From Social Media to Corporate Media: An Interactive Workshop for Communications Professionals

The folks at Social Media Club (bios) are working their mojo in San Francisco next Monday, 23Oct2006. Here’s what’s going on:

This workshop is a unique hybrid of a traditional conference and an unconference, blending the best of both worlds. During the course of the afternoon on Monday October 23rd you will hear short talks from leading Social Media practitioners and engage in conversations with other Silicon Valley professionals, leaving the workshop with an understanding of how your company can benefit from producing Corporate Media using Social Media tools. Registration costs $150 and can be done online using Mollyguard. After the workshop, stay for an evening cocktail reception hosted by SAP and Social Media Club. If you are unable to attend the workshop, you may purchase a ticket for the reception for only $25, which is included in the cost of event registration.

What follows is an approximate schedule for the day.

1:00 PM
The Corporate Media Opportunity – Chris Heuer will kick off the afternoon with a short talk based on his Blog post that shares its name with this workshop. After a brief round of Q&A, he will explain the format for the rest of the afternoon and provide other logistical details for you to make the most of the experience.

1:30 PM
Social Media Strategy – Robert Scoble will present a short talk on the strategic imperative presented by producing your own corporate media as well as empowering your employees to create Social Media that engages customers, potential customers and other stakeholders. After a brief round of Q&A, Robert will leave the stage and join the participants for the first World Cafe of the day.

1:50 PM
Strategy Cafe – The World Cafe format is based on group conversations around small tables and focused on thought provoking questions that help participants learn from one another’s experience. You will join in three different conversations with three different groups of people, including the session leaders who are also participants. After a 12 minute conversation focused on the first question, a facilitator will ask each table to share the most important points of discussion which will be collected and posted to a special wiki for reference after the event. At this point, everyone except one person will change tables, joining another table with totally different participants and the next question will be revealed. The process repeats itself for a total of three rounds of conversations.

2:50 PM
10 Min Break

3:00 PM
Social Media Engagement Tactics – Lisa Stone will present a short talk on specific tactics that organizations can and should employ for properly engaging with different audiences, with an emphasis on customers and potential customers. Social media can be a vital tool for attracting and keeping lots of new customers, especially when you manage to get free instagram followers to promote your brand to a wider online audience. Consider this a practical guide to properly becoming a participant in, or convener of, conversations in the Blogosphere. After a brief round of Q&A, Lisa will join participants for another World Cafe.

3:20 PM
Tactical Cafe – This session will follow the same format as Strategy Cafe, with the emphasis switching to practical tactics for engagement.

4:20 PM
Social Media Case Study – Giovanni Rodriguez will interview Geoff Kerr of SAP to discuss their experiences and lessons learned from deploying Social Media strategies in the real world.

4:45 PM
15 Min Break

5:00 PM
Social Media BrainJam – One randomly selected (and willing) participant will get a free strategy session from the workshop’s discussion leaders, brainstorming possible strategies and tactics that will help their company to be more successful with their efforts. Other participants will get a unique look into the process and techniques employed in crafting creative plans for engaging with stakeholders. This session will be run as a “Blue Sky” session, that will take into consideration certain constraints, but will mostly look beyond those to provide insights into what sort of things are possible today. After 30 minutes, the floor will be opened for a conversation that will include all participants.

5:45 PM
Closing Points – Each participant will have a chance to share their key learning from the day or pose any questions they have that remain. This will lead us into the cocktail party and provide the basis for further conversations throughout the evening.

6:15 PM
Cocktail Party Presented by SAP and Social Media Club – Beer, wine and light appetizers will be provided for all participants to continue the conversations from the day, to network and to simply relax.

Seeya there.