Acuity Forums

2011 Executive Communications Conference

Posted on 17. Dec, 2010 by acuity in Upcoming Events

March 2 – 3, 2011
Toronto, Ontario

New Dynamics + New Thinking = Intelligent Communications

Your organization’s reputation is the sum total of what you do, what you say, and what other people say about you. Today, every organization’s reputation is amazingly fragile – fine today and trashed tomorrow. The most successful leaders are experts at communication. At this event, you will learn key competencies needed to be an effective communicator in your organization. From managing difficult conversations, building trust and gaining buy-in to communicating in a supportive and effective way, and you will take away new perspectives and tools to develop a more productive workplace. It is also about the role communications and public relations can and should play in helping senior management and employees build and protect your organization’s reputation.

Spend two great days with our experts and learn:

• What are the best ways to make sure reputation is always on the leadership agenda?
• Measure the impact of your executive messages and leadership communications
• In this new media age, what are the strategic risks, and opportunities in the area of reputation and executive communications?
• Coach your speaker to deliver your words the way you intended them to be heard
• With all the other pressing demands on our department’s time and budget, how can we make executive communications truly strategic?
• Turn your executive into a thought leader: cut through the noise, and command the audience’s attention & respect
• Learn strategies on influencing the opinions and perceptions of the organization
• What do executives want and need from their communication professionals to support them in building and safeguarding reputation?
• Lead organizational change within the workplace
• Manage and communicate during crisis situations
• What does the future look like for leadership and reputation
• And so much more!

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Please join us for this ground-breaking executive communications conference that is designed to bring together thought leaders and practitioners for knowledge sharing and brainstorming. You’ll leave energized with the knowledge and practical advice you need to help build and protect your organization’s reputation. Whether you are new to the profession or an experienced speechwriter or communicator, there is something for everyone!

PROGRAM | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2, 2011

7:30 Registration Opens and Coffee is Served

Keynote Presentation

8:30 – 9:30

Ensuring the Effectiveness of Executive Communication in this Changing World

Marianne Gobeil – Chief Executive Officer LEADING COMMUNICATIONS INC.
In this era of 24-hour news cycles and social media, what CEOs and other senior executives say, and how they say it, matters more than ever before. Reputations can crash and burn in mere minutes. Learn how to mitigate the risk of reputational damage, and how you can help ensure that every time an executive speaks, reputations are enhanced and objectives are realized.

• Why it matters how a leader speaks
• CEO failures and triumphs
• The critical role communication plays in leadership
• The hallmarks of extraordinary leaders
• Exerting authority vs. exercising influence
• Speaking strategically
• Fostering effective dialogue
• Building and preserving trust
• Best practices: both an art and a science
• Six essential elements of a leader’s communication

9:30 – 9:45 Networking Coffee Break

9:45 – 10:45

Building Corporate Communications from the Ground Up

David Brazeau – Director Public Affairs & Community Relations ROUGE VALLEY HEALTH SYSTEM
Potentially, executive communications is the most powerful PR tool your organization has. In reality, lots of effort is wasted and you’re hard-pressed to figure out what the bottom-line results your C-suite communications’ activities are yielding.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

• Design a strategy that will generate the most value for your organization and speakers—and get leadership buy-in
• Hone in on the messages with the most impact for your organization
• Dramatically reduce the “junk”—the low-value, off-target work
• Repeat and reinforce the ―brand‖ of your organization
• Amplify your messages beyond the walls of one conference, meeting or event
• Demonstrate your value to your executive, your boss and other leaders

10:45 – 11:45

Building a Case for Social Media:
Why it is Vital to Your Brand’s Success & How to Get the C-Suite on Board

Michael O’Connor Clarke – Vice-President Digital, MEDIA PROFILE

Social Media is not a campaign, nor is it a fad that’s going away. Social Media will make or break your brand, your business. And if your C-Suite isn’t on board, then you need to learn not only why it’s key to your future but how to communicate to those who hold the purse strings that it’s now or never to invest.

