#1 Home Improvement Retailer
Content Compass 2020
When it comes to the world of content, “pivot” seems to be the word these days. The role of content to tell the right story, the right way, at the right time has never been more important.
That’s why this year’s theme is “What Matters Most.”
Now in its third year, The Home Depot Content Compass will once again feature insightful speakers and dynamic sessions to help you navigate your career and personal development.New this year, the event will be virtual and half-day.
Now in its third year, The Home Depot Content Compass will once again feature insightful speakers and dynamic sessions to help you navigate your career and personal development.
Point your calendar to this year’s Content Compass on Sept. 23, 2020.
Giving Kitchen provides emergency assistance to food service workers. Since the COVID-19 crisis reached Georgia, this stellar organization has provided over $433,400 in financial assistance to 270 food service workers in crisis. Hear from Jen Hidinger-Kendrick on what matters most to her.
Content that was perfectly acceptable back in February seems quaint, out of touch, or even inappropriate now. As content producers, we must ask ourselves: What matters most? In this panel, four content specialists from across The Home Depot dig into this year's theme in a discussion moderated by HDU Leadership Training Manager John Hembree.
Maggie Balistreri
Author
A self-proclaimed namer and taxonomist, Maggie's time is spent developing hundreds of ... More
Lisa DeStefano
Vice President, Brand Marketing & Creative, The Home Depot
Lisa DeStefano is vice president of Brand Marketing and Creative for The Home Depot. ... More
Kim Dimson
Senior Manager, External PR/Corporate
Communications, The Home Depot
A corporate writer with 15 years' experience, Kim Dimson holds the role of Corporate ... More
Gregg Foster
Manager, Online Creative Operations,
The Home Depot
As Manager of Online Creative Operations, Gregg Foster helps transform the needs of ... More
Yirayah Garcia
Creative Director,
Uniworld Group
Yirayah Garcia is a culturalist, creator and award-winning storyteller — but not the type ... More
John Hembree
Leadership Training Manager,
Home Depot University
John's career track has taken many paths, from being a Congressional aide to an executive film ... More
Jen Hidinger-Kendrick
Giving Kitchen Co-Founder, Spokesperson & Community Engagement Director
Jen, along with her late husband, Ryan Hidinger, is a co-founder of Giving Kitchen and ... More
Amanda Jurek
Technology Coordination Manager,
The Home Depot
Amanda Jurek is the Technology Coordination Manager leading Home Depot’s Orange... More
Cheryl J. King
Homer Fund Manager,
The Home Depot
Cheryl King is Manager for The Homer Fund, The Home Depot's nonprofit associate charity. ... More
Daithan Kitchens
Associate Project Manager,
The Home Depot
Daithan Kitchens joined The Home Depot in November 2019 after taking a mid-career ... More
Thom Lucarelli
National Creative Senior Director,
The Home Depot
As National Creative Senior Director at the The Home Depot, Thom Lucarelli is responsible for ... More
Rose Milan-Cramer
Senior Manager, Earned Media,
The Home Depot
Rosemary Milan-Cramer is a Senior Manager on the Earned Media team, leading 20 ... More
Melissa G. Saunders
Marketing Senior Manager,
The Home Depot
Melissa Saunders is Marketing Senior Manager at The Home Depot. Since joining in ... More
Barbara Vining
Senior Manager, Operations Process,
The Home Depot
As Marketing Technology Operations Senior Manager, Barbara Vining leads teams that ... More
Dave White
Business TV/Video Services Director,
The Home Depot
Dave White is the Director of Home Depot Television (HDTV), the company's internal ... More
The Richards Group
Agency of Record
Anna Scott Phillips, Brand Planning & Gary Gibson, Group Creative Head
The Richards Group is a Dallas-based branding and advertising agency. It is the largest ... More
Creative Group Head
Gary Gibson is a creative group head at The Richards Group, leading The Home Depot's national creative work since 1993. Trained as an art director, he's equally comfortable as a writer and handles the lion's share of The Home Depot's national radio advertising as well. Weekends will often find Gary practicing what he preaches during the week, immersing himself in home improvement projects.
Brand Planning
Anna Scott Phillips is a brand strategist who led strategic initiatives and research for The Home Depot's capabilities campaign, new tagline creation, and HD Home. This year, she's spent time with customers all across America, asking them a very important question: What do you hope for this holiday? From there, she's championed customers' wishes to reinvent Black Friday and, above all else, protect the spirit of the holidays this year.
9:00AM
Welcome -- Stacie Santana, Creative Services & Operations Senior Director, and Tobi Carvana-Moore, Content Program Copywriter
Panel Discussion -- Content that was perfectly acceptable back in February seems quaint, out of touch, or even inappropriate now. As content producers, we must ask ourselves: What matters most?... More
5 Minute Break
9:50AM
Can a dictionary be funny? Yes. With subtle wit and linguistic playfulness, author Maggie Balistreri identifies 40+ slippery terms from everyday life that call out our increasingly evasive lives. Listen to her take on words as cultural criticism and learn what not to, like, say.
Maggie Balistreri, Author, The Evasion-English Dictionary
10 Minute Break
10:30AM
As an essential retailer at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we needed to respond to what our customers needed most. In this session, learn more about the twists and turns of making our values the centerpiece of our marketing initiatives.
Lisa DeStefano, Vice President, Brand Marketing & Creative,
The Home Depot
5 Minute Break
11:05AM
For Pre-registered Attendees Only
10 Minute Break
12:00PM
Bias can make even smart brands get communication wrong. Find out what you should and should not think when creating content. Learn tips on how to see and do things differently during a revelatory session by the lead creative of Uniworld Group, our multicultural agency of record.
