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

*** Choose ALL FOUR for Maximum Value and Learning ***

Transforming Your Intranet Using The Latest Social Media Tools To Improve Employee Engagement, Increase Productivity And Enhance Collaboration

Overhauling your organization's intranet can be a daunting task. With so much to do in so little time, organizations need to follow a proven and refined methodology to ensure the project is successfully completed on time and under budget. The proper way to approach an intranet overhaul is well-documented and consists of several phases that are important to the project as a whole. Following this methodology is important because it puts your organization on the fast track to reaping the rewards of a renewed intranet: improved employee engagement, better collaboration, increased productivity between employees, and much more.

This information-packed session will teach you the necessary strategies for successfully overhauling your organization's intranet, including:

• Where to start when developing an intranet overhaul strategy
  
• Understanding the value of assessment and planning before a incorporating a new technology into your intranet
  
• Practical advice for determining specific areas in which a renewed intranet can add value to your organization's overall performance
  
• Comparing your own experiences with real world examples and case studies of intranet success

WORKSHOP LEADER: Carmine Porco, General Manager & Vice President of Prescient Digital Media, has over 18 years of experience in the areas of Internet consulting, IT management, and software development. Clients include Agriculture Canada, Canadian Transportation Agency, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Ontario Ministry of Finance, and Regional Municipality of Halton to name a few. His strengths include employee self-service, content management, e-learning, customer care and Internet commerce primarily in the financial, government, health, energy and retail sectors. Carmine runs the Toronto practice and operations and provides strategic counsel to numerous clients across North America including California Association of Realtors, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Royal Bank (RBC Financial Group), Greater Vancouver Regional District, Tourism PEI, Ontario Realty Corporation and others.

Testimonials From Past Carmine Porco Sessions:

"Excellent, usable tools and suggestions. This was a real help
for building the business case."

"Very engaging—lots of great tips and ideas to try. Spoke at our level."

"Good information and handouts."

"Great presentation. Very accessible and relaxed. Well done!"

"Excellent, personable communicator. Well informed and good humored."

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Afternoon break/lunch on your own.

12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
PRE-SEMINAR AFTERNOON WORKSHOP B

How To Use Effective Leadership And Manager Communication To Build Employee Trust, Engagement & High-Performing Teams

"“Effective leadership is still largely a matter of communication.”
-Alan Axelrod

It is widely recognized that managers and leaders must develop critical leadership communication skills to handle the most challenging communication situations for better individual and team performance. Good communication skills enable, foster, and create the understanding and trust necessary to encourage others to follow a leader. Without effective communication, a manager accomplishes little; without effective communication, a manager is not an effective leader. High-quality communication then, is the linchpin to productive work relationships in high-performing teams, organizations and businesses.

This interactive workshop will provide you with an awareness of the key role communication plays in leadership within the context of a leadership communication framework and communication building blocks that lead to innovation and synergy, including:

• The imperatives for effective leader and manager communication
• Best practices of effective communication strategies from leading organizations
• Specific communication skills and techniques ensure messages are reaching their audiences to:
• Manage performance expectations
• Overcome conflict
• Effectively give and receive feedback
• Facilitate performance improvement discussions
• Empower others for success.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Madalena Coutinho is a bilingual organizational consultant, Certified Professional Facilitator from the International Association of Facilitators, learning and development specialist and professional key note speaker. Madalena has provided learning & development workshops to leaders at CIDA, Transport Canada, Agriculture Canada, Nav Canada, Carleton University, Sprott School of Business, Canadian Nuclear Safety, Health Canada, Ocean & Fisheries and a variety of other clients in the government sector, NGO’s , private and not for profit sectors. She joined Intersol in 2006 and has extensive experience in the areas of personal development training, organizational and leadership development, cooperative change management, strategic planning and building visionary organizations. She brings over 25 years of human resource, organizational development, and facilitated training to her clients and employers. Her expertise focuses on leadership development, emotional intelligence development, team building, customized workshops and group facilitation to help organizations achieve business success through effective leadership.

These workshops are designed to take your seminar experience to the next level. Post-seminar workshops allow you to take the information you gained from the general sessions, and identify and focus on your individual needs and applications. Make the most out of this seminar by attending these highly interactive, hands-on sessions. Space is limited to ensure interactivity!

8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
POST-SEMINAR MORNING WORKSHOP C

How To Use Social Media, Web Apps, And Web-Based Tools To Enhance And Improve Your Internal Communication Efforts

More and more, organizations are turning to social media tools as a way of building and maintaining positive relationships with employees and stakeholders. This practical and interactive workshop will look at the power of social media and web-based tools to maximize organizational success. Recent case studies of successful community engagement solutions in the private and public sector will demonstrate how an organization can achieve success in a cost effective way.

This hands-on session will provide you with the techniques you need to implement social media into your internal communication efforts successfully, including:

• Taking the front line: adopting the latest social media strategies and tools
• Integrating cutting-edge mobile apps that pull communities together
• Incorporating the use of interactive web tools to engage your internal stakeholders
• Successful initiatives that earn team support
• Measuring the effectiveness of message delivery and impact

WORKSHOP LEADER: Huw Williams is the President of Impact Public Affairs and is a nationally recognized expert on strategic communications. He is a trusted advisor to scores of leading national and provincial organizations, helping them achieve their public affairs objectives. In 2010, Williams was named worldwide Public Affairs Professional of the Year finalist by PRNews Magazine. Williams’ other accolades include the CSAE 2010 Griner Award for outstanding “Business Excellence”, and the Ottawa Business Journal’s “Top Forty under 40 Award” for professional success and community involvement in 2006.

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Afternoon break/lunch on your own

How To Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Internal Communication Strategies: A Step-By-Step Process

It's tough enough to implement an internal communication strategy in government, particularly in situations where there are many stakeholders, conflicting agendas, and departments and branches spread over a wide geographic area.

To measure the effectiveness of these strategies is a challenge and choosing metrics (indicators and outcomes) to use for this purpose is, on one level quite complex, and on another level, an step-by-step exercise in applied logic and research.

• Different levels of metrics and why the easiest things to measure are almost always not worth measuring
• The importance of metrics that yield "actionable" information
• A logical process for determining the pool of possible metrics, and evaluating their use to fit your context
• Potential pitfalls to try to avoid (and there are many)
• Whether it's even "smart" to evaluate internal communication strategies at all
• Cause and effect issues and the theory of “multicausation”
• Driving metric choices by looking at intended results
• The issue of multiple stakeholders and agendas

We will also take time during this session to analyze and suggest metrics based on a real case study drawn from government.

Whether you are concerned specifically about metrics to evaluate internal communication efforts, or want to learn some "uncommon wisdom" about metrics to evaluate almost anything, you won’t want to miss this session – you are guaranteed to learn something about metrics and the evaluation process.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Robert Bacal is a former social science researcher, professor of education, and organizational and staff development consultant with the Manitoba Civil Service Commission. Currently, he is head of Bacal & Associates, a consulting, training and publishing company serving government clients. His specializations include communication, strategy, dealing with difficult members of the public, and performance management. His books have sold close to 400,000 copies worldwide.