INTERACTIVE CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
These workshops are designed to take your conference experience to the next level. 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 conference by attending these highly interactive, hands-on sessions. Space is limited to ensure interactivity!

Choose C or D or BOTH for maximum value and learning

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

Continental breakfast will be provided at 8:00 a.m.
for the morning workshop attendees.

How To Use Social Media To Capture Your Employees' Knowledge Before They Retire

With baby boomers retiring, agencies are exploring ways to capture knowledge before it walks out the door. Could wikis, blogs, and social media be an answer? I hear what you're thinking - "but isn't this just another content management system or portal wild goose chase? We've tried those already and they've failed."

Many tool implementations fail because we forgot the most important part – how (and whether) our employees, customers, and other users might use them.

1. Explore the social media landscape – wikis, blogs, tagging, and more – with examples of how agencies are already using the capabilities
2. Discover a framework for comparing the tools and their capabilities
3. Create a set of success criteria for your organization
4. Inspect the user experience and discuss tactics for acceptance and usage
5. Devise a plan for what it will take to apply social media to your knowledge management headaches

WORKSHOP LEADER: Kate Walser, Director, Usability Center of Excellence at SRA International, Inc., is a consultant, using social media for knowledge-sharing and collaboration, helping her Federal Government clients create a plan for capturing the knowledge of the retiring Baby Boomers.

How To Implement A Social Media Campaign To Get Results: Engaging The Public And Online Communities, With Your Organization's Messages And Managing Your Reputation

In the digital age, word-of-mouth means as much for your organization's reputation as headline news, but government and business's efforts to engage online communities often sink without a trace in the vast sea of electronic noise. That’s because most online community citizens who receive your message are dead-ends as most of them simply won’t pass it on. In fact, every variety of social media -- the blogosphere, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Wikipedia, listservs, and the rest -- is dominated by a small minority of highly motivated users who diligently work to influence their peers and set the tempo of the online debate. Identifying and cultivating relationships with these opinion leaders is what spells the difference between a social media outreach effort that produces results -- and one that just wastes your resources.

This workshop is designed for executives and managers who are responsible for putting their agency's message out to the public, highlighting its accomplishments, and managing its reputation during crises. Bring your laptop as this will be hands-on session.

1. Efficiently and continuously monitor community conversation about your agency and its areas of responsibility
2. Distinguish opinion leaders from followers in online communities like MySpace, YouTube, and others
3. Understand what motivates these individuals -- and develop engagement strategies for cultivating productive relationships with them
4. Identify members of your staff who have what it takes to be successful ambassadors to online communities