Yirayah Garcia, Creative Director, Uniworld Group
When our communities are in need, The Home Depot makes it a priority to help. Join Dave White, Director of HD Television as he shares the evolution of a proposed news platform's transformation to a visual series showcasing associates' acts of generosity, doing the right thing and exemplifying HD Strong.
Dave White, Business TV/Video Services Director,
The Home Depot
10 Minute Break
12:35PM
Meet the OrangeWorks team as they utilize technology to solve problems or satisfy needs within the business—specifically pivoting in a remote world where connection and engagement matter most. From 360 cameras for scenic office tours to a virtual reality pallet stacker training module for warehouse associates, you'll be immersed in all things tech within The Home Depot.
Amanda Jurek, Technology Coordination Manager, The Home Depot & Daithan Kitchens, Associate Project Manager,
The Home Depot
What matters most to Cheryl King? The Homer Fund, of course! Join Cheryl as she shares how The Homer Fund gives back to our associates. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Homer Fund has processed 345 grants for $1.3 million in assistance for associates in need.
Cheryl King, Homer Fund Manager,
The Home Depot
10 Minute Break
1:10PM
The holiday season of 2020 will be here before we know it. Get your bearings on how current events have affected the retail landscape with a research deep dive presented by our agency of record, The Richards Group, and find out how it will shape our advertising with our National Creative Senior Director, Thom Lucarelli.
Thom Lucarelli, National Creative Senior Director, The Home Depot & Anna Scott Phillips, Brand Planning and Gary Gibson, Group Creative Head, The Richards Group
How do you take an in-store experience that customers love and rapidly turn it into a virtual success story? Get the inside scoop on how the Workshops team took a change in direction and ended up in a very right place.
Melissa G. Saunders, Marketing Senior Manager,
The Home Depot
10 Minute Break
1:45PM
Giving Kitchen provides emergency assistance to food service workers. Since the COVID-19 crisis reached Georgia, this stellar organization has provided over $433,400 in financial assistance to 270 food service workers in crisis. Hear from Jen Hidinger-Kendrick on what matters most to her.
Giving Kitchen Co-Founder, Spokesperson & Community Engagement Director
Thank you for all your support for The Home Depot's third annual Content Compass!
Support
Your Content Compass committee and volunteers are available to answer questions at content_compass@homedepot.com. During Webex sessions, you can ask your hosts questions in the Chat.
If you need technical help with Webex, visit help.webex.com.
Panel, Sessions, and Keynote
All sessions will take place in individual Webex Events. You should have received calendar invites for each one from Marketing and Online Communications. If you are missing an invite for one or more sessions, please contact us at the support email address above.
To join a Webex Event, click the link in the meeting invite. A webpage will load with the session information. If the session has started, you will be able to click the Join Now button to enter. If the Join Now button is grayed out, refresh the page or try again a little later.
In the Webex Event, you and other attendees will be automatically muted, and your cameras will be turned off. To ask a question, provide feedback, or request assistance, enter your comments into the Q&A box. During the Q&A portion of a session, you may also click the hand icon to raise your hand so that your hosts can unmute you to ask your question verbally.
Networking Lunch
For those who registered for a lunchtime networking session, these will be done in a different, brand-new version of Webex Events. Be sure to click the link you received in your email to join the networking; it won't work otherwise.
After joining the meeting, your networking hosts will explain the activity and then break you out into sessions. When you are in a session, you will be able to talk and show video and chat to everyone in the session only. If you need to leave the session for any reason but you don't want to leave the entire meeting, click the red exit door button and choose "Leave Session." You will be able to rejoin your session by clicking the blue "Join" button in the upper right corner of the meeting.
Once the breakout sessions end, you will automatically return to the main meeting, where you will be automatically muted. Your hosts will then wrap up the activity.
Digital Swag
This year's swag pack is all digital. Here are instructions on how to use each item. If you have any trouble downloading, please try right-clicking and saving instead of left-clicking to open. If neither right- nor left-clicking works, let us know at the support email address above.
• Free eBook: The Evasion English Dictionary
The book is available in three formats: .pdf, .epub, and .mobi. Please select the one that works with your e-reader.
How to read .epub or .pdf files in Adobe Digital Editions (ADE): If you don't already have it, download and install Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) on your Windows or Mac computer, then open the program. Go to "File" > "Add to Library." Navigate to where you saved the .epub or .pdf file on your computer and select it to add it. In your library, double-click the ebook to start reading.
How to read .mobi files on Kindle in Windows: If you don't already have it, download and install Kindle for PC. (You will need to have a free Amazon account.) In File Explorer, navigate to the .mobi file that you saved, right click, select "Open with" and click on "Kindle for PC." The book should then open.
• Coloring Book Pages
To open these, you will need software that can open .pdfs, like Adobe Acrobat Reader. Open the files and print them out to color them.
• Video Backgrounds
To use one of the video backgrounds in Webex: Save the file to your computer. Then, in a Webex meeting, turn on your camera, click on the three dots in the bottom menu ("More Options"), and select "Speaker, Microphone, and Camera." Scroll down to the bottom of the Camera section and click on "Change virtual background." Click the gray rectangle with the + sign and navigate to where you saved the video meeting background image. Click on the file, click "Open," and finally click "Apply."
To use one of the video backgrounds in Microsoft Teams: Save the file to your computer. Then, in a Teams video meeting, click on the three dots (More actions) in the menu at the top right. Click on "Apply background effects," then click on "Add new." Navigate to where you saved the video meeting background image. Click on the file, click "Open," and finally click "Apply."
• Content Compass Playlist
Our Content Compass DJ has pulled together some tracks to get you excited and thinking about What Matters Most. To listen to the playlist, you will need a free Spotify account.