Welcome & Introductions

• Heidi Harrell, PhD, APR, Chair, PRSA

Keynote Session

• Joe Trahan, Director of PR and Communications, FIFA World Cup 26

Break

Breakout Sessions (pick one)

When the Headlines Hit: The C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E. Framework for Crisis Communication

Dr. Keaira G. Turner (LinkedIn)

In an increasingly complex and fast-moving media environment, public relations professionals are expected to lead organizations through crisis situations with both speed and strategic precision. When headlines break, communicators must balance competing demands, accuracy, transparency, responsiveness, and accountability, while protecting organizational credibility and public trust.

This session introduces the C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E. Crisis Communication Framework, a strategic model designed to guide communication professionals through high-pressure moments with clarity, discipline, and ethical responsibility. Grounded in real-world crisis communication leadership in a public-sector environment, the framework provides a structured approach for navigating critical incidents in which reputations, stakeholder relationships, and institutional trust are at risk.

Participants will explore how the **C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E. model—Clarity, Rapid Response Structure, Empathy-Led Messaging, Defined Internal Alignment, Information Discipline, Bridging to the Next Update, Leadership Visibility, and Engagement with Stakeholders—**aligns with core public relations principles, including transparency, accountability, and stakeholder-centered communication.

Through applied insights and case-based examples, this session will demonstrate how communicators can strengthen internal alignment, manage evolving narratives, and lead with credibility during times of uncertainty. Emphasis will be placed on proactive preparation, ethical messaging, and the communicator’s role as a strategic advisor during crisis situations.

Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to enhance their crisis communication planning, improve real-time response capabilities, and reinforce their role as trusted leaders in protecting and sustaining organizational reputation.

Building and Sustaining World-Class Internal Communications

Monica Miller Rodgers, APR, Senior Manager of Employee Communications, AFLAC (LinkedIn)

Laura Wentz, People Communications Manager, Gulfstream (LinkedIn)

Chris Sheffield, Senior Internal Communications Manager, Youth Villages (LinkedIn) 

Organizations today operate in an environment defined by constant change, evolving employee expectations and increasing demands for transparency and connection. As a result, internal communications has become a critical business function that helps organizations align employees to strategy, strengthen culture and build trust at every level.

During this engaging panel discussion, communications leaders from PRSA’s Employee Communications Section will share their experiences building, scaling and sustaining high-performing internal communications functions across a variety of industries and organizational structures. Panelists will discuss how internal communications has evolved from a tactical support function to a strategic business partner and explore the capabilities required to deliver meaningful impact in today's workplace.

The conversation will examine the foundational elements of world-class internal communications programs, including governance, channel strategy, executive and leadership communications, measurement and analytics, employee listening, change communications and cross-functional partnerships. Panelists will also share lessons learned from navigating organizational transformation, managing communication fatigue, supporting distributed workforces and demonstrating business value to senior leadership.

Attendees will gain practical insights into how successful organizations create communication ecosystems that foster employee engagement, reinforce organizational purpose and drive business outcomes. Whether participants are building an internal communications function from the ground up, leading a mature program or looking to elevate their strategic influence, this session will provide actionable ideas and real-world perspectives to help communicators create sustainable programs that deliver long-term value.

Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the people, processes and practices that distinguish world-class internal communications organizations and the strategies needed to keep them effective, relevant and resilient in a rapidly changing business environment.

Break

Coffee with Belmont University

Join us for a networking social with our presenting sponsor. This is a great way to show your appreciation for their support. Our sponsoring partners make the conference possible and affordable for you!

Break

Breakout Sessions (pick one)

Stop Asking, Start Acting: Why Your Engagement Survey Could Be Doing More Harm Than Good

Emily Blackburn, Senior Consultant, CRA (LinkedIn)

Megan Filiaggi, Director of Internal Communications, Culture & Engagement, GAF (LinkedIn)

Most organizations treat employee engagement surveys as a measurement exercise. They design the instrument, administer it, analyze the data, and file a report. Then they wonder why employees stop responding.

When organizations ask employees what they think and then fail to act, communicate, or close the loop, they don’t just miss an opportunity — they actively erode the trust they were trying to build. In this session, a communications consultant and the HR leader who hired her will walk through a real case study: GAF’s 2026 employee engagement survey, the company’s first cohesive, cross-operating-company listening initiative in years. They’ll cover how they built accountability into the program from day one, what they got right, what they’d do differently, and what communicators and HR professionals can take back and apply immediately.

You’ll leave with a framework for designing engagement programs that actually build trust — not just measure it.

Beyond the Prompt Library: Scaling Communication Processes With AI

Ellie Reese, Consultant, CRA (LinkedIn)

Alexis Graber, Consultant, CRA

Most communication teams have figured out how to use AI individually. A few people have a knack for prompting; the team might share a prompt library; and everyone is a little faster than they were a year ago. But individual fluency is not the same as team or organizational capability, and shared prompt libraries can only go so far.

