8:00 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast

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

Joseph Thornley, CEO
THORNLEY FALLIS COMMUNICATIONS and 76DESIGN

8:45 a.m.

How To Get Started With Social Media In Your Organization – A Focus On The Process

Are you thinking of using social media, ready to start piloting, but not sure how or where to start? Let the City of Ottawa take you on a journey that shares the strategies we used, success we achieved, and practical lessons we learned while venturing into the world of social media and Web 2.0.

• Basic starting points to organize internally and how to set the groundwork for introducing social media to your organization
• Approaches for changing employee culture and the perceived value of social media
• Some of the basics about technology options
• Business First! How to make a business case for social media activities

You will come away from this session with some tangible success stories and guidelines that you can use within your own organization.

• Gain awareness and attract champions
• Pilot and use a sandbox (bottom-up approach)
• Get management buy-in (top-down approach)
• Build relationships for success (lateral approach)
• Pull it all together to create a business case for social media

Mark Faul, Business Analyst
CITY OF OTTAWA, ONTARIO

Chris Wightman, Manager, Service Integration and Performance
CITY OF OTTAWA, ONTARIO

9:30 a.m.
Break-Out Blitz!

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.

How To Build A Successful Government Social Media Initiative To Spread Your Messages More Effectively While Engaging Your Audiences

In 2005, the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C. created Connect2Canada -- a network for people in the U.S. who have a connection to Canada. Over 42,000 people have opted to join "Canada's network in the United States" and receive updates on subjects as diverse as our global troop deployments, the Canada-U.S. border, and Canadian cultural events in the United States. We now have Connect2Canada pages on Facebook, Twitter, iTunes (podcasts), Flickr, and YouTube.

This session will look at Connect2Canada as a case study for building a successful government social media initiative. Specifically, we will look at the recent successful launch at of our Twitter page around the 2009 U.S. Presidential Inauguration.

• Use a crisis or major event to your advantage -- experiment with social media tools that were not previously in reach
• Leverage social media tools to enable your message to spread virally
• Give people "cookies" -- fun, engaging information that balances out your key messaging
• Encourage user feedback and interaction and make them feel valued and connected
• Measure, learn, and adjust based on your successes and failures
• Never play catch up - - be ahead of the curve and provide timely content

Eric Portelance, Advocacy Officer, Public Affairs
CANADIAN EMBASSY

11:15 a.m.

Integrating Podcasting, Blogging And Social Networking Into Traditional Communications To 'Personalize' Your Organization

The National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) is mandated to improve the health and well-being of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada by engaging in research, policy research and health promotion activities. To broaden its communications reach, NAHO has begun integrating social media into its existing communications activities. Some activities include podcasting, blogging, photo-blogging, RSS feeds, social networking sites, and discussion boards. In this presentation, case studies of NAHO's work will be elucidated.

For example, NAHO coordinates a network of suicide prevention workers nationally; these workers are provided a virtual place to meet at the NAHO Honouring Life Network Web site and Facebook Group. Through the use of employees' blogs, NAHO has been able to 'personalize' an organization that is primarily involved in research activities at the national level.

• Use social media as a means to engage in health promotion activities
• 'Personalize' your organization
• Engage with specific audiences using social media
• Overcome resistance to social media to become a leader in the use of technology to engage stakeholders

Mark E. Buell, Director, Communications and Research Unit
NATIONAL ABORIGINAL HEALTH ORGANIZATION

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

1:30 p.m.

Driving Customer And Employee Engagement Through Social Media: Perspectives From The Private Sector

In a new social media era, today's high performing governments and private sector organizations are adapting to meet growing customer, and employee expectations.

• Discover how Canada ranks in our recent global study comparing Government customer service practices, and how social media can close the gap
• Learn about some of the most effective private sector implementations, and how their best practices can transfer to public service
• Hear how to walk the talk: Taking lessons Accenture learned from their Collaboration 2.0 strategy and applying them back to your organization

Dave Telka, Management Consultant
Talent & Organization Performance
ACCENTURE

Chris Dodge, Management Consultant
Customer Relationship Management
ACCENTURE

2:15 p.m.

Using Social Media To Grow Your Community, Foster Collaboration And Prepare For The Next Generation Of Workforce And Communication Tools

Social media and collaboration has been active at the Government of Ontario. The web community site has been using wikis, blogs and discussion forums for over two years. A community del.icio.us (social bookmarking tool) account is used to feed content in multiple directions. Members of the Web Coordinators Committee have been key to numerous pilots both internally and publically. The lessons learned are being integrated into the next iteration.

This session will show how growth in the community has been encouraged and shared. You will also hear about the choices and challenges involved in creating the 'next generation'.

Susie Floresco, Standards and Guidance Coordinator
e-Government Branch, Office of the Corporate Chief Strategist
ONTARIO MINISTRY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Colin Chan, Senior Analyst, Emerging Web Technologies
e-Government
ONTARIO MINISTRY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES

3:00 p.m.

Afternoon Refreshment & Networking Break

3:20 p.m.

Giving Your Communications Strategy A Second Life: Understanding This Virtual World And Why It Is Right For Your Organization

Since early 2008, two departments of the Ontario Public Service (OPS) have launched Second Life regions: one designed to be a virtual career fair and the other focusing on Ontario's digital strategy. In this session, you will hear how the Ontario Public Service is introducing Second Life into their communication strategy.

• General information on Second Life and virtual worlds
• Why Second Life is "right" for government
• How Second Life integrates with Web 2.0 and other Social Media
• What objectives the OPS has carried out in Second Life
• The results of their virtual initiatives
• Future plans for Second Life

You will leave this session with new perspectives into one of the truly unique and innovative ways to use social media to achieve the results your organization is seeking.

Glen Padassery, Acting Director, Youth and New Professionals Secretariat, HROntario
MINISTRY OF GOVERNMENT SERVICES, ONTARIO PUBLIC SERVICE

4:05 p.m.

Building Institutional Transparency With The Latest Web 2.0 Tools

President Obama's unprecedented online campaign and his ground breaking technology platform are re-defining the way citizens and governments interact online. This talk will explore the implications of Obama's promises to make "government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities," and to "open up government decision-making and involve the public in the work of agencies." We'll also look at examples from around the world of these concepts in action.

• The Benefits of Open: See case studies where governments benefit
• Ways to use the latest Web 2.0 tools to be more transparent
• The Challenges of Transparency: What are the limits of online disclosure?
• Transparency from the Inside Out: Policy changes that pave the way
• For online institutional transparency
• Five things you can do now to be more open

Jennifer Bell, Executive Director
VISIBLEGOVERNMENT.CA

4:50 p.m.
Close Of Day One

5:00 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 Ottawa's fine dining while you continue to network with your colleagues.