The data makes one thing clear: the importance of internal communications is no longer up for debate.

In this opening session, Carolyn Clark (Simpplr) will be joined by Zac Zaffke (Ascentek), Kristen Eliason (MasterControl), and Michele Rest (Vera Therapeutics) to share highlights from Simpplr’s State of Internal Communications 2026 Report, based on research focused squarely on the IC function itself — the work, the role, and the people doing it.

Together, they’ll explore what communicators are saying about their business impact, how and where AI is actually showing up day to day, and a question that cuts deeper than most surveys ask: If you were starting over, would you choose internal communications again?

The findings offer a revealing snapshot of the profession today, setting the stage for the rest of the summit and grounding the conversation in real data, real experiences, and the shared questions facing communicators right now.

AI is everywhere. Opinions are strong. And for many communicators, the feelings are complicated.

In this session, you’ll hear directly from an IC leader who adopted AI not because it was trendy, but because these tools presented an opportunity to deliver better work, faster, and raise the potential of internal communications pros to handle the growing demands of their roles. 

Allegra Kipnis (Coursera) will share how she thinks about AI as a communicator, how those beliefs align with Coursera’s broader AI philosophy, and what shifted once AI-powered tools and a more centralized planning approach became part of her day-to-day work. She’ll speak candidly about what improved, what required guardrails, and how human expertise remains the most essential part of any strategy. 

You’ll leave with a practical understanding of how AI can reduce cognitive load and support communicators without replacing the thinking, context, and care that define the role.

Reaching the entire workforce isn’t about sending more messages. It’s about designing communication that works for how people actually work.

In this session, Victoria Dew, Founder of Dewpoint Communications and author of the Connecting the Frontline report, will moderate a conversation on why even well-crafted messages fail to reach employees across roles, locations, and work environments.

Joining Victoria are Riley Ware (Intrust Bank), Keemya Manley and Sarah Byrne (L+M Development Partners), who will share how they approach communication across desk-based, frontline, and distributed teams.

Together, they’ll explore how communicators can move beyond broadcast tactics toward more intentional communication design — setting clearer priorities, making smarter channel decisions, and partnering with HR, IT, and operations to build systems that scale without adding noise.

You’ll walk away with a practical mindset shift: stop trying to reach everyone by sending more. Start reaching them by designing smarter systems and aligning around what matters most.

15-minute break

When communication lives in too many places, the employee experience starts to fall apart.

For internal communicators, this fragmentation is easy to spot. Messages compete for attention. Important updates get missed. Visibility into what’s working is limited. Personalization becomes difficult. When the experience feels disjointed, even strong content struggles to break through.

In this session, Miriam Connaughton (Simpplr) and Stacie Taylor (Pikeville Medical Center) will explore why communicators need to care about tech consolidation. Not as a technology decision, but as a communication and experience imperative.

Together, they’ll discuss how fragmented systems make it harder to deliver relevant communication, recognize employees, and listen at scale — and how communicators can partner with IT and HR to design systems that support clarity, consistency, and focus across the employee journey.

Internal communications teams are increasingly being asked to show impact. The challenge is that many teams don’t have perfect data, and many are still building the foundations for measurement.

So how do you make progress anyway?

In this session, Wyatt Semanek (Sunrun) will share how he’s starting to shift the way his team operates. Not by chasing better metrics alone, but by clarifying priorities, aligning more closely with HR and IT, and setting clearer expectations with leadership about what IC can and can’t take on.

Together, Wyatt and Rachel Tolhurst (Simpplr) will talk candidly about what it looks like to move away from reactive, request-driven work and toward a more intentional operating model — even when measurement is still a work in progress.

Internal communications can be deeply meaningful work, but it can also be exhausting.

Communicators are navigating constant change, rising expectations, and the pressure to hold trust and clarity together at scale. Burnout is real. So is the tension between staying authentic and getting everything done.

In this closing session, Regine Nelson (Couchbase) and Regan Zuege (Simpplr) reflect on what it takes to not just survive in internal communications but to build a career that lasts. They’ll share candid perspectives on knowing your value, setting boundaries, and making intentional choices about where to focus your time and energy.

They’ll also explore how systems, partnerships, and guardrails create room for communicators to protect what makes the work human while still delivering real impact.

The future of internal communications will not be won by doing more with less forever. It will belong to communicators who know their value and build ways of working that are both human and sustainable.