Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO, Ruder Finn, emphasizes the importance of empathy from a leadership point of view, as well as continuous need for innovation. She discusses the challenges of maintaining work culture in the remote environment and new ways of staying connected and developing new ideas. Kathy also shares examples of how leaders that her team works with have been dealing with the massive amount of change.
Grace Leong, CEO & Partner, Hunter, reminds us of the importance of living into your values and practicing based on your values. You need to find ways to manifest the core principles of communication in any environment you’re faced with. Grace also emphasizes the need to communicate the feeling of safety and security of people above all else.
Luke Lambert, President and CEO, G&S Business Communications, urges communicators not to turn page on 2020 so quickly. It is essential to take time and note the lessons learned in the past year and turn them into best practices. Luke also shares actions that his agency implemented to tackle issues of diversity and inclusion internally as well as with their clients.
Heather Kernahan, CEO, North America, Hotwire, and Board Chair, PR Council, encourages communications professionals to continually find ways to stay inspired in 2021. She shares insights on how more and more businesses are striving to position themselves as tech companies. Heather also anticipates that communicators will begin to own more of the data and analytics within their companies. She sees integrated communications and marketing as the way to think about your organization.
Ronn Torossian, CEO & Founder, 5W PR, urges brands to be extremely cognizant of communications, as its impact has been rising since the past year. Now more than ever, brands need to be careful of what they say and how they say it. Ronn believes that the communications style is forever changed, and it’s here to stay.