8:00 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m.

Chairperson’s Welcome & Speed Networking

Become acquainted with your fellow conference attendees in this fun and fast-paced forum!

Michael Rudnick, Global Practice Leader, Intranets, Portals and Collaboration
TOWERS WATSON
Conference Chairperson

9:15 a.m.

Debunking SharePoint For Intranets And Portals:
Tales From The Front

Today’s intranets and enterprise portals are streamlining business processes and enriching communication and collaboration throughout the organization. Many are using Microsoft SharePoint, which has become the defacto solution for the Fortune 500, as the technical platform of choice.

The challenge most companies are now facing is how to create an intranet that is truly used and effective, leveraging the SharePoint 2010 platform, and where to start.

Michael will share his experiences, honed over 15+ years of working on intranet and portal projects, including the last 10 specifically with SharePoint. As a long-time Microsoft Partner he will discuss the latest innovations in SharePoint 2010 and what is on the horizon for SharePoint.

Michael Rudnick, Global Practice Leader, Intranets, Portals and Collaboration
TOWERS WATSON

9:45 a.m.

How To Create An Intranet That Empowers And Engages Your Employees, And Builds A Stronger Corporate Culture

The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority’s intranet has been a dumping ground for the past several years. When someone wanted something posted, it was dumped onto the home page and left for weeks, months, and yes, even a year. After interviewing employees in 26 departments across the organization, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority decided to make some drastic changes to their intranet, not only to refresh the content and design, but to further engage employees and help to build a stronger corporate culture.

Their new intranet incorporated a storytelling platform based on human-interest perspectives. They sought out to redesign their intranet around stories that make an impact on the daily lives, not just of their employees, but their customers, and how the day-in and day-out tasks make a difference to the entire region.

You will leave this session with ideas and implementation techniques to advance your company’s intranet, including how to:

• Keep employees engaged in the content through the use of newer technology such as jquery photo sliders, videos, and surveys
• Introduce an employee recognition program integrated into weekly/monthly updates, driving more of the human-interest element
• Provide your employees with real indicators of the organization’s fiscal and operational performance, and how their jobs relate to the bottom line
• Use top requested content data, for quick searches and better efficiency
• Incorporate all of your social media channels for further employee education and engagement

Jon Graves, Webmaster
SAN DIEGO COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY

10:15 a.m.

Your Opportunity To Ask Questions

10:25 a.m.

Morning Refreshment & Networking Break

10:45 a.m.

Digest Session: Understanding The Current State Of Your Intranet

You are here this week to learn how to maximize the value of your Intranet. Discuss with your fellow attendees your current Intranet situation. Who has ownership? Do employees communicate horizontally or vertically? Is the information on your Intranet fresh and informative? Are you considering, or have you recently, revamped your Intranet?

11:10 a.m.

How To Empower Your Employees To Own, Manage, And Measure The Impact Of Your Intranet’s Effectiveness

Siemens Industry, Inc. USA, (SII), is one of North America's leading suppliers of innovative, environmentally friendly products and solutions for industrial customers.  With over 22,000 employees in the United States, the SII intranet is the electronic medium of choice for communicating business strategy and developments. 

This session will provide you with a detailed intranet model being used by SII to empower employees from within the organization to create their own content and take ownership of their web sites.  Within a global/virtual environment, they have devised a method to harness a consistent look and feel of more than 5,000 pages by engaging more than 300 Editors and Authors from within their company.

Engagement, however, is only one piece to the equation. Analytics plays the most important role in the assessment of employee engagement -- from determining current readership benchmarks, internal campaigning, to developing new strategies for communicating with employees.

You will leave this session with techniques to engage your employees and empower them, implement Webtrends analytics for internal measurements, and overcome challenges, including:

• Building the model from setup to support
• Getting the “owner” to own it -- why Communications or IT shouldn’t represent who you are
• Achieving the organizational goal of your intranet through education and buy-in
• Providing checks and balances – tools for success
• Why you should measure internally and what's the value
• Strategies for putting your metrics to use and promoting change
• Maintaining your intranet with metrics while keeping content relevant and fresh

Irene T. LeCourt, Manager, Internal Online Communications
SIEMENS INDUSTRY, INC. USA

11:40 a.m.

What To Consider When Rebranding And Rebuilding Your Intranet: Monitor, Manage, Listen, And Inform

Winrock International is a nonprofit organization that works with people in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources. With over 1000 staff members in more than 60 countries, employee communication is always a challenge. While there is a singular mission, there are multiple methods for achieving it.

