Jump-start your conference experience by attending these interactive 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 that will enhance your understanding of the informative, case study presentations throughout the entire conference.

Choose A or B or BOTH for Maximum Value and Learning

Employee Communication 101:
How To Plan And Implement Communications Strategies That Work Using A Five-Step Proven Process

Have you ever heard an executive or manager simply say "Just send out an email" as their solution for communicating with employees? Has your organization ever launched an information campaign for it to only fall flat? Do you have an employee newsletter but struggle to find interesting content or determine if anyone actually reads it?

While communicating today is seemingly easier with the availability of email and other electronic communications, lack of planning and poor execution often leads to less then desired results, leaving executives and managers frustrated at unmet objectives or unchanged employee behavior. In this workshop, you'll learn a five-step proven process for developing communications strategies that deliver measurable results.

• Build a communications plan focused on well-defined organizational objectives
• Uncover stakeholder communications needs
• Develop key messages that resonate
• Determine which communication channels are appropriate to meet different goals and audiences, including a discussion of advanced Web 2.0 technologies
• Design communications products that result in change
• Select and report metrics that inform future activities

WORKSHOP LEADER: Grant R. McLaughlin, is a Principal in the Strategic Communications Group of the global consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. Grant has more than 15 years of experience in communication working with a variety of public sector organizations.

12:00 p.m.- 1:30 p.m.
Lunch On Your Own

1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

AFTERNOON PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP B

How To Engage Employees To Maximize Performance And Achieve Results Using Strategic Internal Communications In Government

What do the world's greatest organizations have in common? They know their most valuable and untapped resource is human. They also understand that internal communications, especially between employees and managers, form the basis to an organization realizing its true potential.

Research published by Gallup and others has shown that engaged employees are more productive employees. Many have long suspected the connection between an employee's level of engagement and the level and quality of his or her performance. This research has laid the matter to rest.

In this session, the Gallup Organization will reveal how traditional manager-to-employee communications impede results and introduce you to revolutionary internal communication strategies that allow you to emotionally engage your employees to increase productivity and achieve desired business outcomes. In addition, you will discover how these internal communication strategies have been successfully implanted within governmental agencies and used to measurably increase employee engagement.

• The 34 ways to emotionally engage employees
• The 12 conditions that have to be managed to create an engaged workforce
• The 4 keys great managers use to maintain and motivate an energized organization
• How to objectively quantify employee performance and understand how emotionally engaged employees result in a higher level of productivity for your organization
• How to measure and increase safety in the workplace, resulting in raising the confidence level of employees and productivity of your organization's work

WORKSHOP LEADER: Bernadine Karunaratne, M.B.A. joined Gallup's Washington, D.C. office in May 1997 and serves as the Practice Leader for the Government Division. Ms. Karunaratne is specializing in Client Management and Strategic Consulting on several Gallup Workplace Management (GWM) projects, including Federal government projects for the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts; Department of Interior, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Environmental Protection Agency; Millennium Challenge Corporation; National Institutes of Health; Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; Veterans Administration; General Services Administration; USDA- Farm Service Agency and a government intelligence organization.