Agenda

In today’s information environment, a rumour, misleading post, or influencer-driven claim can spread before an organization has time to verify the facts. For Canadian health communicators, the challenge is no longer just responding to media inquiries—it is protecting trust in real time while navigating privacy, public concern, polarization, politicization and fast-moving online narratives.

This panel discussion explores how health organizations can move from reactive damage control to proactive trust-building. Participants will examine how to monitor emerging misinformation/disinformation/mal-information, decide when and how to respond, work with credible messengers, and communicate clearly to maintain trust with your audience(s), reduce risk and support organizational priorities.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Understand how health communicators can take a leading role in navigating and responding to false health information

• Which initiatives from public health and healthcare organizations are showing promise

• Discover how partnerships from trusted messengers can counter the spread of false health information

We’re often told that success comes from working harder, moving faster, and out-hustling everyone around us. But what if the opposite is the actual truth?

As notifications multiply, platforms proliferate, and expectations continue to rise, many non-profit and public sector professionals are finding themselves stuck in a constant state of overwhelm. The result isn’t just stress, it’s also reduced focus, creativity, and effectiveness.

This session explores why modern work feels so overwhelming, how technology is reshaping our attention, and why calm may be the ultimate competitive advantage. You’ll leave with practical tools to reduce cognitive clutter, reclaim your focus, and create the space needed to do your best work.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding why we never felt “caught up”
• How a client-focused, entirely self-funded agency manages this issue
• What you can do to reclaim your focus, cut out the clutter, and open up more time to do your absolute best work
• Get a practical roadmap on turning chaos into calm
  

AI is changing how healthcare communications teams work—from drafting content and monitoring media to identifying issues earlier and tailoring messages for staff, patients, and the public. Drawing on use cases and trends from UHN, this session explores where AI can create immediate value for communicators.

Participants will also examine how to use AI responsibly in a healthcare setting, with attention to privacy, accuracy, approvals, brand voice, and human oversight.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Spot practical AI use cases and apply AI to content, media monitoring, audience insights, internal communications, and issues management.

• Move faster without losing trust by balancing speed with accuracy, privacy, tone, and human review.

• How AI is being used in other healthcare settings, and what communicators need to know about clinical and operational use of AI

In a crowded information environment, healthcare organizations can no longer rely on announcements alone to earn meaningful media coverage. To break through, communications teams need to identify stories that matter beyond the walls of their organization—stories connected to patient impact, system pressures, community need, innovation, workforce, and public trust.

Create organic media attention by spotting newsworthy moments, package complex healthcare issues for journalists, build stronger media relationships, and prepare leaders and spokespeople to speak clearly, credibly, and confidently.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Turn programs, data, partnerships, milestones, and patient outcomes into timely, relevant story angles that media audiences care about.

• Create concise, credible pitches with a clear hook, strong proof points, human impact, and spokespeople who can speak beyond corporate messaging.

• Connect organizational stories to broader healthcare trends, seasonal pressures, policy conversations, and local community concerns.

This fast-paced, highly structured networking session provides every participant to “give” practical experience to their colleagues, while also having the benefit of “getting” actionable input to move one or more of your priorities forward (engagement, social media, partnerships, media relations, leadership —everything is open for discussion).

Outcomes (what attendees leave with):

• 1 clarified challenge/opportunity statement

• 4-6 peer-generated ideas or examples to test

• 2 concrete next steps + 1 new connection to follow up with

Healthcare communicators are under growing pressure to prove the value of their work, but traditional digital metrics are becoming less reliable. Bots, inflated impressions, passive engagement, and platform changes can make dashboards look impressive without showing whether people actually understood, trusted, or acted on the message.

This session explores how communications teams can move beyond vanity metrics and build measurement as a learning system. Participants will look at how to define meaningful outcomes, connect communications activity to behaviour change, and use measurement not just to report success—but to improve strategy, messaging, and decision-making over time.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Measure what matters by shifting from clicks, impressions, to reach the indicators of behaviour change, such as action taken, service uptake, sentiment shifts, message recall, or reduced confusion.

