8:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast & Networking

8:30 a.m.
Chairperson's Opening Of Day Two

Graeme Menzies, Director, Communications
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Training Chairperson

8:35 a.m.

Experimenting With Social Media: How To Find And Engage Your Audience, Get Your Message Out And Track Your Progress

In 2009, the City of Regina, Saskatchewan experimented with social media as a strategy to increase engagement during the municipal elections. Three years later, social media is now firmly established and the 2012 election was the second "social election" in the City's history.

During this session, the City of Regina will share its lessons learned on how you too can use social media to increase engagement with your citizens, including:

• Getting your social media program off the ground and managing it as it evolves

• How to conduct surveys on social media usage and analyze the results
  
• Tools and techniques to determine the ROI of your social media efforts

Philippe Leclerc, Interactive Communications Manager
CITY OF REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN

9:05 a.m.

Your Opportunity To Ask Questions

9:10 a.m.

How To Incorporate Video Discussions Into Your Communications Strategy To Increase Citizen Participation

Audio visual tools are quickly becoming the most salient currency of social media. Google Hangouts is one such tool that is being used to engage the public in participatory video discussions about America's most pressing national issues.

Google Hangouts brings together up to ten active users, and dozens of additional viewers to meet in video groups to learn facts about the key issues, shared opinions and explore differences during these video discussions. Even more people can watch recordings of these conversations, which amplifies the impact of these efforts.  

During this session, you will learn how to: 

• Create a business case for hosting video discussions as part of your government activities
• Organize, host and record video discussions 
• Design a video conversation
• Navigate facilitation challenges and tactics of video discussions
• Strategies and tactics for participant recruitment

Susanna Haas Lyons, Public Engagement Specialist
SHL CONSULTING

9:40 a.m.

Your Opportunity To Ask Questions

9:45 a.m.

Digest Session: Brainstorm Solutions And New Ideas You Can Use

Whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or any of the other social media tools present today – there will always be concerns. Concerns of security, not having enough hands-on-deck to manage the platforms, or not understanding the ROI of a social media strategy. Discuss and brainstorm with fellow attendees and speakers how your agency was able to convince the pro’s of social media to upper level management.

10:15 a.m.

Morning Refreshment & Networking Break

10:30 a.m.

Social Media As Public Outreach & Citizen Engagement On Climate Change Policy

Among other things, British Columbia’s Climate Action Secretariat (CAS) engages citizens to support the Province’s goals for mitigating and adapting to climate change and developing the green economy. This includes educating the public about B.C.’s policies and leadership. e.g. the Revenue Neutral Carbon Tax; LiveSmart BC rebate incentives for home owners, small businesses and Clean Energy Vehicles; and the fact that every student, hospital patient and B.C. public sector worker are part of a system that is entirely carbon-neutral (net zero GHG emissions) since 2010.

The CAS Outreach Team leads the pack on social media adoption across the BC Public Service and has recently “hit their stride” having found a recipe for success using the right mix of tools and integration of platforms. In this session, you will discover tips and tricks (and ideas!) for how to engage with stakeholders, empower your coalition, manage public web presence, and streamline your communication channels.

By sharing some key success stories, lessons-learned, and how-to examples, you will discover how these experiences can be transferred into your own online objectives. To demonstrate achievements, the following topics will be covered:

• Introduction to LiveSmart BC branded messaging and social media presence.
• Using HootSuite to schedule posts, follow the community, track your audience, and measure engagement.
• Embedding media into web pages and blogs: Tweets, YouTube videos, Flickr slideshows, maps, etc.
• Crowdsourcing information, ideas, solutions, opinions and other content regarding policy direction.
• Using meta tags and other snippets of html/code to integrate your web properties with your social platforms.
• Implementing Facebook commenting (and moderation) into your blog to promote content virality.
• Analytics: a peek at HootSuite Reports, Facebook Insights, and other social metrics to inform best practices.
• Cross-pollinating: tweeting YouTube videos, Flickr photo links, public channels in a private online community.
• Holding online events such as Twitter Chats (hashtag) or community events (Facebook Page hosted), etc.
• Share buttons, Comment fields and Ticker widgets, oh my!

Trevor Barry, Carbon Neutral and Climate Outreach,
Climate Action Secretariat
BRITISH COLUMBIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT
@JazzyTBarry

11:00 a.m.

Your Opportunity To Ask Questions

11:05 a.m.

How To Create And Implement A Social Media Policy For Your Organization That Won’t Restrict Your Employees

Located in the heart of Canada’s Technology Triangle, Waterloo Region is community renown for innovation. And the Region of Waterloo has a well-earned reputation for finding innovative solutions to meet the challenges and needs of the communities it serves.

When communications staff needed to find new ways of involving and engaging the public in several significant planning and transportation projects that would have far-reaching implications for the entire community, they turned to what was then a new and innovative approach for reaching new audiences – social media.

While their early successes helped demonstrate the value of social media tools to the communication process, there were no formal social media strategies or policies in place at the Region.
 
During this session, learn how your organization should implement a social media policy, including how:

• A small group of staff championed the cause of social media
• A collaborative “pathfinder” approach can be used to develop a formal social media policy
• To give communication staff the freedom they needed to continue using social media tools while formal social media policies are being developed
• To use social media to successfully engage and inform the community

Keren Adderley, Coordinator of Communications and Marketing
REGION OF WATERLOO, ONTARIO
@adderley

11:40 a.m.

Chairperson's Closing Address: Social Media Pitfalls, Perils And Successes: What Your Organization Should Keep In Mind When Using Social Media

The online world is abuzz with stories of social media success and innovation. But what are the pitfalls and perils of this new mass-personal communication medium? How can you, as a leader within your organization, ensure your team’s efforts do not become the next great case study on what went wrong?

In this session, you will hear about the dangers and stories of social media gone wrong, which will help you identify – through participant engagement – remedies and best practices designed to keep communications flowing quickly and safely.

You will leave this session knowing how to help your organization become a case study of what went right when using social media!

Graeme Menzies, Director, Marketing Communications and Social Media
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

12:10 p.m.

Your Opportunity To Ask Questions

12:15 p.m.
Chairperson’s Recap: Key Takeaways And What To Do When You Get Back To The Office

We’ll recap the highlights of the past two days and ask you to share key insights and next steps with the group.

12:30 p.m.

Close Of General Sessions