You’ll learn:

• What Social Media really is and isn’t
• Examples of real cases illustrating just how powerful social media can be
• The need to create and make available in social media arenas content deemed relevant and that resonates with your target audiences
• How to dip your toe into the social media pool: what to do and not to do
• The top five arguments to support your budgetary & resource investment
• Showing the C-Suite specifics on why it must matter to them & the future of their companies

11:45 – 12:45 Networking Luncheon for Delegates and Speakers

12:45 – 1:45

Crisis Speechwriting: Experiences and Lessons from the H1N1 Pandemic

Ben Wilson – Speechwriter PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY OF CANADA

Does your organization have a plan for speeches and speech processes during a crisis? North America was hit first and hardest by the long-anticipated flu pandemic of 2009—the first pandemic in over forty years, and the first in an information age. Hyperactive media in a 24-hour news cycle, conflicting views and changing science all added to the challenge of conveying the latest, factual information to the public as quickly as possible. From his unique perspective as Speechwriter for Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Ben Wilson will discuss the pandemic experience through a speechwriting lens, sharing information that can help prepare any speechwriter for a crisis.

This interactive session will provide ideas that can help you:

• Incorporate risk communications messaging into your speeches
• Prepare a speechwriting plan in case of an emergency
• Stay creative and focused when all eyes are on your organization and time is tight
• Write the right words when your speaker’s too busy to meet with you

1:45 – 2:45

The Translation Gap: Evolving Complicated Programs into Adaptable Consumer Platforms

Amanda Harper Sevonty – Director Marketing & Communications STEWARDSHIP ONTARIO

Not all campaigns are simple brand sell. As communicators and marketers we’re often, tasked with taking complicated offerings and programs and distilling them into salient, desirable opportunities that consumers and citizens can interact and engage with. In this session, you’ll learn from key experiences gained through the development of the Orange Drop program brand.

• How to create core behaviours that resonate with consumers based on their own experiences
• How to take complex technical terms and create plain language that delivers a core emotional impact with consumers
• How to define your core influencer target to ensure your message radiates out
• How to utilize and other online tools to ensure your platform is one that benefits from powerful associations
• Creating legacy campaigns that have ongoing relevance to your target – that they adopt and identify as one that they own

2:45 – 3:00 Networking Coffee Break

3:00 – 4:00

Secrets You Need to Know Before You Open Your Mouth to a Reporter

Laurie Stephens – Director Media Relations & Stakeholder Communications UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Talking to the media can pay big monetary dividends to your organization in a variety of ways. But a really bad interview with a really bad spokesperson, can be costly to the bottom line as well as to the reputation and credibility of your organization. Do you need to talk to media? Do you have to train executives to talk to media? Do you have executives who are stubborn and will not humble themselves to train before talking to the media?

You will learn:

• Why you need to talk to media
• How to prepare your organization and your spokespeople for engaging with reporters
• How to prepare for a tricky interview and manage your message
• How to measure the benefits of a great interview and news article

4:00 – 5:00

Team Effort: Preparing your Executives for Presentations and Speeches with Trust and Ease

Teresa Muzzi – Director Media & Public Relations SUNLIFE FINANCIAL

Executive communications success truly rises and falls on how well you are able to “get into the heads” of your executives and earn their trust. Your ability to put great words in their mouths has as much to do with interpersonal communication as executive communications. Whether you’re a natural extrovert or spend your days cowering in your cubicle, this session will help you enhance your relationships with executives. You’ll leave with a list of techniques that you can start using immediately.

What you will learn:

• Blueprints for creating rapport and camaraderie with the CEO, no matter your station, without seeming unctuous or overly eager.
• Specific strategies on how to seen as a strategic communicator, not just a scribe. This will include thoughts on how to make sure the CEO sees you as smart.
• Tips for managing senior executives and all of the other staff members that will either help ensure your success or doom you to failure.
• Tactics that will help you better understand what it’s like to be a public speaker. There’s nothing like a little empathy to improve job performance.
• Plans to turn the annual list of random speeches into a coherent communications strategy.

5:00 Chair’s closing comments for the day

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PROGRAM | THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2011

8:00 Registration Opens and Coffee is Served

Keynote Presentation

9:00 – 10:00

The Reputation Gap

Heath Applebaum – Owner & Principal Consultant ECHO COMMUNICATIONS

If the global recession reminded business leaders of anything, it is the realization of how valuable and vulnerable their reputations really are. Earning the trust and loyalty of customers, employees and investors is a distinct competitive advantage. The following session will share the findings of a CEO / Communications leadership study with some of North America’s largest and most successful organizations.

Participants will learn and discuss how their organizations can effectively:

• Understand key reputation management principles and measures
• Identify dangerous reputation gaps that exist and how they can be bridged
• Integrate communications into risk management processes
• Play a more strategic role with executives

10:00 – 10:15 Networking Coffee Break

10:15 – 11:15

Act Like An Agency – From Within

Cyrus Mavalwala ABC – Founding Partner ADVANTIS COMMUNICATIONS
Adding value as a business communicator requires thinking like a hired consultant within your own organization. How frustrating is it when you bring in an outside agency, and management stops to listen to the things that you’ve talked about all along?

This is a program about Earn respect that will enable you to give advice that will be accepted and used – the perspective of the trusted advisor. Add new skills and learn how to provide value by acting like an agency.

This session will focus on:

• Developing in-house communicators as consultants for their own organization
• Developing key consulting skills to immediately start adding value to your organization
• Making the move from tactician to strategist by focusing on the key relationships within your organization

11:15 – 11:45

Staying Relevant in the Ever-Changing World of Business & Technology

Sharon Lassman – Director Communications SCORE MEDIA

This presentation will explore the new role of communications. Are we shifting from ―writers to referees‖ as
technology and social media facilitate the ability for mass communications by anyone with an Internet connection? How can we use bloggers or social network ―grapevines‖ to our benefit? When should the professional communicators share control of spreading the news? Is there a need to get back to basics and the ―good old days‖? What strategies will take us into the future and make communications a vibrant force in companies’ meeting their business and financial goals. How do we as communicators continue to remain a relevant and integral part of any company?

11:45 – 12:15

CREATIVE EXECUTION Bringing Clarity & Purpose to Your Company Strategy

Eric Beauden – Leadership Practice Director ODGERS BERNDTSON

Many organizations that develop complex strategies and attempt to communicate those to internal and external stakeholders fail spectacularly. Indeed, many studies show that the primary cause of failure for CEOs in today’s open business environment is their inability to clearly communicate and execute strategy. Based on his upcoming book Creative Execution, where he delves into the leadership lessons of companies such as Google and Toyota, Eric will discuss the five essential elements of effective strategic communications and execution.

12:15 – 1:00 Networking Luncheon for Delegate and Speakers

1:00 – 2:00

Communicating Tough, Touchy, Sensitive Situations, Dealing with High-Level Emotional Issues

Laurie Stephens – Director Media Relations & Stakeholder Communications UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Among the greatest challenges we face as communicators are urgent, highly emotional crisis situations, emotional questions and emotional questioners, and the ever present, general contentiousness bad news engenders.

This session walks through the process for dealing with these challenging situations, including the preparation involved in understanding empathy, and working through issues and problems raised both by emotionally charged questions and irrational or highly emotional questioners. Participants will also learn about managing through contentious situations where controversy and confrontation are present or possible.

• Learn how to deal with emotional questioners/scene stealer
• Discuss the use of storytelling as a tool to help reduce contentiousness
• Understand the power of emotion
• Find out how to avoid the pitfalls good people who are trying to help often cause
• Learn the limits of success and the dangers of failure

2:00 – 3:30

Media Coaching for Media Coaches:
Insights on Shaping the Spokesperson’s Character, Content, Charisma

John Plank – Founder COMMANDING PRESENCE

This session will demonstrate an important scripting technique for achieving communications objectives that will confirm for you the importance of scripting all spokespersons – from CEOs to first-line supervisors. By following this approach, you will more actively involve spokespersons in the preparation and rehearsal process, while at the same time building confidence and better content. Media coaching is a very powerful form of leadership coaching. Leadership is about character, charisma, and the ability to have and manage followership. This unique approach blends both leadership and media savvy together in a way that can take you to the next level of relationship with those you teach and coach.

