It’s that time again! Join us in beautiful San Francisco for the annual Summit by Dynamic Signal. Meet other communicators, marketers, and human resource executives who are driving real business impact at the world’s leading companies by connecting, engaging, and activating their employees.
A revolution is happening in Employee Communication and Engagement. This two-day event is your chance to join the movement. Learn from leading professionals at Fortune 500™ companies. Cultivate meaningful relationships with peers. Don’t miss this chance to help lead the transformation in improving the experience of work for your employees.
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Come away with best practices that can be incorporated at your organization and make personal connections to help develop your career. This is a unique opportunity to be part of an influential group that’s breaking new ground as communication teams, marketers and HR professionals play an increasingly pivotal role in creating a fantastic employee experience that also improves employer brand and drives exceptional growth.
We’re proud to once again present the ECE Awards by Dynamic Signal to celebrate the best and brightest in the Employee Communication and Engagement field. We want to recognize the leaders, innovators, creatives, data nerds, and squeaky wheels who are showing the employee experience as a critical business function.
“As an integrated marketing and communications agency, W2O recognizes the power of strategic storytelling and the measurable business results it can drive. We’re proud to sponsor Summit by Dynamic Signal, extending our commitment to support the data-driven evolution across marketing, communications, and public relations.”
- Aaron Strout, Chief Marketing Officer, W2O Group.
Whitney Swanson is the Social Marketing Manager at Optum, a UnitedHealth Group company, where she executes campaign management, social strategy and competitor research. She also sits on the engagement committee focusing on employee engagement and activation.
With 7+ years’ work experience, Whitney has worked in Sports Radio (KFAN in Minneapolis) and Public Relations, focusing on CPG and health care before joining Optum. She is driven by using social listening to inform strategy, looking at social media as a focus group for any topic.
Outside of work, Whitney is new to the field of triathlons, having participated in three over the last two years.
Heather has over 20 years of experience driving strategic communications at Silicon Valley hi-tech companies (Cisco, NetApp, Informatica) and Fortune 100 clients of award-winning PR agency Weber Shandwick. Her expertise includes employee engagement; internal, executive, and digital communications; change management; and business operations to help organizations grow, transform, and innovate.
She is passionate about technology and education and has volunteered with WOMEN Unlimited, Inc., San Jose Unified School District, and is on the board of the Silicon Valley chapter of IABC. A San Francisco Bay Area native and mom of three daughters, she holds a B.S. in Business Management from California State University at Fresno and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University. In 2018, she earned Strategic Communications Management Professional (SCMP) certification.
Greg Cannan is the Divisional Information Officer (DIO), Corporate Services within the Information Systems Department of Toyota North America responsible for the maintenance and development of applications within Toyota. Greg’s responsibilities cover Corporate Service Systems like Human Resources, Learning Management, Legal, Corporate Communications, Corporate Giving and Compliance.
Greg joined Toyota in 1988 as a project lead for the development of the new Lexus Dealer Allocation System and, as such, has been with Toyota since the birth of Lexus! Greg has led a number of major projects at TMS including the implementation of PeopleSoft, i2 Demand Management for Service Parts, the Toyota Vehicle Ordering Management System and Telematics. More recently Greg and his team are exploring leading edge technologies such as BlockChain, VR/AR and artificial intelligence for utilization within Toyota North America.
Jenny Robertson is the Vice President of Corporate Communications at FedEx. In that role, she leads the FORTUNE 100 company’s media, social media, issues management, global citizenship and thought leadership programs.
Robertson joined FedEx in 2004 and has held a number of positions throughout the company, helping shape the reputation of FedEx as one of the 10 most admired companies in the world as ranked by FORTUNE Magazine. Prior to FedEx, Robertson worked in public relations and advertising for marketing firm archer>malmo.
Robertson is a two-time winner of the company’s prestigious Five Star award. She serves on the boards of Regional One Health Foundation, the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College, and the United States Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizenship Center. A graduate of Ole Miss, Robertson currently lives in Memphis, Tennessee with her husband and two children.
Matt Freeman has over 15 years of global agency and corporate communications experience working across a variety of industries, including telecommunications, wine & spirits, energy, retail, sports, travel and consumer health. Freeman currently serves as director of public affairs at Cox Communications, the largest private telecom company in the U.S. In his role, he is responsible for internal and external product communications, crisis and reputation management, and communicating the company’s position on key government, regulatory, legal and compliance issues.
Prior to joining Cox, Freeman served as director of corporate communications at Republic National Distributing Company, a $7B wine and spirits distributor. As department lead, he had oversight over all strategic internal, external and digital communications across the company's national footprint. Prior to that, Freeman served in multiple strategic communication leadership roles in both corporate and agency settings where he focused on public relations, crisis and issues management, digital communications, consumer marketing and executive visibility.
Nancy oversees all "people" functions worldwide, including talent acquisition, communication, total rewards, learning and development, and employee engagement. She brings more than 30 years of experience in senior leadership and management consulting roles. Prior to joining Automation Anywhere, she was the chief people officer at HotChalk where she was responsible for all people functions, legal and facilities.
Before that, Nancy served as the VP of global human resources and facilities at Silicon Image through its acquisition in 2015, and as SVP of human resources for K12 Inc. through their 2007 IPO. She also has executive experience at Ruckus Network, Noah’s New York Bagels, Gymboree Corporation and Sun Microsystems. Nancy is the founder of the international consulting firm 2nd & Nun Street Group, which focuses on rapidly growing start-ups or established companies undergoing great change. She has served on the Board of Regents for Holy Names College and the Board of Advisors to The Cameron School of Business at The University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
What you didn’t know: Nancy started her career in comedy. Writing and performing. Of course, Nancy admits that she is lucky she wasn’t very good at that or she would not be here today.
Rahman has more than 15 years of integrated communications experience, including expertise in reputation management, business-to-business communication and nonprofit/association brand building. She previously served as Senior Vice President at BRG Communication, where she specialized in health and wellness initiatives. Her clients included Walmart and Walmart Foundation, Sam’s Club, Inova Health Foundation, MedStar Institute for Innovation, Massachusetts General Hospital and Heart Rhythm Society among others.
Rahman was recognized for leading numerous award-winning campaigns, and received industry accolades including: PR News Agency Elite Award Winner, PRSA Silver Anvil Finalist for Reputation Management and American Marketing Association Integrated Marketing Campaigns Winner. She is known for expanding client programs into longstanding partnerships, and building highly-efficient and results-oriented teams.
Rahman earned a BSBA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her MBA from The George Washington University School of Business in Washington, D.C. She is an active member of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School Alumni Council, where she serves on the Admissions Committee.
With over 20 years of executive level business development, strategy, marketing, product management, sales and communications experience, Joelle has led teams in media, enterprise technology, and consumer internet companies.
Throughout her career, she has built strong, self-directed teams and leveraged extensive analytics to ensure that marketing and partnerships are delivering clear value to the company. Her teams get stuff done and have a lot of fun doing it.
Prior to joining Dynamic Signal, Kaufman served as the EVP of Strategy and Business Development for Westfield. Before that, she was the first CMO of both BloomReach and Adify, and held various leadership positions at Firefly Network, NetDynamics, BigStep, RSA Security, Reactivity, and Engage.com.
Kaufman earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, where she was the first student to graduate with high honors for a BA in Organizational Studies.
Russ is Co-Founder and CEO of Dynamic Signal, a Silicon Valley software company and the leading employee communications platform. A digital media industry veteran, Russ has more than 15 years' experience in the online marketing world. He co-founded and was CEO of Adify (acquired by Cox for $300M in May 2008) and co-founded SocialShield. He was also SVP of BD at Wine.com, EVP of Corporate Development at comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) and was among the first employees at Flycast (acquired by CMGi for $2.3B in January 2000). Russ is also an active angel investor in the digital world and is on a number of boards. Russ holds a BS in Economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Danielle Guzman is the Global Head of Social Media & Distributed Content at Mercer, an organization that delivers advice and technology-driven solutions that help organizations meet the health, wealth and career needs of a changing workforce and the future of work. Previously at AIG for ten years, Danielle was the Global Head of Product Development and most recently the Global Head of Customer Insight for their Consumer Insurance business. Danielle is a passionate champion of continuous learning, which is essential in the fast moving social space, with more than 15 years of marketing experience in financial services and insurance.
Danielle was most recently listed as the number one female #Insurtech influencer by Onalytica, seen in the Top 100 Fintech and Influencer lists globally, and a Top 10 Women in the Finance Power 100.
As JetBlue’s chief communications officer, Doug oversees the airline’s communications strategy, including internal communications, media relations, reputation management, social media and financial communications. He joined JetBlue in 2014.
Prior to JetBlue, he spent 15 years at FleishmanHillard, most recently in the firm’s New York office where he oversaw global communications programs for clients in various industries including consumer, food, B2B, healthcare, and technology.
Doug is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and received PR Week’s 40 under 40 award in 2017. He serves on the board of the not-for-profit JCCF, which supports airline crewmembers during times of financial crisis. Doug is graduate of Saint Louis University.
The launch sets the tone for long-term success in any program and implementing an employee communication and engagement platform takes deliberate planning and a thought-out approach. With everything from phased roll outs, exclusive swag, “appy hours” and more, there are a number of ways to build a memorable launch that will keep employees excited and engaged long after it’s up and running.
Join this workshop to learn:
- How to design an organized, impactful launch plan
- Tactics you can leverage at any budget and at any scale
- Creative strategies that reach and engage all employees
Success can’t be achieved if you don’t know what success means to your organization. Not only is it important to set KPIs, it’s critical to take a step back and see how an employee communication and engagement platform can drive meaningful business outcomes, too. It’s more than post views, broadcast opens, and number of employee shares. It’s about measuring business outcomes that drive the business forward.
In this workshop, you’ll learn:
- The keys to assessing what business outcomes are most important to your organization
- Ways to set goals that maximize the ROI and impact of your employee communication and engagement platform
- How to design careful planning for achieving your goals
Once your platform is launched, it’s tempting to set the cruise control. But the most successful organizations put the pedal to the metal after the buzz of a recent launch has subsided to continue to momentum and keep employees coming back for more. With strategic planning, compelling campaigns, and creative tactics, there’s much more to driving adoption than internal signage and reminders.
Join this workshop to learn:
- Hands-on tactics to effectively spread the word to the entire organization
- How to create campaigns and initiatives that catch the eye of more employees
- New ways to use Dynamic Signal that bring employees back again and again
Are you using Dynamic Signal to its fullest extent? Beyond fundamental communication, engagement, and advocacy capabilities, the Dynamic Signal platform contains a robust set of capabilities and tools to help you maximize the impact on your organization and bring value to your employees. Explore creative uses of capabilities you may already be leveraging. Get introduced to functionality you’re not yet using. Save time and boost activity in your platform by getting the most from Dynamic Signal.
Join this workshop to learn:
- How to effectively use Dynamic Signal’s full suite of capabilities
- Tactics to increase readership, engagement, and advocacy in your platform
- How to find creative uses for the platform in your organization
Change is a process, not an event. It’s helpful to have a framework to navigate that process – especially when the change requires changes in the behavior of people. There are many great change management systems out there, and this workshop will introduce you to ADKAR, Dynamic Signal’s recommended framework.
In this workshop, you’ll learn:
- The basics of the five stages of ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement)
- Tactics and strategies to navigate your organization through the ADKAR framework
- How to take the people involved in the rollout and adoption of Dynamic Signal from their current state through a transition period and into your desired state of employee communication and engagement
What do the most successful, award-winning employee communication and engagement programs do that’s different than the rest? While it may seem like larger teams, armies of content creators, or bigger budgets may be the answer, it’s actually something else – creativity. You can easily take your platform to the next level with creative planning and strategic brainstorming that will help you find new ways to engage other teams and employees.
Join this workshop to learn:
- How you can partner with other teams to drive adoption and accomplish goals across the organization
- Exercises to identify creative campaigns, content series, and strategies that resonate with more employees
- Frameworks that help you think out-of-the box and accomplish more with less resources
At the end of the day, quality content is the steady drumbeat that underlies all great employee communication and engagement platforms. Whether your focus is building culture, connecting dispersed offices and employees, or putting resources and tools in the hands of your workforce, content is at the heart of it. Creating exceptional content doesn’t happen overnight, and there are a number of strategies and tactics you can leverage to make every piece of content relevant, informative, and even fun.
In this workshop you’ll learn:
- How to plan and map out high-quality content over the short and long term
- Creative content strategies and mediums that move the needle and drive readership
- How to use data to inform your content strategy
Rod Thorn, a former communications executive at PepsiCo, Kodak, and IBM, is chief storyteller at Thorn Media. Ever since a teacher said, “If you paid as much attention to your schoolwork as you do your ‘little stories’ you might BE something one day” he has been helping people and organizations harness the power of storytelling to persuade people to see things in new ways, engage their emotions, and take action. In his career as a trusted advisor to more than 35 Fortune 500 CEOs and hundreds of future CEOs, Rod has written and produced books, speeches, articles, op-eds, videos, podcasts, conferences, exhibits, publications, and websites; led culture, change, diversity, and internal communications initiatives; generated major media stories and handled hair-raising PR and investor crises; and been part of some of the most important developments in business history.
Rod began his career — after getting a B.A. in Rhetoric and Communications from the University of Albany —writing for a small-town newspaper, writing and producing for ABC and CBS television stations, and advising a chief executive in county government. Next, he started writing plays, became a member of the Dramatists Guild, and has since seen his works produced more than 25 times. While working in television he began doing voice overs, and has gone on to perform in dozens of corporate, commercial, and narration projects. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, companies, and universities including Columbia, Dartmouth, Georgetown, and George Washington; and he has been a member of the WSJ CEO Council, the Paley Media Council, the Professional Speechwriters Association, and PepsiCo's Diversity Advisory Board.
Riham Osman is the Employee Ambassador & Thought Leadership Manager at Nestlé USA. At Nestlé, she helps to empower employees and senior leaders to use their voice to tell their story through social media. Throughout her career, Riham has remained passionate about making an impact by using digital media as an advocacy tool to create change.