KC IABC Business Communicators Summit

Amplify! Elevate Your Voice, Expand Your Impact
KC IABC's Business Communicators Summit, one of the region's largest gatherings for communications and marketing professionals, returns to the KU Edwards Campus with an exciting roster of expert speakers and local leaders. Don't miss your chance to:

• Network with peers and like-minded professionals
• Navigate the industry's evolving landscape
• Gain knowledge, insights, and skills that you can apply every day!
  

Whether you're in corporate or nonprofit, internal or external communications, BCS offers something for everyone. Breakfast and lunch will be provided, as well as a post-conference happy hour!

Breakfast Panel Coming Soon

Breakout Session 1

In today’s competitive landscape, successful full-funnel Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategies require a deep understanding of the customer journey and data-driven content that engages at every touchpoint. This session will explore how to identify key stages in the journey—from awareness to advocacy—and what content resonates most at each stage. Learn how to develop content and advertising tactics backed by measurable KPIs that prove their impact. We’ll also discuss best practices for gaining buy-in across your organization, from leadership to sales and operations, ensuring company-wide alignment. Plus, discover tools that can accelerate your marketing strategies and develop content more efficiently.

• Learn how to map key customer actions at each phase of the buyers journey
• Build content and communication strategies to meet customers where they are
• Identify KPIs at various points on the buyer's journey
• Explore easy tech tools to help you along the way

How do you create brand ambassadors across a growing enterprise while ensuring they embody the culture of your organization? Learn how to define your culture, educate your team on what it is and isn't, and provide a guide that everyone can use to live it. This impactful methodology uses a proven Harvard Business Review approach and creates brand ambassadors out of every associate.

• Learn how to clearly define your culture using a Harvard Business Review methodology.
• Discover how to tie your culture to your values and brand.
• Identify tools you can give your team to live your culture every day

According to a 2024 Mercer workforce trends report, 80% of employees risk experiencing burnout this year. And half of communications professionals have considered quitting their job due to burnout. In this presentation, participants will embark on a journey from stress to success, guided by a science-based five-step process designed to help you, your team and your business recover from burnout, regain motivation, and maximize productivity and engagement.

• Understand the impact of burnout and stress
• Explore the science-backed methods to banish burnout
• Learn strategies to manage burnout for leaders & teams (preventative & treatment methods)
• Create a personal burnout management plan

Luncheon Keynote Coming Soon

Breakout 2

Aaron will be showing demos of how Generative AI is being used by enterprise companies to exhibit the utility of the technology. He will walk through a day in the life of how GenAI can be used at your company with demos. He will then go over enterprise concerns that you should be considering as you bring GenAI into the fold of your company's capabilities.

• Find out about the capabilities of Generative AI on the Google Platform
• Explore how businesses are actually using Generative AI today
• Learn how can you remain safe and secure with this new technology

Planning an effective campaign begins with understanding your audience and their needs. It's not about what you want to tell them but what they need and want to hear. To do that, it's important to understand what customer drivers are, what they care about and what will get their attention. There are many ways to discover that. We'll go over the different methods to gain insights, and how to use them to build your campaign. We'll also talk about post-launch measurement to see what went well and how to improve your next project.

• Understand why it's important to understand what matters to the customer
• Explore different ways to capture insights pre- and post-campaign
• Find out how to ask the right questions in surveys
• Learn how to setup a campaign for success and measure effectiveness

In today’s digital landscape, your brand’s online reputation is more important than ever before! Your future, current and soon-to-be customers care about other’s experience with your brand. 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. This means that most people use online reviews to determine whether or not they should do business with you. (DemandHub). Learn how to strategically and methodically manage the conversations around your brand to drive customer loyalty, retention and awareness. We'll share case studies highlighting how strategic reputation management can drive revenue and prevent negative viral brand exposure.

• Turn your customers into brand champs who advocate for you!
• Manage customer reviews across multi-channels.
• Create and use a response library.
• Report on reputation and determine your brand's strengths and weaknesses.

Breakout 3

While it’s vital for businesses to be on social media, it’s not necessarily effective to be on every platform. Whether you’re looking to grow your business, a personal brand or both, Maggie provides key insights on how to build your social presence on the right platform(s). She’ll dive deep into each of the core social media platforms - outlining how they work, ways to win and answering the key question “should I be on this platform?”.

