Jump-start your conference experience by attending these interactive and practical workshops. These information-packed sessions are a great opportunity to network with fellow attendees while taking a hands-on, common-sense approach to mastering strategic internal communications strategies that will enhance your understanding of the informative, case study presentations throughout the entire conference.

******  Your Choice of FOUR Workshops   ******
Attend them all for Maximum Value and Learning!

How To Use Social Media Technologies To Enhance And Improve Your Intranet And Other Internal Communication Efforts

The social media phenomenon has gathered a significant amount of momentum over the last few years. More than 87% of medium-to-large organizations have implemented, or are testing, piloting or evaluating at least one intranet tool. Just about everyone wants to rollout social media, but not everyone understands how to do so most effectively and how it can significantly enhance the internal communications within an organization.

Does the brave new world of social media and Web 2.0 excite as well as concern you? Given the runaway popularity of Twitter, Mashups, Facebook, blogs, and many other web-based forms of communications and networking, perhaps you have been wondering about the possibilities and the risks for your organization?

• Learn the real numbers on what is being done (and not done) from Prescient’s annual Intranet 2.0 Global Study
• Review case study examples of blogs, wikis and other social media tools from IBM, Cisco, Sony, Siemen’s, and others
• Gain knowledge from lessons learned and get key recommendations for undertaking an Intranet 2.0 and internal branding initiative
• Dispel the confusion and discover the exciting promises as well as the challenges of using Web 2.0 tools

WORKSHOP LEADER: Carmine Porco, General Manager & Vice President of Prescient Digital Media, has over 18 years of experience in the areas of Internet consulting, IT management, and software development. His strengths include employee self-service, content management, e-learning, customer care and Internet commerce primarily in the financial, government, health, energy and retail sectors. Carmine runs the Toronto practice and operations and provides strategic counsel to numerous clients across North America including California Association of Realtors, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Royal Bank (RBC Financial Group), Greater Vancouver Regional District, Tourism PEI, Ontario Realty Corporation and others.

Testimonials From Past Carmine Porco Sessions:

"Excellent, usable tools and suggestions. This was a real help for
building the business case."

"Very engaging—lots of great tips and ideas to try. Spoke at our level.
Good information and handouts."

"Great presentation. Very accessible and relaxed. Well done!"

"Excellent, personable communicator. Well informed and good humored."

11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. - Afternoon break/lunch on your own

1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
PRE-CONFERENCE AFTERNOON WORKSHOP B

Reputation Building From The Inside Out: How Internal Communications Leaders Can Drive Results And Protect Their Organization's Most Valuable Asset

If the global recession has reminded business leaders of anything, it’s the realization of how valuable and vulnerable their reputations really are. Earning the trust and loyalty of employees during these challenging times is a key driver in reputation building and serves as a distinct competitive advantage.

This captivating workshop will share insights from a study that surveyed over 100 CEOs and communications leaders from some of North America’s largest and most successful organizations.  The results point to some compelling risks and exciting opportunities for strategic internal communicators.

• Identify dangerous internal reputation gaps that exist and how they can be bridged
• Break down internal communications silos to build employee trust and engagement
• Leverage social media to transform employee skeptics into reputation ambassadors
• Understand CEO expectations and misconceptions about communications

WORKSHOP LEADER: Heath Applebaum, M.C.M. is the Owner and Principal Consultant at Echo Communications, a strategic communications consulting firm. He is an international award-winning communications professional with more than a dozen years of internal and external communications experience working with executives and business leaders to build internal engagement and reputation. Heath is also a Business Management Instructor at McMaster University and holds a Master’s Degree in Communication Management from McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business.

Reinventing The Role Of The Communication Function From Tactical Implementers To Strategic Change Managers

Every organization is besieged by conflicting demands from multiple stakeholders—shareholders, customers, employees, regulators and others. The ability to meet these demands is critical. Organizations that manage this change well will win and those that don’t won’t.

An increasing number of communication professionals are leading successful change initiatives. To do so they need to adopt new thinking, processes, skills and knowledge because managing communication to change is very different from managing communication about change.

Communicating about change is a reactive approach. It reports on what is about to happen or what did happen. Managing communication to change is a different animal. It recognizes that communication breakdowns prevent people from doing their best work. In order get the most from your people, you need to remove the communication breakdowns. Breakdowns might include mixed messages, inaccurate information, slow-moving information or non-existent information.

• The difference between the traditional communication management role and the new value-adding role
• Measurable results your peers have created around safety, quality, service, cost, productivity and speed
• How to measure your current value to and ways you can add at least three times more
• A change management and performance improvement process that you can begin applying the day after the workshop
• Proven techniques to sell your leaders on making the shift from a tactical implementer to a strategic change manager
• How others have used the above shift to dramatically advance their careers

WORKSHOP LEADER: As Leader of the Jim Shaffer Group, Jim Shaffer is internationally recognized as a thought leader in improving business performance and managing large-scale organizational change. He has helped many business leaders in a variety of industries significantly improve and sustain operating and financial performance while achieving exceptional returns on the investment made in generating the improvements. Jim’s book, The Leadership Solution (McGraw-Hill), is regularly included in the top “must have” business books on leadership, change management, communication and creating high performance through people. Jim received IABC’s prestigious Fellow award, the profession’s highest recognition.

Testimonials From Past Jim Shaffer Sessions:

"Succinct. Great to hear a presentation that was so tied to bottom line."

"Whether communicators know it or not, our profession is in the middle of a significant transformation. This approach has provided a clear path to how I can help the company deliver sustainable, measurable financial results – and change what leaders expect from a communication organization. To call this work game-changing for me personally and professionally would be an understatement."

"Good content. Proven results. Helpful ideas. Great examples!"

11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. - Afternoon break/lunch on your own

Building The Business Case For Social Media

Companies around the world intuitively understand that incorporating social media and Enterprise 2.0 technologies into internal and customer facing initiatives is important. Yet after reading success stories describing what other companies have achieved, even the most enthusiastic supporters often run into a difficult question: How does one make the business case for the needed investment, or even the opportunity cost, to actually implement social media? In this workshop, you will learn a methodology for answering this question.

• Selecting specific business priorities
• Understanding the application of social media
• Building stakeholder buy-in
• Determining and presenting your program’s ROI

The session will differentiate between emerging trends and common practices by reviewing case studies from leading companies.  You will leave this interactive workshop prepared to evaluate and incorporate the use of social media in your organization for both internal (e.g., recruiting, rewards) and external (e.g., call center support) facing purposes.

WORKSHOP LEADERS:  Adam Wootton is a Senior Consultant with Towers Watson specializing in intranet and portal solutions. His main focus is on enabling organizations to provide their employees with social media and collaborative technologies behind the firewall.   Adam has been working with Towers Watson for more than 10 years in both the US and the Sydney, Australia office. He has worked on projects in many countries including the US, UK, Germany, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, Malaysia and Australia.

Jacqueline Taggart is a Senior Consultant within the Communication and Change Practice in the Toronto office of Towers Watson.  In this role, Jacqueline is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of communication programs for a diverse range of client needs.  She is also active in client development and relationship management.  Before joining Towers Watson, Jacqueline spent several years as a principal with a large Canadian consulting firm, was the Director of Integrated Services at Sun Life Financial, and managed the Communication team of Financial Trading and Settlement Systems at Reuters Canada.

Testimonials From Past Towers Watson Sessions:

"Great information and presentation style. I thoroughly enjoyed this."

"Practical information, clearly and simply presented."

"Well informed, personable with a lot of great examples. Excellent and engaging speaker. Content was pertinent and useful."