Pre-Conference Workshops

Intended Audience

This pre-conference is designed for Agents of Change Summit attendees who would like to gain a foundation in behavior change marketing principles before attending the more advanced sessions during the Summit.

Workshop Description

This workshop will provide an overview of the most impactful behavior change pathways—Knowledge, Ability, and Norms. Following the overview, the session will explore case studies showcasing how each pathway has been successfully implemented within a specific community. As part of these case study reviews, specific evaluation best practices will be shared to show how programs can be set up for success from the time a challenge is identified and a strategic pathway is selected through campaign development, implementation, and evaluation.

Finally, participants will engage in interactive exercises that allow them to identify a specific challenge they are working on and apply the Behavior Change Pathways Framework to identify the strategy that will drive the most impact with the most efficient use of often scarce funds.

Workshop Outcomes

Workshop participants will leave with an outline of an action plan tailored to their specific area of focus. As the content for the rest of the Agents of Change Summit builds on this foundation, workshop participants will be well-positioned to get the most out of all keynote, abstract, and panel sessions.

Intended Audience

This pre-conference is designed for intermediate to experienced health communicators who are directly involved in strategic development, research, and creative process for public health communications campaigns and want to gain a deeper understanding of how to leverage audience research and co-creation to create messages that resonate.

Workshop Description

This workshop will begin with an introduction to effectively engaging an audience as a key component of campaign development. Speakers will highlight various methods of effective audience engagement including getting the most out of focus groups, ethnographic research methods, use of community advisory boards, and best practices in co-creation. Participants will review case studies showcasing how audience engagement has been successfully implemented within specific campaigns and their benefits in the context of public health communications.

In the interactive portion of the workshop, participants will apply their newfound knowledge of audience engagement and inclusivity strategies to develop tailored action plans for their specific public health initiatives.

Workshop Outcomes

Participants will leave the workshop with:

1. A solid understanding of audience engagement methodologies and their benefits in public health communications and campaigns.

2. An ability to identify and avoid pitfalls of ineffective audience engagement and co-creation.

3. Enhanced collaboration skills and knowledge of best practices for uncovering audience insights directly connected to audience motivation and barriers.

By attending this workshop, participants will be better equipped to create innovative, impactful public health campaigns by incorporating deeper audience insights.

Intended Audience

This session is designed for professionals involved in the strategic planning, media, and implementation stages of behavior change marketing programs. It will be especially useful for communicators who are more challenged than ever to positively impact health outcomes despite contracting budgets, an increasingly complex media environment, and strict evaluation protocols.

Workshop Description

The paid digital and social media landscape has changed dramatically in the last ten, five, and even two years. Digital and social media is more sophisticated and measurable than ever, but it is also constantly changing making it difficult for campaign managers to keep up with new developments, let alone establish a clear understanding of how best to use digital/social media to contribute to specific campaign outcomes. Speakers will highlight the latest and greatest in digital/social media and will demystify key industry developments ranging from a cookieless future to programmatic media buying to new targeting limitations, and more. 

Additionally, it is more important than ever to understand how the media environment works against public health communications goals of communicating the right message to a very distinct group of the right people. Many digital/social media technologies were built for commercial marketing goals like brand preference change and increased sales, which are very different from the goals of public health campaigns. This workshop will show attendees how to use media technologies in innovative ways that challenge media algorithms to help guide attendees on accurately assessing the value of digital/social media opportunities to successfully reach audiences who need the most support.

Workshop Outcomes

Workshop participants will leave with an understanding of the current digital and social media landscape and a specific checklist of which criteria are most important in developing a strong digital/social media plan for health communications.