• Determine which platforms are best for your business
• Identify platform opportunities and use them to garner engagement around your content
• Differ your content so it’s best optimized for each platform
• Recognize the differences between Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and X

Some of the most important tools in a communicator's crisis kit are knowing the risks, managing organizational dynamics and adopting a more agile response method. Today's crisis techniques are easy-to-use frameworks that engage the right leaders at the right time with the message of the moment. We'll learn from recent real-world examples. We'll navigate through organizational structures and how leader relationships are essential AND may be the #1 framework missing from your toolkit. Finally, we'll touch on responses and how frameworks enable an efficient response while engaging larger teams to fully respond.

• Lessons learned from recent crisis examples.
• How to be intentional with building relationships with your organization's leaders and why it makes a difference during crisis response.
• Using frameworks that simplify breaking down the crisis in manageable response steps. (Spoiler alert: bye-bye 50-page crisis plans.)

Join data communication specialist, Erin Waldron, as she unpacks the most common blunders professionals make as we try to share our data in presentations, reports, and visualizations. These mistakes are predictable and pervasive, and they are likely undermining your own efforts to engage stakeholders with your organization’s most important data. You’ll walk away with a step-by-step roadmap to guide your next data project, fully equipped to avoid the most common potholes and ready to create a new path towards meaningful data communication with your audience.

• Discover which charts you should use to visualize your data, and which data charts types you should avoid
• Learn data storytelling techniques to make your data truly engaging
• Understand how to tailor your data presentation to your audience

Turbo Talks (Attendees will select 3, 15 minute sessions)

Can you stretch your marketing automation program all the way across the customer journey like Chi Chi Rodriguez’ head piece in the final scene of the movie “To Wong Foo”? Don’t stop at monthly or weekly promo emails, use your whole wardrobe, aka marketing automation, and think beyond a tan cardigan that “gets the job done.”

Are you an introvert struggling in an extroverted world? Discover how introverts can excel as communicators and marketers. Join us to discuss strategies for thriving in an externally-focused profession.

We all want to be successful yet, sometimes, we get in our own way. Come learn mindset and motivation tricks to help take your solo business to the next level.

Get a quick introduction to what goes into producing a successful podcast. This session will cover the top things to consider when getting started and some lessons learned along the way.

Learn how to use AI to snag those cold leads, warm them up, and turn them into buyers without lifting a finger. It’s time to stop letting good leads slip through the cracks and start automating the engagement process like a pro.

In the dynamic field of business communications, the path to success can take many forms. Whether you’re contemplating a managerial role or thriving as an individual contributor, this session will help you explore the best direction for your career.

Data is essential for business communication in the 21st century, but too often the charts we build look boring, dated, and sometimes, downright ugly. Enter the Data Visualization Design Checklist. You'll leave this turbo talk with a streamlined step-by-step process to transform any chart or graph from boring to beautiful.

Learn how a communication audit can give you the data and recommendations to level up your organization’s communication. We’ll explore what to expect during the audit process, how to make a compelling case to leadership, and most importantly, how to effectively use audit results to drive meaningful change.

Learn best practices for your LinkedIn profile, so you have all the right things in place to attract job offerings or new business.

Speaker Bios

Jessica Best has over 15 years of experience in email marketing, CRM, and permission-based data-driven marketing. She’s helped clients drive revenue from customer data in industries such as Restaurant and Hospitality, Travel, Retail, eCommerce, Nonprofit, Universities and more. She's taught marketers from New York City to Barcelona, from Vancouver to Dublin, and even at SXSW Interactive in Austin. Jessica is the Owner and Chief Strategist of BetterAve, a consultancy focused on implementing the marketing best practices and MarTech harmony she preaches on stage for her clients.

Aaron Blythe is a cloud architect with a deep understanding of cloud services related to data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data engineering. Eager to help companies build the thing that will differentiate themselves from their competition in the quickest way possible, Aaron is genuinely interested in understanding things and making them better. He currently focuses on Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning, Data Science, DevOps culture, sharing and tooling.

Angela Connelly cultivates customer loyalty for T-Mobile as a senior marketing manager. She originally joined Sprint in 2019 as a brand strategist prior to the merger. In her role at T-Mobile, she is responsible for creating integrated, omni-channel marketing campaigns based on customer insights and data. Angela has led numerous marketing and communications functions spanning branding, digital and content strategies, PR, and social media management. In addition to tele-communications, she has also worked in hospitals and health care, as well as agencies and financial services for military members. Angela has been highly involved with IABC for many years, and was named the KCIABC Arthur E. Lowell Communicator of the Year in 2022. Angela is passionate about helping young professionals launch marcomm careers, and is dedicated to lifelong learning.

