IoIC Festival 2026 IoIC, The Institute of Internal Communication

We are actively seeking speakers for the 2026 Festival. This is your chance to showcase success, present new insight and discuss them with fellow IC professionals.

We would also like to hear from people outside the profession – perhaps you have an amazing CEO that puts employees at the heart of the organisation or a manager who is championing a particular issue and doing amazing things? If you think an audience of internal communicators would be interested then please do answer our call for contributions – you have until Friday 16 January.

Festival Themes

AI and Tech
Share how you’ve used or implemented AI and technology within your internal communication strategies to enhance effectiveness, enable smarter ways of working, or support the ethical and human-centred adoption of emerging technology across your organisation.

Change and Transformation
Share how you’ve led communication through cultural, structural, operational, behavioural, or system change - helping people understand, connect, embrace and adopt transformation across your organisation.

Connection and Conversation
Share how you’ve developed and implemented internal communication that fosters genuine connection among employees and with leadership, driving meaningful conversations, embedding listening and feedback, and building a culture of community and belonging across your organisation.

Content and Storytelling
Share how you’ve created messaging and stories that capture attention, build understanding, and inspire action to make internal communication clear, engaging, and meaningful.

Culture and People
Share how you’ve used or developed cultural intelligence and people insight to drive and support an effective organisational culture through internal communication that builds cohesion, inclusion, and performance.

IC Impact
Share how you’ve delivered measurable impact through internal communication by driving organisational goals and achievements, collaborating with stakeholders, aligning strategies and demonstrating the value of internal communication.

Leadership Communication
Share how you’ve strengthened leadership and management communication through coaching, visibility, and authentic dialogue, creating more empathetic, connected, and effective relationships between leaders and their people.

Sustainability and Ethics
Share how you’ve used internal communication to bring purpose to life, embed ethical practices, and build understanding and engagement around your organisation’s sustainability strategies and social impact goals.

What can I submit?

As part of all the themes, we would be looking for:

Inspiring stories, creative thinking and case studies
Evidence of your IC impact
Innovative approaches to your IC tactics
What you learned that you think others would benefit from too
All sessions must have practical tips that Festival Goers can use in their roles

Please include these in your submission.

We also want to include a breadth of content so are looking for contributions across all levels of internal communication practitioner, from new to the industry to Heads of and everything in between.

We would like to hear from people who:

Have a speech or presentation on a subject that is important to internal communicators
Have a case study that shows great internal communication in practice, that others could learn something from
Design and deliver/host interactive workshops
Would like to be on a panel to discuss one or more of the themes
Another idea we haven't mentioned or thought of - we are always looking for creative sessions!

This is your chance to showcase success, present new insight and discuss them with fellow IC professionals:

What are you doing differently?
What are your best practices?
Are you pushing the boundaries in one of these areas?
What experiences can you share that will help your peers?

Hints and tips

Some tips for completing the form:

Please keep the contributions short - think of them as an elevator pitch
If you are an agency you must indicate if your client will also be part of the session
Please say what, if any, materials your session has e.g. slides
You must indicate what level of internal communication practitioner your session would be aimed at - you will only be able to choose up to two levels
Include how long your planned session would be (sessions will be no longer than 40 mins so please consider this in your submission)
Attach any relevant information
You need to say what the 3 takeaways/practical tips from your session would be - if you are successful these will be shared publicly as part of the line-up descriptions
We are keen to hear from people with new and innovative ideas
We would like to ensure our speakers come from a broad range of backgrounds, so we have included some demographics questions as part of the contribution form – these are optional
All contributions must fully outline the session you have planned/the experience you bring and all fields (with the exception of the demographics question) must be completed or we may not be able to consider your contribution

If you think our audience will enjoy hearing from you, then we will too.

You must be available on both dates of the Festival between 8.30am and 5pm. You will have a pass to the Festival on the day of your contribution, with a exclusive discount given for the other day, but you will be responsible for your own travel and accommodation.

Did you know, you could get CPD points for speaking at the Festival, see here for the CPD Activity Chart.

Contributions need to be with us by 5pm on Friday 16 January. Forms will be reviewed and contributors will be contacted by the end of February.

Unable to speak at Festival? Why not complete the overall contributors form and be added to our database.