Today's public information officers and spokespersons are navigating two forces that are reshaping the profession in real time: artificial intelligence and the relentless spread of misinformation and disinformation. In this session, crisis communications expert Dan Stoneking draws on his experience leading a nonprofit built around emergency management communications and a firm dedicated to message strategy to unpack what these forces really mean for strategic communicators - and how to turn them from threats into tools.

On the AI side, Dan will address the concerns weighing on many communicators, including job security, professional ethos, and reputation, and reframe the conversation around knowledge management: we manage the technology; it doesn't manage us. He'll walk through AI's evolution and the shift from broad, general-purpose generative tools to sharper, more focused AI applications (think the leap from VHS to DVD to streaming), and make the case that communicators can't afford to be left behind and should use every tool available to them.

On the misinformation and disinformation side, Dan will define the difference between the two and share a practical playbook communicators can put to use immediately, anticipating problems before they spread, monitoring the information environment, building a rumor control dashboard, spotting trends and triaging priorities, collaborating across teams, confronting falsehoods with facts and evidence, leveraging trusted third parties, emphasizing core values, capturing lessons learned, and exercising the plan before a crisis hits.

The session will close with an open Q&A, giving attendees the chance to bring their own AI and misinformation challenges directly to Dan.

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What You'll Learn

• How to address AI-driven concerns around job security, ethos, and reputation head-on
• A framework for managing AI as a knowledge tool rather than being managed by it
• The difference between general generative AI and focused AI and how to choose the right tool for the job
• How to define and distinguish misinformation from disinformation
• A field-tested strategy for anticipating, monitoring, and responding to rumors and false narratives
• How to build and exercise a rumor control dashboard before a crisis hits

About the Speaker

Dan Stoneking is the founder and vice president of the Emergency Management External Affairs Association, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting public information professionals in the emergency management space, and the founder of Message Prism, a communications strategy firm. He spends his days at the intersection of crisis communications, public affairs, and emerging technology, helping organizations and spokespersons navigate the fast-moving challenges of artificial intelligence and information integrity. Dan is the author of Crisis Communications and Emergency Management: Why Alignment Matters and How to Earn It and co-author of Cultivate Your Garden: Crisis Communications from 30,000 Feet to Three Feet, and writes regularly on emergency management, AI, and misinformation for HSToday.

Further Reading

Crisis Communicators Are Irreplaceable — HSToday

Emergency Management and Generative AI — HSToday

Confronting Misinformation During Disasters: Strategies for Crisis Communicators — HSToday

A change management panel discussion co-sponsored by IABC Philadelphia and PRSA Philadelphia

Change has become a constant for today’s communication and PR professionals. Reorganizations, mergers, workforce reductions, shifting business models, shrinking resources, and the rapid adoption of AI are reshaping not only how organizations operate, but also what is being asked of communicators and leaders.

As AI becomes increasingly capable of generating, analyzing, and distributing communication, our greatest value shifts toward what technology cannot replicate: our ability to read the human system, build trust, create meaning, surface what is unspoken, and help people move through change together.

That is the Relational Advantage—the human capacity to create the conditions in which people can navigate uncertainty, make meaning, build trust, and move forward together.

Because communication is what we send; relationship is what people experience.

In this session, we’ll explore how communication and PR professionals can use their Relational Advantage to better understand what is happening beneath the surface of change, help leaders anticipate how decisions will be experienced, and become more influential strategic advisors. We’ll also consider how AI can create greater capacity and efficiency while making distinctly human capabilities—judgment, critical thinking, discernment, trust, and relational intelligence—even more valuable.

Participants will leave with:

• A new lens for seeing change: Recognize the human and relational dynamics beneath the communication and better understand what resistance, trust, and unspoken concerns may be telling you.
• Practical ways to lead and influence: Strengthen your ability to advise executives, manage up, support teams, and help leaders anticipate how change will actually be experienced.
• A clearer perspective on AI and your evolving value: Use AI to create capacity while protecting and strengthening the judgment, critical thinking, discernment, and relational intelligence that make communicators uniquely valuable.

Participants will also receive practical handouts and tools to help apply the Relational Advantage in their own organizations.

About the panelists

Tracey Lukes is a professionally trained and certified executive leadership coach with advanced training in relationship systems coaching. As a facilitator and consultant, she helps leaders and teams navigate complexity and change by strengthening the human and relational dynamics that shape how people communicate, collaborate, make decisions, and move forward together.

Michele Roden has spent more than two decades helping leaders and teams become the best, most honest versions of themselves — together. As a Master Certified Coach (MCC), the International Coaching Federation’s highest credential, she brings the field’s highest standard of practice to every engagement, paired with a warmth and directness that makes hard conversations feel possible and productive. Michele co-founded BluOpal Consulting in 2003 and has since coached several hundred C-suite and senior executives across finance, technology, healthcare, and other complex, high- accountability institutions.

By Mia Linder – Ann Wiley, owner of Wylie Communications, loves to read. “I think if I could have found a job where they just let me read, I probably would have done that,” she says.

But the closest thing to reading? Writing.

Wylie was captivated by English literature during undergraduate studies at Kansas State University. She enhanced her skills by obtaining a graduate degree in journalism from the University of Kansas.

By Kaylee Holland - Growing up in a small rural farming town about an hour and a half from Philadelphia, I had little exposure to professional communications organizations beyond what I learned in the classroom. So, when I received an email from my professor announcing an internship opportunity with IABC Philadelphia, I was unsure what the organization was or what it could offer me. I had never heard of IABC before, and I questioned how it would be relevant to my future career. However, after spending just a few minutes researching IABC and its mission, I quickly realized how valuable this opportunity could be—especially as a young, aspiring communicator preparing to enter the professional world.

An interview by Kaylee Holland -

Q: What drew you to storytelling as the core of your work?
Rob Biesenbach explains that storytelling has always been embedded in his career as a communications and public relations professional. However, his passion intensified in the early 2000s when he began taking improv and sketch comedy classes at Second City. “That just was so mind-expanding and enriching,” he says. “It really deepened my understanding of storytelling and my passion for it.” Through that experience, Biesenbach realized that storytelling principles drawn from performance could be applied to help people communicate more effectively in professional settings.

By Kaylee Holland: After a few uncertain years in the job market, 2026 is shaping up to be a promising year for communications professionals—and Brooke Kruger couldn’t be more excited about it. As the founder of KC Partners, a firm specializing exclusively in communications recruiting, Kruger has had a front-row seat to the ebbs and flows of hiring across agencies, corporations, startups, and venture capital firms for nearly two decades.

by Kaylee Holland - Most organizations see innovation as complex, time-consuming, and reserved for a select few. But according to innovation strategist and author Carla Johnson, that belief is exactly what’s holding companies back.

By Kaylee Holland - The Philadelphia Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators is proud to announce the appointment of Rashi Iyer as its new chapter president starting January 1, 2026.

by Katrina Hook - As Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications at Radian, Rashi Iyer leads a wide-ranging portfolio that includes corporate and business PR, executive communications, crisis communications, philanthropy, and more. Her work not only shapes Radian’s narrative but also strengthens the company’s connections with stakeholders at every level.

By Kaylee Holland - The ability to negotiate, persuade, and influence others is essential for success in business communications. Understanding the psychology behind these abilities can set you apart from your peers by applying the tactics and seeing improvements in reaching your professional goals.