Future Comms 2018 (Comms and engagement leaders transform their employee experiences)
With over 20 attendees, 28 speakers and over 14 hours of content- each discussion was inspired by a wholesale shift in communications priorities. Social Chorus places tremendous value on internal communications and it truly has not been more relevant than today. We see organizations gaining negative publicity because employees are more outspoken than ever and share their views through platforms like Glassdoor- it is paramount that organizations keep their employees happy and engaged for long term success.
Future Comms 2018's theme for their first conference was communicators in charge. Indeed it is by putting communications leaders in control of internal comms that we can see the kind of transformations realized by the Social Chorus platform- the chief architects of Future Comms 2018.
Social Chorus is a tech company that has created a platform for horizontal communications among all employees within the organization. From the CEO to the hourly paid staffer, each has an opportunity to engage with their co-workers near and far in ways that build camaraderie and respect.
Future Comms 2018's theme for their first conference was communicators in charge. Indeed it is by putting communications leaders in control of internal comms that we can see the kind of transformations realized by the Social Chorus platform- the chief architects of Future Comms 2018.
Social Chorus is a tech company that has created a platform for horizontal communications among all employees within the organization. From the CEO to the hourly paid staffer, each has an opportunity to engage with their co-workers near and far in ways that build camaraderie and respect.
Greg Shove, Founder & Executive Chairman of Social Chorus speaks about their vision for the future.
After Greg Shove captivated attendees with the Social Chorus vision for the future of organizational communications he laid the foundations for the need for privacy and regulation of personal and organizational data. Indeed, Social Chorus is in tune with popular culture and the rise of short video in communications. Short video has been found to be the most effective communications platform favored by employees at all levels, per Social Chorus' research. Who wants another boring email?
The keynote speaker continued the trend- enthralling and engaging the audience with his take on why big tech needs to be broken up. Scott Galloway, Author & NYU Stern Professor of Marketing used the following imagery to make his point:
Scott galloway likened the top 4 tech companies to our core basic instincts. Google, to our brain and curious instincts, Facebook to our instinct for needing love and affection, Amazon to our intuitive instincts and Apple- more closely related to our instinct for survival (go figure).
Scott raised the reality of big tech in light of recent breaches of privacy of consumer data. tech companies like Facebook have been in the news recently for how they treat confidential user data. With no regulation we trust in these companies to regulate themselves and so far they are failing. Big tech is detrimental to smaller businesses because they can provide universal services at minimal cost when compared to smaller businesses and startups.
After Scott's keynote came a panel of of communications leaders discussing how they proved the value of comms to their CEO's. This is the subject I would like to touch on in detail as it is easy to think that everyone understands the value of comms- but in 2018 this is still not true, especially as our technology changes. Moderator Ingrid Belobradic asked probing questions of each comms leader on the panel and the most evocative was how did they convince their CEO's to engage with the Social Chorus brand and platform and agree to the additional expense. Andrea Goodman, VP of Public relations and Communications at Eastern Bank discussed her dialogue with her CEO and the importance of a singular communications platform for all employees, accessible via desktop and phone where CEO's and regular employees could communicate company-wide through engaging short video and served as a hub to assign and follow up on tasks. This universal approach that engages the maintenance staff to the CEO is exactly what she thought was needed in their organization to take them into the future. Andrea was not only able to prove the value of internal comms but was able to speak to employee engagement rates with Social Chorus and how her organization employee engagement had increased since the implementation of the platform.
Future Comms 2018 was truly a conference about the future of internal comms and just how far we can go with our employee and organizational data when used in a positive way- to engage and educate.
