Take internal branding from complexity to clarity through these interactive workshops guaranteed to jumpstart your conference experience. These workshops are a great opportunity to advance your learning and network with fellow attendees while taking a hands-on, common sense approach to mastering internal branding that will enhance your understanding of the informative case study presentations throughout the entire conference.

9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
MORNING PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP A
Registration and continental breakfast will begin at 8:30 a.m. for the morning workshop attendees.

How To Maximize The Effectiveness Of Your Internal Branding Campaign: Putting Five Brand Realities Into Practice

How do you successfully answer the ever-increasing challenge to grow your business, even in the face of slashed budgets? It's time to re-launch a service provided by your company in order to stay innovative (and stay ahead of the competition), but how do you make it happen successfully and without destroying your customers' trust? In other words, how do make near-miracles happen for your business and yourself? It all boils down to understanding the true essence of the brand and putting its truths into practice.

• Brands are about feelings, not about facts and figures. Understanding how employees and customers FEEL can reveal insights that conventional marketing research cannot and can be more valuable to creating long-term relationships and building brand value.
• The brand is the world's most powerful business tool, but is often the least understood. When it's time to aggressively grow the business, breathe new life into a product or service or even protect the company image during a crisis, your brand is your biggest asset.
• The brand is not part of the business; it IS the business (brand = promise = action = image). And executing on the brand strategy must be the responsibility of all parties, from the corporate CEO to the admin and from the agency general manager to the account executive.
• The little things you do are far more important than the big things you say. By following through on your brand promise, you foster trust among both employees and customers, thereby building brand value and encouraging business growth.
• Brand building is common sense, but could be more common in business. It's important for organizations to realize that every brand is a story -- that's how humans learn best. How will your story be told?

• Comprehend the five essential truths of branding and how to implement them within your own organization
• Create and/or strengthen your brand position statement
• Analyze your brand promise
• Evaluate your brand touch points
• Identify whether or not your brand touch points and brand promise are in alignment -- and make sure they're in sync

WORKSHOP LEADER: Daryl Travis is CEO of Brandtrust and for more than 20 years, he has advised some of the world's largest and best-known brands and counseled senior marketers on emotional branding. His clients have included American Express, Craftsman, Discover, Easter Seals, FedEx, GE, Harley-Davidson, HP, Kraft, Kimberly-Clark, Motorola and Tropicana, among others. Travis is a renowned speaker and author of a powerful book, "Emotional Branding: How Successful Brands Gain the Irrational Edge." He is also in the midst of writing a second book that will reveal how new understandings of brain science and psychology are making many old-line marketing and research methods obsolete.

Testimonials From Past Daryl Travis Sessions:

"Excellent information – the most worthwhile session I’ve attended in years!"

"Interesting, engaging, eye and mind-opening."

"Phenomenal session… well worth staying for."

"Best presentation overall!"

12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Afternoon Break / Lunch On Your Own

1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
AFTERNOON PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP B

How To Align Your Internal And External Branding Strategies To Maximize Effectiveness: A Three-Step Process For Success

Watson Wyatt's research tells us there is a powerful correlation between an aligned internal / external brand and financial performance. Yet how do companies go about determining which brand attributes to align and how do they make sure the employee experience reflects the brand promise?

• Why doing the work pays huge dividends to your company and your career
• The three steps to creating brand alignment
• Key functional partners in successful brand alignment
• Why change management is a critical success factor

In this workshop, you’ll see how launching a brand alignment initiative can bring success to your organization and to you. You’ll gain practical knowledge by using a three-step brand alignment process during small group exercises. Once your teams have created high-level brand alignment plans, we’ll take a look at opportunities and barriers to successful implementation. This highly interactive, practical workshop will give you a blueprint for brand alignment and implementation success.

• Establish an evidence-based brand alignment rationale to help position the work internally
• Use a practical process in hands-on, small group exercises based on real organization scenarios
• Determine how different functions’ perspectives can support or destroy your success
• Use critical change management skills to mitigate risk to your project

WORKSHOP LEADER: Kathryn Yates, Watson Wyatt's Global Practice Director for Communication, has led global brand initiatives and successful implementation as both a financial services line executive and a senior consultant. Kathryn is accomplished in all aspects of employee communication, brand alignment and change management using her particular expertise to help organizations develop strategies and programs to build strong, productive employee-employer relationships. She has spoken widely on the topic of effective communication, behavior change and evidence-based management solutions.