Determine if the 2009 Briefing will be your organization’s only training and recognition event during Administrative Professionals Week or if it will be coordinated with other internal and/or external elements. Your celebration might include:

• Welcome by a senior staff member.
• Viewing of the Briefing.
• Facilitated group discussion.
• Lunch hosted by the organization.
• Additional speakers/trainers.
• Presentation of awards.

The organization will need to decide if its support staff will view the program individually at their desks and/or in a group setting. The latter will require selecting an appropriate venue, e.g. meeting or hotel room. Determine if your group will participate in the live session via satellite, videoconference, and/or the web and also in the archived version provided on-demand to the desktop for 90 days after the Briefing.

If you are considering using a hotel, give preference to one that is equipped to receive a satellite signal or has high speed internet access, over one that offers only videoconferencing capabilities. Satellite reception provides the highest quality picture. Web viewing will be more cost-effective and the picture quality is very good.

Consider offering the event to all your support staff as part of an inclusive training program during or even after Administrative Professionals Week. There may be some support staff who will be unable to participate in the live offering because of schedule conflicts, priority challenges, etc. Evaluate your organization’s roll-out strategy and consider hosting additional sessions at a later date for those unable to attend the live event. This will show your organization’s commitment to the development and recognition of all its support staff. We suggest using both email and face-to-face communication (if possible) as part of the announcement strategy. We will provide a marketing flyer you may customize for your organization. Decide on the specific positioning and frequency of your message. You may decide to:

• Send an email from a senior executive thanking the support staff for their contributions and announcing the 2009 Briefing as a gift of learning from the organization
• Invite, by email and posts on the community bulletin board, administrative professionals and their managers
• Advertise the program in all your organization’s publications and through the intranet

We provide a participant and a facilitator’s guide in electronic format.

The participant guide is designed for individual use and contains pre- and post-program learning activities and copies of the presentation slides. Providing hard copies of the participant guide is recommended so the audience can follow the program.

The facilitator guide contains pre- and post-program activities for group learning experiences. It is designed so that organizations can tailor the exercises for their particular needs.

• Web
  This is the most common and cost-effective viewing option. It's available to the desktop for both individual and group viewing using Windows Media Player. The system requirements for viewing the event over the web include:
  • Media 9.0 or newer
  • High-speed connection to the internet
  • No firewall prohibiting streaming media
  • Pop-up blocker disabled (In IE 6.0 or newer, this control can be found in Tools > Internet Options > Privacy. Un-check the "block pop-ups" button. Note: You may "right-click" on the streaming media window and select full screen if you choose.
• Satellite
  Available on C band and a test time is provided one hour before the start of the program.
• Videoconference
  
Our videoconferencing provider will test and deliver the event directly to your videoconferencing system(s). Additional fees apply for videoconference delivery.