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.

“Less words like diversity, and more words like belonging.”

Joanna Piacenza, vice president of thought leadership, Gravity Research

“A colleague of mine coined the term CQ- curiosity quotient. We don’t know everything we need to know at a given moment, and having people who want to know is so crucial.”

Linda Thomas Brooks, chief executive officer, PRSA

“We know that it’s important for senior leaders to embrace and prioritize DEI, but we also know that for DEI to be successful there must be active allyship across the organization.”

Bill Hicks, senior associate director, Leadership Engagement, ADL Central Division

“We started taking our (engagement) data and running it through AI to ask it for trends. 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.”

Brandi Chionsini , senior manager of internal communications, LegalZoom

“As the comms landscape changes the future comes in, customizing communications for the seamless population is going to look different. The core constant is just treating them like people.”

Andres “Dre” Muñiz, associate director,  Global Manufacturing & Quality Communications, Eli Lilly and Company

“Regardless of that polarization that we see across the electorate, folks still want the same basic things out of this life. 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.”

Alise Marshall, senior director of corporate affairs and impact, PInterest

“You shouldn’t respond to every single (political issue) because it goes to an issue of authenticity. 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. And then… that consistency builds trust. It builds authenticity in your employee base and your consumer base.”

Elizabeth Monteleone, chief legal officer, Bumble

“This search for the Holy Grail of how to communicate with Gen Z is the wrong question. Gen Z and Millennials are more similar to people of different age groups in the same archetype.”

Leah Johns is founder of Bain & Company’s Global Consumer Lab

The idea of a quarterly meeting (ex. town hall) that follows the same exact format with the same speakers, should be sunset. You have to be flexible in how your executive addresses their team and who they pull in to help them do the storytelling.”

Christina Furtado, director of AI Communications, Dell Technologies

“We are in a shattered glass media environment — no one media outlet is most important. Now a hypertargeted, multi-platform approach is needed.”

Emily Teitelbaum, chief communications officer, Libra Group

“When you’re pitching, pitch people, not headlines.”

Audrey Jackson, corporate communications manager, United 

“We need to be able to write better. Providing well-written content to journalists makes the job easier.”

Tonya McKenzie, CEO, Sand & Shores