Agenda

Day 1 - 5^th March Day 2 - 6^th March

DAY ONE: How to build reputation and prevent crises
Agenda 5 March 2012

Building corporate relations for long-term success: Establish shareholder value and enhance corporate reputation

Alcoa is the world’s leading producer of primary and fabricated aluminum, as well as the world’s largest miner of bauxite and refiner of alumina. The company has 59,000 employees in 31 countries, operating in businesses that serve the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation, consumer electronics and industrial markets. Hear how Alcoa uses innovative and comprehensive stakeholder engagement techniques to preserve its reputation in a challenging arena. Plus, why its environment, health and safety practices help it to win the trust of internal and external stakeholders.

In this session find out:

• The importance of having regular dialogue and information flow with customers, government agencies, employees, community members and NGOs to ensure issues and concerns are fully understood.
• How transparent business practices earned Alcoa the right to operate in its host communities.
• Why and how credibility and reputation have helped to generate new business opportunities for the company.
• The importance of trust – how Alcoa’s active engagement in health and safety risk monitoring have led to an increased confidence across its business activities, and given it a competitive advantage.

Alcoa, Nicholas Ashooh, Global Vice President, Corporate Affairs

GE Energy is one of the world’s leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technologies, supplying a quarter of the world’s energy. This $38 billion company (2010 revenues) employs more than 90,000 people worldwide, and operates in over 100 countries.

• Hear how GE Energy has polished its reputation through developing powerful relations with key players, forming effective partnerships, and working with luminaries that act as company representatives during times of crisis.
• Discover why and how GE Energy builds customer relationships through regular engagement and careful consideration of its objectives. And hear why it’s imperative that customers become brand advocates.
• Transparency and openness are not token words for GE Energy – they are considered the only solutions for a well maintained reputation. Discover why this ethos must filter from the top down – and how positive results can be realized.

General Electric Energy Europe, Frank Farnel, Director Global Communications and Public Affairs

The thought process: analyse multiple reputational risks to prioritise and deliver an appropriate response

As the world’s largest consumer goods company and the owner of many of the world’s most iconic brands, Procter & Gamble is credited with the creation of what we know as brand management today. Serving around 4.4 billion of the world’s consumers, P&G ranks top 10 on the ‘world’s most respected companies’ and ‘Global most admired companies’ list (2011). The company has a long history of earning the respect of its peers, however even this doesn’t stop P&G from reputational risk challenges. Learn how the company filters through potential threats across the company and reacts accordingly to maintain its brand value. They will share with you:

• How to prioritise responsibilities when issues arise; learn how to understand multiple risks across your brands and determine which are most likely to impact your stakeholders.
  
• How P&G think about scenario and escalation planning.
• The process to determine which communication channels to use when engaging with different stakeholders; Discover P&G’s decision making process when a crisis occurs, which stakeholders are involved and how to communicate to these most effectively.

P&G Paul Fox, Director, Corporate Communications

As the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company, Pfizer Inc. discovers, develops, and manufactures medicines, nutritional products, and consumer goods. Consistent with Pfizer’s responsibility as the world's leading biopharmaceutical company, Pfizer collaborates with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world.

Pfizer has received numerous awards in areas including business and financial operations, corporate governance, employee relations and workplace environment, and philanthropy. With over 110,000 employees worldwide and operations in more than 150 countries, Pfizer is committed to maintaining its reputation and upholding its corporate values across all of its operations. Hear how Doug Hawkins – Vice President, Public Affairs and Policy – manages risk to ensure Pfizer Nutrition maintains the company’s reputation and supports the Pfizer brand. He will share with you:

• How to proactively prepare for a crisis before it hits by developing effective processes, building strong networks and establishing practical emergency response models
• How to develop resilience – the capacity to cope with change – that enhances your institutional capability to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of both acute crises and chronic stresses
• How to communicate effectively across cultural and geographic boundaries, and how to tailor management and communication styles for each market
• How to strengthen management and anticipate potential risks by holding regular meetings with key staff across business functions and regional operations
• How to approach risk management holistically from multiple perspectives including market uncertainty and growing demands from regulators, shareholders, customers, employees, and other stakeholders

