Hey Reader,

I spent last week in London at the Unite26 conference hosted by Unily. I thought I'd share some insights and reflections today on what the event was like, what I learned, what I'm still thinking about.

Price change for The Curious Tribe

Announcement: The Curious Tribe price goes up on 20th October

Before I get into today's topic, a quick heads up: on 20th October, the price of The Curious Tribe is going up from €1,499 to €1,999 a year.

If you've been thinking about joining, now is the time. Join before 20th October and you'll pay €1,499, saving yourself €500. And you'll keep that price every year you renew. Most members have their membership paid for through their L&D budget or training budget at work.

The tribe has been €1,499 since I launched in December 2023. Back then we were 11 members and a lot of enthusiasm. Today we're almost 100 members in 16 countries, and you get masterclasses, an exclusive video library, on-demand courses, a matchmaking programme, a discussion board and curated mastermind groups. Members rate the tribe an NPS of +81, and 85% of members renew for a second year or more.

The value of the tribe has grown enormously since I launched, but the price hasn't… until now.

You've got until 20th October to get in at the current price.

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Okay let's talk about the Unily conference. I've been to a lot of conferences throughout my career and most of the time I come home exhausted and a bit fed up. They're often boring, set in terrible beige conference rooms with weak coffee and fluorescent lighting. In general, it's fair to say I don't like attending conferences.

But this annual event by Unily is different, very bloody different! I think this is my favourite comms conference of the year. This year was extra special because not only was I surrounded by multiple members of The Curious Tribe, but I even spoke onstage with one of them.

Here are my insights into the event, which I appear to be writing in Oscars-award format for some reason, here we go!

And the winner for Best Speaker is...

Best Speaker: Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday is an author who has risen to fame for writing about the branch of philosophy called stoicism and how he links it to modern life. Stoicism is all about focusing on what you can control, letting go of what you can't, and staying calm and steady when life gets tricky.

His talk was quite a reassuring, hopeful take on how we can cope and live better in an era of constant change. He told stories about ancient Rome and Athens to show that change has always been part of being human, and change is quite normal and expected. And he explored how we can use the principles of wisdom, courage and justice to live well and lead a good life.

Ryan talked about the value of being curious, always learning, understanding that everyone has room to improve. He loves reading and he described reading books in a way I'd never heard before. He said that reading gives you a way to have "conversations with the dead", and that the best way to learn about life was to learn from other people's experiences and thinking, even after they've passed on. He also described reading as "a form of time travel" which sort of blew my mind, I had never thought about reading in that way before but he's absolutely right.

I was lucky enough to be able to ask him a question during the Q&A session. I said that a lot of people are telling us AI will make our work easier, but I think some of our work just IS hard, and really SHOULD be hard, because that's how we learn and grow. So how does he think about AI in that context?

He said that learning is important, and said that if you use AI to take shortcuts and skip the learning, then what's the point? What are we even doing? He gave the example of writing an essay for college. Sure, you could get ChatGPT to write your essay for you, but you'd be missing the point entirely, because the point was never the finished document. The point was to do the thinking it takes to create the document.

Now fun fact about Ryan, he owns a bookshop in his hometown in Texas and the only books they stock are ones that have been personally read and recommended by him and his wife. I had looked up his bookshop and I knew that they didn't stock one of my favourite books of all time, so of course I brought a copy with me and gave it to Ryan as a gift when we met backstage.

[The book is The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, a highly influential book in the second wave of feminism which explored the idea that perhaps not all women are totally fulfilled by housework and motherhood. I think this book is important now more than ever, given the right wing push of the tradwife lifestyle on social media.]

I'm hoping he reads the book, enjoys it and begins to stock it in his shop!

Look, Ryan deserves Best Speaker. His session was great and I enjoyed it so much. Btw he also had the best shoes at the event, maybe that's an award too:

Okay let's hand out another award. This award is for Best Newcomer and it goes to...

Best Newcomer: Laura Kennedy

Laura Kennedy is Director of Internal Comms with Life Time, a chain of luxury gyms in the US. She wins this award for being a newcomer to public speaking who is absolutely SMASHING IT OUT OF THE PARK.

Laura spoke on a panel with Adib Abrahim from American Airlines, Kaz Hassan from Unily and myself. We explored the topic of AI and how it's changing the work of internal comms pros.

Now Laura gets this award because when I first met her back in December 2023, she told me something: she said she was terrified of public speaking and it was something she never thought she'd be able to do.

She joined The Curious Tribe when the doors first opened 3 years ago and we began working together. I gently gently gently nudged her out of her comfort zone and here she is now, on stage with me at the biggest employee experience conference of the year, supremely confident, articulate and even getting laughs from the audience.

Nervous WHO?!

Laura is proof of the power of The Curious Tribe: it gives you the confidence to achieve things you never thought were possible. Getting to share a stage with her was a dream come true, and I am really very incredibly proud of her.