Copywriter by day. Freelance Rockstar by night. Julie Cortés lives, breathes, teaches, speaks, and coaches on all things creative self-employment. She’s run her own business for more than 25 years, is the founder of The Freelance Exchange of KC, and created a much-needed college-level course, Freelancing 101, for the KC Art Institute, where she taught as an adjunct professor. Awarded dozens of times over for her work, leadership, volunteerism, and community involvement, she’s regularly sought out for business coaching, media interviews, and speaking engagements. Julie is loving life, living out her passion for helping creative freelancers succeed.

Jessica Crozier is a Senior Manager of Content Marketing at Global Payments where she directs content strategy and development, and campaign planning and execution. Jessica has a passion for digging into audience insights and industry trends to meet consumers where they are in their buying journey and guide them to the best solutions for their needs. Prior to joining Global Payments, her experience includes managing in-house social media teams in the bridal industry and leading content marketing at a full-service advertising agency, where she managed content marketing campaigns, social media, and public relations for clients in grocery retail, healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing and other industries. Jessica has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas.

founded Gather Media Co. in 2019 after working in-house for brands as well as for an agency. Her experience includes public relations, social media management, reputation management, crisis work, content development, messaging, copywriting, paid search, website development and branding. She’s touched many verticals from restaurants to beauty to city government. Her diverse experience has enabled her to grow her agency each year, treating each client's business as if she were marketing her own. Katie’s client portfolio list includes Main Event, Sarku Japan, City of Roeland Park, Wings Out, GFL and more!

Maggie Glenski is an award-winning advertising leader who gained expertise in content strategy and development by managing some of the most memorable brands in the world – Gatorade, Tropicana, Intel, Dannon, ExxonMobil, and Toyota. After working in global ad agencies like VML, BBDO, and Dentsu for 10+ years, Maggie left her job to follow her dreams of being a mom and female founder. Through her company, Wrinkle's Content Studio, Maggie partners with ambitious founders to grow their business through high-quality content and strategic thinking that you’d typically see from large agencies, at a fraction of the cost. She’s a content strategist who specializes in helping founders grow through intentional social media, email and blog content.

As Chief Marketing Officer for McCownGordon, Sheri Johnson leads the firm’s marketing and brand strategy and plays an instrumental role in driving the company’s strategic plan. She oversees a team focused on brand building, corporate marketing, vertical market initiatives, sales support, internal communications and customer experience. Sheri also serves on the company’s executive team, which sets corporate strategy and provides enterprise leadership. She was recognized as a Women Executive – KC by Ingram’s Magazine in 2024, a Kansas City Business Journal Women of Influence in 2017 and an Influential Businesswoman by Kansas City Magazine in 2013. Sheri was also recognized as a Rising Star in Philanthropy in 2011 by NonProfit Connect. Sheri is immediate past chair of the Greater Kansas City Chamber’s Executive Women’s Leadership Council and currently serves on the board of the Kansas City Area Development Council where she is on the executive committee, as well as the Advent Health South Overland Park Hospital, AdventHealth Foundation and Goodwill of Western Missouri & Eastern Kansas boards.

David Klasser is a 12 year marketing and sales specialist building lead engagement systems that build pipeline. He’s worked with 62 businesses across 21 industries, generating over 21,000 leads and $25 million in client revenue. As founder of the first-ever Lead Engagement Agency, David teaches small businesses how to sell to the “97%”— leads who aren’t ready to buy yet but can be converted with the right approach. Known for his unique and unconventional lead engagement strategies, David has trained 32 sales reps and led campaigns for brands up to $400 million in revenue. He lives in Kansas City with his wife and daughter, where he’s proud to be both a #girldad and a lifelong Chiefs fan.

Driven by people and their stories, James Maiden enjoys the human aspect of communication. At McCownGordon, his role focuses on keeping every team member informed and engaged by working across the enterprise, and with senior leadership. An advocate for his community, he's the past chair of the McCownGordon's Pride (LGBTQIA+) Business Resource Group and sits on other committees in the company. He's an active member of the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce with the Programming Committee and leads their ERG program. Maiden is often found around Kansas City with an iced coffee in hand running a company event, at professional development events focused on making the region a more inclusive place, or studying for his MBA.

