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 for internal communications that will enhance your understanding of the informative, case study presentations throughout the entire conference.

****** Your Choice of FOUR Workshops ******
Attend All Four for Maximum Value and Learning

Making The Most Of Social Media: A Step-By-Step Process For Using Internal Communications To Advance Your Brand From The Inside Out

Social media has become an organic part of companies’ daily communications and an integral way to both advance brands and measure impact. Though engaging in social media has become less of an option for companies and more of a necessity, it can be difficult to know how to effectively get the results you want. As with most successful initiatives, leveraging the power of social media involves starting with a well thought out strategy and an understanding of the investment required. How do you make sure you’re getting the right return?

The world of social media is continually expanding and growing, providing endless opportunities for those who strategically join the conversation. There are also unique codes of conduct you may unwittingly break at the risk of your brand if you’re not careful. Impactful social media programs begin within an organization and flow outward.

In this thought-provoking workshop, you will learn:

• What it means to effectively be ‘social’
• What the most impactful social media platforms are and why you should be using them
• How effective measurement can be part of your organization’s plan

In addition, you will examine how to organically use social media to engage and empower employees, and in the process, have them become some of the most important brand ambassadors your organization has. Lastly, you will learn how to maintain your brand’s voice and incorporate your core messages.

WORKSHOP LEADER:  Kathleen Kindle is a Strategy Director at Siegel+Gale.  When Kathleen was seven, her father bought a local business called Benjamin's Pharmacy. Her father’s name is Andy, so she was mystified that he didn't change the name. Kathleen’s father explained that people had known and trusted the Benjamin's name for years, so why would he change it? At seven years old, Kathleen had learned her first lesson in the importance and power of brands. Now, in her current role, Kathleen brings her intimate understanding of branding and more than 17 years of experience in strategy, marketing and communications to every project she leads.
@siegelgale

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

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

How Crowdsourcing (Two-Way Communications) Can Tap Into The Full Creative Power Of Employees: The Future Of Internal Communications

The crowdsourcing phenomenon, using information drawn from the public on the Internet, has rapidly made inroads into just about every industry, for a myriad of purposes. From engaging employees, customers and partners in co-creation and problem solving, to identifying new business opportunities, to building brands, just to name a few. Crowdsourcing can help shape a new way in which companies can tap the full creative power of their employees. But with this new method comes both tremendous opportunities and challenges.

This workshop will explain why crowdsourcing is gaining so much momentum, and will walk you through a typical internal crowdsourcing engagement. You will gain a firsthand overview about everything that goes into planning a successful engagement including the planning process, crowd recruitment, incentive structures, and moderation.

After the end of this workshop you will:

• Have an understanding of crowdsourcing and where it’s being used
• Understand how crowdsourcing is revitalizing older management practices
• Understand why employees of companies who have used crowdsourcing report higher levels of employee satisfaction
• Know what is critical to crowdsourcing success, and which pitfalls to avoid
• Learn (or recognize) where crowdsourcing might apply to your organization, and how to get started

WORKSHOP LEADERS:  Eric Collard is a consultant with the Intersol Group Limited, now specializing in stakeholder relations, social media and crowdsourcing. Eric is a seasoned communications professional, with over 10 years’ experience in government, NGO's and the private sector. He has vast experience in strategic & crisis communications, event management and in media relations. Throughout his young career he has hosted many functions, from small technical briefings to national presentations. He has also been involved with many endeavours as an on-camera talent, commentator, writer, interviewer, and more recently as a speaker.  @_eclinc

Randy Corke, Vice President of Business Development, Chaordix VP works with companies around the world in conceptualizing and designing crowdsourcing programs to build organization value.  Randy has helped bring new technologies to market for business value over the past twenty years and over the past decade has focused on how businesses can best make use of the most powerful concepts of social media and mobile technologies. Randy holds a MBA from Cornell University and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. @rcorke

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

How To Use Social Media & Traditional Communications To Engage Employees, Drive Performance & Add Value

This interactive workshop is designed to get you/internal communicators to think differently about the way you educate and engage with employees to achieve better outcomes. We will explore marketing techniques, behavioral economics, audience segmentation and social media and discuss how they can be used to get employees to pay attention, take action and change behaviors long term.

In this interactive session, we will also put thoughts into action. By working individually and in groups, you will apply theories to current challenges you face.  

You will walk away from this workshop knowing:

• Why it’s important to reach employees’ “heads, hearts and hands”
• The 11 behavioral economic precepts all internal communicators should know
• The importance of social media and two-way dialogue
• What you can learn from others’ successes and failures
• Key ways you can “shake things up” at their organizations and get results.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Dana Hurley, a Consultant with Towers Watson, specializes in developing and implementing communication strategies that capture employees’ attention and drive behavioral change. She works on a wide range of projects that promote physical and financial wellness, launch benefit changes, shape performance management programs
and transform how work gets done within HR. Underpinning it all is a firm belief that one
size does not fit all. Dana works with her clients to find the right mix of media to communicate effectively and achieve results that are in line with organizations’ goals.

Dana believes a key element in the mix is social media, and she speaks regularly about
the many opportunities that can be realized by promoting internal two-way dialogue. She is
a driving force behind the firm’s growing social media capabilities and is continually looking for new ways to help clients incorporate social media into communication strategies – and get results. @dvhurley

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

Increasing Your App-titude: How Smartphone And Tablet Apps Are Changing Internal Communications – And How You Can Incorporate These New Tools Into Your Strategy

The use of mobile devices to access information over the web is growing exponentially. In fact, the growth is so explosive that accessing the web over a mobile device will soon become the primary way people connect to the Internet. Your employees are already accessing their personal information through their mobile devices. They expect, not just want, to be able to do same thing with work information and communications. Are you ready to deliver information this way?

In this workshop, you'll learn how the mobile market is growing and how that growth applies to your own internal communications efforts. You'll discover ways to incorporate apps, texting and mobile video into your communications strategy so that you're taking advantage of this growing trend and harnessing the power that mobile devices offer you in reaching your employees.
 
By the end of this workshop, you will have working knowledge on:

• Mobile trends and tips
• Enterprise app usage and how it works
• A framework for including apps in your communications strategy
• The process for how to think about what kind of enterprise app might be right for your specific needs
• The steps you need to take get a typical app developed and what to look for in an app development partner