8:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast & Networking

8:30 a.m.
Goals, Growth, And Gaming:
Understanding How The Social, Digital, And Mobile Tools Available Can Help Promote Your Business And Brand

Join us for this informative thought-proving session led by Dr. Wootton. This session will provide you with a framework for understanding how you as a communicator and marketer can better understand the new techniques and technologies available to you to promote your business including:

• Understanding the different goals for different communication tools and techniques
  
  Providing content for your users to share -- the key to viral growth
  
  Knowing that control is critical - how to give it up
  
  Increasing your impact through the use of games and gamification

The session will focus on the reasons behind the different tools and techniques and show practical examples of all components.

Adam Wootton, Founder and CEO
ZumFun
Conference Chairperson

9:10 a.m.

Idea Exchange: Questions, Feedback, Collaboration

9:15 a.m.

How To Utilize Video As Part Of A Digital Branding Strategy

When the Racine County Convention and Visitors Bureau undertook an extensive marketing revamp, re-branding itself as “Real Racine”, there were multiple distribution channels to address as the brand was rolled out.  Once the logo, print standards and new website were all addressed, the next logical phase was how best to utilize social media.  Given the explosive growth of video, how could they harness the power of YouTube to further establish the Real Racine brand while engaging with their target audience of women ages 35-54? 

This informative session will provide you with insight on how Real Racine utilized storytelling and documentary video to tell stories in a genuine and engaging way.  You will gain tips and techniques inside the process they undertook to develop a successful video content strategy and key points to consider before, during and after content development, including how to:

• Develop a successful video content strategy for your organization and brand
• Get the most “bang for your buck”  by utilizing your content across multiple distribution channels
• Find resources for funding content development
• Understand why paid promotion is a crucial part of the mix

Dave Blank, President & CEO
Real Racine

Denise Roberts McKee, COO
AboutFace Media

9:45 a.m.

Idea Exchange: Questions, Feedback, Collaboration

9:50 a.m.

Morning Refreshment & Networking Break

10:00 a.m.

How To Use Online Reviews In Order To Generate Demand For Your Business: Creating A CompanyWide Strategy To Embrace Outstanding Service As A Component Of Your Marketing

With 200 million unique monthly visitors, TripAdvisor is the world's most influential Travel Website. The opportunity to excel on TripAdvisor is available to any hotel, in any price range for little to no cost. What it does require is companywide strategy embracing outstanding service as a component of marketing.

This session will provide you with the practical steps the Library Hotel Collection implemented to achieve and maintain the highest rankings on TripAdvisor in New York City year after year, which is a model that can be replicated by anyone looking to organically increase brand awareness, loyalty and demand, including how to:

• Enhance (or replace) every other sales and marketing strategy you are currently using -- your reputation is the most powerful marketing tool you have
• Inspire positive reviews
• Avoid negative reviews
• Turn a negative review into more future bookings for your business

Adele Gutman, VP, Marketing & Sales
Library Hotel Collection

10:30 a.m.

Idea Exchange: Questions, Feedback, Collaboration

10:35 a.m.

Vendor Panel: Understanding The Latest Trends In Travel Buying Through Social Media

Are you utilizing social media to drive business results? Are you interested in sharing your best techniques and tools to achieve this?

Panelists:
Contact conference director, Erin, for details on how to become a panelist.

11:20 a.m.

Morning Refreshment & Networking Break

11:30 a.m.

Developing A Content Strategy -- From Scratch -- That Can Be Used Across Multiple Marketing Channels

This forward-thinking session will provide you with tips and techniques needed to enhance your content strategy, despite the channels you're using, including how to:

• Develop powerful content from scratch
• Prioritize your efforts to mazximize the use of your financial and human resource means
• Maximize your efforts through experimentation

Lindsay Young, Digital Marketing
Urban Adventures

12:00 p.m.

Idea Exchange: Questions, Feedback, Collaboration

12:05 p.m.

Protecting Your Brand: How To Effectively Utilize Your Social Media Tools To Communicate During A Crisis

Integrating traditional tactics and social media are crucial in order to handle a crisis successfully and prevent any long-term damage to your brand. Royal Caribbean Cruises regularly utilizes its social media tools including their website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter in order to keep the public and media informed during a situation or incident.

This session will provide you with tops and tools to that will assist you in effectively using social media during a crisis, including how to:

Successful manage your crisis communications when an incident occurs

Make your company the main source of information for all stakeholders, including media, guests, family members and potential customers during a crisis, leveraging social media to communicate

Integrate traditional tactics and social media in order to handle a crisis successfully and prevent any long-term damage to your brand

Cynthia Martinez, Director, Global Corporate Communications
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

12:35 p.m.

Idea Exchange: Questions, Feedback, Collaboration

12:40 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.

Adam Wootton, Founder and CEO
ZumFun
Conference Chairperson

12:50 p.m.
Close Of General Sessions

1:30 p.m to 4:00 p.m.
Complete your conference experience with
Post-Conference Workshop D!

Take the information you gained from the general sessions and focus on your individual needs and applications. You will leave this hands-on workshop inspired and ready to embark on your own social media journey.

Using Social Media To Convert A Crisis Into A Positive For Your Brand

With over one billion connected, social media allows every current (and potential) customer to play the role of an ambassador for your organization. Which sounds good, until it all goes bad.

One unhappy tweet, one negative Facebook status update, one dissatisfied Yelp or TripAdvisor review can spark a social media crisis with astonishing swiftness and result in a damaging effect on the brand. As such, social media can be an unforgiving place for your brand. Or, with the right finesse, it can be a very forgiving place—allowing you to amplify your service recovery and make long lasting brand fans.

In this workshop, we will:

• Review social media crisis case studies.
• Discuss key takeaways for future application.
• Detail best practices for creating an action plan to help handle social media crises.
• Explore tools & tricks for monitoring to make sure you know about impending crises before they explode.
• Dig into a hands-on handling of a simulated crisis.

The goal is for you to leave the workshop with a clear action plan to help handle a social media crisis, as well as an understanding of the various stakeholders you will need to involve in the planning process. Ultimately, this workshop will assist you with ways to act quickly and effectively if such a social media crisis were to hit your organization.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Jon Paul Buchmeyer creates and implements social & digital media campaigns, and has handled social media crises, for a range of travel, lifestyle and financial services brands. Clients have included Absolut, Ecco Domani, The Economist, Levi's, Loews Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, JDV Hotels, Rosewood’s Little Dix Bay and Jumby Bay, Samonsite, Seabourn, Wella, Wells Fargo and Whole Foods Market, among others. As a journalist, he is an expert on social responsibility, regularly contributing to Condé Nast Traveler. His blog is Poptimistic.com @jpbuchmeyer