What I’m Speaking About in 2 Weeks

I’m excited to share with you that I will be in Washington, DC in two weeks to speak at a Social Media for Government conference. I’m accustomed to local speaking gigs here and there, not presenting before federal government decision makers and community development groups.
It’s humbling to share the stage with distinguished federal specialists employed […]

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I’m excited to share with you that I will be in Washington, DC in two weeks to speak at a Social Media for Government conference. I’m accustomed to local speaking gigs here and there, not presenting before federal government decision makers and community development groups.

It’s humbling to share the stage with distinguished federal specialists employed by the Department of State, Department of Defense, Small Business Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S Air Force, among others.

Looking at the agenda for seminars I’d like to attend (and partially because I’ve personally emailed or twittered with some of them), I’m rubbing my hands in anticipation of learning tons and networking a lot.

On Thursday, March 26, at the conclusion of the last day of the four-day conference, I’m thrilled to co-present a three-hour workshop with Andrew Krzmarzick, a special projects coordinator with the Graduate School, USDA. He blogs about generational diversity in the workplace at Generation Shift and tweets as @krazykriz.

We titled our workshop Measuring the Impact of Social Media and Determining Next Steps and this is the published outline for Workshop D:

Whether your organization is designing or implementing social media tools, measurement is a critical component for government agencies. Benchmarks and metrics play a key role in gaining stakeholder buy-in and justifying questions, such as “Were we successful?” and “Did we achieve our goals?”

Building upon the measurement framework of several management initiatives, such as the President’s Management Agenda (PMA), this workshop will invite you to:

• Explore and compare social media endeavors of governments around the globe
• Learn how to develop a tailored measurement framework in your agency
• Gauge the effectiveness of cross-agency collaboration and citizen participation
• Apply the framework to a scenario in real-time

This session will be highly participatory, engaging you in an exploration of best practices and brainstorming. Using Government 2.0 tools such as USA.gov, Twitter and YouTube, you will walk away with a clearer understanding of what government agencies are doing, how citizens are getting engaged, and what you need to do next.

Andy is on a significant speaking circuit this year, partially aided by his and Govloop founder Steve Ressler’s work on I Am Public Service, a free e-book released last week that highlights the personal stories of 34 public servants in the federal government.

Produced by the Advanced Learning Institute, this is the seventh forum they are holding about social media initiatives in government. It’s more important this year, I’d think, because of a progressive occupant in the Oval Office.

Of special note, Andy and I recently closed a SurveyMonkey-hosted poll of government employees, asking 10 in-depth questions about social networking usage, government standards, relations with the press and constituents, and identification of their agency social media evangelists; and, to our awe and wonder, received 105 submissions from a combination of local, state, federal, and international employees spread across six countries and various military branches.

We’ll release the initial results during our workshop, with a more official announcement in early April in conjunction with the EPA.

You can view the registration details here; and if you would like to listen to Andy and I speak at Workshop D, I can offer you a $200 discount with code SPK. Additionally, if you are part of a team, the fourth person gets in for free.

The conference producer told me yesterday there are nearly 30 people signed up–already–for our workshop; and it is traditional to have walk-in registrations. Maybe you’d like to attend?

Also… if you live or work in the DC area, I’ll be staying in Vienna, Virginia with close friends from Sunday night through Thursday night. If you’re around and schedules match, I’d love to see you.

Post Script: Andy and I have never met. I live in Massachusetts and he’s in North Carolina. We “met” via Chris Brogan, who lives near me. Shortly after Chris and I connected at a local bar, Andy reached out to me via Chris; and the rest is our little history…

But it goes to show that conferences can be planned–and relationships can be bonded–without ever physically meeting the other person.

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