• Understand how bots and platform noise distort metrics, and use triangulation—surveys, referral patterns, call volumes, qualitative feedback, and operational data—to validate impact.

• Build a learning system and create a measurement cycle where results inform the next campaign, helping teams test messages, refine audiences, improve trust, and demonstrate value to leadership.

CHEO partnered with YouTube to create a bilingual mental health video series informed by the most frequently searched mental health conditions on the platform.

The approach uses real search behaviours as a strategic foundation, ensuring content directly reflects what youth are actively seeking help for. The series tackles high-need topics such as anxiety, ADHD, depression, and substance use through authentic storytelling and clinical expertise

It also demonstrates how trusted institutions can meet audiences in-platform, rather than expecting them to come to traditional channels

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Using search and platform data as a content strategy engine

• Partnering effectively with major platforms like YouTube

• Translating complex or sensitive topics into accessible, youth-centered storytelling

• Building trust, credibility, and reach simultaneously

Violence against healthcare workers continues to rise across the country. Behaviour that would be unheard of in most workplaces has become a daily reality for healthcare providers. At St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton alone, four healthcare workers are assaulted every day. That’s why St. Joe’s communications team launched a bold public awareness campaign designed to start conversations and bring awareness to this issue. The campaign included an in-person exhibit, video series and digital education hub that centred the experiences and voices of healthcare workers who live this reality everyday.

This session will explore the objectives behind taking a bold stance on violence in the workplace, the development of the campaign from concept, to design, to creative development and production, which was all done by an in-house team, and the feedback and impact generated following its launch.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Practical insights into building sensitive communications campaigns
• Engaging internal and external audiences
• Using storytelling to drive awareness and change around complex healthcare issues

Session description TBA

Branding in healthcare is about more than a new name, logo, or visual identity—it is about trust, purpose, and how patients, staff, communities, and partners experience the organization.

This panel explores how healthcare organizations have approached branding and rebranding with clarity and credibility. Panelists will share lessons on stakeholder engagement, internal buy-in, community response, rollout planning, and how to balance bold change with the trust healthcare brands depend on.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Start with strategy: define the purpose, audience, promise, and story before creative work begins.

• Bring people along: engage staff, physicians, patients, and community partners early to build support.

• Launch with consistency: align messaging, visuals, and internal communications so the brand feels authentic and sustainable.

Healthcare communicators cannot always reach every audience alone—especially when communities have different needs, levels of trust, or preferred ways of receiving information. This panel explores how strategic partnerships can help communications teams extend reach, strengthen credibility, and create sustained momentum. The discussion will also highlight the importance of internal partnerships, ensuring communications is involved early enough to help shape strategy—not just promote decisions after they are made.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• How to extend your reach through trusted partners that work with organizations and community voices you need to engage

• How to increase credibility and strengthen trust by coordinating messages with respected partners, leaders, and subject-matter experts

• How to create momentum inside and outside the organization by planning partnership moments beyond launch day and bring communications into strategy early

Recruitment and retention are no longer just HR challenges—they are organizational reputation challenges. In a competitive healthcare labour market, communications teams play a critical role in shaping how current and future staff experience the organization: what they hear, what they believe, and whether they see a future there.

This session explores how healthcare communicators can support workforce strategy by building stronger employer brands, telling authentic staff stories, improving internal communications, and helping leaders communicate with transparency during periods of pressure and change. Participants will learn how communications can move beyond campaign support to become a strategic partner in attracting talent, strengthening engagement, and retaining the people who deliver care.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Turn employer brand into a recruitment advantage: clarify what makes your organization a compelling place to work and translate it into consistent, credible messaging across recruitment channels.
• Use storytelling to build connection and trust: highlight real staff experiences, career pathways, team culture, and mission-driven work in ways that feel authentic—not overly polished.
• Strengthen retention through internal communications: support leaders with clear, timely messaging that recognizes staff pressure, celebrates contributions, and reinforces belonging.
• Measure what matters: connect communications activity to workforce outcomes such as candidate engagement, application quality, onboarding experience, staff sentiment, and retention indicators.