Communications Symposium
When: Wednesday, April 29
Registration 7:45 - 8:15 a.m.
Keynote: 8:20 a.m.
Where: UNC Charlotte Dubois Center
Opening Keynote |
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Your Fearless Edge: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness What separates those who thrive from those who just get by? It's not talent or luck--it's the fearless edge. In this inspiring and actionable session, Chris share how resilience, mindset, and purpose-driven habits unlock the next level of personal greatness and leadership. Drawing from his journey in professional baseball, battle with thyroid cancer, and work as a high-performance coach, Chris will guide us through holistic strategies to break through fear, shift your perspective, and lead with conviction. |
Closing Keynote |
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You Need to Fail More: How High-Volume Experimentation Can Make You a Better Communicator Greg Efthimiou pulls back the curtain on GoDaddy's high‑velocity culture of experimentation where every team member is expected to test ideas, learn quickly and treat both wins and losses as valuable learnings. In this energizing session, Greg will show how communicators can adopt the same "test and learn" mindset to sharpen strategy, earn executive confidence and drive measurable impact. Attendees will walk away with practical ways to run more experiments, gather clearer insights and elevate their craft through intentional, data‑driven iteration. |
Breakout Sessions #1 |
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Voice & Influence: Strategic Advocacy Communications in a Stakeholder-Driven World Featuring: Anna Stallmann - CEO and Founder at Ascent Strategic Communications In today's stakeholder-driven news environment, influence requires both visibility and intention. This session explores how to strategically deploy the right spokesperson voice to drive influence. When should a CEO step forward as the authority? When is it more powerful to elevate the voices of the communities you serve? And how do you ensure advocacy storytelling builds credibility without crossing into exploitation or overexposure? Drawing from real-world case studies across healthcare and public policy examples, attendees will leave with practical tools to strengthen their spokespeople's influence while protecting brand trust -- a critical balance in today's communications landscape. |
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Supercharge Your Thought Leadership Strategy and Workflows with Generative AI Featuring: Rena Lewis, APR - Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at Signature Intentions This session pairs the RPIE model with generative AI to help communications and marketing professionals modernize and refine how thought leadership is planned, created, optimized and measured. Attendees will walk away with practical use cases and a more strategic approach to thought leadership that prepares you -- and your organization -- for what's now and what's next. You will learn a simple framework to identify, prioritize and integrate AI into your existing workflows in a meaningful way, while helping you shift from operating as a strong service provider to becoming a trusted strategic partner and advisor to SMEs and executive leadership. |
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Stop Chasing Coverage. Start Earning Authority The media landscape has changed more in the last three years than it did in the previous twenty. Newsrooms are smaller. Journalists are covering more with less. The outlets that once gave a brand instant credibility are reaching fewer people than they used to. And the way people actually find and trust information now runs through podcasts, independent newsletters, and AI-generated search results that most PR strategies aren't even accounting for yet. Earned media still matters. In fact it matters more than ever. But the way we go after it needs to change. This session is built around one question that should come before any pitch or media list gets built: what does your client actually have the right to be known for? When you start there, you stop chasing placements and start building something that lasts. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for doing exactly that, and the language to bring clients along with them. |
Breakout Sessions #2 |
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The Intent-Impact Gap: How Communicators Build Trust When Every Message Carries Risk Every message has two versions, the one you intended to send and the one your audience actually received. The space between them is where trust breaks down. This session introduces the Intent-Impact Gap™: a concept for understanding why well-crafted messages often fail to land and what communications professionals can do about it. Whether you're managing a corporate crisis, navigating a nonprofit's community relationships, communicating policy in a government context, or protecting a brand's reputation across multiple stakeholders the gap between intent and impact shows up the same way. And it costs the same things: credibility, trust, and time you don't have. Attendees will learn to identify the hidden factors that create disconnect between intent and impact, adjust in real time based on emotional and organizational context, and communicate in ways that build credibility rather than erode it, regardless of sector, audience, or communication channel. |
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Video Is Not a Trend: Competing in a Video-First World This session explores why video has become the most effective vehicle for communication and why storytelling remains the key to building trust and engagement with audiences. Attendees will learn how organizations can use video to make messages more memorable, strengthen internal communications, and connect more effectively with employees and stakeholders. By combining timeless storytelling principles with modern video tools, communications teams can move beyond simply delivering information and start creating messages that actually connect with people. |
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From Purpose to Proof: Communicating Shared Value in Action Today's organizations are under growing pressure to demonstrate that purpose goes beyond messaging. In this session, communications leaders and community partners will explore how companies are embedding purpose into strategy, creating shared value for business and society. Panelists will share real examples, lessons learned, and practical guidance for communicators who want to move purpose from aspiration to measurable impact. |
Sponsored by:
