Top takeaways from Ragan’s Future of Communications Conference 2024

The future of communications will require proactive crisis communications management, personalized messages for individual employees and, above all, a willingness to bridge differences and reach across the political aisle.

These were the overriding themes of Ragan’s Future of Communications Conference, held last week in Austin, Texas. More than 700 communicators came together to share their challenges and triumphs and to prepare for the year ahead.

These were some of the takeaways you should know as we head into 2025. For more insights, join us Nov. 19 for a FREE webinar recapping what you missed.

On proactive crisis management. 

Taking place the week after Donald Trump won the election, the conference was rich with discussion about how and what proactive crisis management will look like over the next four years.

“You shouldn’t respond to every single (political issue) because it goes to an issue of authenticity,” Elizabeth Monteleone, chief legal officer of Bumble said. “But on those that we’ve committed to, regardless of what the political landscape is going to be, we’re going to continue to show up. That consistency builds trust. It builds authenticity in your employee base and your consumer base.”

Monteleone added that Bumble’s aim has been to focus on “policies, not politics.”

With unionization efforts on the rise, Beth R. Archer, director of corporate communications at Constellation, explained how the company’s strong relationship with unions across the country is supported year-round. Each policy change, development, and employee award is shared with unions well in advance.

“We create contingency plans that address every scenario, and our tone we always take with that is positive and forward-looking,” Archer explained. “We’re going to be working with these folks and want to be sure that we don’t erode that trust.”

On personalizing messages for employees. 

We continue to see internal communicators put their marketing hats on to segment their employee populations and deliver personalized messaging strategies that make “meet them where they are” more than a platitude of jargon.

“As the comms landscape changes the future comes in, customizing communications for the seamless population is going to look different,”  said Andres “Dre” Muñiz, associate director of global manufacturing & quality communications, at Eli Lilly and Company.“The core constant is just treating them like people.”

Taking a people-first approach should also be reflected in the leaders you select to speak to your employee population. Effectively personalizing employee messages also means building variety into your company meetings that platforms those doing the work who don’t often get the spotlight, and centers each update around the most timely and actionable developments.

“The idea of a quarterly meeting that follows the same exact format with the same speakers should be sunsetted,” said Christina Furtado, director of AI communications at Dell Technologies. “You have to be flexible in how your executive addresses their team and who they pull in to help them do the storytelling.”

If segmenting your employee population feels daunting, consider how AI can help.

“We started taking our (engagement) data and running it through AI to ask it for trends,” explained Brandi Chionsini, senior manager of internal communications, at LegalZoom.  “Anytime you do a survey, it needs to be immediate and expedient. AI is helping us analyze large groups of data quickly and efficiently so we’re able to turn that around (to let employees know we’re listening) a lot faster.”

On bridging differences to reach across the aisle.

Whether your workforce is red, blue or purple, Archer urged audiences to approach politically-charged conversations “with respectful curiosity”, a phrase she learned from one of Constellation’s attorneys.

“Less words like diversity, and more words like belonging,  said Joanna Piacenza, vice president of thought leadership, Gravity Research. Piacenza’s point underscores the power that the words we use can reframe the work we’re doing to be less incendiary or politically-charged–while still making room for the work to continue.

Alise Marshall, senior director of corporate affairs and impact at  Pinterest, told the audience in her session that times of polarization are an opportunity to reignite and reactivate shared values.

“Regardless of that polarization that we see across the electorate, folks still want the same basic things out of this life,” she said. “They want to be able to go to work in a dignified manner and role. They want to be able to give back to their communities and to those loved ones.”

Justin Joffe is the editorial director and editor-in-chief at Ragan Communications. Follow him on LinkedIn.