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!

Real Engagement: Harnessing Connection, Conversation And Community To Engage Employees And Empower The Social Enterprise

It can be challenging for individual employees to find their place in a large, geographically distributed enterprise. There's also a difference between what a worker is required to do and the higher level of performance they're capable of accomplishing. While terms like discretionary effort and employee engagement were introduced into the lexicon as recently as the early 90s, they actually find their roots in studies of morale funded by the US Army that date back to the 1920s. What they saw then is what we see now: individuals are motivated by intrinsic factors like personal growth and common purpose to a much greater extent than extrinsic ones like pay and reward. Tap into this and you will earn REAL ENGAGEMENT.

When individual employees are engaged in the workplace, everyone benefits. Studies show that there is a direct relationship between employee commitment and revenue growth. By encouraging feedback, collecting peer-generated success stories, sharing them across corporate and departmental boundaries, you cultivate your greatest competitive advantage – your employees – to earn discretionary effort, attract talent and win loyalty.

In this workshop, you will be shown how connection, conversation and community have meaningful applications for the work you do, educating and informing the organization, recognizing and retaining the best employees and creating a culture of shared accomplishment.

• Engage and mobilize a distributed audience
• Tap into what your employees really care about - their opinions and attitudes and the conversations that matter most to them
• Move individuals in your network from connected to contributing
• Measure knowledge of company strategies and vision, products and services and impact and how moving the needle on this awareness can impact culture and performance
• Identify future stars and leaders, true ambassadors within your ranks that can help propel innovation

These tactical lessons will be based on real examples and best practices from leading corporations.

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
Refreshments will be provided during this session.

Intranet 2.0: How To Integrate The Latest Social Media Tools And Technologies To Foster Better Collaboration, Engagement And Measurable Results

The social media phenomenon has gathered a significant amount of momentum over the last few years. 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 and your organization? 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?

Join this interactive workshop and learn proven ways of identifying the right technologies or social media platforms to achieve your organization’s strategic objectives. In addition, you will:
 

• Learn how 750+ organizations from all around the world are using intranet 2.0 tools. Prescient’s recent Social Intranet Study (sponsored by IABC Research Foundation) will give you an exclusive look into how and to what extent organizations of all sizes are using social media on their intranet. The global perspective of the survey, in addition to the presenter’s commentary, will allow you to develop a new understanding and appreciation for intranet 2.0 tools that is difficult to attain elsewhere.
• Review case study examples of blogs, wikis and other social media tools from IBM, Cisco, Sony, Siemens, 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."

How To Blend Social Media & Traditional Communications To Engage Employees, Drive Performance And Add Value

Employees who are more engaged at work are happier, healthier and more productive. However, most organizations find it difficult to cut through the clutter, get employees' attention, and sustain interest long-term. The key: effective internal communications that incorporate traditional and new media in ways that are right for your organization.

• Learn how employee segmentation can help you effectively target messages and communication media
• Find out about ways to measure the effectiveness and Return on Investment (ROI) for communication
• Design a road map to help your organization communicate more
  effectively with employees

This workshop will lead you through a series of exercises and share key learnings from the internationally renowned Towers Watson global Communication ROI study.

WORKSHOP LEADERS: Adam Wootton is a Senior Consultant with Towers Watson specializing in the delivery of social media and collaborative technologies to employees. 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, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, Malaysia and Australia.

Testimonials From Past Towers Watson Sessions:

"Great information and presentation style."

"Practical information, clearly and simply presented."

"Great presentation."

"Good presenter, enthusiastic."

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

Internal Communication And Measurement: Making The Connection For Your Communication’s Strategy

Internal communications: Overhead or a key contributor to the bottom line?

That question is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and in this session we make friends with the gorilla in a language it understands – metrics.

This workshop is for those who have a need or desire to demonstrate a relationship between internal communications and corporate business metrics.

We will take a look at the ROI (Return on Investment) of internal communication and how to take either hard dollar or ‘soft’ achievements and transform those into significant and meaningful numbers. We will gain a better understanding of corporate and organizational dashboards and how to link communication strategies to those measurables.

This timely and hands-on workshop will explore exactly how to build your own ROI calculator for internal communications and we’ll conclude by taking a renewed look at the variety of tools in the communications arsenal including some newer strategies and even a surprising tool that is often overlooked – the lowly screensaver – and some unique case studies as to how ROI helped to fund communication strategies.

Sharpen your ability to measure the effectiveness of your internal communications strategy and hear lessons and partake in exercises on how to:

• Develop a better understanding of the metrics that matter to your organization
• Build an ROI calculator for internal communications
• Know your tools!
• Fund internal communication efforts thru ROI

WORKSHOP LEADER: Entrepreneur and columnist, Andre Godfrey is President/CEO of Entre Computer Services and a fixture in the information technology industry. Entre Computer Services Inc. is the developer of EScreenz™, a uniquely successful communication application that takes the humblest of communication tools- the lowly screensaver – and transforms it into an application that won the GREAT award for innovation in communication technology.

Andre serves on a number of industry and non-profit boards and is actively involved in a wide range of community activities. Andre founded the college scholarship award associated with the Rochester Women's Council's choice of Young Woman of Distinction. In addition, the highly prized, IT Woman of the Year Award is another event in which Andre gave its start and the college scholarship award associated with that as well. His technology column can be found in Rochester Engineering Society’s monthly magazine.

Andre and his wife, Melinda, live in Bushnells Basin, New York and enjoy family, music, bad golf and their two dogs, Chicago and Mikey.