For the leaders of most organizations, there is a mystery about the newest members of their workforce, often called Gen Y or Millenials. Their values, work ethic, and certainly the way they communicate, seems foreign to those from previous generations. Consider this keynote presentation a blueprint to understanding the mindset of this new generation.

Jason Ryan Dorsey is a nationally-renown expert on Gen Y - how they think, make decisions, and create priorities. Jason knows Gen Y's mindset because he's a member of Gen Y and in the last ten years he's helped 300,000 of his peers prepare for and enter the workforce. Now he teaches employers how to keep them. This unique vantage point is why major media outlets including 60 Minutes, 20/20, NBC's Today Show, ABC's The View, Fortune Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, NPR's On Point, and USA Today have relied on Jason to reveal Gen Y's attitude, beliefs and expectations.

Jason's keynote session will provide: an insightful look at Gen Y, specific strategies for communicating with Gen Y, and immediately actionable ideas you can take back to your office to increase the loyalty, creativity and performance of your Gen Y employees.

Jason Ryan Dorsey The Gen Y Guy, Author, My Reality Check Bounced! and Graduate to Your Perfect Job

Building and sustaining a culture of engagement requires a full commitment from leadership and a climate that regularly considers how the corporate environment influences employee attitude, productivity, well-being and loyalty. Yet there are some key practices that can help propel an organization in the right direction. Ceridian Canada understands this. They have been featured in the 50 Best Employers in Canada list for the past six years. And through their experiences, the organization has been able to identify a strong link between their engagement, performance, and revenue levels.

This session will offer practical ideas to drive engagement throughout your culture, including the effective development of frontline leaders and high-potential performers, a realistic assessment of alternative work arrangements, and Human Resources strategies that speak across generations.

Sylvia Klarer Human Resource Director, Ceridian Canada Limited.
Listed in 50 Best Employers in Canada

"Your Voice was Heard" is the motto of the communication planning that drives the City of Mississauga's exemplary employee engagement efforts. This simple message sets the tone and sustains the municipality's strategic initiative of being an employer of choice. This session will explore how they take a proactive approach to understanding the demographic and workplace issues affecting their employees and creating a shared vision and strategy for the future. Learn how communication can be the key conduit to employee engagement - even with employees that are non-wired, on the road, or in alternative work arrangements - and to building a workforce that is motivated, loyal, and willing to put forth their discretionary effort.

Sonja Banic, BAA, ABC, Manager, Public Affairs, City of Mississauga

Heather A. MacDonald, BES, CHRP, Director of Organizational Wellness, Chair of Engagement Committee, City of Mississauga

In a tight labor market, internal branding is one of your most valuable assets. It can be the tipping point for a current or potential employee. Ontario Power Generation has enriched its internal brand by educating employees about the organization's sustainable development practices. It builds stronger relationships with employees, demonstrates the core values of the organization, and appeals to employees' philanthropic interests.

Communicating an organization's commitments to these efforts is extremely powerful, especially with Gen X and Y employees. This session will explore OPG's compelling communication plan to engage employees, including the business case for doing so, and how you can use similar strategies and tactics within your own organization.

Dr. Blair Feltmate Director of Sustainable Development, Ontario Power Generation

When it comes to leading employees through periods of transformation, there's consensus that senior leadership needs to be at the forefront. But preparing leaders to be transparent and authentic - while asking employees to be supportive of change and deliver excellent results - is both challenging and complex. Under the direction of a new CEO, global life sciences company MDS Inc. launched a new business strategy in 2005 that saw the company move from six to three businesses and focus on driving improved performance. This session will examine the solid communication planning and execution that leveraged their senior leadership as catalysts for change, and moved employees to positive action.

Janet Ko Senior Vice President, Communications, MDS Inc

One of the keys to the long-term success of prosperous organizations is the opportunity for employees to build communities across organizational silos, cultivate and discuss new ideas, collaborate on developing those ideas, and retain and share knowledge. LoyaltyOne, a division of the marketing and loyalty services firm, Alliance Data, was experiencing accelerated growth. It turned to Enterprise 2.0 technologies to ground the firm's state-of-the-art approach to employee engagement and knowledge sharing. The result was an in-depth change management effort and knowledge solution that gave every associate the ability to publish content through technologies such as social bookmarking, a corporate Facebook, wikis, blogs and forums. This session will explore the business case, change management effort, implementation challenges, and lessons learned.

Kevin McLoughlin Senior Manager, Knowledge Management, Alliance Data Loyalty Services

Christine De Siato Internal Comms Manager, Knowledge Management, Alliance Data Loyalty Services