Steven will pull back the curtain on what it’s like to write in the White House. He’ll offer advice on building a strong relationship with a principal: learning their voice, earning their trust, and shaping their message. And he'll share his thoughts on the delicate art of crafting high-stakes, highly scrutinized remarks—from the campaign trail, to the Rose Garden, to Air Force 2.

Our world is undergoing the greatest communications revolution since the invention of the printing press. Suddenly, every email, every keynote, every billboard speaks with the same polished tone of artificial perfection. How can you stand out in this sea of sameness? And how can you use AI without losing yourself to it? Drawing on his experience writing for leaders in the White House and the C-suite, Steven Kelly, former Chief Speechwriter to Vice President Kamala Harris, will offer his thoughts on crafting a message that breaks through in the age of AI. 

Internal comms is hard. But there are some CEOs and organizations getting it right. Drawing on his experience advising some of the best corporate communicators in the business, Steven provides practical lessons about how to get internal comms right. (As well as some memorable stories about what happens when internal comms goes wrong.)

Natural disasters. Global pandemics. Geopolitical unrest. As a White House speechwriter, Steven spent years writing in high-stakes moments when audiences were anxious, facts were few, and every word mattered. In this talk, he shares practical lessons on how leaders and their teams can communicate through uncertainty with clarity, candor, and humanity.

Audiences are more skeptical than ever — of institutions, corporations, leaders, and anything that sounds too polished to be true. Drawing on his experience writing in the White House and advising Fortune 500 CEOs, Steven Kelly shows why the old rules of “spin” no longer work. This talk offers a practical guide to communicating when trust is low and attention is scarce.