Social Media for Government

Coming up next week (Jan 25th to the 28th), Walter is going to be chairing and presenting at the ALI Social Media for Government Conference. The conference is being held at the Delta Downtown Edmonton. Here’s the agenda:

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS: Monday, January 25, 2010

9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

MORNING PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP

Social Media 101: How To Connect With Your Citizens And Colleagues Using The Latest Technologies
The world is all a buzz with social media, however there are significant hurdles that many leaders today still face with getting online and creating a buzz. How can you connect with your citizens and colleagues using social media? The Internet is all about connecting both technically and socially. How are you overcoming this challenge of connecting with your citizens and colleagues? Many of us look at the Internet and see a confusing mess of computers, laptops, and mobile phones while some of us look at the Internet and see a mesh of connected people, resources, companies and individuals. How are you seeing your place in social media?
Social media and networking has primarily been used as a tool to keep in touch with those external to our organizations, however many leading corporations also incorporate these techniques internally across departments and throughout the enterprise. In this workshop, you will hear how you can start using these tools internally with your teams, across your organization and also as a mechanism to share important information in an expedient manner.
After attending this workshop, you will walk away with new knowledge in 5 main areas to help you better understand how to use social media internally and externally. Specifically, we will take a hands-on approach on how to:

• Integrate social media into your organization
• Leverage social media to keep in touch with employees, team members and clients
• Design a blog – with tips and tricks to share your thoughts with those around you
• Write your message clearly and concisely
• Apply delivery mechanisms and alerts to notify you when new items are posted
• Use social networking to connect with your organization and audience

You will also leave with a solid foundation of understanding what the basic social media tools are and how to use them.

WORKSHOP LEADERS: Stuart R. Crawford is Vice President Business Development at Bulletproof InfoTech. Stuart has shared this information across the globe with IT Professionals, Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs who crave to understand how they can leverage these tools to increase the awareness of their work, educate those around them and share information with their communities.
David West is the founding partner of Ulistic Inc., a progressive internet consultancy. His teams have developed hundreds of websites over the past dozen years. David began working with Internet technologies initially as a freelance website programmer. He later formed a full service website design and development company in Calgary, Alberta.

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

A Step-By-Step Process For Successfully Building And Implementing A Social Media Strategy

In this workshop, we will discover why it is so critical for your organization to have a strong social media strategy. Key insights that will accelerate your learning curve and help you avoid the mistakes others have made will be addressed. This live-fire exercise is best experienced when you come prepared with your mobile phones and laptops, ready to go online.
The workshop is broken into three segments. This interactive session will help you lay the foundation for your own social media strategy, and give you a step-by-step process for:

• Gathering social media intelligence
• Leveraging and building a social media strategy
• Implementing a social media strategy effectively

This fast-paced and entertaining session will give you some of the practical tools and ideas necessary to bring your organization up to speed in the world of social media.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Walter Schwabe is a seasoned presenter and speaker. He is proudly Métis and has been helping entrepreneurs generate and implement rare ideas for over 9 years now as the Chief Evolution Officer of his social media strategy firm, fusedlogic inc. In addition to working with numerous small and medium sized organizations, Walter has worked with such organizations as Apple, Dell, AMD, Capital Health, Government of Alberta, MacEwan School of Business, Nortel, North American Construction Group and the Business Development Bank of Canada.

AGENDA ~ Day One, Tuesday, January 26, 2010

8:00   Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30      Chairperson’s Welcome, Opening Remarks And Presentation:

Capitalizing On Social Media: How An Organization Of Any Size Can Use Social Media To Generate Engagement And Be Successful

Walter Schwabe, fusedlogic inc.

9:35   Break-Out Blitz!  Share Your Challenges And Begin To Brainstorm Solutions

10:05 Morning Refreshment, Networking Break & Exhibit Time

10:35     Moving Towards Government 2.0: Using Gradual And Deliberate Steps To Gain

Management Acceptance And Citizen Engagement

Jas Darrah, City of Edmonton, Alberta

11:25     Making Sense Of Social Media: 12 Things To Learn About How To Communicate With Your Audience – Your Friends, Fans And Followers

Jacob George, City of Calgary, Alberta

12:15 Lunch On Your Own – But Not Alone!

Join a small group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated

by one of our expert speakers.  Please sign up at the registration table.

1:45   Enriching Your Public Engagement Initiatives Through A Variety Of Social Media Tools

Nathan Freed, Alberta Education and Manon Abud, Ascentum, Inc.

2:35   Afternoon Refreshment, Networking Break & Exhibit Time

2:50   Cracking The Internal Culture:  How To Use Social Media As a Catalyst For Internal Change

Troy M. Wason, WMS Communications

(former Sr. Communications Officer–Social Media, Alberta Government Caucus)

3:40      How To Integrate Social Media With Traditional Media Relations To Maximize Communication Results

Diane Bégin, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT)

4:30   Close of Day One

4:45   Networking Reception – Please Join Us!

