Announcing Web Manager University 2010-2011 Course Schedule

We are kicking off this year in the spirit of customer service by hosting Doug Lipp, Formerly the Head of training at Disney’s Corporate Headquarters, to give a FREE webinar – The Magic of Exceptional Customer Service on Thursday, September 9, 2010.

This will be a great way to hear from one of industry’s thought leaders on about how we can build and maintain a spirit of customer service throughout our organizations.

Registration IS OPEN for this event and all other courses that are confirmed. We are still finalizing details on some events so check back for updates.

New This Year & On the Horizon
WMU is committed to continuous improvement and meeting YOUR needs. After taking a look at our surveys we identified programs that will help us help you. Some of these projects include:

• Ask the Expert – We plan on hosting some follow up events after our courses. So, you can look forward to doing a conference call with an instructor to discuss your successes/lessons learned, or perhaps a webinar with some in-depth explanation on a concept from class.
• Self-paced online tutorials – WMU is in the process of issuing an RFI to find a platform to create some on-demand type training
• Online virtual training program – We are also considering different platforms to integrate some virtual learning as a standard practice. We realize everyone is pressed for time and the goal for us is to offer training that is available and affordable for everyone.
• Technology – We are considering purchasing some laptops and software so that we can act as a traveling lab.

Certification Program
We’ve also worked hard this summer on developing requirements for a Web Manager Certification program. We got one step closer by identifying core competencies and offering 2-day courses with some of your favorite instructors and some new instructors in each competency area:

• Governance – Delivering Great Customer Service: Essentials for Government Web Managers with Candi Harrison – September 22 & 23
• Writing & Plain Language – Essentials of Writing for the Customer with Leslie O’Flahavan – October 6 & 7
• Social Media – Essentials of Social Media – Exact Date TBD
• Metrics – Essentials of Customer Metrics with Alex Langshur– November 2 & 3
• Accessibility – Essentials of Accessibility/ Section 508
• User Experience – Essentials of Usability and User Centered Design with Hal Miller Jacobs – March 8 & 9

Fees
If you have taken a WMU course you know that we try hard to keep costs down and training affordable, but we also want to meet your needs. So this year we raised our fees for our 1 and 2-day classes so we can fund additional programs/projects like Ask the Expert and Self-Paced Online Tutorials. It also gives us the opportunity to continue to get world class speakers. We have not raised fees for our webinars, knowing that webinars are the only way many of you outside Washington DC can attend training.

Summary of Training Options

We offer 1 and 2 day courses, webinars, free new media talks and our monthly forum series. For more about our training and fees visit our About WMU page.

1 day courses – $300 Gov / $400 Others

2 day courses – $600 Gov / $800 Others

New Media Talks – FREE

Webinars – $50 Gov / $75 Others

Find our course schedule here: http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/schedule/
More about Doug Lipp’s course: http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/summer2010/customerservice.shtml.