The following workshops are scheduled for the afternoon:

SPEAKER, LISTENER, NETWORK: THE CONCEPT OF AUDIENCE IN A WEB 2.0 WORLD

Gardner Campbell
Associate Prof. of Literature and Media; Director, Academy for Teaching and Learning
Baylor University

When veteran journalist Daniel Schorr, still going strong at age 90, was introduced to Twitter just a few weeks ago, he remarked that it reminded him of the Greek agora (marketplace), where when you spoke, everyone could hear. He went on to say, “every person now seems to be a network.”

Everyone a speaker, everyone a listener, everyone a network. What do we make of the concept of “audience” in the strange Web 2.0 world of online communications? We’ll explore blogging, Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube, and Delicious (a social bookmarking service) with these questions in mind.

50 + WEB 2.0 WAYS TO TELL A STORY

Alan Levine http://cogdogblog.com
Vice President Community & CTO, The New Media Consortium | http://www.nmc.org

It was not long ago that producing multimedia digital content required expensive equipment and deep levels of technical expertise; we are at the point now where anyone can create and publish very compelling content with nothing more complex than a web browser. This session will cover a basic basic story development that can be created in a web 2.0 tool using images, audio, and/or video. We are using the word “story” in a general sense; it may be a deeply personal one of the digital storytelling variety, or it may be a tale of a travel trip, or a simple multimedia presentation. It consists of more than one type of media (images + text, audio + images, etc) that are assembled on the web, and can be linked to or embedded into other web sites.

I found well over 50 tools out there available for anyone to use (and just to prove it can be done, I told the same story as an example for every tool!): http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways

ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCE: DIFFICULTIES OF TARGETING COMMUNICATION AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM

Ellen Cahill
Vice President, CAHILL ASSOCIATES, INC.

A panel of business owners and communication professionals will discuss the universal challenges of communicating through their listeners’ filters. They will answer your questions, offer practical solutions, and show how traditional principles of effective business communication apply in a changing landscape of work, clients, and media.

Panel Participants:
Paul Cahill, President
Cahill Associates, Inc.

Libby Dubick
Dubick & Associates

Roy Speed, President
Salient, Inc.

Ralph Vacca, Chief Learning Architect
Kognito Solutions

DECODING GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES: FACT, FICTION…OR SHOULD WE JUST GET BACK TO WORK?

W. Stanton Smith, National Director, Next Generation Initiatives, Deloitte Services LP

Some people think that the differences in attitude between the newest generation in the work force, the millennials, and more experienced workers are so profound that business, as it is currently conducted, will never be the same again. Others believe that the debate is pointless because the distinctions being made don’t constitute real differences. A third group doesn’t care if the differences are real or not. They suggest that we all “just get back to work.” A fourth group maintains that with the economic crisis “why should we care what any generation prefers? We all need to just hunker down and get it done.”

So whose view, if any, is closest to reality? That’s what we intend to explore in this session.

This session is designed to:

  • Give an overview of who the millenials are, describe how they differ from baby boomers and explain why you should care.
  • Discuss the solutions Stan and the team at Deloitte have developed to address the business issues arising from generational differences and the changing work force.
  • Encourage a change in mindset that is necessary if leaders are to be more effective in attracting, retaining and developing millennials as well as others in the work force.
  • Generate more buy-in and active support for the solutions in place and those still to come.
  • Work together on a real case to see a problem from different viewpoints and then develop practical solutions using tools that may surprise the participants

8 SECONDS TO CHANGE YOUR WORKPLACE: THE POWER OF PLAIN LANGUAGE TO TRANSFORM BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT, AND ACADEMIA

Deborah S. Bosley, Director of the Center for Humanities, Technology, and Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

According to a recent survey, 75% of consumers feel that complexity and a lack of understanding have played a significant role in the current financial crisis;  84% of consumers are more likely to trust a company that uses jargon-free language in their communications. Also, three national studies on 21st Century skills indicate that the deficit in communication skills means students are not prepared to enter the workplace. The lack of transparency in government and business documents and the focus on academic writing to prepare students for the world of work are all indicators that our language use has gone crazy.   In this workshop, participants will explore how plain language

  • improves government, business, and academic communication
  • contributes to increased profits and productivity in business
  • prepares students to meet the communication demands of the workplace
  • enables you to write more effectively and efficiently