Pfizer Nutrition Doug Hawkins, Vice President, Public Affairs and Policy

Kaiser Permanente is recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans, operating in nine states and the District of Columbia. The company is the largest integrated health care organization in the United States, with 167,000 employees, 8.9 million health plan members and 14,600 physicians, and revenues of nearly $48 billion. This health care leader will share with you:

• How to build up your organization’s ability to identify potential reputational risks before they ever become a crisis
• Learn some of the warning signs that your tried-and-true business practices may be evolving into reputational risks
• How to make reputation management part of your culture, your way of doing business – not a separate function
• And, just as importantly, how to balance the goal of identifying risks in advance, with the need to be able to take risks and not be paralyzed with fear

Kaiser Permanente, John Nelson, Vice President, Issues and Brand Management

The rewards of ‘corporate listening’ for a leading consumer cooperative How REI engages with customers and employees to build and strengthen its reputation

American consumer cooperative, REI, employs over 10,000 people. Ranked 9th in FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, with 14 consecutive years of recognition as an employer of choice, REI has more than 4.4 million active members and customers, with an annual turnover of more than $1.6 billion. Discover how REI engages with its customers and employees to support the brand and uphold its reputation.

• Learn how REI aligns its corporate objectives with customers’ expectations, and engages with employees, customers and key stakeholders to deliver its business and mission results.
• Hear how REI carefully monitors and uses its brand to address active members and customers. Discover how to transpose REI’s experience of successful engagement into your own company, and activate customer buy-in and support of your brand and its values.
• Authenticity in action: REI believes that being authentic is critical to maintaining credibility in stakeholder relationships. Find out why such a message is a communication priority – one that must filter from the top down.

REI , Michael Collins, Vice President, Public Affairs

Changes at the top: How Dr Pepper Snapple Group preserved its reputation with stakeholders during a company ownership change

A Fortune 500 company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group is one of North America’s leading refreshment beverage companies. With a brand heritage spanning more than 200 years, DPSG markets more than 50 brands of beverages. DPSG became a stand-alone, publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in 2008 and overcame the challenge of maintaining the DPSG brand reputation, which dates back three centuries. From the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, hear about the role its key communicators played during the organisational shift. And gain insight into how it’s possible to hone communication capabilities to positively impact the future of your brand’s reputation.

The DPSG session will cover:

• How the company addressed its stakeholders, and responded to concerns that arose during the transition process.
• The importance of keeping your key stakeholders in the loop, ensuring consistent information flow and active engagement to maintain value and preserve reputation.
• How to transform anxieties about change into opportunities for success: Discover how DPSG took hold of uncertainty and inverted it, improving its standing with employees, customers, communities and other key stakeholders.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Tina Barry, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs
and Leadership Team

Engage in social media as a PR tool and build your corporate brand

Southwest Airlines is a national air carrier operating 550 Boeing 737 aircraft among 72 U.S. cities. Southwest operates more than 3,400 flights a day coast-to-coast, making it the largest U.S. carrier based on domestic passengers carried. Southwest Airlines ranked fourth on Fortune's World's Most Admired Company list and is the highest ranking commercial airplane (2011). Hear how Southwest Airlines has grown to be an admired company across the world and where they are headed.

Learn from the best and build your corporate brand:

• How to improve your online engagement and enhance brand reputation: Why transparency is the key for Southwest to get credibility in the online space.
• How to overcome the new speed of information and the challenge of customers knowing something before an employee does: How Southwest Airlines communicate internally, manage change and maintain employee engagement to overcome this challenge.
• How to turn to social media to drive your messaging: Discover how Southwest handles PR and reputational crises in the new world where information flows multi-channel and at the speed of light.

Southwest Airlines, Linda Rutherford, Vice President, Communication and Strategic Outreach

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DAY TWO: Practical steps on how to mitigate crisis and reputation risks
Agenda 6 March 2012

Global challenges: How to maintain local, national and international brand integrity at times of high reputational impact

A Global 500 company, Verizon is a worldwide leader in delivering innovation in communications, information and entertainment. The company employs 195,900 with annual revenues of $106.6 billion (2010). Verizon has been placed on the CRO magazine’s ‘100 Best Corporate Citizens’ (2011). Hear how this leading company maintains its international credibility through its strategic communication efforts.

