Conference Postponed? Find Other Ways to Collaborate
Well, it is what it is. I hope the conference will be rescheduled. But in the meantime, don’t sit around and wait for GSA to create opportunities to collaborate - do it yourself! How? Well, here are a few ideas.
1. Call some other web managers in your geographic area and set up a meeting. You can choose agencies whose missions are related to yours or a variety of agencies. You can (should) include state and local government web managers. Agenda ideas?
- Invite speakers – there are savvy web experts everywhere or you can do it as a group webinar
- Create a seminar series or brown bag lunches on specific topics. Share expertise and figure out ways to work together.
- Do “show and tell,” allowing web managers to showcase things that are working well or things they have in the works. But don’t just talk at each other. Work together. Could you adopt common methods for organizing content or helping customers who get stuck on a task that crosses agencies? The more we do things alike, the easier it is for customers to use all our sites. Could you work together to come up with better sequences of related content, so customers can move between agencies seamlessly?
- Do usability testing – pick two or three sites from your meeting group, come up with some typical (top task) problems, and use 3 members of your group as guinea pigs (Steve Krug says you can use just about anyone to test your site, and you’ll still get worthy results). Work together to fix the problems. Or watch a First Fridays session together. Learn how GSA does usability testing and then do some yourselves.
- Include managers of other delivery channels – call centers, correspondence units, publications, in-person customer support. Figure out how you can work together to make customer service seamless and effective, no matter how customers interact with the agencies.
2. Set up local or regional conference calls to supplement or follow-up on the Government Web Managers Forum calls. Focus on opportunities for collaboration. How can you work across agencies to share resources or conduct training or measure customer behavior when a task cuts across agency boundaries?
3. Use the Government Web Managers Forum listserv to kick around ideas. Don’t just look for best practices – look for ways to collaborate together to solve problems and improve customer service. Think big.
4. Get involved in one of the Sub-Councils of the Federal Web Managers Council. Collaborate with your peers to come up with tools and resources everyone can use.
5. Use Ning or GovLoop or LinkedIn or Go to Meeting or any number of technology tools to set up task groups around particular issues or initiatives.
Be creative. And whatever you do, share the experiences and outcomes of your collaborations with your colleagues, through the Government Web Managers Forum. Success begets success, so let others know how you’re working together to improve customer service.
Original post
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Comment by Adam Arthur on May 18, 2012 at 1:12pm -
I'm hoping the two articles that came out in support of CDC's Virtual Platform Initiative (VPI) will help show government is thinking of innovative ways to reduce meeting costs and provide alternative means to meet and collaborate. PCMA - Convene Magazine AOL Government
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Comment by Tara Linne on May 18, 2012 at 11:47am -
I was really disappointed the conference was cancelled. This would have been my 4th year and I always leave with new ideas and valuable information. Plus it is a great opportunity to network and make new contacts. You had some great ideas Candi. Thanks! I hope this is only a temporary cancellation and at some point, once all of this blows over, the conferences will resume.
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Comment by Candi Harrison on May 16, 2012 at 9:39am -
Ron - so glad you mentioned the NAGW conference because it's a great idea for feds to attend that conference. We need to intermingle and work together more across levels of government because our customers - especially citizens - often don't know what level of government offers the services they want. We need to make service seamless across and between levels of government.
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Comment by John Robert Nixon on May 16, 2012 at 9:35am -
I concur with my colleague Ron. The NAGW National Conference is a great opportunity to learn about a wide variety of government web and new media topics. Plus, it's a very affordable conference being in Kansas City with a modest room rate and low registration cost. I hope to see some of you there.
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Comment by Joe Flood on May 16, 2012 at 9:24am -
If you're in the DC area, there are lots of free Meetups related to web management that are worth attending. I'm a huge fan of the WordPress meetup but there are also meetups for Drupal, web content management, social media and other issues. It's a free/cheap way to expand your skills and meet new people.
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Comment by Ron Pringle on May 16, 2012 at 9:14am -
While I've never been to GSA's Web and New Media Conference I've only ever heard great things about it. Its cancellation is a disappointment.
I would like to offer an additional idea to your excellent list Candi, which is attend the National Association of Government Webmasters (NAGW) conference in September in Kansas City. While it's focused on local and state government, federals will find themselves at home as well. You can find more info at nagw.org.
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Comment by Andrew Krzmarzick on May 16, 2012 at 8:55am -
This is a true bummer that the baby's been thrown out with the bathwater, Candi...and you offer some encouragement for those who always look forward to this event, reminding them that there are ways to simulate and experience conference proximity and support every day.
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