What's a Town Hall flop? You probably know the kind: It's a costly meeting where yawns, glazed eyes and perpetual clock-watching inhabit a space intended for inspired employees. How do you get those same employees to become participants? How do you drive interaction and 2-way communications to seal the deal of engagement, high performance, and ultimately a Spectator-Free Workplace™?

It may not be as tough as you think. But you need a game plan. Linda Dulye, president of L.M. Dulye & Co., will offer "Town Halls: From Fizzle to Sizzle," a step-by-step, interactive workshop that will empower participants to pull off dynamic and memorable meetings.

Participants will learn:

• To change the paradigm of the Town Hall as "an event" to the Town Hall as a continuing business-driving process
• To get leadership buy-in for Town Hall revamping through hard data
• Why it's a positive attention grabber by virtue of cost effectiveness and demonstrable successes
• How to engage employees in a Town Hall support team to act as owners of the Town Hall process, from pre-planning to post-evaluations, and as true partners with senior leadership in a collaborative effort
• How to have employees act as ambassadors for change and liaisons between frontline and leadership both pre-, mid-, and post-meeting
• How to identify topics of concern to employees and pinpoint messages that will resonate
• How to build interactivity that is dependable, reliable, constructive and gain insights into what people in the workplace are really thinking
• How to reach remote and virtual workforces as well as multi-lingual workforces
• How to put some fun into the meeting
• How to utilize new technology for instant feedback
• How to measure the effectiveness of every meeting to build greater successes into each and every successive meeting
• How to build in meaningful follow-up to employee concerns and questions from leadership with the help of the Town Hall support team
• And more...

The workshop will provide templates, tools and takeaways that can be put into immediate action. This workshop will be based in action, not theory.

Linda Dulye President and Founder, Dulye & Co.

Today, more than ever, we are challenged to create real connections with employees. Today's business realities - economic uncertainty, an over-reliance on social media, and an increasingly global workforce - can create a troubling sense of disconnection for employees, which ultimately leads to diminished organizational productivity.

Alternatively, research tells us that high employee engagement is at the heart of today's most successful businesses. In the midst of disconnections, how are we helping our leaders take a courageous stand in communicating to inspire employees toward a better future?

In this interactive workshop for seasoned communicators, David Grossman, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, will focus on the principles, skills and abilities we need to help leaders make real connections with employees.

Using dg&a's proved leadercommunicator™ model, attendees will leave this session armed with:

• A quantifiable business case for leadership communication as a discipline
• The Eight Key Questions all employees have...and how to help your leaders answer them
• A five-step process to making ANY communication inspiring, personal and powerful
• Innovative techniques and tools for coaching leaders, including strategies for addressing the top five barriers communicators face
• Best practices, practical tools and hands-on experiences you can put to work right away

From this workshop, experienced communicators will go beyond the ability to direct communication, and springboard into the strategic ability to create connections - all with an eye toward engaging employees to help your organization succeed.

David Grossman APR, ABC, President and Principal thoughtpartner™, dg&a

Whether the war for talent is raging or the economy has taken an economic downturn, companies need to continue to focus on strategies to retain their high-potential employees. One area that can have the greatest impact on retention is the onboarding process for new hires.

Research shows that close to 90% of employees make their decision to stay at a company within the first six months of employment. In addition, the costs of losing a new hire during the first year are tremendous, and include the lost investment associated with recruitment, relocation expenses, compensation and training.

With a robust onboarding process, organizations experience a dramatic increase in retention rates and a decrease in time to productivity. An effective onboarding process can also:

• Solidify the employee/organization relationship by building greater employee loyalty, commitment and connections, beginning with the offer acceptance
• Institutionalize behaviors, values and competencies critical to success
• Enrich understanding of the organization, its history and values
• Reaffirm and celebrate the new hire's decision to join the organization

In this highly interactive workshop, through case studies and best practices, you will learn:

• How to make the business case for developing a world-class onboarding program
• Ways to ensure you are providing the right information and experiences on the first day, first week, first three months and first year to help new employees become highly engaged and reach maximum performance
• New creative and experiential methods that help new employees not only hear what's important, but also experience what's important
• How other companies around the world provide the right balance of corporate consistency and local customization
• Ways to use data collection and research to test the design of your onboarding program and measure the results

Michelle Mahoney Co-Founder, Bridge Consulting
Chris Gay Co-Founder, Bridge Consulting