8:00 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m.

Chairperson's Welcome, Opening Remarks & Presentation:
Accelerating Your Communications Efforts To Engage, Inspire And Inform Employees

"If you always do what you have always done...
you will get what you have always gotten." - Unknown Author

If your organization is expecting to fundamentally change the way in which it does business, not only do you need to develop and implement a strategic communications plan to engage stakeholders, but traditional approaches to organizational transformations will not deliver the expected results. Organizational change requires new and fundamentally different transformational approaches.

This session will focus on how Capgemini has helped enable private and public sector clients to engage, inspire and inform employees using accelerated, innovative facilitation techniques, integrated branding solutions, and a collaborative communications approach.

• Create comprehensive, implementable and sustainable solutions
• Tackle complex issues
• Mitigate risks
• Develop detailed action plans
• Build commitment across multiple stakeholders
• Create urgency and momentum that result in action

Capgemini's collaborative approach to communication helps move key stakeholders along a "commitment curve" by providing people with information that is relevant to them and their roles. To ensure the right employees are engaged, a strategic and tactical communication plan is used throughout the lifecycle of the initiative to build awareness, create understanding, gain acceptance, and achieve buy in. This session will provide real-world examples, tools, and ideas for accelerating your communications efforts to engage employees to ensure commitment to organizational change.

Kathy Waetjen, Director of Marketing
CAPGEMINI GOVERNMENT SOLUTIONS

9:40 a.m.

Speed Networking

You'll have a chance to meet and greet fellow attendees in this fun and fast-paced forum.

10:30 a.m.

Ghosts, New Years' Resolutions and Other Agency Information: How To Create Simple Employee Polls That Gather And Distribute Important Information

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) started polling employees on October 31, 2007 with this question: Do you believe in ghosts? From this humorous beginning, a weekly employee poll located on the home page of GPO's intranet site caught on like wildfire. GPO’s Employee Communications Office uses their weekly polls to gather business-related information, to solicit suggestions, to entertain – and to provide education and resources.

• Use simple, commercially-available software to launch your own employee polls
• Promote the poll site to employees and encourage participation
• Create a mix of questions that gathers and distributes valuable information – and uses educational entertainment to keep employees coming back for more.

This session will provide a live demonstration to show how easy it is to create your own employee poll.

Jeffrey S. Brooke, ABC, Director of Employee Communications
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

Terri C. Ehrenfeld, Employee Communications Specialist
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

11:20 a.m.

How To Build An Effective Internal Communications Strategy That Engages Your Employees For Success

Communicating effectively and efficiently with employees is vital for the health of any organization. A well-informed workforce is crucial to meeting the goals of any public or private enterprise.

• The U.S. Mint successfully built and implemented an internal communications strategy
• Successes and failures of internal communications policies created who they are today
• Internal communications can survive in your agency
• To keep people engaged internally
• To create internal ambassadors for the external world

Greg Hernandez, Public Affairs Deputy Director
U.S. MINT

Join a group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated by one of our expert speakers. Take this opportunity to join others in a small, interactive group setting to network and brainstorm solutions to your most pressing internal communications concerns.

1:40 p.m.

How To Use Strategic Internal Communication To Engage Employees And Drive Organizational Outcomes

In this session, you will hear about an innovative, research-based approach designed to build and exercise 21st century leadership competencies. No one questions the important and vital role that managers play on employee performance and retention. Now, see how a long list of possible managerial activities and competencies was reduced to the "vital few accelerators" that have the most impact on improving both employee engagement and leadership effectiveness. Using this approach, time-oppressed managers can edit their "to-do" lists to retain only those activities that create positive energy by recognizing and appreciating what is working (success), which produces greater engagement and momentum for change; ultimately achieving "breakthrough" increases in organizational results.

• The value of using an appreciative inquiry-based approach to leadership development
• The "vital few accelerators" that drive outcomes of employee engagement and leadership effectiveness -- developing others, performance management (results-driven performance) and communication
• How to apply the "vital few accelerators" on-the-job

Jim Trinka, PhD, Director, Air Traffic Organization Training & Development
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

2:45 p.m.

