Workshops and Seminars

The strength of any organization is its people, and we have seen again and again that a more knowledgeable work force can make far better use of the technology at their disposal, are more tolerant and flexible during times of change, and have better job satisfaction. Demwell Technology Consulting offers direct training via workshops and training seminars tailored to the concerns and issues that face our clients and their organizations. Board members, volunteers, and staff can get answers to their questions about what directly affects them. Your organization will be able to immediately make use of the insights and methods that we teach.

How to Build a Proactive IT Strategy for Small Organizations

Most organizations - and most people who are charged with overseeing their growth - think that a strategy is important to accomplishing their goals, but few understand the need to build a strong strategy around the technology that underpins their work. Fewer still know how to build a strategy that ensures that the organization's plans will be supported reliably and well into the future. This seminar teaches you what you should consider when building your organization's IT strategy and walks you through the process of creating a proactive plan that will allow you to rely on firm IT capabilities to advance your organizational goals, to plan well in advance for IT costs, and to handle setbacks and disasters with minimal disruption to your work. Learn about how to plan for future capacity and capabilities, to ensure compatilibilty and handle migration. Know how to plan for flexible and reliable communications and networking. Hear answers to your questions on training for your technical tools as well as hiring technical staff. Protect your organization from data theft and vandalism, from disasters and downtime, and understand the tradeoffs involved in system customizations.

How to Build a Proactive IT Strategy for Small Organizations is a full day seminar that can be run in a single day or over two half-day sessions. Contact us for scheduling!

Getting Work Done with Social Networks

Now more than ever, the internet has put us all in touch with each other, and also with businesses and other organizations. It allows everyone the opportunity for unprecedented exposure - the problem is in being noticed and heard in the crowd. Just as most professionals find that exercising their personal network, word of mouth and referrals are the lifeblood of their work, social networking can allow you to build awareness, credibility and authority with a much wider audience that can translate to sustainability, sales, and engagement with your organization. This half-day course will teach you how to use online social networks for marketing, networking, and finding services and solutions - and how to avoid wasting time and money on them. We'll tell you how to make your web presence more engaging, and work with you to teach you how to use a blog to build influence and how and why it's important to start meaningful conversations online. Participants will finish with materials discussed in class and a blog on Wordpress, one of the most popular blogging platforms.

Basic Business Data Security

When we think about security, we think about two things: "will it be there when I need it", and "can someone who shouldn't have this take it". Both of these principles are important aspects of security that must be considered in the context of the knowledge and systems used in your organization. Sadly, most organizations spend very little attention on security matters until after a breach or failure. In this half-day security crash course, we'll talk about the difference between the appearance of security and the reality of security and why security plans must consider both. Learn how to identify and prioritize risks and plan for a security budget for your organization. Know what technical solutions can and cannot do to increase your data security and how to reduce your overall security costs by investing in security earlier in your process. You'll leave this seminar with at most five steps tailored to your needs that will significantly increase the security of your data in your workplace.

Building Your Online Identity

Regardless of whether or not your products or services are high-tech in nature, by 2010 your business identity must extend to include online presence. Providing credibility as well as exposure, an online identity will increase public awareness of your organization and its goals as well as provide key information and support to potential or existing clients, increasing returns and allowing your organization to easily push messaging from the desktop to the public eye. Building this presence is more straightforward than it is often perceived to be, but it is important to start out with a solid strategy and implementation plan, complete with measurable goals and budget. Many businesses find this process overwhelming and end up spending far over budget because they engaged consultants and/or design agencies before they were internally prepared for the project. This two-part, eight-hour workshop will teach you what you need to know and what you'll need to do to build a successful online identity for your business, including goals and targets of marketing on the web, the role of search engines and links. Learn how to get the best results for the time and resources you invest in your online presence, how you can increase awareness with strategic design and marketing, how to budget effectively, and how best practices in planning, development, and future-proofing can benefit you. Finally, you will learn about securing domains and hosting, and considerations for email and other considerations as well as how to recruit feedback and build community around you online.