As the Pandemic seems to wind towards a close, there are a lot of people seeing the proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel.” But where is that light really coming from? Is it the end of the tunnel – or a a train powered by competitive and market forces with which you are about to collide?

The initial indications, especially when monitoring the discussion about hybrid workplaces, aren’t pretty.

Most of the discussion about hybrid has focused inward – mainly on trying to do enough to satisfy employees while making the minimal possible changes to business and operational models. But not everyone is going to go this route. Others will seek advantage – either by shedding financial overheads and geographic constraints by going remote-first, others by taking highly-disciplined office-based stances.

It’s not just about “hybrid” – it’s about deeper dynamics like the upcoming battle between networks and hierarchies. The conversation about purpose morphing into an embrace of organizational ideology. The requirement for increased diversity just as organizations require tighter and more instinctive alignment. And a reshuffling of the generational deck just as millennials and “zoomers” are anticipating their ascendance.

2022 will see at most some early post-pandemic adjustments. 2023 will see this future hit high speed.

This talk draws from data on women working in the PR industry in England. The talk will draw from previously published and publicized research into lived experiences and office culture in the PR industry and present data on leadership. The talk will be based on data already collected as part of the EUPRERA project on Women in PR and the data currently being collected focusing also, specifically, on BAME women in PR. The data on women’s leadership styles and women’s preferences will be discussed within a framework of cultural masculinities in organizational settings.

Pre-Covid Church comms: Digital was often left to that One Quirky Priest who knew their way around a Facebook page.

During Covid: Suddenly everyone in the church realised we’re 20 years behind digital comms. It’s online or bust.

In this session we’re going to talk about how you fast track a digital comms strategy that includes upskilling an entire workforce and leading an organisation through a time of major upheaval.

From working for a Prime Minister to a housing association, Sarah has found the public sector internal and external comms space obsessed with battling the negative. Yet there are so many (authentic) success stories to tell about those who serve the public. After all, reputation-building positive messaging is what we are paid to do! But how can we fight for the time to do it, when it’s often seen as spin? Especially when navigating through a crisis.

This talk will reinforce every #CommsHero’s mantra of: It’s not what you say, but how and when to say it. About how your communications won’t ever be effective and positive unless strategised. Working through the pandemic proved it. Finally elevating the importance of comms teams sector-wide. So why are so many of us still expected to waste precious resource by churning out mountains of reactionary ‘everything’ post-pandemic, from social media to press releases, leading to low team morale due to chaotic, ineffective comms? The speaker will argue how now is the right time to lobby for a restructure of your team and rethink how it works. To make the case for having a Strat-Comms Director at the top table, to be involved in all campaigns from the start to shape them, saving everyone’s time in the long-run.

This talk proves the key to communications brilliance is always in the strategy. 

Trust is a choice. Communicators can build, earn, and destroy trust simply through the words we choose to convey our messages. While we can’t change the behaviours of others at work, we can lead by example. We can be the change we wish to see in our organisations. Let’s explore the neuroscience of trust and how it can be used to build healthy, vibrant, and welcoming workplaces that employees want to stay at and customers want to support.

Graeme will be in conversation talking about his career, and how he reinvents himself to stay on trend in an ever-changing world.