Take social media from complexity to clarity through these interactive workshops guaranteed to jumpstart your conference experience. These workshops are a great opportunity to advance your learning and network with fellow attendees while taking a hands-on, common sense approach to mastering social media 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

9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
MORNING PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP A

Social Media 101: What You Need To Know To Start Your Own Organization's Blogging/Podcasting Strategy

Are you planning to launch a blog? Interested in starting a podcast? This workshop will help you think through the questions that you will need to answer before you get started. It will provide an overview of the expanding world of social media including popular tools and destinations like YouTube, Flickr and Digg and with practical advice on how to integrate these into your web presence.

• The state of the blogosphere and other social media
• The steps you need to take to launch a blog or start a podcast
• Strategies for creating content and generating interaction with your readers and/or listeners
• Examples of how to measure success

You'll leave this workshop with blogging/podcasting best practices, policies and procedures, and the tools and skills that you and your staff will need to be successful in reaching your audience.

WORKSHOP LEADER: John Breyault, Director, Research, has been a member of the Amplify Public Affairs (APA) team since 2003, and has an extensive background in the application of Web 2.0/3.0 technologies such as blogging, social networking, virtual worlds and public policy issues. Prior to joining APA, Breyault was a financial analyst at Sprint where he managed the company's international long distance and data networks in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions.

12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Afternoon break/lunch on your own.

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

Some people may think that social and emerging media tools are just for customers. However, they can greatly improve your internal communication, peer networking and knowledge sharing and management initiatives if used properly. This workshop will show you how to leverage the most prominent social media tools to strengthen your internal communications processes and improve the effectiveness of any customer-focused organization. If you're considering social media for customer/external communications, this workshop will also give you specific insights and help you to 'eat your own dogfood' before going headlong into social and emerging media & marketing with your customers and prospects.

• A comprehensive understanding of each and every internal social media tool available to their organization
• Concrete examples of organizations that are employing these tools
• A roadmap of where to start and how to progress in your internal social media endeavor
• Develop the business case to sell internal social media based communication tools to management
• The seven steps to taking social media from an internal endeavor to an external marketing program
• A comprehensive workbook which explains how to learn more about each of the tools discussed

WORKSHOP LEADER: Dana VanDen Heuvel is an award-winning marketing blogger and author of the American Marketing Association's Marketech '08 Guide to Marketing Technology and creator of the TechnoMarketing training series. Dana is a widely recognized expert on blogging, podcasting, RSS, Internet communities and interactive marketing trends and best practices and speaks regularly on these topics at industry events. Dana founded BlogSavant, a division of VanDen Heuvel Executives, LLC, one of the nation's first weblog and social media marketing consultancies, which he is still active in. He currently runs The MarketingSavant™ Group, a marketing technology consulting and training firm that helps marketers leverage emerging marketing technology to grow their business.