2021 PRSA Charlotte Communications Symposium

*New Date*
Wednesday, April 28, 2021

In the best interest of the health and safety of our members, guests and speakers, PRSA Charlotte has moved its Communications Symposium to the spring of 2021. Thanks to the feedback of our members, we are planning a day-long event filled with content specific to you and your dynamic role as a communications professional, along with added networking opportunities! 

Now Accepting Speaker Proposals 

We're currently seeking additional proposals for breakout sessions that can offer actionable insights for professional communicators. We're especially interested in timely topics relating to all that's changed in our world in 2020. 

Do you have a great approach to engaging virtual internal communications? Lessons learned from frontline communications during COVID-19? Insights on thought leadership or social media change communication relating to racial justice? New ways to leverage video conferencing for content collection or storytelling? We want to hear about it! 

Through the PRSA Charlotte Communications Symposium, we seek to reach professionals at all career stages, and offer balanced programming spanning from best practices, tools/tactics, emerging trends and real-world strategies. A committee will review all proposals and communicate directly with those selected to present. Finalists from the 2020 call for proposals will be reconsidered for the new event. All speakers will be contacted regarding their proposals in January 2021.  

Click here to submit a proposal.

Submissions will be accepted through December 11, 2020. 

Here's what you can look forward to: 

Morning Keynote

When 'It' Hits the Fan: 5 Steps to Effective Crisis Communications with Gerard Braud 

In a world where communications travels at the speed of Twitter and Facebook Live, how prepared is your organization to communicate at that same speed during a crisis? Effective crisis communications requires you to overcome entrenched misconceptions about how crisis communications is done. Crisis communications expert Gerard Braud will share his exclusive strategies, and you'll go home with a to-do list designed to modernize your approach to crises. 

In this keynote you will learn:

● Mistakes made by virtually every organization.

● Strategies for gathering and distributing information.

● The proper role of social media in crisis communications.

● Success secrets used by the best of the best. 

About Your Speaker

Crisis communications expert Gerard Braud, CSP, Fellow IEC, has helped organizations on five continents by writing their crisis  communications plans and training their spokespeople and teams. Gerard's path into communications started when he was an award-winning television reporter. You may have seen him on CBS, NBC, CNN, HLN, or The Weather Channel. 

Afternoon Keynote:

Calculating the ROI on Your Communications with Angela Sinickas

Measuring the effectiveness of communication isn't enough anymore. Senior management is asking for more direct correlation of the money spent on communication with the business outcomes resulting from it how it increases revenue or reduces expenses.

 The session will:

● Provide you with documented examples of how communication affects bottom-line issues.

● Explain how to collect data for ROI calculation by tracking changes in audience behaviors before and after you communicate.

● Teach you how to use an ROI worksheet to start calculating the return on your own communication campaigns or channels - today.