VIRTUAL WORKING SESSION

October 7, 2026 | 1:00 p.m. CT

By the time most communications teams learn a deal is happening, the decisions that shape announcement day have already been made. The strategy team spent months building materials to persuade a buyer, an acquisition target or a group of investors. Communications gets a couple weeks, or even just a few days to turn those materials into messages for the people whose jobs, accounts and day-to-day life are about to change.

As soon as the deal crystallizes, four stakeholder clocks begin to tick: employees; customers and partners; investors and the board; and media and analysts. Each starts counting down at a different moment, then ends when that group is notified. The risk is identical in all four cases. A clock runs out before you are ready and they hear it from someone other than you.

In this two-part series, Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications founder and CEO, and Emma Chase, the firm’s director of client success and services, will map the timeline leading up to Day 1 and how to impact each stakeholder group well beyond the announcement—when the clocks reset with a new set of communications objectives.

In Part 1, they’ll discuss why it’s crucial to run a cross-audience health check before there is a deal to announce, how to translate due diligence into resonant stakeholder messaging, and ideal integration management set-up based on recent client case studies. 

For marketing and communications teams preparing for mergers, acquisitions, funding rounds, strategic investments or exits, you’ll walk away with: 

1. A stakeholder health check built to run on an ordinary Tuesday, not in the week before an announcement.

2. A four-clock map showing which stakeholder group is closest to finding out, what starts each countdown and who controls the interval.

3. The read-in sequence: when the integration management office forms, who sits in it and how early to brief people.