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Today’s panel includes internal communications consultant and speaker Steve Crescenzo; ROI Communications CEO Barbara Fagan-Smith; and Frost Bank’s Vice President of Employee Communications, Culture, and People Development, Sheri Rosen.

Our topics included…

• For the first time, Edelman has issued a report that dissects data from the Trust Barometer to find out how much employees trust their employers. The results weren’t pretty.
• Facebook Live is now available to everybody using the Android or iOS Facebook app. Facebook Live essentially puts a broadcast studio in everyone’s pocket. What are the implications for internal communications?
• Barbara shares her takeaways from the Arthur W. Page Society’s spring conference, which focused on communicating to Millennials.
• One suggestion for improving the “employee experience” is to have all functions that touch the employee report up to a Chief Employee Experience Officer. Is this a good idea or just one more unnecessary corporate officer position?
• Dan York’s Tech Report looks at WordPress’s announcement that all its WordPress.com sites now have HTTPS-level security built in, Facebook’s update to its branded content policy, Facebook’s F8 conference taking place this week, Facebook’s instant articles, and the anticipated introduction of a chatbot store to the Messenger app.
• Speaking of chatbots, Kik has added the Chatbot Shop to its app. Is there a future for chatbots in internal communication?
• Identifying internal influencers and tapping into them can accelerate change initiatives.

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @crescenzo, @bfagansmith, and @sherirosen.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Steve Crescenzo  started Crescenzo Communications 15 years ago after leaving his post as Editorial Director and VP of New Product Development at Ragan Communications. I should point out that Steve does a lot of great communication work, but his wife Cindy runs Crescenzo Communications. Both Steve and Cindy do presentations, internal communication audits, and internal communication consulting. Steve and Cindy both present frequently, together and solo, at a number of communication conferences at events, and Steve has been recognized as the top speaker at IABC’s world conference a number of times.

Barbara Fagan-Smith, the founder and CEO of ROI Communication, has more than two decades of experience in corporate communications and journalism. She leads ROI’s work with a wide range of Fortune 500 companies, helping them strengthen communication within organizations to engage, empower and inspire employees. Before founding ROI Communication and Family ROI, Barbara was the Director of Employee and Electronic Communications at Quantum Corporation, and Director of Interactive Communications at Simply Interactive, Inc. Before her career in corporate communications, Barbara worked as a London-based television producer for ABC News, where she covered the revolutions in Eastern Europe and the 1991 Gulf War for ABC’s PrimeTime Live and World News Tonight. Earlier, she covered international business and produced national radio programs for ABC. She earned a B.A. in Journalism and Communications from Humboldt State University. Barbara was named one of Silicon Valley’s most influential women by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal. Barbara was also selected as a winner of the Enterprising Women of the Year Awards, an annual tribute to North America’s top women entrepreneurs.

Sheri Rosen is Vice President of Employee Communication, Culture & People Development at Frost Bank, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. She also started and moderates the Employee Communication Excellence community on Google+. Sheri is an accredited member and Fellow of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Before joining Frost Bank in 2005, Sheri ran Rosen Communication Group. Longtime internal communicators may also remember Sheri as Assistant Vice President of Employee Communication at USAA, where she worked for 10 years.

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is director of Internal Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio