I've never been on a cruise ship in my life.
My only reference point is watching episodes of Below Deck, which I'm pretty sure doesn't count as research.
(Although it’s pretty entertaining to be fair)
But I'm fascinated by cruise ships. Perhaps it’s the sheer SIZE of them that intrigues me. They’re so huge they’re basically floating cities. We're talking restaurants, fully kitted gyms, casinos, theatres, spas, multiple bars... the whole shebang. And it’s all moving across the ocean while thousands of crew members keep everything running smoothly.
And I’m guessing that these crew members come from dozens of different countries around the world, speak different languages, work different shifts. They're living AND working on a ship that's constantly moving between time zones.
So it does make me wonder: how does internal comms work on cruise ships?
How do you keep thousands of frontline workers feeling connected, informed and proud when they're scattered across multiple ships and they might not share a common language? How do you build belonging and culture when your "office" is in the middle of the ocean?
I'm super nosy about this stuff. And I'm determined to find out the answers to these questions.
Do you want to find out too?
Join me on March 10th for a peek behind the curtain at Virgin Voyages
For the first time ever, Workvivo's Comms Show is going on the road and will be broadcast live from Virgin Voyages in Miami. You can join online from anywhere in the world.
This event will go behind the scenes of one of the most unique, diverse and frontline-heavy workforces in the world. And damn straight I’m going to be watching, taking copious notes and learning.
Are you going to join me?
Meet the speakers
Now this event caught my eye because it includes speakers that I’m very excited to hear from directly. They are comms practitioners with deep expertise in connecting with frontline workers, years of experience running comms on cruise ships and they’ve even won awards for their work.
(Consider me impressed!)
Speaking at the event from Virgin Voyages is Alaina Julia, Senior Manager, Internal Brand & Communications.
Alaina has rolled out inclusive leadership training across Virgin's entire fleet. She's launched their internal Leadership Unplugged podcast and has facilitated training sessions in Athens and Australia. She knows a thing or two about reaching a workforce that isn't sitting at desks.
And we also have Paola Ortiz, Senior Manager, Crew Experience. Paola started at Virgin Voyages as employee number 100, seven years ago. She's been there for the launch of all four ships and has welcomed over 5,000 crew members to the company. She won their top employee award and she was literally singing "Don't Stop Me Now" alongside crew and passengers as they sailed into New York harbour to introduce their newest ship to the world.
Paola is someone who understands frontline culture at a deep level.
What you'll learn at this event:
- How internal comms works when your workplace is literally moving between time zones
- How Virgin Voyages reaches and engages crew across land and sea
- How they maintain the famous Virgin culture [pride, belonging, energy] across a global and wildly diverse workforce
- What "frontline-first" really looks like in practice
- Real examples you can try out in your own organisation
Plus: how they're using AI
Here's something else I'm curious about. The Virgin Voyages team are big advocates for AI and are treating it like a strategic priority across the business.
They're using AI to help scale communications globally to create consistency across different roles, shifts and regions. They're also building AI agents that pre-vet and refine content before it even reaches the comms team.
I want to hear more about this because it sounds like they're using AI to make their comms team more strategic, not more redundant. That's the dream, right?
This event will be candid with real stories, lots of behind-the-scenes insights and honest perspectives from people who are running internal comms for Virgin Voyages.
The details:
📅 March 10th 🕐 11am EDT / 3pm GMT 📍 Online 💰 Free
If you can't make it live, register anyway so you can get the recording afterwards.
This event is for you if you want to know how to make frontline workers feel genuinely connected and proud, even in the most challenging circumstances. It’s also for you if you’re just curious and hungry for more knowledge, like me.
Thanks to Workvivo for sponsoring today's newsletter and for hosting these awesome events!
See you there?
Thanks for reading and stay curious,
Joanna
Find me on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and check out my book
Want to work together?
- Join The Curious Tribe. This is my membership community for ambitious, curious communicators who want to achieve more in their roles and have fun at the same time. Membership allows you to work directly with me for 12 months, make deep connections with other communication pros who 'get it' and improve your skills through training and learning. More info here.
- Ready to review your channels and content but don't know where to start? Download my practical Internal Comms Audit Playbook to guide you through a DIY audit - no expensive consultant needed. This has ready-to-use templates and checklists to give you a systematic way to do your own audit which you can repeat every single year. Get it here.
- Take a shortcut. I've developed a collection of tried-and-tested templates, checklists and how-to guides for the key processes you'll need in your role as an internal communicator. You can download my Internal Comms Cheat Sheets here.