By: Paul Cleary, P.Eng, PE, ECC Future Leader

What’s the secret to an even more successful ECC conference?

Your skunk works ECC Future Leaders ‘Communication and Social Media Team’ is going to spill the beans on what we’re planning. Or maybe what we’re planting – as in seeds – seeds of thought. But stay with me on the bean theme. Think bean seeds -High fiber packed with protein and powerful energy. Seeds that will grow and expand to make the ECC experience better than ever!!

Ahem, I digress. It’s close to lunch time and I am hungry…

Updates from the Midyear meeting
During the afternoon session of the ECC Future Leaders’ mid-year planning meeting, some of the best and brightest minds converged around the aptly named “Communication and Social Media” flip board. We soon realized (2 hours later) that we would need a fearless, illustrious and omnipotent leader. Having many such candidates to choose from in our group, we used a tried and true method for selection: Volunteer one of your peer’s first and loudest, then apply group pressure before they have chance to nominate you. Chad Supan was unanimously elected and graciously accepted.

The Plan
Under Chad’s leadership and with direction from the Board (via Shannon and Justin) we’ve been able to narrow our focus:

Participation
We’re looking to increase the participation and engagement of our current and past Future Leaders. Specifically we want to understand and develop a plan that will:

• Increase turn out and attendance of our year 2nd and 3rd year Future Leaders at both midyear planning and ECC conference
• Increase communication and momentum with Future Leaders (past, present)
• Maintain contact with Future Leader Alumni “post” graduation
• Further engagement and networking opportunities with Future Leader Alumni

Awareness
We need to get the word out to increase awareness and elevate interest. We’re going to use Social Media to do so. Our target audience and the medium we use needs to be considered carefully and we want to ensure that we address:

• Senior Level Executives
• ECC Sponsors, Speakers, and Attendees
• Future Leaders (Past, Present and Future)
• Public at large

We are looking at LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter as the primary social medial tools but are open to exploring others.

Diversification
We are capturing input for the development of a strategy to reach out and diversify attendance at the ECC conference. This includes both non-traditional and international delegates. In doing so we hope to further enhance the ECC experience and elevate the exposure and prestige of attending and being part of this event.

What’s Next
Stay tuned to the ECC blog to keep updated on the marketing team’s progression. We’d love to hear your feedback and learn if we can interact with your group. As we roll-out the Social Media sites, we’ll be looking for you to sign-up, log-on, join-in and participate.