Jump-start your conference 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 social media strategies 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

Social Media 101: How To Leverage Popular Social Media Tools For Your Organization

In this in-depth workshop, you will learn about emerging new communication strategies using social media and explore ways to use them to better connect with your stakeholders. You will gain a tactical overview of the latest tools, hear specific government case studies, and explore and discuss ways these methods can be implemented within your agency.

Specifically, we will discuss how your organization can:

• Utilize Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and other social medi
  services  - - what they are and how to use them
• Leverage technology to engage and collaborate with stakeholders
• Empower existing supporters to spread your message within their own networks
• Achieve organizational “buy in” to implement new programs

WORKSHOP LEADERS:  Shana Glickfield, a leading communications and advocacy strategist, is a Partner at Beekeeper Group. Shana works with a number of telecommunication clients and manages NextGenWeb.org, USTelecom’s multimedia website dedicated to exploring all of the innovative ways that broadband is improving our quality of life. Shana’s efforts on the project landed USTelecom, the broadband association, on the list of the Top 10 Organizations Using Social Media by Personal Democracy Forum.  Shana works with Beekeeper clients on their Web 2.0 strategies, blogger relations, and strategic alliances. Shana previously was the Director of Strategic Communications at Amplify Public Affairs, where she spent several years working with a wide variety of corporate, government, and nonprofit clients on their online communications strategies, focusing on social media and online community building.

Mike Panetta, Partner at Beekeeper Group, is an award-winning public affairs campaign strategist who specializes in using the Internet and social media for creative issue advocacy and grassroots activism.  Before becoming a Partner at Beekeeper Group, Mike was Vice President for Public Affairs and Emerging Media at Grassroots Enterprise where he managed a number of the firm’s non-profit, trade association, and political clients and led its embrace of new technology for political, marketing and advocacy purposes. His work has been recognized with top honors from the American Association of Political Consultants, the Public Affairs Council, and George Washington University’s Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.  In November 2006, Mike was elected to the position of U.S. “Shadow” Representative in the District of Columbia, and was re-elected in 2008 with the second-highest number of votes of any citywide elected official in the District. In this role, Mike is a leading voice in the fight for District of Columbia statehood and votes in the U.S. Congress.

Rave Reviews From Past Mike Panetta Sessions:

"Many valuable ideas resulted for me to take back to the office."

“This session was a great scene-setter.  Looking forward to the following sessions.”

"Great overview. Lots of good examples to look up."

"Good overall information on the challenges and ways to connect to a specific audience."

11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Afternoon break/lunch on your own.

1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
AFTERNOON PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP B

How To Blend Traditional And Non-Traditional New Media Into Your Government Communications Plan

The way government news is covered in the media is changing.

News about government no longer lives solely in a printed publication or on a 6 p.m. news broadcast. While these traditional channels are still critical to reaching many citizens, people are turning to the Web and social networks more and more to find out what’s going on in their town, county or state.

This workshop will show why it's important to adopt a modern public relations strategy that not only incorporates traditional media outreach, but also tactics that directly reach constituents through the Web. Governments must ensure that their information is published online where it can be enhanced with multimedia, indexed by Google, linked to, and shared across social networking sites.

• How new media is changing the way citizens discover and seek
  out information about government
• Why you shouldn't abandon traditional communication channels yet
• Why it's important to ensure information about your organization is
  online and can be easily shared
• How multimedia (podcasts, video, photo) can enhance communication messages
• Effective ways to develop interesting content about your organization that traditional media outlets and citizens will want to read and share
• How sharing news across social networks increases audience reach
• Why publishing news and information is a critical component of online reputation management for your organization
• What tools and technologies are available to manage the
  online communication process

• Staunton, Virginia's Parks and Recreation Department, used social media to increase local media coverage 10-fold, which resulted in sold out classes and programs
• The New York State Inspector General's Office, who broke a story about corruption in the state capitol and published the information online. The news was picked up by local, regional, statewide and national media outlets including traditional media like the New York Times and popular blogs like Gawker
• The State of Iowa Treasurer's Office, who built an online newsroom and bolstered search engine rankings for the department by publishing its news online. They included multimedia with each story that could be easily shared

The goal of this workshop is for attendees to understand what makes an effective – and comprehensive – media and communications strategy in the digital age. That includes how to gain coverage of your organization by targeted pitching of traditional media outlets, as well as creating an online and social media presence to communicate directly with citizens.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Amy Mengel, Head of Inbound Marketing at readMedia, joined the company in 2010 after years in corporate communication working in media relations, marketing and employee communications for companies like GE and Lockheed Martin. Amy works with readMedia's clients to help them understand how to improve media pickup of their important news and how to optimize their news for online search and presentation. A social media enthusiast, she writes a popular blog about PR, marketing and communications and is the founder of Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley. Amy was named one of the Top 30 under 30 Twitter mentors in 2009. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Drexel University.