Laura Nguyen is an award-winning, experienced marketing executive and entrepreneur. For 20 years, Laura led high performing marketing teams for consumer brands and B2B companies. After experiencing burnout, she created an exit plan with an intentional career break. She is the author of Career Break Compass, a book to help leaders refresh and recharge through intentional time off. As a certified executive coach, Laura helps high-achieving professionals go from burned out to balanced. Laura is also the founder of Solle Solutions, a marketing consulting firm specializing in performance and digital marketing.

Julie Nurski is a dynamic and award-winning communicator with a flair for transforming complex ideas into engaging plans. With over three decades of experience, she has spearheaded innovative communication strategies at top firms like Burns & McDonnell, Black & Veatch and Sprint Nextel. Julie’s knack for strategic planning and writing has earned her prestigious accolades, including the IABC Gold Quill and Bronze Quill awards. A passionate leader, she founded the Kansas City Internal Comms Club, a trusted network of internal communications professionals who share information, best practices and experiences. Julie holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri and is a Prosci-certified change champion, always ready to tackle new challenges with creativity and insight.

serves as the COO/CMO at Gather Media Co. and has been on the team since its inception in 2019. She is a restaurant marketing expert, but she's not exclusively a restaurant marketer. Lessons she learned in the trenches of restaurants, paired with her Public Relations education and fine-tuned through 15+ years of marketing a wide range of brands and industries on all channels, have made her a versatile marketing professional. Some may say she's our Swiss Army Knife - digital, social, paid, email, print, direct, event, outdoor, radio, TV, influencer - you name the marketing, she's done it. Susie’s client portfolio includes work on TGI Fridays, Boudin Bakery, Nickel & Suede, Dave & Buster’s, Pollo Campero and the list goes on.

Clients count on Kate O’Neill Rauber for communications counsel they can trust. She has extensive experience in media relations and crisis communications and is a skilled C-suite writer who thrives in fast-paced, high-profile and ambiguous environments. Kate advises top brands in industries such as healthcare, financial services, insurtech and professional services. She is a fractional PR leader for companies during times of transition, guiding executive, internal, external, and crisis communications while identifying top talent to rebuild teams. Her media relations expertise stems from her time as a corporate spokesperson and leading teams that annually facilitated hundreds of press interactions. Kate has guided companies through complex and sensitive matters including social/political issues, high-profile investigations, fraud, identity theft, mass layoffs and executive personnel matters.Kate has her MBA from Avila University and earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and political science from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she serves on the school’s Board of Trustees.

Janine Smiley is a communications leader that focuses on simplifying the complex to achieve extraordinary outcomes. Her business experience includes working for both private and public companies that specialize in professional services, agriculture and consumer packaged goods. Janine’s communications background includes media relations, crisis management, C-suite communications, audience persona development and content creation. Her crisis specialty areas are product recalls, employee/employer controversies, and regulatory investigations. She has been a featured speaker on the topics of reputation management and de-escalating issues in social media channels. Janine received a bachelor’s degree in business communications from Missouri State University and a Certificate in Disruptive Innovation from Harvard Business School Online. She serves on the board of Flourish Furniture Bank, a nonprofit that provides whole house furnishings for people transitioning to permanent housing.

A poetry major turned data analyst, Erin Waldron’s approach to analytics is firmly rooted in the humanities. Her work draws heavily on storytelling and design, with a steady eye on the intended audience. An exceptional teacher, inspiring speaker, and fully-fledged data geek, Erin founded Data Dozen to make data analysis more approachable. Her data workshops have been hosted by corporations, nonprofits, and universities across the nation, including Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, and Yale University, among many others. Based in Kansas City, her people-first approach and unwavering enthusiasm continue to set Data Dozen apart.

Lynn Zimmerman, ABC, SCMP®, is CEO of Swing Communication, where she works with leaders to strategically communicate change to their employees. She has more than 25 years of experience in internal and change communication and has been an independent consultant since 2018. She has been a part of more than 40 acquisitions, multiple capital projects such as Workday and SAP implementations for large global corporations and other large-scale business transformation projects. She has worked for Sprint, ConocoPhillips and IHS in strategic communication roles and her client list includes fast-growing companies such as Hensel Phelps, Domtar and Papa Johns. Lynn is an award-winning strategic communicator who is an active member of IABC and currently serves on the IABC Colorado board. She is a past president of KC/IABC and a past chair of the IABC Southern Region. Lynn earned her Strategic Communication Management Professional® certification from the Global Communication Certification Council in June 2024. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in business communication from the University of Kansas. Lynn is based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

BEST Conference Center, 12600 Quivira Road, Overland Park, United States