6:30      Dine Around – Sign up at the registration table for dinner with a group of your colleagues.

AGENDA ~ Day Two, Wednesday, January 27, 2010

8:00   Continental Breakfast, Networking & Exhibit Time

8:30   Chairperson’s Opening Of Day Two

Walter Schwabe, fusedlogic inc.

8:40   Using Social Media To Initiate Change In Government: It Starts With You

Kelly Rusk, MediaMiser

9:30   Morning Refreshment, Networking Break & Exhibit Time

10:00     How To Drive Higher Participation In Online Community Forums For More Effective Community Management

Dr. Crispin Butteriss, Bang the Table Pty. Ltd.

10:50     Monitoring Social Media: Knowing When And How To Take Action While Getting The Most Out Of Your Budget

Aaron Wrixon, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario

11:40 Lunch On Your Own – But Not Alone!

Join a small group of your colleagues for lunch with an informal discussion facilitated by one of our expert speakers.  Please sign up at the registration table.

1:10   Group Exercise – Let’s Communicate and Collaborate!

1:50      The Social Media Toolbox: How To Choose The Right Tool For Your Communications Strategy And For Your Dollar

Mike Spear, Genome Alberta

2:40   Afternoon Refreshment, Networking Break & Exhibit Time

2:55   Using Social Media To Transform A Regional Economy

Glenn Taylor, Grande Alberta Economic Region & Town of Hinton, Alberta and K.J. (Ken) Chapman, Cambridge Strategies Inc.

3:45      Eight Ways To Engage Your Audience By Integrating Social Media Into Your Organization’s Website

Gisela Hippolt-Squair, Alberta Geological Survey, Energy Resources Conservation Board

4:35   Chairperson’s Recap:  Key Takeaways And What To Do When You Get Back To The Office

4:45       Close Of General Sessions

Thursday, January 28 (if applicable) in Mayfair:

– Continental Breakfast will be provided at 8:00 a.m. for the morning workshop attendees.

– Morning Post-Conference Workshop C, Managing Through The Power Shift Of This New Information Age And Convincing Your Senior Leaders Why Now Is The Time To Get Involved, begins at 8:30 a.m. & ends at 11:30 a.m.

– Afternoon Break/Lunch On Your Own from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

– Afternoon Post-Conference Workshop D, Practicing Social Media In The Real World: A Campaign In Action, begins at 12:30 p.m. & ends at 3:30 p.m.

Post Conference Workshops:

January 28, 2010 INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS

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

Managing Through The Power Shift Of This New Information Age And Convincing Your Senior Leaders Why Now Is The Time To Get Involved
Information is power and the power over information has shifted from those who control traditional media and professional message makers and manipulators to individuals who use social media.
Social media will continue to change the roles, relationships and even the responsibilities of bureaucracies, public policy advisors and how they advise policy makers in the political process of law making in our representative democratic models. How will this power shift affect your organization? What if your senior leaders don’t want to engage in using social media?
In this session, we will greater explore tools you can use to achieve social media buy-in within your organization:

• Social media literacy skills and tools that bureaucracies will have to learn and learn quickly
• How bureaucracies can keep up with social media to do their jobs effectively
• How you can manage through the information shift in your organization
• Strategies on how to approach and convince your senior leaders that now is the time to begin using social media

WORKSHOP LEADER: K.J. (Ken) Chapman Lawyer, Principal and Founder of Cambridge Strategies Inc. (www.cambridgestrategies.com) an Alberta based public policy design development and deployment consultancy. He has been an active Blogger (www.ken-chapman.blogspot.com) for three years and a political and public policy commentator and critic on mainstream media for decades and engaged in social media for many months.

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Afternoon break/lunch on your own.

12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
AFTERNOON POST-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP D

Practicing Social Media In The Real World: A Campaign In Action
Now that you have learned about all the social media tools and services that are at your disposal, it is finally time to put them into practice.
This workshop will guide you on how to:

• Set up a social media campaign from start to finish
• Pick the right social media tool for your campaign
• Track the conversation once you’ve gotten started
• Measure the ROI for your campaign
• Mitigate potential problems that can arise
• Prepare for a follow-up campaign

Additionally, we will also explore some real social media campaigns. What was done well? What could have been done better? You will leave with a better understanding of how to go from theory in the classroom to engaging citizens on the Internet.

WORKSHOP LEADER: Mack D. Male, President, CEO of Paramagnus Developments Inc., is a software developer, entrepreneur, and social media guy. Always up-to-date on the latest trends and technologies, Mack loves sharing what he learns with others. He’s particularly passionate about his hometown, Edmonton, and does his best to expose everything it has to offer, through his blog, Twitter account, and many other online tools and services. Mack was named one of Edmonton’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2009 for his work in helping to build Edmonton’s online communities.