Discover:

• How Verizon addresses maintenance of its corporate reputation with stakeholders throughout the world.
• The importance of preserving local national and global brand reputation, and how to deal with tough challenges when they arise.
• Why adherence to outlined reputation objectives is crucial in a company-wide crisis. Find out how Verizon has led a number of rapid responses to crises, and successfully maintained its global credibility.

Verizon Communications Inc, Torod Neptune, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Communications

Caesars Entertainment Corporation, a 74 year old company, is the world’s largest casino entertainment company. This Fortune 300 Company employs 70,000 people at 52 properties in seven countries on four continents. The company emphasises that their brands and reputation are their most valuable assets. Hear how this multi-billion dollar company manages crisis and minimises risk impact when operating in the regulated market.

• Caesars Entertainment is at risk of multiple crises from gambling issues and crime on property to natural disasters. The entertainment giant faces the challenge of separating these crises and responding to them as distinct issues. Hear how Caesars Entertainment has successfully overcome this challenge and how their experience will help you create a holistic crisis response plan.
• Lead your organisation through broad crisis potential; Caesars share how they protect brand reputation through supporting stakeholders involved in different crises and how they balance their efforts so all crises are addressed.
• Engage with your stakeholders through multiple crises and still maintain credibility in the industry; How Caesars engage with the appropriate stakeholders for individual crises.

Caesars Entertainment, Jan Jones, Senior Vice President, Communications & Government Relations and Management Board

Having led communications at Hewlett-Packard, and having supporting CEOs at international business software giant SAP, Bill Wohl has driven reputation public relations through a number of high-profile crisis situations. Leading the PR team that supported SAP through the Oracle v. SAP trial, and overseeing leadership transitions at the board level, gain the perspective of this season crisis veteran (who spends his spare time as a volunteer firefighter and EMT).

• Learn how social media can be an effective internal and external channel for passing messaging and information in a crisis.
• Hear the importance of a "one voice" message approach across all stakeholder audiences.
• Explore how media relationships can play a role in leading through crisis challenges, and gain real insight as to how leading brands can and do survive critical reputational hits.
• Understand how the most basic of communication practices can assure that company representatives are armed with the information they need to support communications.

Bill Wohl, recognized crisis communications expert

No right time for things to go wrong – the importance of identifying reputation risks well in advance

Founded in 1876, Eli Lilly and Company is the 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world, employing around 38,066 people globally, and marketing products in 125 countries. Forbes ranked Eli Lilly among the ‘Most Generous U.S Companies’ and ‘Most Admired Global Companies’ in Med Ad News.

From Eli Lilly and Company learn about:

• How to identify reputational risks before they spiral out of control.
• The importance of vigilance and rapid response at the first signs of crisis, and understanding the importance of transparency, openness and responsiveness throughout the process.
• How the implementation of this strategy has enhanced Eli Lilly & Company’s communication and interaction with its global audience.
• Why two-way dialogue is critical in maintaining a position of integrity when responding to reputational hazards.
• How to effectively deal with stakeholders in the face of misinformation and destructive rumors.

Eli Lilly & Company, Jeffrey Winton. Vice President, Global Communications

There’s local, there’s national and there’s social

Gap Inc. has a 43-year history, with iconic brands and a strong culture of giving in communities around the world. In the days of traditional media, it was enough to rely on loyal customers, passionate employees, and television commercials to tell the company’s stories. But, with increased use of social media platforms, rapid news cycles, and a hunger for 2-way conversations between customers and businesses, Gap Inc. has shifted gears. Bill Chandler is leading Gap Inc.’s communications team at a pivotal time. The company is growing around the globe with stores in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Asia, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Australia. Customers, stakeholders, and 134,000 global employees want to participate in the conversation about the unique culture in each brand – to the products and people behind them. They want to post comments on corporate and brand blogs. They want to share photos and style advice on Facebook pages. They want to receive exclusive deals and notes about the company on Twitter.

