Wednesday 11 November 

Theme: People

Session 1 – Team management and virtual working  

10:30 – 12:00 

Speaker – David MacDonald, Global Communications & PR Director at Walgreens Boots Alliance

Session summary -  In this section on team management and virtual working during unprecedented times, David will draw on how the organisation has adapted plans to a new normal, where online retail is taking an increasingly important role. David will also share how he modernised PR tactics to a virtual working environment and how Covid is increasingly blurring the line between internal and external communications. 
 

Speaker –  Angela Scaffidi, Managing Partner, Senate SHJ Australia 

Session summary - In this session, Angela will explore how to manage teams in a new and virtual world. She will introduce the Four Rooms of Change® from Sweden as a way of understanding how leaders and teams respond to the uncertainties of a pandemic. She will explore ways of helping teams to strike the right balance between managing day to day workflows and innovating for an uncertain future, and pose the challenging questions leaders should be asking.


 

12:00 – 12:30 - BREAK 

Session 2 – Staff well being  

12:30 – 14:00 

Speaker – Emma Mamo, Head of Workplace Wellbeing at Mind 

Session summary -  In this practical session full of tips and advice, Emma will cover an introduction to mental health, the signs of poor mental health, we should all be aware of and the proactive and reactive tools to support yourself as well as others. Emma will also discuss the impact of the pandemic and how employers and organisations have a pivotal role in raising mental health awareness and improving staff wellbeing.



Speaker – Mandy Rutter, Consultant - Wellbeing, resilience and trauma psychologist 

Session summary - In this session Mandy will cover the organisational perspective of staff wellbeing. What organisations can do to improve wellbeing in the workplace. She will give case studies on large organisations, how they adopted a different tone and how they became a key role in supporting employees. Mandy will also discuss long term health issues, both mental and physical, that employers should be aware of due to the pandemic and how to combat them.  

14:00 – 14:30 - BREAK  

Session 3 – Internal Communications 

14:30 – 16:00 

Speaker – Naomi Jones, Communications Director, SUEZ 

Session summary -  Communications has been at the forefront of all responses to the pandemic and non-more so than internal communications for key workers. Naomi will explain how she communicated with a workforce who do not have traditional office-based jobs, who work remotely and might only see their line manager for 10 minutes in a day and how the communications strategy has changed as the pandemic develops, with the communications department supporting the operations focused local management as well as discussing the strategies to be implementing for the months/year ahead.  

 

Panel 

Speakers 

• Anna Russell, Head of Stakeholder Management and Communication, Manchester Airport 
• Annique Simpson, Change Communication Business Partner at A2Dominion Group 
• Bill Hamilton, Director of Communications, Stakeholder Relations at Magnox Ltd

Session summary -  With months of uncertainty still ahead and no clearer understanding of if/when life will return to ‘normal’ communicating difficult messaging is something each one of us will need to do. Hear from our panel about how and why it's important to get messaging right, especially in the middle of a crisis. The dos and don’ts. Their experiences as well as scientific insights into communicating bad news and how best to prepare.