practical one-hour webinar, Steve Crescenzo will show you:
- How to use your existing communications channels to reach, motivate, and engage your workforce
- How to tap into the power of the latest communications tools—including social media and multimedia—to drive employee engagement
- How to help coach your leaders so that they are helping the engagement effort, rather than hurting it
- Five things you can do that will help employees feel like “owners” of the company
- How to involve employees themselves in the engagement process—through the use of your communication channels.
The Communications Audit: Do I really need one?
May 17, 2016
9:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m.
Gleacher Center
450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
In this all-day workshop, veteran communications consultant Jim Ylisela and measurement expert Cindy Crescenzo will take you through the audit process from concept to follow-up. You’ll learn:
- The best time to conduct an audit
- The skills you need to conduct a full-scale audit
- How to set your audit up for success
- Build a survey that delivers the quantitative data you can put to use
- Hold insightful focus groups that delivers the ‘why’ behind the numbers
- Conduct leadership interviews that help you link your communications to your organization’s goals
- Analyze your findings and translate them into real communications change
So You’ve Mastered Measurement … Now What?
May 18, 2016
4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
Internal Communications Measurement Summit
Gleacher Center
450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive
Chicago, IL 60611
Steve closes out the internal communications measurement summit with this fun, practical keynote. You’ll learn how to:
- Convince even the most “old school” executives to let you try new, creative methods communicating with your audiences
- Master the latest communication tools and channels—such as social media and multimedia—and put them to work for you
- Cut through the clutter with strategic communications that truly do change behavior
- Dig out and tell your organization’s most important stories—through the experiences of the people “closest to the work”
When worlds collide: Tap your internal audience to tell your best stories to the world
June 05, 2016 - June 08, 2016
TBD
IABC World Conference
Hilton New Orleans Riverside
Two Poydras
New Orleans, Louisiana, 70140
USA
Employees can be your best ambassadors . . . or your worst PR nightmare. Smart communicators get employees to tell their organization’s best stories to the community, to customers, to potential hires . . . and even to the media. As the wall between internal and external communications crumbles, communicators must take advantage of this opportunity.
In this fun session, noted communication expert Steve Crescenzo will show you how to:
- Be a talent scout: Find the people in your organization who best represent the company to external audiences
- Identify the right tools and channels to build bridges between internal and external audiences—including social media, video, and podcasts
- Get executives to buy letting the employees closest to the work tell their stories
- Dig out the stories—written and visual—that tell the most about your company’s culture
- Turn your mission, vision and values from a boring poster or PowerPoint slide into stories that grab external audiences’ attention
From Insights to Action: Find data to fuel your plan and tell your story
July 13, 2016
1:45 p.m. -2:30 p.m.
Integrated Marketing Summit
SWIFT OFFICE
7 Times Square
46th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Knowing what data to pay attention to and how to translate your findings mean the difference between success and failure. In this practical session, communication expert Cindy Crescenzo will show you the best practices in transforming your data into an actionable plan. You’ll learn:
- How to cut through the clutter and identify the data that will be most valuable
- The power of numbers—how your findings should shape your plan
- Survey findings, focus group insights and metrics: How to make all data work together so you can do something with the data you get back
- How to report and communicate your findings in a meaningful way
- How to gain confidence and clarity in your data