Rising like ashes from Phoenix

Last week I had the pleasure and privilege to attend Attune, a conference put on by Firstup in Phoenix. I learned a lot -- but not what I expected.

While the keynotes were great, the workshops enlightening and the tacos tasty, the most valuable part of the experience for me was spending time with a few others who run boutique agencies in the employee experience space (Ann Melinger, Andrea Greenhous, Jason Anthoine among them). Look, folks get into this line of work for a lot of reasons, but most of us didn't go into the employee communications profession expecting to become billionaires. You have to be genuinely interested in the work, fascinated by the infinity of human relationships, excited by trying creative explorations of stuff that shouldn't work, intrigued by the ineffable forces of group culture and human experience...it's a quirky list that I'm sure could be made much longer with a little more thought...but suffice it to say, I just loved connecting with 'my people.'

And this is where I have to tip my hat to Firstup CEO, Nicole Alvino and the conference emcee, Chuck Gose : they get that community is the most powerful marketing and communications 'tactic' deployable. At the Page Society Spring Seminar in April, I heard a keynote from the great Mark Schaefer in which he said the best communities are all about "communion, purpose and progress." I keep thinking about that.

Bring people together around a purpose that you can make a dent in and you've 'won.'

Sure, Firstup makes solid software -- and by the way, the demonstration of applying AI to audience segmentation building? Chef's kiss! ???? But the thing that made the event so powerful for me was having the opportunity to connect with and learn from a bunch of other lunatics who think work doesn't have to be dreary and workplaces can be interesting, fair, profitable, and even fun.

Ok, ok, I was absolutely delighted to debut my team's at Integral's research in a workshop about the Integral Index, but even more so to learn from Tiara Kesler about 3M's employee advocacy program, Tyler Wenger about advanced placement microapp deployments, Joel Charles Yates about reaching front line associates, and from so many other practitioners who bring their creative sparks to changing the future of work, for good.

Oh...I also got to play with the sweetest rescue pups, thanks to Kristin Hancock of ICology , who brought the love by sponsoring their presence at the event.

Oh, and why "rising like ashes?" Well, when I returned home to Brooklyn my apartment was flooded by the heavy rains. I ended up spending the past few days being literally bailed out by my neighbors and metaphorically bailed about by my family, friends and fellow Integralistas who came together to support me, my sons, my wife, and our pets as we recover.

I'm telling you, communion, purpose, progress...ftw!