On the panel we talked about how AI is changing the world of internal comms, and pivoted the topic somewhat to investigate if AI really is changing our world as much as the hype suggests? Because when you look at it, the fundamentals of internal comms are still the same. You still need to know your audience. You still need to understand what action you need them to take. You still need measurable objectives, your work still needs to line up with the priorities of the business. You still need to measure and evaluate what you do, so you can show the value of your work and find ways to make it better. We need our thinking and judgment and curiosity for all of this work, AI isn't really changing in this space.

Now there was a question from the audience that I've been thinking about a lot since, mostly because I don't know the answer. Maybe you do. Someone asked what AI means for junior comms roles, given that AI is so good at execution and delivery and that's really what junior roles are all about. Early in my career, I spent all my time writing, producing, editing, formatting, publishing. But if AI is getting really good at doing that work now, what are the paths into internal comms for the next generation, and what does that mean for our profession in the long term?

I don't know the answer. I really don't. But I'll be watching very closely to see how it all plays out.

Alright time for another award. The award for Most Practical Session goes to...

Most Practical Session: Suzie Robinson

Suzie Robinson works for Clearbox Consulting. You may already know her as she is the brains behind the annual Clearbox Report that compares and reviews all the intranets, apps and platforms on the market for internal comms.

Suzie ran a session exploring the key things you need to think about if you want to have a successful adoption of a new internal comms platform. What I really enjoyed about her talk was how deeply practical it was. There was no jargon and no confusing corporate speak; instead there was helpful visuals, useful frameworks, really good questions to think about and tips for how to apply her ideas.

If you're not connected with Suzie you can find her on LinkedIn here and if you're looking for a new platform then you 100% need to have a look at her free report full of reviews and comparisons - you'll find that here. Suzie is fab and she's coming to talk to us in the tribe later this month about all things intranets and comms tools. Join us in the tribe to be in the room for it.

The "Rowdiest Attendees" Award

The award for Rowdiest Attendees goes to the multiple members of The Curious Tribe who attended the event. If you heard whooping, cheering, raucous laughter and general giddiness, it was likely us.

It was such a joy to spend time with tribe members in person again. We had all met at our in-person gathering in Barcelona back in April and it was just the most fun, warm, wonderful reunion.

Extra bonus points to Deniz who acted as our director of photography and helped us snap fab pics like this:

Fancy being part of the rowdy gang? Doors are open at €1,499 until 20th October. Click here.

Okay let's do two more awards. Maybe three, I'm enjoying this.

The next award is for Best Storytelling and this one goes to...

Best Storytelling: Bonita Norris

Bonita Norris is a mountaineer who climbed to the top of Mount Everest when she was 20 years old. She told a really evocative, emotion-infused story of her summit experience. She made really good use of photography, video and music throughout her talk to really bring the story to life and to make the audience feel involved and immersed. I swear the slides went blurry at one point, surely I wasn't shedding a tear at a comms conference?!

Now Bonita is not the first person that comes to mind when you think about an external speaker for a comms conference. She's a mountaineer! But my goodness it was so refreshing to hear from someone in a totally different industry, with a totally different perspective on life. She did draw parallels between her world and ours, which I did feel were a bit laboured at times, but her story and her method of delivery were top notch and I enjoyed it so much.

Fun fact about me: Mount Everest is kind of my special interest. Or maybe it's more true to say that the people who climb Mount Everest are my special interest. I've always been so fascinated by people who will literally risk their lives to get to the top of a mountain. You can bet your arse it'll never be me! I was lucky enough to meet Bonita backstage for a quick chat and it made my day to meet an Everest mountaineer in person.

And one final award because otherwise I could keep writing for another hour, the Best Experience award goes to...

Best Experience: Unily!

Now this made-up award is well deserved because attending this conference is always an incredible experience. The team at Unily are really masters at designing and delivering in-person events.

They have obviously put a huge amount of thought into how people will feel attending the event, how people can learn, how people can keep their energy up throughout the whole event. There are lots of breaks so you can chat with other people, the sessions are a well-planned mix of keynotes, panel discussions, smaller workshops and roundtable chats. The chairs are comfortable, the screens are easy to see, the microphones are good and everyone can hear what's being said.

And even the smaller details, things like drinks and food, it's all so top notch. At most conferences you have to wait for a specific break time to get a coffee or a cold drink - not at Unite. There are self-serve coffee stations available whenever you want, there are fridges full of cold soft drinks, there are snack stations with sweets and chocolate and popcorn and you can help yourself.

[Side note, did anyone try the duck-flavoured seaweed snacks? I didn't and I really feel like I missed out on a unique experience!]

Seriously well done to the whole team at Unily for pulling this off, and of course a special shout out to Kaz Hassan who has become the face of this event. I actually can't picture how it would be so successful without his approachable, warm and intelligent moderation style. He makes everyone feel so comfortable and welcome on stage and really helps to take the nerves out of the experience for the speakers.

Okay that's it from me, I enjoyed inventing these awards today, I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Thanks for reading and stay curious,

Joanna

PS. The Curious Tribe price goes up to €1,999 on 20th October. Join before then and pay €1,499 and keep that price every year you renew.

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