• How can I convince my boss, who really needs help, to accept media training?
• How can I, with a straight face, tell my boss that I’m going to help him be a better leader?
• How long should coaching sessions be? How often should executives be coached?
• Is it necessary to “ambush” attendees to get their attention? What are the downsides?
• Just how important is non-verbal communication?
• How do spokespersons regain control from a hostile or deliberately inflammatory interviewer?
• How to reconcile the differing advise between legal counsel and the communicator

3:30 – 3:45 Networking Coffee Break

3:45 – 4:45

How to Build a Bulletproof Online Reputation:
Using SEO and SMM to Create, Bolster or Repair Your Online Reputation

Dev Basu – President POWERED BY SEARCH

Your company’s reputation means everything. Anyone doing business with you or even thinking about doing business with you will go to Google or another major search engine and research you and your company. What they find in the search results will determine whether you have a new client/customer or whether someone has been driven away by negative comments and an overall negative perception of you, your company and your executives. This session will address the practical steps businesses need to take to present your company in the best possible light:

• Enhancing your current website
• Creating micro sites
• Creating a company blog
• Leveraging social media
• Establishing yourself as an expert
• Maximizing public relations opportunities

4:30 Chair’s closing comments of the conference

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Who Should Attend

This conference aims to help attendees better understand the trends, issues and challenges of executive communications in the age of social media.

• C-level and senior executives from Fortune 1000, mid- and small-sized companies
• Directors of corporate communications, PR, marketing, community relations, public affairs, finance and HR
• Executive directors, leaders and managers of non-profits, NGOs, educational institutions, foundations and associations
• Leaders of federal, provincial, municipal governments and agencies
• Members of the national media including bloggers

Don’t Miss the Only Training and Networking Event for Executive Communicators!

Location & Accommodation

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Hilton Garden Inn Toronto City Centre
(416) 362-7700

200 Dundas Street
Toronto, ON
M5A 4R6

A limited number of rooms are available for conference attendees for $130.00/night. Reserve your room shortly as the cut off date for this rate will be Friday February 4, 2011, and please mention code APR.

Registration Fees

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1 Delegate / Early-Bird Expires January 28 $695.00 + HST (90.35) = $785.35

*2 Delegates / Early-Bird Expires January 28 $650.00 each+ HST (84.50) = $734.50

*3 Delegates / Early-Bird Expires January 28 $625.00 each + HST (81.25) = $706.25

*Rate for multiple delegates’ registering from the same organization at the same time

Non-Profit / Government delegates will receive an additional 5% discount – please contact us

To pay by cheque – please contact us

*All registration rates will increase by $100 after January 28

REGISTER NOW https://reg.beanstream.com/scripts/registration.asp?form=997

Cancellation Policy

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Substitutions may be made at any time. If you are unable to attend, please make cancellations in writing and fax to (416) 423-2638 prior to 5:00 p.m. on February 18, 2011. A credit voucher will be issued to you for the full amount, redeemable against any other Acuity Forums conference. If you prefer, you may request for a refund of fees paid less $175 administration fee. Registrants who cancel after the above date will not be eligible to receive any credits or refunds and are liable for the entire registration fees. Confirmed delegates who do not cancel before February 18, 2011, and fail to attend, will be liable for the entire registration fees. Acuity Forums reserves the right to change the date, location and content for the event(s) offered herein without further notice and assumes no liability for such changes. Acuity Forums reserves the right to cancel any conference it deems necessary. In the unlikely event that a conference is canceled, Acuity Forums liability is limited to paid registration fees, and will not assume any further liability for incidental costs including (but not limited to) hotel and airfare.

Supported By:

IABC/Toronto – Be Heard

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)

2011 Executive Communications Conference / Speaker Biographies

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Marianne Gobeil advises top-tier leaders on how to communicate so that their followers are engaged and convinced to think and act in the way that fulfills the leader’s goals and objectives. As the CEO of Leading Communicators Inc., Marianne works with the senior leadership teams of Fortune 500 companies, as well as with government, political and entrepreneurial leaders across North America. Her 25 years of senior-level communications experience, together with her seminal knowledge and expertise on leadership communications, has earned her the trust and loyalty of many high profile leaders.
Just like the senior leaders with whom she works, Marianne’s approach to leadership communication is outcome driven. Frustrated at seeing executives tarnish their reputations and fail to optimize speaking opportunities, she led the research and development of the first diagnostic to measure a leader’s ability to speak effectively. Called Speakcheck®, it is evidence based, and measures over 150 elements essential to a leader’s ability to engage and influence his or her followers. When Speakcheck findings are integrated, leaders are able to enhance reputations, realize visions, and surpass goals and objectives.
Prior to founding Leading Communicators, Marianne ran a strategic communications consulting practice called Media Sage Inc. for 10 years. She was formerly vice president of a national, public relations agency; ran the corporate communications function for a large multi-national engineering and construction company; and was a print journalist for several business magazines. Marianne is one of a limited number of accredited public relations practitioners (APR) in the U.S. and Canada, and is the only Canadian member of the US Leader’s Group within the Association of Measurement and Evaluation in Communication (AMEC).

David Brazeau is a communications leader focused on achieving tangible results from the boardroom to the front line of corporations in the public and private sectors. He brings his energy and experience as a daily newspaper staff journalist and corporate executive communicator to every challenge, while always taking a fresh perspective on even the most well-trodden issues. Turn around corporate communications planning and actions are his latest success story. As the director of public affairs and community relations, David is on the senior executive team at Rouge Valley Health System, a two-site hospital in the eastern Greater Toronto Area. He lives an active life with his wife and two children.

Michael O’Connor Clarke, Recognized as a pioneer in social media, Michael has more than twenty years’ experience in integrated communications and marketing in Europe and North America. Since launching his first blog project in early 2001, Michael has designed numerous successful social media initiatives for clients of all kinds. His role at Media Profile is to blend digital creativity and expertise with hard-earned mainstream experience into hybrid programs that deliver tangible results. Before agency life, Michael developed thick layers of corporate scar tissue as head of worldwide marketing for one of Canada’s largest publicly-traded software firms, and was previously part of a team that took a software startup from zero to IPO in eight months. Michael is also part of the team behind HoHoTO, an extraordinary fund-raising initiative, built and promoted entirely through social media, that has raised over $80,000 to help hungry people in the past two years.

Ben Wilson is a Speechwriter with the Public Health Agency of Canada. In various capacities over the last decade, he has written hundreds of speeches for Ministers of Health, the Prime Minister of Canada, Members of Parliament and senior civil servants. Since 2009, he has been the Speechwriter for Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, joining the Agency in the midst of the H1N1 flu pandemic. In this role he is responsible for all speeches and presentations for Dr. Butler-Jones, as well as scripts, editorials and other messages on a wide range of public health topics.

Laurie Stephens is a communications professional with 30 years’ experience on both sides of the news: first as a reporter/editor with the Canadian Press; then as a communications advisor in high-profile positions in the public and private sectors. During a 10-year career with CP, Laurie covered a range of national and provincial stories in sports, business, spot news and politics. She was a member of the Queen’s Park Press Gallery from 1987-1990, covering the tail-end of the Peterson government and the 1990 provincial election. Following the election, she became Press Secretary to Premier Bob Rae, with whom she traveled extensively throughout the country, broadening her already vast network of media contacts and gaining hands-on experience in dealing with reporters in front of the camera. Laurie later joined the Ministry of Intergovernmental Affairs as a strategic communications advisor, dealing primarily with such sensitive issues as national unity and the fiscal relationship between the federal government and the province.

Since government, Laurie has run her own communications company and held a number of senior government relations and communications positions in such organizations as Digital Rain, SAMCI, Credit Union Central of Ontario and Toronto Community Housing. In September 2008, she joined the University of Toronto to manage media relations and stakeholder communications for the institution. Laurie is married with two children, including a son in fourth-year political science at the University of Toronto and a daughter who entered UofT in the fall with hopes to become an archivist.

