We can’t believe IABC 2019 is over already! This year, the International Associate of Business Communicators (IABC) World Conference was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Simpplr team had a great time being out there and engaging with professionals largely in Internal Communications.
Here is a recap of IABC 2019 in Simpplr’s point-of-view:
Grow Your Culture with Simpplr swag
The theme of our event was around growing your culture. Culture touches on all pillars of the organization: leadership, internal communications, employee engagement, employee retention, and the list goes on. This year, we’re pushing our #GrowYourCulture campaign using our new swag, a solar-powered garden that does not require water! Your (culture) garden will grow and dance as long as you foster it with sunshine.
We spoke to many internal communications professionals who asked for help to build a case to upgrade, replace, or purchase an intranet. If you need help making a case, download our eBook: How to Make the Case for Upgrading Your Intranet
What Glassdoor data teaches us about internal communications
Sam Keninger, our VP of Marketing and Research presented a session: What Glassdoor Data Teaches Us About Internal Communications. Here are four takeaways:
- You need leadership to be involved and communicate
- Management is and should be accountable for culture
- Your Glassdoor ratings affect how you attract and retain talent
- You need to sell your leadership because most organizations aren’t doing enough
To learn more, download our Glassdoor research whitepaper and infographic.
How do you convince leadership to engage in internal comms?
We wanted to make our space interactive. We knew that internal communicators have a lot to say, given their expertise and experience. So we set out to open up another line of communication between us and IABC 2019 attendees. We asked the question “How do you convince leadership to engage in internal comms?” Here are just some of the answers we received:
- Identify the business problem and offer internal comms solutions
- Show them “what’s in it for me”
- Solve their business problems
- Use their language and focus on ROI
- Scare them! (this was just a joke, half-kidding!)
We had a lot of fun speaking with internal communicators at IABC 2019, and it was even better in the beautiful city of Vancouver. We spoke with many professionals and learned more about their successes and challenges in the internal communications role. We will be at the 6th Annual Strategic Internal Communications event in Boston, Massachusettes in July, so stop by and chat with us if you’re attending!
