Please note: Programming and schedule subject to change.

Thursday, June 14

3:00-6:00
ALL-STAR SALES COACHING
Do your people sell to their potential? In this half-day session, Kathi Simonsen will guide you through a study of best practices used in the publishing industry, as well as teach you how to develop a sales staff that attains peak performance. Enable your salespeople to take their skills to the next level and maximize return on investment in each salesperson with win/win All Star Coaching.
Speaker: Kathi Simonsen

3:00-4:15 
WORD OF MOUTH AND COMMUNITY BUILDING FOR ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPERS
Viral marketing, buzz marketing, word of mouth: today, it's all about using your current readers to be advocates for your business. Learn how you can use the power of viral marketing to build your circulation, develop more loyal readers, and provide added value to advertisers.
Speaker: Kim Sheehan, Univ. of Oregon

4:45-6:00
SMART HIRING: Attracting and Capturing the Best
Finding the right people for the right jobs at the right time can be an ever-exasperating puzzle. Learn effective ways to recruit and engage the talent that you need. We'll explore the challenges alt-weeklies face in building their workforce; and offer some concrete strategies for expanding the pool of candidates and for selecting and hiring the best.
Speaker: Laura Dell

Friday, June 15

On-Going, By Appointment
ON-SITE SALES MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
Do you have a particularly difficult challenge that you’d like to discuss with a professional who understands your needs? To sign-up for a one-on-one half-hour consultation with publishing management expert Kathi Simonsen, contact Roxanne Cooper.
Please note: Consultation opportunities are extremely limited.

10:00-11:15
ONLINE MEDIA BUYERS PANEL
Interactive media buyers from the retail, movie and non-profit sectors will sit in the proverbial hot seat as you pellet them with your questions.
Moderator: Charles Gerencser, Southland Publishing
Panel: Lawrence Teherani- Ami, W+K; Hans Theisen, Centro; Kevin Gottesman, Gott Advertising.

11:45-1:00
HOW TO RESPOND TO AN ONLINE RFP AND SUBMIT A WINNING PROPOSAL
In this session we’ll look at typical ad agency RFP’s for online advertising campaigns based on IAB standard ad sizes— i.e. what information about the campaign is usually provided upfront and, most importantly, what’s being asked for in terms of a response. In addition to examining and understanding the details of an online RFP, in particular learning to decipher the critical campaign specifics to be addressed, we’ll actually construct a winning response from nuts to bolts. This will include putting together a presentation that directly focuses on the request at hand as well as highlights your paper’s key strengths. 
Presenter: Chris Langenderfer, Independent Weekly

3:00-4:15
WEB METRICS AND ANALYTICS: Learn how to talk like a pro
Having trouble understanding and teaching your staff about unique vistors/ impressions, pageviews, top content pages, conversion rates, ROI, RoAS, CPM, CPA, etc.? Executives from the Overland Agency --Portland's leading brand marketing and interactive advertising agency-- have come to your rescue! In this session, they'll teach you everything you need to know about all those numbers from the client's perspective. In this dense, fast-paced session, you'll learn how advertisers decide whether an online buy makes sense, as well as their expectations for measurement after placement. Learn how to talk to online media planners/buyers and how to align your pitch with advertisers' objectives.
Speakers: Arve Overland and Leo Chung, The Overland Agency

4:45-6:00
BEST WEB SALES PRACTICES
Hear four different approaches to selling and bundling online advertising from AAN papers experiencing success in banner ad sales. You'll walk away with information and tips on how these papers created successful online sales program to increase local online and print revenues.
Moderator: John Heaston, The Reader (Omaha)
Panelists: Mark Bartel, CityPages; Carol Flagg, Austin Chronicle; Marty Griswold, The Stranger; Liliane Vidicek, NOW

Saturday, June 16

10:00-1:00
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FOR AD SALES MANAGERS
Still budgeting by the seat of your pants? We all know what a spreadsheet is, but do we really know how to use strategic planning in creating accurate forecasts and reasonable budgets? Too much is riding on the success of our annual budget process to not get better at it. Publishers' plans can go belly up if sales drop from forecasts. Ad Managers' total compensation is reflected in the ability of reaching these numbers. It's time for us to take control of the budget process. Whether it's budgeting from the bottom up, or top down, there are methods and analyses that can assist in this important task. By the end of this session you will have the tools for creating realistic budgets.
Speaker: Fran Zankowski, Colorado Springs Independent

3:00-4:15
HOW TO HIRE TOP SALES TALENT
When the phones aren't ringing and the road map to success is fickle, how does a sales manager maximize revenue, increase yield and boost market share? No other skill will so dramatically impact virtually every aspect of your department as your ability to hire top sales performers.
Speaker: Jack Frutchman, Caliper

4:45-6:00
MARKETING CAMPAIGNS AND COLLATERAL: The Best of AAN
Submit your single best radio spot, cable ad, rack card, viral marketing campaign, billboard art, house ad, etc. for this year's show-and-tell. This closed-door session is open only to the first 50 attendees who sign up by contacting Roxanne Cooper.
Moderator: Jill A'Hearn, Tucson Weekly