8:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast & Networking

8:30 a.m.
Chairperson's Opening of Day Two

Steven Green, President
TEMBOSOCIAL
@TemboSocial

8:45 a.m.

From Uncertainty To Cultural Integration – How Mergers Affect Employees And How Communications Can Help

Companies that are contemplating or are in the midst of merger and acquisition activity face a myriad of challenges, from government regulatory approvals to shareholder votes. Success in those arenas does not guarantee a successful corporate marriage: the merging of cultures – or perhaps the creation of a new culture representing the best of both legacy companies – is critical. Inherent in M&A activity is the need to cut costs, a sure way to create abundant uncertainty for employees in an economic environment that is already challenging and stubbornly holding on to high levels of unemployment.
 
How do companies manage all of these challenges to ensure that the companies involved remain successful and focused while a merger is underway? How can communications help as part of change management, and serve to motivate employees? How do you manage unexpected delays – either in the merger process or in the flow of information to employees?
 
Apply the lessons from Exelon Corporation, who is dealing with these challenges today, for a discussion on what works, what doesn’t, what to watch out for and the things you HAVE to get right, every time.

Howard Karesh, Director, Internal Communications           
Exelon Corporation

9:30 a.m.

Leveraging Technologies To Meet Your Communications Goals

Reduce, reuse and recycle isn’t just a mantra for going green.  Integrated technologies and communications tools will make it easier to get your communications job done efficiently and maintain your message throughout.
 
Online media can be used to engage staff, stakeholders, and even politicians who are already online and can be merged with your print tools and even your electronic media campaigns. All it takes is a little creativity.

• Selecting the right online tools for your organization and for the message at hand
• Making efficient use of your content

Mike Spear, Director of Corporate Communications
GENOME ALBERTA

10:35 a.m.

Motivate Your Business With Sharepoint: Collaborating With Your Intranet To Enhance Your Employee Communications And Engagement

New Belgium Brewing Company was often said to be born from a bike seat.  Before the company’s start, an aspiring young home brewer rode his mountain bike with "fat tires" through European villages famous for beer, and soon, his first brewed creations were crafted in his basement.

From there, the company’s owners created what is now an alternatively-empowered, employee- owned, and very successful beer brand, which resulted into a fun-filled, story-telling, sustainable business model that is founded on a strong value system that the New Belgium Brewery coworkers live by to connect, collaborate, and engage in company culture, community, strategic planning, project management, and beyond.
 
This session will demonstrate how New Belgium has used SharePoint functionality and social media tools in the workplace to ensure that there are multiple avenues, while maintaining simple access for their employees to use their voice and instigate change and innovation. Ninety percent of what will be demonstrated is Out of the Box Functionality in Microsoft SharePoint!

In this session, you will take away lessons learned from this employee-owned company on how important it is to investigate business needs to gain user adoption and useful functionality for your employees.  Specifically, you will learn how to:
 

• Create a path for your employees, allowing them to engage with one another
• Figure out what the business needs and what your employees are trying to accomplish? What are your current gaps?
• Allow your workforce to be a part of your company’s overall success
• Design a corporate culture that contributes to the success of your team and the profitability of the business
• Learn creative ways to use Custom Lists, with and without InfoPath, to create a unique and collaborative user experience

When you let your employees be a part of your company’s story, you might be surprised what can happen!

Tye Eyden, Communications Coordinator
New Belgium Brewing CoMPANY

11:20 a.m.

Why Should You Give A Tweet About How You Communicate With Your Staff? How To Integrate Social Media Tools With Your Traditional Communications To Reach Your Employees More Efficiently & Effectively

APEX PR has been successfully implementing social media strategies for their roster of blue-chip clients since the advent of Web 2.0 and increasingly, those programs have included an employee engagement element. Yet, they were not “walking the talk” regarding their own employee communications program.  They were stuck in the habit of using their “tried and true” communication tools, such as weekly staff meetings and intranet updates, thinking that these were more in keeping with their 25-person agency culture.  But were they? 

In this session, you’ll hear how APEX PR took a long hard look at how (and what) they were communicating, what new and surprising social networking sources their staff were intuitively using to communicate with each other, and how we they could integrate the traditional with the digital to cultivate a more engaged and motivated staff that delivered on their bottom line expectations (an extra bonus!).

This interactive session will also delve into how they made their culture even better, what worked and what bombed.

Finally, you will learn about the value of:

• Empowering your staff to introduce new social media tools into internal communications systems
• Encouraging social media skill development that can benefit the bottom line
• Teaching old dogs new tricks without the pain

Linda Andross, President
APEX Public Relations Inc.

1:35 p.m.

Group Exercise: Brainstorm Solutions And New Ideas You Can Use

You asked for it, you got it! Interact and discuss solutions to your internal communications challenges with your fellow attendees and our experienced speakers. You will leave with new tools and hands-on experience and ideas for more successfully applying best practices to your own internal communications initiatives.

2:15 p.m.

Cutting Through The Noise: How To Get Your Communications On The Right Channels Using Social Media And Traditional Communications

Every day, Deloitte faces the challenge of communicating a complex variety of messages between thousands of employees spanning different communication generations.  Email, while convenient, is often over-used and does not appeal to a younger generation of communicators. Meanwhile, those born in the 70’s and before generally do not have the same appetite for instant communication and may miss out on important communications due to overload. The result is a complex environment where the effectiveness of communications is often diluted, and messages are shared on all channels, but not necessarily targeted to the primary demographic of those channels.
 
With the proliferation of new communication technologies there is an exciting opportunity to get near-real-time communications on more targeted channels where audiences are engaged, listening and participating and still serve the needs of those who prefer more tradition channels and frequency.
 
In this session, you will hear how Deloitte balances the use of several communications platforms to keep up with the constant (and growing) demand for communications. You will gain insights to the strategies they have used and lessons they have learned trying to connect over 170,000 practitioners globally using emails, podcasts, instant messaging, employee portals and a global deployment of Yammer.
 
Learn how aligning your communications to the right channels in your organization can reduce the noise on those channels and improve the overall effectiveness of your communications.       

Greg FitzGerald, Consultant, Information Management
Deloitte

3:00 p.m.

Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break

3:15 p.m.

How to Leverage the Benefits of Social Media: Transforming Your Benefits Communication From Dull To Intriguing By Engaging Members, Delivering Important Information In An Innovative Way, and Reaching A Diverse Audience

Actra Fraternal Benefit Society (AFBS) is a not for profit, member owned, federally incorporated insurance company operating for over 35 years.  Members of AFBS are primarily members of ACTRA and the Writers Guild of Canada.

AFBS provides group insurance and retirement savings benefits to its members.  Over the years, it has been challenging to reach the geographically dispersed audience of more than 17,000 members across Canada and around the world.

• Develop a social media strategy and why AFBS created one for the Writers’ Coalition and Arts & Entertainment Plan members
• Build a social media business case
• Overcome the challenges of getting buy-in and support for your social media strategy
• Communicate benefits education and news through various social media channels
• Measure the success of using social media
• Tap into the power of social media

After this session, you will feel motivated to explore social media as a communication channel within your own organization.
 
Robert Underwood, President & CEO
ACTRA FRATERNAL BENEFIT SOCIETY  

Caroline Lock, Social Media Analyst
Actra Fraternal Benefit Society

Diane McElroy, Senior Vice President
AON HEWITT CONSULTING

4:00 p.m.
Chairperson's Recap: Key Takeaways And What To Do When You Get Back To The Office

We’ll recap the highlights of the past two days and ask you to share key insights and next steps with the group.