Building A Gateway To The Government: How Better Communications Between Government Agencies Translates Into Better Communications For Citizens

The Business Gateway initiative, also known as Business.gov, is a one-stop information resource for business owners on compliance and regulatory issues. Managed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Business.gov is a partnership with 21 other federal agencies. Having an internal communications strategy that encourages collaboration and an open exchange of ideas is crucial to the success of a program that involves a wide variety of partners, each with their own objectives and needs.

• How the Program Office built and implemented an effective communications strategy that led to valuable partnerships with federal agencies as well as constituent groups
• The results of Business.gov's communications strategy and how that strategy continues to contribute to its success today

Working together, Business.gov and its partners have been able to convey critical information to business owners, information that is essential to the survival and growth of their businesses. Business.gov will share the lessons learned from this experience to help you communicate better with your own stakeholders and audiences.

Nancy Sternberg, Program Manager for Business.gov
U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Eva Neumann, President
ENC MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

3:35 p.m.

How To Integrate Social Media (Blogging, Podcasting & Other New Media) With Traditional Channels To Maximize Your Communication Efforts And Results

The Department of Defense (DoD) is increasingly turning to "New Media" to improve its communications and information sharing. In this session, you will learn how DoD is using web 2.0 & beyond, mobile content, blogger engagement, podcasting and other new media tools to reach its audiences without breaking the budget and without mainstream media filters.

DoD is using the new media definitions to define its audiences. It’s all about connectivity. Understanding this connectivity helps promote your own website search engine results and takes your information directly to your audiences.

• Did you know that the top government and organization podcasts downloaded from iTunes are from DoD?
• Did you know that when you talk to one blogger, you are potentially talking to 2 million virally-linked people per blogger?
• Did you know that the blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months? Did you know that more than 1.1 billion people worldwide are now online?
• Did you know that web traffic to blogs of the top 10 online newspapers grew 210% this past year?

Web 2.0 & beyond and social/consumer generated media is changing the way we work, communicate and live. As a result, DoD is engaging in two-way communications with the blogger community – it's all about the viral spread of your message via the connectedness of the blogosphere.

• Applying simple, low-cost, effective ways to broaden your communications reach using new media tools
• Repackaging your existing communication products to streamline your messages

Roxie T. Merritt, Integrated Internal Communications
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Jack Holt, Chief, New Media Operations
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

4:25 p.m.

How To Implement An Internal Branding Makeover In A Public Sector Organization: Communicating With Your Employees To Ensure Program Success

In the mid-90s, with its centennial fast approaching, the U.S. Census Bureau faced a public perception of stodgy statisticians sequestered somewhere in the suburbs of Washington, DC; proliferating graphic identifiers among its 30 content divisions; and survey reports that were not visually up-to-snuff with the high quality data they contained. A new and cohesive brand identity promised many benefits, but once developed, how would the Census Bureau sell that new brand – its first makeover in 100 years – to the employees?

In this session you'll find out what it took to bring the Census Bureau's visual presence in line with its sophisticated data output, how its employees learned to embrace the new look, and the positive results it generated.

• What precautionary measures you should take to assure a successful outcome
• Why the most beautiful graphic identifier does NOT always win
• Who is in the best position to "debut the new identity" to staff
• How to convert naysayers into true believers and sellers of the new brand
• Brand implementation and application options
• The role of your web site in keeping your brand resilient

George Selby, Chief of Customer Service and Project Management, ACSD
Publications Services Branch
U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

5:15 p.m.
End Of Day One

We invite you to join us for a drink as you relax with your peers. All conference attendees and speakers are welcome to join us for this special opportunity to continue networking. Don't miss this chance to benchmark new ideas over complimentary drinks!

Sign up during the day for dinner with a group. Take advantage of DC's fine dining while you continue to network with your colleagues.