This session is about what comes next: using AI to scale communication processes across the team so that everyone can work faster and more consistently, while still taking advantage of their unique expertise. We will walk through how to identify which workflows are actually worth systematizing (and which aren’t), how to develop the judgment that makes your work better, and how to build custom Skills and Agents that produce reliable, high-quality output without starting from scratch every time.

Whether your team is two people or two hundred, you will leave with clear, actionable takeaways for turning individual AI habits into shared organizational capability, and a clear sense of changes to make immediately upon leaving this conference.

Lunch Break

Breakout Sessions (pick one)

Advising Up: When to Speak, When to Pause, and How to Influence Leadership

Tabitha Clark, APR, Communications Director, City of Perry, Georgia (LinkedIn)

As the role of the communicator continues to evolve, the expectation to serve as a strategic advisor to leadership has become increasingly important. However, many professionals struggle with how to effectively guide executives - particularly in high-pressure, fast-moving, or politically sensitive environments.

This session provides a practical framework for advising leadership with clarity and confidence. Participants will explore how to assess when to speak up, when to pause, and how to deliver recommendations in a way that is both strategic and well-received.

Attendees will gain insight into leadership dynamics, decision-making styles, and the nuances of managing up. The session will also provide practical language and approaches that can be used in real-world situations, including how to challenge ideas constructively, redirect conversations, and communicate risk without undermining trust.

Through real-world examples and applied strategies, participants will learn how to build credibility over time and position themselves as trusted advisors within their organizations.

By the end of the session, attendees will have the tools and confidence needed to navigate complex interactions with leadership, strengthen their influence, and elevate their impact as communication professionals.

The Future Belongs to Better Thinkers: Strategic Communication in an Age of Artificial Certainty

Kevin S. Trowbridge, Ph.D., APR, Chair, Department of Public Relations, Belmont University (LinkedIn)

Artificial intelligence can draft messages, summarize reports, analyze stakeholder feedback and generate recommendations in seconds. What it cannot do is determine whether those recommendations are wise.

As AI automates more of the communication process, the work that remains—and the work that will define the future of the profession—is discernment: asking better questions, recognizing what others overlook, understanding stakeholder perspectives and exercising the judgment that helps organizations make better decisions.

This is the challenge of what we might call artificial certainty. AI presents information with remarkable confidence, whether it is complete, contextualized or correct. As AI becomes increasingly capable of generating answers, strategic communication leaders must become increasingly capable of discerning which answers deserve confidence.

In this interactive session, participants will evaluate AI-generated stakeholder analyses, communication strategies and organizational recommendations, distinguish between recommendations that are merely plausible and those that are genuinely strategic and practice the discernment that transforms AI-generated recommendations into sound strategic judgment.

Participants will leave with a practical framework for evaluating AI-generated recommendations, strengthening strategic discernment and using AI as an amplifier of expertise rather than a substitute for it.

Break

Breakout Sessions (pick one)

Thought Leadership: Fundamentals of preparing your leader to speak publicly on behalf of any organization

Alen Beljin, Senior Public Relations Manager, Penske Transportation Solutions (LinkedIn)

Courtney Rice (LinkedIn)

Thought Leadership: Fundamentals of preparing your leader to speak publicly on behalf of any organization, entails explaining that you as the PR person serve as a bridge for the speaker, connecting the speaker's areas of expertise with how the company communicates. Alen will cover areas like: How proper speaker preparation is akin to study hall for students. It discusses how a prepared speaker is a confident speaker. It also touches on how public presentations can equal news stories. Courtney will highlight how she has developed talking points to ensure consistent messaging. She will also discuss her work at a PR agency representing the James Beard Foundation, and how they had a crisis situation, and how her team was able to rebuild and overcome effectively, through smart planning and alignment.

When Communication Breaks Trust: The Human Readiness Gap in PR

Sheena Yap Chan, Founder, Confidence Through Visibility™ movement and creator of the VISIBLE™ Framework (LinkedIn)

Public relations is being reshaped by AI, misinformation, stakeholder skepticism, reputation risk, and the demand for faster, more transparent communication. Yet communication strategies do not succeed through messaging alone. They succeed when PR professionals, executives, and organizations are human-ready to speak with clarity, build trust, listen well, respond under pressure, and make values visible through action.

This session introduces Human Readiness and the VISIBLE™ Framework — Voice, Identity, Spotlight, Inner Work, Belief, Leverage, and Elevation — as a practical lens for strengthening communication leadership, reputation management, stakeholder trust, and executive presence. Attendees will learn how confidence and visibility function as measurable communication competencies that affect crisis response, internal alignment, media readiness, employee advocacy, and public credibility.

Participants will leave with a repeatable framework for identifying visibility gaps before they become trust gaps.

Because the future of PR belongs to communicators who can help organizations be seen, heard, and trusted when it matters most.

Break

Closing Remarks

• Joe Stabb, PhD, APR, Chair, Conference Planning Committee

Keynote Session

• Dooley Tombras, CEO, Tombras