education

IABC Corporate Reputation Summit

Harness the power of your greatest asset through communication and measurement.

Program

Browse the program below.

Schedule at a glance

Thursday, 19 April

Friday, 20 April

Program

Thursday, 19 April

8 - 8:45 a m.
Continental Breakfast & Opening Remarks
Presenter / Mark Weiner & Julie Freeman, ABC, APR

9:45 - 9:45 a.m.
Opening Keynote:
Managing reputation in crisis

This session will set out the scale of media interest an organization can face during a crisis and the importance of effective media management in protecting and enhancing the organization’s reputation. The session is based on the experience of the TfL media team during the terrorist attacks of the July 7th 2005 on London’s transport network, which killed 52 passengers.

You'll learn:

• How to prepare your communications team for a crisis
• The challenges your team will face in protecting the organization’s reputation
• Lessons learned
  
  

Stephen Webb is currently Deputy Head of News for Transport for London. Stephen has worked at TfL for five years and has previously worked in media relations for a number of UK Government departments.

10 - 11:15 a.m.
(originally scheduled at 2 p.m.)
Engaging your workforce as brand ambassadors

A fully engaged workforce is an essential ingredient for a positive reputation. While engagement will differ by industry and country, there are certain core elements or engagement drivers show up consistently around the world. Few companies, such as Southwest Airlines, use communication so well to shape the culture, and engage employees. SWA and Mercer, working together applied state-of-the-art research and used the research results to further enhance a CEO-lead program to strengthen the culture through employee engagement that sustains its strong reputation.

This workshop, jointly presented by Southwest and Mercer will explore:

• The drivers of engagement
• How Southwest used employee surveying to assess the highs and lows in its culture to carry on research guided communication programming
• How SWA and Mercer, working together applied state-of-the-art research and used the research results to further enhance a CEO-lead program to strengthen the culture through employee engagement that sustains its strong reputation
  

Presented by Ginger Hardage, Senior Vice President of Communication for Southwest based in Dallas, Tx and Paul Sanchez, ABC, APR , global director employee research for Mercer based in New York City.

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Managing reputation in a tech driven company

Dell is a Fortune 25 company known for its Direct Model, leading-edge supply chain and direct relationship with its customers. With one billion people online and another one billion ready to join in the next few years, how a company interacts with its customers will evolve as the customer becomes a key driver of technology. With three million customer contacts each day and over 400 million visits to Dell.com each quarter, it is important for Dell to continually look for innovative ways to have conversations with customers around the world that are meaningful and productive. Today’s “always on” media, consumers and partners demand nothing less.

This session will examine:

• Nnurturing a culture of transparency and access
• Aapplying technology to communications
• Corporate reputation measurement
  

Bob Pearson is vice president of Dell’s Corporate Group Communications where he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of corporate media relations, office of the chairman communications, public affairs and global internal communications. He has more than 20 years experience in executive corporate communications and public relations.

12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
Networking Lunch

2 - 3 p.m.
(originally scheduled at 10 a.m.)
Looking inside the big box: The evolving role of reputation at Best Buy

Big box retailer Best Buy is well known as the place to buy the latest and greatest technology and entertainment products. Only recently has the company looked beyond the traditional measures of market share and customer loyalty to examine perceptions of leadership, community outreach and business practices.

Best Buy's experience in building a reputation management program will help you:

• Better explain the value of investing in corporate reputation to your leaders and colleagues
• Understand how business practices translated to stakeholder support
• Redefine your role as a member of a corporate communications team
  

For nearly 14 years, Kelly Groehler, APR, has helped Fortune 500 corporations successfully navigate union negotiations, restructuring, acquisitions and the launch of business initiatives. She is a champion for public relations as a business management function that helps to protect and preserve an organization's reputation. Groehler joined Best Buy Co., Inc., in 2005 to help launch and manage its reputation efforts. Her primary focus is corporate responsibility, including litigation, issues management, crisis management, environmental affairs, supply chain and manufacturing, and community relations. Prior to joining Best Buy, Groehler served in the business-to-business and employee communication practice areas at Padilla Speer Beardsley Inc. (PSB) in Minneapolis. Her client and nonprofit work at PSB received state and national awards from the Business Marketing Association, The Holmes Group, and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

3 - 3:30 p.m.
Coffee Break

3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Reputation - how you get one, lose one and regain one

All companies have reputations that are earned over a long period of time. Communicators are often tasked with the responsibility of rebuilding corporate reputation after crises, extensive critical media coverage or economic reversals. In this session, you will learn how to take advantage of multiple tools at your disposal to better understand what goes into making, sustaining or enhancing a reputation for your organization.

Kathy Collins, General Motors Director of Communications Research, acquired wide-ranging experience in 25 years in the automotive business from a technical writer to a very hands-on and enlightening stint as a foreman in an assembly plant, through many PR chairs including internal communications, community relations, strategic PR planning, and of course, PR research. Educational exposure also wide-ranging from undergraduate degrees in English and Anthropology to graduate work in English Language and Literature (16th century specialty) to doctoral work in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (where she got hooked on statistics). Reputation—how it is acquired, how it is damaged, how it is repaired—has been a key area of inquiry for her for the better part of the past 15 years. Collins is a member of the Institute for Public Relations Commission on Public Relations Measurement & Evaluation.

4:45 - 5:15 p.m.
Discussion forum - Debriefing on day's issues
Presenter / Mark Weiner / Delahaye

5:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Cocktails

Friday, 20 April

8:15 - 9:15 a.m.
Continental breakfast and industry roundtable discussions

The pressure to create content for today’s 24/7 global and digital news consumption is palpable. Online publishers, news aggregators and citizen journalists have leveled the playing field and increased competition for all traditional news providers. Print, broadcast and radio outlets are responding by exploiting Web technologies to offer great content with “smart aggregation” – improving the user experience with multimedia stories, viewer interactivity and sophisticated advertising. Managing corporate reputation in today’s new media environment means living inside the mind of today’s news producer and consumer alike.

The industry roundtables will be asked to discuss / present:

• How do you offer corporate transparency in an age of consumer-generated content and viral syndication?
• Can you match the level of “smart aggregation” offered by top news providers to act as a media company yourself?
• What techniques are working in today’s digital media environment? Which approaches no longer suit your industry or organization?
  
  
  

Shoba Purushothaman is CEO and Co-founder of The NewsMarket, Inc., (www.thenewsmarket.com), the media’s online source for video. Shoba has 20 years of experience in the news and public relations industries in Asia, Europe and the U.S. She was a business journalist for nine years, including tenure at the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.

9:30 - 10:30 a.m.
Managing Reputation in a Digital Media Environment

Corporate Innovation, superior performance, talent retention or leadership perception as questioned by stakeholders almost in real time in today’s digital media environment. Analyst, investors, mass media, clients and employees have most of our companies’ information. Are we ready for managing corporations and their reputations live?

This session will examine:

• Going from Strategy to implementation in 30 minutes
• Moving from superior performance to sustainable growth
• Corporate Reputation and the bottom line
  
  

Luis Gallardo is the Global Director of Communications & Public Relations for Deloitte. He is involved with setting the direction and strategy for the global Marketing, Communications & Business Development (MCBD) Group as well as the direction and operations management of Global Communications. MCBD comprises among other areas external communications/public relations, crisis/issue management, internal communications, multimedia communications, Brand, Analyst relations, Industry marketing, ECommunications, and regional marketing and communications.

10:45 - 11:45 a.m.
Moral Intelligence- Enhancing Business Performance and Leadership Success

Join Chuck Wachendorfer to gain further insight into the role that commonly held human moral principles and emotions play in business success. Wachendorfer is legendary for his firm’s innovative approaches to developing high performance in individuals and organizations.

In this session, Wachendorfer will discuss:

• The powerful book, Moral Intelligence: Enhancing Business Performance and Leadership Success
• The prevailing correlation between strong moral principles and business success
• The specific competencies that comprise “moral intelligence” and show how to promote it throughout your organization
  

Chuck Wachendorfer, Partner and Chief Operating Officer for The Lennick Aberman Group has a two-decade track record of developing leaders, high achievers and cohesive teams. He has helped organizations build and improve market share, increased client and employee retention and improved the corporate bottom line. He has provided leadership and direction for Fortune 500 clients in the areas of financial services, real estate, technology, banking and other service businesses.

12 - 1:30 p.m.
Closing Luncheon:
Regaining our reputation - One story at a time

This session will cover: strategies and approaches implemented, systems developed/utilized and best practices in working with global news organizations to help drive corporate reputation.

As Executive Director in the public affairs department of Merck & Co., Inc., Raymond F. Kerins Jr. oversees all strategy and execution of the Company’s global media relations programs. He is directly responsible for handling top-tier domestic and international news media company-wide. Kerins is chief spokesperson for the Company. He manages the company’s media relations department and function, including communications programs for executives, crisis and issues management, financial and products communications, as well as, corporate philanthropy and human resource initiatives. Prior to joining Merck, Kerins was executive vice president/managing director of both the corporate communications & media relations practices for GCI Group, a top-ten global PR firm and subsidiary of WPP Group Inc.