Heath Applebaum, M.C.M. is an international-award-winning communications professional with more than a dozen years of PR, marketing and journalistic experience working with executives and business leaders to cultivate conversations, build employee engagement and external narrative. He is currently the head of corporate communications and media relations for The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited, a $19 billion multinational commercial real estate company. Heath is responsible for directing Cadillac Fairview’s overall reputation management, internal, external and corporate online communications strategies. Heath holds a Master’s Degree in Communication Management from McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business and is a Business Management faculty member at McMaster University.

Cyrus Mavalwala, ABC is an accredited and award-winning PR practitioner and speaker who has been helping organizations achieve their business objectives for more than 17 years. Experienced with early stage companies, not-for-profits and industry leaders, Cyrus has traveled the U.S., Europe and Canada while on assignment. Cyrus and his team dig deep into their clients’ businesses so they can determine and solve the real communications challenges. They plan and execute integrated and strategic communications programs which include messaging and positioning, media & analyst relations, media training, social media and multimedia content development. For more information visit his Linkedin profile at www.linkedin.com/in/cyrusmavalwala.

As Director of Communications at Score Media, Sharon Lassman is responsible for all internal and external communications for the company. Joining Score Media in 2008, she has quickly become an integral member of the management team handling all public relations and communications for the sports media company. Prior to joining the team, Sharon worked in both the publishing and public relations industries holding various positions at Carswell and High Road Communications. She brings over 8 years of experience to Score Media and received an M.A. from the University of Liverpool and a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario. Sharon lives in Toronto with her awesome husband, Garry, and two beautiful children, Benjamin and Noa.

Eric Beauden has 20 years of experience in leadership assessment and executive development, Eric brings a wealth of experience to Odgers Berndtson’s Assessment Practice. Eric developed the LeaderFit™ assessment method for Odgers and works seamlessly with the firm’s clients to help assess and develop the leadership potential of their executives and top talent. Eric was most recently Director of OD for Rogers Communications, where he oversaw the redesign of the company’s executive development curriculum and talent strategy. One of the curricula he designed at Rogers, Managing Matters, won the CSTD award for best leadership development program in Canada in 2008. Eric writes monthly CEO leadership features with Bob Rosen, based on interviews with the CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies around the world. He has written numerous business and international affairs articles for The Globe & Mail, the Christian Science Monitor, The World & I and the Ivey Business Journal. He is completing work on his first leadership book, Creative Execution.

John Plank has been coaching for 25 years. He has a Master’s degree in voice and speech and was a director of workshops and actor training at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival. He has taught at universities throughout Canada and the U.S. and is a popular keynote speaker at retreats and conferences. In his relentless pursuit of perfection for his clients, John uses compassion, humor and ingenuity. John coaches senior executives, lawyers, accountants, broadcasters and professional speakers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. As performance coach for CBC Radio and Television, John works with reporters, news anchors, hosts and Olympic commentators. He is the creator of the internationally acclaimed Commanding Presence™ training programs for executive presentation skills training, public speaking and speaking anxiety. Commanding Presence is accredited by law and accounting associations in North America and the U.K. John is also the Executive Producer of Commanding Presence Video Productions.

Dev Basu founded Powered by Search after having worked in multiple roles in the search marketing industry for agencies, in-house firms, and as an individual consultant. Dev heads up Powered by Search’s SEO & Social Media operations and focuses on educating enterprise and SMB clients on the value of search marketing as a key business driver. He also speaks at conferences such as Search Engine Strategies and blogs on the topic of Local Search and Small business marketing at his personal blog, Search Marketing Insights. He is also 1 of 3 Canadian participants to the industry cited Local Search Ranking Factors study, a survey pooling the opinions of several industry experts on the topic of ranking factors related to local search. As an evangelist of Search Marketing, Dev has also contributed to 4th year marketing courses at the University of Toronto, where he is guest lectures classes of 40-70 students on building a foundation in SEO as a technical and marketing art, followed by an introduction into SEO as a career stream. Dev received his Bachelor in Business Administration (Marketing) from the University of Toronto.