8:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast & Networking

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

Darren Cunningham, Vice President
THORNLEY FALLIS GROUP
Seminar Chairperson

8:45 a.m.

How To Use Social Media Tools To Gain The Attention Your Organization Deserves From Your Employees Without Losing Sight Of Your Traditional Internal Objectives

You’ve spent endless time creating mission statements, you’ve fine tuned your objectives, and set standards for performance, but no one seems to be paying attention. They’re watching YouTube videos from somewhere else, and reading other people’s Tweets.

Social media is one area you can explore to engage staff, stakeholders, and even politicians who are already online and having fun doing it. You can use the tools while remaining practical and without losing sight of your internal objectives.

• Selecting the right social media course for your organization
  and for the message at hand
• How to make efficient use of your content

Take a step back to the basics of communication and use this session to help spark some imagination at the same time.

Mike Spear, Director of Corporate Communications
GENOME ALBERTA

9:35 a.m.

Morning Refreshment & Networking Break

10:00 a.m.

How To Integrate The Latest Communications Channels -- Facebook, YouTube And More -- Into Your Traditional Internal Communications Strategy -- Developing Policies, Measuring Success & Engaging Employees

Social media tools are being used to reach various audiences to address strategic business needs including: function and brand marketing; promotion of employment opportunities to specific target groups; effective and efficient collaboration across a geographically dispersed audience; and knowledge retention and access.

For the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, the benefits of using these new tools have included: the ability to communicate with, and target information delivery to, a specific audience; representation of a modern, organizational culture; engaged internal staff; horizontal information gathering, consolidation, sharing, analysis, and retention of dispersed corporate knowledge; multi-stakeholder client collaboration and access to large knowledge brain-trust and document control.

This session will outline their social media journey of this large, dispersed government organization and their lessons learned, providing you with information to help you yield positive performance and value results for your own efforts, including:

• Involving key internal participants -- how to get them on board
• Explaining and demonstrating the strategic business value
• Fostering business enablers, such as an appropriate policy framework (security, access), the right technology, and ensuring Executive and corporate support
• Recognizing that social media is one of many communication tools and the tool must be appropriate for the target audience
• Understanding participation objectives (optional vs. mandatory) and the culture of adoption

Dr. Andy Fyon, Director, Ontario Geological Survey, Mines and Minerals Division
ONTARIO MINISTRY OF NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT, MINES AND FORESTRY

10:50 a.m.

Communicating With Your Employees In A Strategic And Systematic Way To Improve Your Overall Results

In an effort to optimize the Office of Human Resource Management’s (OHRM) communications, the organization has integrated a full-scale internal communications system which will better the citizen experience when contacting OHRM.

• Teaching your employees and leadership to use email to communicate strategically and systemically
• Teaching leadership especially, as well as employees to use email to communicate strategically and systemically
• Storing information logically in information libraries such as for competency models, position descriptions, etc. and using links to distribute it, instead of sending huge emails which unnecessarily consume email space or force each individual employee to either ignore or store it until they get around to it
• Reasonable accommodation coordinators in policy review to avoid creating artificial barriers to employment or performance and unnecessary requests for information

Carol Davidson, Human Resource Specialist
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

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

1:10 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 communication 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 communication initiatives.

1:45 p.m.

Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break

2:00 p.m.

How To Use Your Intranet As A Change Vehicle To Improve Productivity, Modernize Organization Services, Build Team Confidence, Inform Employees, Foster Collaboration And Measure Success

In 2010, the Landlord and Tenant Board launched an ambitious 3-year plan for organizational change to improve productivity and modernize services for clients. To support the change agenda, the Board developed an internal communications strategy with a focus on the intranet as the key change vehicle.

• Launch your organization’s first intranet blog to communicate timely and important information to employees on organizational change
• Use your intranet to build confidence and structure amongst a dispersed workforce
• Leverage your intranet to enable staff feedback on changes to their day-to-day jobs resulting from the organizational change
• Use Internet/intranet survey tools to measure success and “lessons learned”
• Launch an ambitious suite of online training videos and career development tools on your Intranet platform
• Implement an internal visual identity program to build a “brand” for change management initiatives

Ed Yudin, Team Leader and Communications Coordinator, Landlord and Tenant Board
Coordinator, Special Projects, Communications Branch
ONTARIO MINISTRY OF MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS AND HOUSING

2:50 p.m.
How To Use Communication To Empower Culture Change And Effective Engagement Within Your Organization

In the words of the famous Irish playwright and essayist George Bernard Shaw: "The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred."

Communication occurs when someone understands you…. Words are merely the visible and audible tip of the iceberg. The unseen is the thinking that lies behind the surface of the “screen,” but what impact does this have on the fast evolving world of communication?

• The economic drivers of effective communication -- what works and why
• The pearls and perils of communication -- what to do and what to avoid doing
• The core principles that distinguish successful communication approaches
• Creative strategies to empower culture change and effective engagement through communication practices

Lauren Jeffs, Manager, Capacity Building,
Planning and Professional Practices Directorate
AUDIT AND DATA SERVICES BRANCH CANADA

Madalena Coutinho, Consultant, Facilitator, Trainer and Speaker
INTERSOL GROUP LTD.

3:40 p.m.
More “How To's” To Help You Get The Work Done:
An Interactive Panel Discussion With Today’s Speakers

Need to dive deeper into specific topics? Want more details? Here’s your chance!
Available speakers from today’s sessions will answer your questions to help you innovate your own strategic internal communications plan. Digest what you’ve learned and apply it to your own initiatives to get feedback and ideas for improvement.

4:10 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.

4:30 p.m.
Close of General Sessions