• Hear how Gap Inc. uses social media as a key part of an overall internal and external communications strategy to build trust and passion for the company.
• Hear how Gap Inc. measures results and stacks resources against these social communications initiatives.
• What methods, tools, and guidelines have enabled Gap Inc. to embrace social media while tempering the “noise” and mitigating potential risks of social media.
• Hear how the Gap Inc. communications team uses social media for crisis response.

GAP Inc Bill Chandler, VP Global Communications and Public Affairs

Drive your company’s reputation through the good and bad: Handle vulnerability to reputational risks

Chubb Corporation, a 130 year old company, holds $50 billion in assets and generated $13 billion in revenues in 2010. The company is the 11th largest property and casualty insurer in the United States. A Fortune 200 company, Chubb is ranked as one of America’s 100 Most Trustworthy Companies. (2010) • The value of helping customers with pre-emptive action: Hear how Chubb engages customers in risk management – and the benefits it has for their reputation and relationships.

• How inclusion drives reputation – and the bottom line. Learn how Chubb has championed diversity in the workforce, and the financial and brand building benefits gained.
• Hear how Chubb drives corporate reputation through vulnerable situations; using reputational risks as an opportunity for brand enhancement.
• Why Chubb specifically focus on empathy, speed, fairness and feedback during customer engagement and how this strengthens the company’s defence when crisis hits; how customer engagement improves your resistance to critical situations.

Chubb Corporation, Mark Schussel, Vice President, Corporate Communications.

Virgin Atlantic has carried around 58m passengers since 1984 and now employs over 9000 people worldwide. The company also recently announced the development of a world-first low carbon aviation fuel with just half the carbon footprint of the standard fossil fuel alternative. Learn how and why Virgin drive reputation through vulnerable situations

• Turning a weather crisis into a customer opportunity: Insight into the benefits of social media investment in difficult times – and the impact on both customers and marketing.
• Communications at the centre of the company: Using dynamic news flow to drive corporate reputation and meet company objectives.
• Why – and how – stakeholder engagement is key, and what that actually means in your job as a communicator.

Virgin Atlantic Greg Dawson, Global Communications and Management Board

Hormel Foods Corporation is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of high-quality food and meat products globally. Their products have become among the best-known and trusted in the market. Including SPAM, Chi-Chi's, and Farmer John’s they are synonymous within the industry. Employing 19,500 people and having a number of industry affiliations, they represent a global business at the top of their game.

This Fortune 500 Company has been named amongst the 400 Best Big Companies List annually. In this session hear from Julie Craven, Vice President of Corporate Communications at Hormel, on how she manages the company’s reputational risks and supports the Hormel brand. She will share with you:

• What strategies, methods and guidelines enable Hormel Foods to actively manage crises across the company – and how you can effectively lead crisis response.
• How to engender trust and inspire stakeholders through open and proactive communications during a crisis: and why this will benefit your relations during tough times.
• How to decide when a public response is necessary- understand why openness and honesty can avoid crisis escalation for your company.

Hormel Foods Corporation, Julie Craven, Vice President, Corporate Communications

Recovery after crisis – how to restore a corporate identity

American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is a leading international insurance organization, serving customers in more than 130 countries. AIG companies serve commercial, institutional, and individual customers through one of the most extensive worldwide property-casualty networks of any insurer. In addition, AIG companies are leading providers of life insurance and retirement services in the United States. AIG is a multi- billion-dollar concern that employs more than 40,000 people worldwide. AIG has made substantial progress in refocusing business growth and profitability since the company faced extraordinary financial challenges in 2008.

Hear about:

• How AIG rose from the ashes of a major financial crisis, and dealt publicly with intense questioning concerning its liquidity issues.
• The critical role its employees played in the reconstruction of the company’s reputation, and how a refreshed corporate identity has dramatically improved employee retention rates, and boosted recruitment levels.
• Why skillful communication is essential, before, during and after a corporate crisis. Plus how you can take AIG’s experience as a real life example of what’s involved in transforming negative perceptions about a brand into positive developments.

AIG, Christina Pretto, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, and member of AIG’s Management Leadership Team.

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