In 2011, Winrock decided to rebrand and rebuild the organization’s intranet. The team was challenged with creating an intranet environment that would broaden access to a greater number of staff, make it easier for staff to find the information they need to do their jobs, and ensure that the most current version of policies and forms are always accessible. It was also important to provide a platform for staff to interact, become aware of the skills and experience of colleagues and gain a better understanding of the work that is done by other units.

The launch of the new intranet, WinShare, is scheduled for July 9, 2012. This session will outline the entire process, from preparation to launch, providing you with the steps to consider when planning your own rebranding and rebuilding of your intranet, including:

• Building the team – who are the players and how do they work together
• Monitoring progress and making adjustments – if something isn’t working, what do you do
• Making it manageable – approach the project in phases
• Setting and meeting expectations by keeping your staff informed throughout the entire process
• Listening to your users and respond - feedback, feedback, feedback
• What do to after your intranet is live – phase two and beyond

Megan Davenport, Director of Communications & Public Affairs
David Kennedy, SharePoint Administrator/Analyst
WINROCK INTERNATIONAL

12:10 p.m.

Your Opportunity To Ask Questions

12:20 p.m.
Lunch On Your Own -- But Not Alone!

Join a group of your colleagues for a themed lunch with an informal discussion surrounding an intranet hot topic! Take this opportunity to join others in a small, interactive group setting to network and brainstorm solutions to your most pressing intranet concerns.

1:50 p.m.

Digest Session: Engaging Your Employees Successfully

We’ve heard from a number of speakers, now we’d like to hear from you. Network and discuss with fellow conference attendees and speakers what tools and techniques you’ve had the most success with when it comes to engaging and empowering your employees. How are you reaching “unplugged” employees? How do ensure that your Intranet is a “go-to” resource?

2:30 p.m.

Intranet Platforms, Gamification, Content Fragmentation, And Mobile: Understand The Tools Of The Trade And Learn How To Implement Them Into Your Intranet Strategy

Are you wondering what Intranet platforms are out there and how to implement them? Is your organization risk averse or slow to implement new technologies or simply enhance the company intranet? This panel will answer your questions on how various intranet tools are used in the enterprise. Hear the stats on which intranet tools are presently being used (61% of enterprises have at least one intranet 2.0 tool, with blogs, discussion groups and instant messaging being the most popular), and find out what many companies continue to struggle with. Discussions will also cover the following hot trends in intranets including mobile, content framentation and gamification.

Panelists:
Shannon Ryan, CEO
NON-LINEAR CREATIONS INC.

Adam Wooton, Director of Social Media and Games
TOWERS WATSON

Kanwal Khipple, VP of Consulting, Principal Sharepoint Architect
BRIGHTSTARR

3:00 p.m.

Enabling Employees To Effectively Converse And Collaborate In The Digital Age— And Reap The Benefits For Your Organization

There’s a digital conversation going on right now. All over the globe, individuals are sharing information, expertise, making decisions, building relationships, and more, without even leaving their seats. Sentiment and knowledge are being created around topics that could have a direct impact on your business. Are you out there? Are you part of the conversation? Are your employees? Are your competitors’ employees?!

In today’s digital world, the employee and the relationships and conversations that employee has in the digital space is defining the brand. Because of this, we need to ensure that our employees have the tools they need to reach out so that they can effectively participate in it: from conversing about topics they are experts in, to relationship building, to globally collaborating on projects with other employees, partners, clients, peers, and the general public. The more digitally active your employees are both inside and outside your company, the more current, credible and responsive your company will be viewed.

Using examples from IBM, you will learn lessons on how to:

• Enable employees to build and share their expertise inside and outside the company
• Generate, aggregate and promote social conversations of interest to your company
• Create a globally collaborative employee culture both internally and externally
  

Kevin Winterfield, Social Systems and Digital Influence
IBM
@kmwinterfield

3:30 p.m.

Your Opportunity To Ask Questions

4:00 p.m.

Digest Session: Taking Advantage Of Multi-Dimensional Communication Opportunities

Thinking back to the presentations you’ve heard, and your personal experience’s, discuss with your fellow attendee’s and speakers an example of the most successful integration of new media into your intranet that you’ve experienced. What tools did you use? How did you integrate them into your Intranet successfully? Provide any tips and tricks you found along the way.

4:30 p.m.
More "How To's" To Help You Get The Work Done: An Interactive Discussion With Your Training Participants!

Need to dive deeper into specific topics? Want more details? Here’s your chance! Digest what you’ve learned and apply it to your own initiatives to get feedback and ideas for improvement.

4:45 p.m.

End of Day One

4:50 p.m.

Networking Reception: Please Join Us!

Hosted at the Microsoft Technology Center

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 New York City’s fine dining while you continue to network with your colleagues.