8:00 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m.
Chairperson's Welcome & Opening Remarks

Alexandra Rampy, Sr. Communications Associate
IQ SOLUTIONS, INC.

8:40 a.m.

Utilizing The Tricks Of The Trade: How To Foster Community And Build Your Network Through Social Media

In only a few months, GovLoop.com has connected nearly 15,000 federal, state, and local government employees. A social network for government, the site incorporates a range of Web 2.0 technologies including blogs, YouTube videos, social profiles, Twitter, and discussion threads.

• Fostering conversation
• Building trust
• Viral marketing
• Adding value to others
• Dealing with troublemakers
• Turning skeptics into members
• Turning members into leaders

Steve Ressler, Founder
GOVLOOP

9:30 a.m.

Break-Out Blitz! Network And Discuss Social Media Challenges With Your Fellow Conference Attendees

This session will open the conversation by connecting you with other conference participants and gain greater understanding into many similar issues, concerns, and challenges that your peers are also facing. Become acquainted with your fellow conference attendees in this fun and fast-paced forum!

10:30 a.m.

So I'm A Social Media Expert? Now What?: A Step-By-Step Process To Get Your Social Media Plan Started

If you're like me, when you get back to the office, your boss is going to say, "Now you're a social media expert. Great! Start working on a plan." And there you are with this vast array of knowledge that you've never applied.

During this case study, you will learn the baby steps you can take to learn more about social media and how you can help and encourage the other communicators in your department to join in on the adventure - before you write a single plan or policy.

• Get started with the easy to use tools
• Find out what social media tools your customers are using and how to use them
• Try new ways to get your news
• Keep learning - read, listen to, and watch everything you can get your hands on
• Talk to teenagers

• Use social media to communicate compelling content
• Create opportunities to collaborate

• Start with a low-risk project
• Make your own video

Lizz Gunnufsen, Public Communications Officer
CITY OF CHESAPEAKE, VIRGINIA

11:20 a.m.

How To Use Podcasting To Engage Your Audience - - Even When Your Resources Are Limited

Podcasting is a flexible, engaging, and personal way to get your agency's messages and your people out from behind the bureaucracy and jargon. It might also, however, conjure images of expensive studio setups and even more expensive staff dedicated to running them.

At the U.S. Geological Survey, they have brought their science and scientists into thousands of computers and mp3 players on a very slim budget and with a handful of people.

• Podcast with a staff of two or three and a budget under $1,000
• Stretch your dollars on publicity and audience
• Capture a large amount of content without starting from scratch
• Use podcasting as a great audio and video tool
• You will also learn what your agency should and should not do when getting started with podcasting

David Hebert, Writer-Editor, Office of Communications
Scott Horvath, Public Affairs Specialist/Web Developer, Office of Communications
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

12:10 p.m.
Lunch On Your Own -- But Not Alone!

Join a group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated by one of our expert speakers. Take this opportunity to join others in a small, interactive group setting to network and brainstorm solutions to your most pressing social media concerns.

1:40 p.m.

How To Build And Sustain Communities Of People Using Social Media Technology

CreakyJoints, a social network and community for people with arthritis, was co-founded in 1999 by a college freshman and person with arthritis, Seth Ginsberg. Today, CreakyJoints.org is a robust arthritis community, with over 25,000 registered users, providing education, support and inspiration to an audience of arthritis patients, caregivers and professionals. In addition to on-line activities, CreakyJoints produces and executes off-line educational programming. Activities are supported by grants and sponsorships from pharmaceutical companies. CreakyJoints.org is a part of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, a 501(c)(3) operating charity.

• Building and sustaining a community of people
• Creating a "strong bond affinity group," and how it has allowed the
  community to grow and flourish
• Overcoming industry challenges that exist (i.e. continuously monitoring information, reporting adverse events, the need for immediate response) which parallel Government agency areas of concern

• Techniques to build and sustain communities of people
• Ways to overcome perceived obstacles to social networking
• Lessons on tracking and success metrics
• Steps on how to address a broad audience, conservatively,
  and have a good time doing it
• The importance of amplifying positive experiences to the broader online community

Seth D. Ginsberg, President
GLOBAL HEALTHY LIVING FOUNDATION

2:30 p.m.

How To Help Subject Matter Experts Write Good Online Content: Wikis In Action

Like many organizations, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) needed a Web Editorial Style Guide to document preferred editorial style for its online products and to answer questions like "Is website one word?" But EIA also needed a Style Guide for a larger purpose. It needed to provide guidance to its subject matter experts who, as part of EIA's distributed publishing model, were tasked with writing more web content.

This case study describes how E-WRITE and EIA worked together during an 18-month period to develop their Web Editorial Style Guide. We'll explain why EIA decided not to publish the Style Guide in print, where it might gather dust on a shelf, or as a hard-to-navigate PDF file. Instead, EIA chose to make the Style Guide a living document and publish it in an easy-to-update, controlled-access wiki.

• EIA developed the scope and content for the Style Guide
• Your agency can benefit from using a wiki to publish
• A series of workshops can be a functional part of your wiki rollout
• To manage your agency's wiki
• EIA’s Editorial Style Guide has improved overall content quality

Nicholas Johnson or Colleen Blessing
ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION

Leslie O'Flahavan, Owner
E-WRITE

3:35 p.m.

How To Create A Social Media Strategy For Crisis Communications: Lessons Learned And Pitfalls To Avoid

Social media represents a broad change in how people are communicating with each other. Can your agency reach more people with their message? Is it time for a paradigm shift in the way public safety agencies communicate with their customers?

Currently, the Charlotte Fire Department uses a dozen or more social media applications to communicate with their audiences, including Twitter, Yahoo Groups, BlogSpot, and Delicious. These applications have been effectively used for crisis communications during flash flooding events, structure fires, haz-mat incidents, and other emergencies. Social media applications have also been used in the dissemination of video & digital photography for post incident reporting. The Charlotte Fire Department's use of these applications has been instrumental in creating opportunities to form partnerships with key transportation businesses such as UPS and FedEx enabling their agency to extend their reach into their community.

• Lessons learned
• Pitfalls to avoid
• The legal aspects of public record
• How to get started

If your agency is contemplating using social media tools to communicate with the public, business, and news media, this session is for you.

Mark Basnight, Captain, Office of Public Affairs
CHARLOTTE FIRE DEPARTMENT, NORTH CAROLINA

4:25 p.m.


Panel Discussion: Lessons Learned In Web 2.0 Adoption -- Realizing The Potential

Many government organizations are struggling with how to practically apply social media to enhance their existing knowledge sharing and collaborative initiatives. Within the government and military, communities of practice have proven to be highly effective at building and maintaining practitioner networks.

Using case studies and lessons learned, this session will share the challenges and detail the practical implementation of Web 2.0 at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Defense Acquisition University.

• Improved opportunities for user awareness/networking
• Increased collaboration and community engagement
• Opportunities for improved integration and visibility
• Proven strategies for success, along with what pitfalls to avoid

Eric Sauve, CEO and Co-Founder
TOMOYE COMMUNITY SOFTWARE

Ilyne Miller, Advisor for Organizational Effectiveness Initiatives,
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Jill Garcia, Knowledge Project Officer
DEFENSE ACQUISITION UNIVERSITY

5:15 p.m.

End of Day One

5:30 p.m.

Networking Reception: Please Join Us!

We invite you to join us for a drink as you relax with your peers. All conference attendees and speakers are welcome to join us for this special opportunity to continue networking. Don't miss this chance to benchmark new ideas over complimentary drinks!

Sign up during the day for dinner with a group. Take advantage of DC's fine dining while you continue to network with your colleagues.