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:
Mastering Your Strategy First, And Technology Second

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Tumblr, FriendFeed, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon… This list barely scratches the surface of the social media landscape in 2009. How can anyone expect to learn the wide range of tools available, much less put them to good work?

• A high-level overview of social media platforms, tools, and trends
• A look at the state of the blogosphere and Twitter
• A realtime demonstration of audience identification and engagement around a model scenario

At the end of this workshop, you will leave with many new ideas, tools and techniques to implement social media into your organization.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Jon Carpenter, Digital Strategist at Stratacomm, brings extensive experience in content strategy and social media to Stratacomm clients. He specializes in distilling client communications goals into effective, coordinated campaigns. Day to day, he manages technical and business processes from initial concept to delivery and implementation, including ongoing iteration based on web analytics and user feedback.

12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Lunch On Your Own

1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
AFTERNOON PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP B

How To Measure The Impact Of Social Media
And Determine Next Steps

Whether your organization is identifying or implementing social media tools, measurement is a critical component for government agencies. Benchmarks and metrics play a key role in gaining stakeholder buy-in and answering questions, such as "Were we successful?" and "Did we achieve our goals?"

• Reviewing several evaluative techniques and their pros and cons
• Exploring and comparing social media endeavors of governments around the globe (including, but not limited to, initiatives in the United Kingdom, Finland, Malta, Australia, South Korea, and Singapore)
• Developing a tailored measurement framework in your agency
• Applying the framework to a scenario in real-time

This session will be highly participatory, engaging participants in an exploration of best practices and brainstorming. Using Government 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube; and learning in real-time from sites such as USA.gov and Europa.eu, you will walk away with a clearer understanding of what government agencies are doing, how citizens are getting engaged, and what you need to do next.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Andrew Krzmarzick is Community Manager for GovLoop, the social network developed by and for the government community. He's the author of the GenerationShift blog and co-creator of IAmPublicService.org. Andrew focuses his energy on addressing the impact of the four generations in the workforce, Web 2.0, and telework on the public sector.