Social media for economic developers

Social media seminar seminar. Stratford, ON. May 26-27, 2016.

Date Location Tuition Value
May 26-27, 2016 University of Waterloo - Stratford Campus $595-$795 7

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Social media is a powerful tool that is beginning to permeate all aspects of economic development. While most people are using platforms like Facebook and Twitter for personal use, it can be a challenge to know how to use them in a professional capacity. In this seminar, experts explain and demonstrate how to use social media for municipal communication, investment attraction, and BR&E, and how to measure success.

Online option

Travel to Stratford is not necessary. Go digital and participate in the seminar online.

Those taking the online option will have to complete a two page 'Reflection' on how the topics and content relate to trends, opportunities and initiatives in their communities. The reflection is required in order to earn the EDAC points. 

We will be using Adobe Connect web conferencing software. More details on how to use it will be provided after registration.

Testimonials from 2015

I found great value in this course. I found there was a good balance between the presenters, the content, and the delivery of the material (lecture, hands on exercises, and some online discussion time). Since we are entering a digital revolution that will change the way economic development offices do business, this course was a great resource to assist all of us EDOs with our efforts.

  - British Columbia EDO

I am so glad that I was able to participate in this course and I look forward to hopefully participating in more. I learned so much in a short amount of time and I will be sure to pass along the knowledge and tools learned to the rest of my team. Thank you for organizing such a great program!

- Alberta EDO 

We will take these KPIs forward as suggestions for the board as performance metrics that can be tracked and reported. I feel that this was one of the best takeaways from this online course, as it is very relevant to current struggles we are dealing with as an economic development organization. Lately, we have been under increasing pressure to report deliverables and it is nice to have found new venues for tracking and reporting metrics to the community. Thank you

- British Columbia EDO

Schedule

Thursday, May 26

  • 8:30 a.m.-9 a.m: Registration
  • 9 a.m. - 10:15 a.m: Impact, expectations, and trends
    • What social media and social networks are, and where they came from
    • The power of crowd sourcing
    • ​Where it's all going

Brock Dickinson, Principal, MDB Insight

  • 10:30 a.m.- 12 p.m: Leading Practices In Social Media Marketing for Economic Development
    • Understanding the digital culture
    • Why track leading practices?
    • Leading practices in North America 

Isabelle Poirier, founder, Intelegia

  • 1 p.m.- 5 p.m: Social Media in Municipalities and Economic Development
    • Promotion and communication Building your digital marketing identity
    • Listening and sharing on social media
    • Case study: Pipestone, MB
    • Hands on training with social media tools

Isabelle Poirier, founder, Intelegia

Friday May 27

  • 8:30 a.m. -12 p.m: Social Media in Investment Attraction
    • How to take advantage of the web for economic development
    • Social media strategy and planning

Isabelle Poirier, founder, Intelegia

  • 1 p.m. -2:30 p.m: Social media in business retention and expansion
    • BR&E from 30,000 feet
    • Enhancing BR&E efforts through social media
    • Using LinkedIn and social media calendars for BR&E

Guillermo Mazier, Director, Strategic Accounts, Atlas Advertising

  • 2:45 p.m.- 4 p.m: Measuring Success: Social Media Metrics
    • The case for measuring
    • How users interact with websites, digital campaigns and mobile version
    • Metrics and conversion goals
    • The costs of high-converting digital presence

Guillermo Mazier, Director, Strategic Accounts, Atlas Advertising

Speakers

Isabelle Poirier

Founder, Intelegia

Isabelle Poirier

Experienced executive and strategist, Isabelle Poirier has more than 15 years’ experience in economic development and more specifically in competitive intelligence, investment attraction and regional development.

As an expert in communication and applied marketing in the fields of economic, industrial and tourism development, she recently developed and deployed MinesQC.com. First initiative of its kind for the North American mining industry, MinesQC.com aims to foster dialogue between an industry, its stakeholders and the population at large.

Since 2008, Isabelle Poirier has been the guest speaker of large organisations and renowned universities in North America and Europe.

Twitter | Linkedin

Guillermo Mazier

Director, strategic accounts, Atlas Advertising

An innate passion for places, culture and economic development has afforded Guillermo the opportunity to traverse the globe and view the world through different lenses. With a strong background in international business and community development, Guillermo has developed tactical marketing programs, corporate communication strategies and messaging across multiple campaign engagements in various parts of Central America, Mexico and throughout the US.

Specializing in business attraction and social media marketing, Guillermo works closely with Atlas’ new clients to define marketing goals, metrics and identify targeted channels to reach segmented community, industry and site selection audiences.  

Twitter | LinkedIn

Brock Dickinson

Principal, MDB Insight

Brock is a principal at Millier Dickinson Blais, Canada's largest specialist economic development consultancy. Before entering the private sector, Brock served as Director of ICT & Advanced Manufacturing for the Toronto Region Research Alliance, as Director of economic development and tourism services for the City of St. Catharines, and as executive director of the Western Valley Development Authority in rural Nova Scotia. This economic development work won more than 40 national and international awards, including a UN designation as one of the “best practices in the world for improving living conditions.” His work helped to leverage more than a billion dollars in new investment, and the creation of 5,000 new jobs.

Twitter | LinkedIn

Accommodations

The Parlour Inn, 101 Wellington Street, Stratford

1-877-728-4036 / 519-271-2722

$159/night under ‘University of Waterloo’ 

Tuition

  EDAC Members Non-EDAC Members
Early Bird $595 $695
After April 14 $695 $795