Rose City Centre, 145 Lincoln Street, Welland, Ontario
Make sure to mark June 5th and June 6th, 2000 in your calendar. These are the dates of the third annual "Call Of The Future Call Centre Conference."
We are currently confirming the conference agenda, and will have an official brochure available soon.
To get more information or to get your name on our mailing list please visit our Information Request Page
Good News for Call Centre Conference 2000
The Welland/Pelham Chamber of Commerce has been selected to receive $10,000 from Bell Canada's 1999 Economic Development Fund to develop a conference on call a conference on call centres entitled The Call of the Future. The Call of the Future was one of 39 projects from across Ontario that was submitted for consideration.
"Bell Canada's grant will help us present the City of Welland as a cost-effective, professional location for a call centre business," says Dolores Fabiano, Executive Director, Welland/Pelham Chamber of Commerce. "We hope to attract corporations who see our community an ideal place to conduct business."
The Call of the Future
The Call of the Future is a call centre conference that profiles Welland as a prime location for call centres. The conference will address affordable, current industry practices that are available to small and medium sized call centres.
This is the second year that Bell Canada, in partnership with Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO), is providing assistance to projects that use telecommunications to generate employment, create wealth and promote economic growth. Bell Canada again this year "says Bruce Graham, President, EDCO. "It is through Bell Canada's continued support that exceptional community based projects such as the Call of the Future projects are able to move from a concept to a reality."
Other Bell Canada Economic Development Fund recipients for 1999 include programs that foster new business in communities through Web sites as well as those that promote the concept of e-business to small and medium sized local businesses.
Last year the Economic Development fund helped 12 communities by contributing $200,000 to community -based projects in areas such as Chapleau, Markham, Kingston, Thunder Bay and Napanee.
EDCO is the largest provincial, non-profit association of professionals engaged in economic develpoment in Canada. EDCO's membership includes more than 400 specialists, including municipal leaders, business associations, economic development officers, building developers, public utilities and transportation companies. They represent more than 90% of all municipalities in Ontario.
To see what happened last year, please read on......
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Hear what Delegates from the 1998 Conference had to say:
Monday, June 1, 1998
7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m............Registration/Breakfast/Welcoming Remarks
8:15 a.m. - 9:45 a.m............Concurrent Sessions
1)Web-Based Customer Services
This presentation looks at various models of delivering service via the WWW and the challenges associated with these models.
II)Call Blending, Integrating Various Applications Into One Centre
During this discussion you will learn how to pick the right product to meet your needs. In addition, you will also learn how call blending will affect your call centre's operation.
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.........Concurrent Sessions
I) Creating Competency - Based Performance Standards for Call Centre Staff
Too often measurement of call centre staff performance is generated by the call centre's ACD or computer system. When attempts are made to assess qualitative aspects of performance, the measurement tool is often subjective and interpretive versus objective. These shortcomings can be overcome by creating performance standards based upon "core competencies".
II) Understanding the Economics of Ergonomics
Paul will focus on agent space reduction, increasing productivity, training costs and effectiveness, reducing the risk of health problems associated with computer use, cost reduction.
11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.......Trade Show
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m........Luncheon & Keynote Speaker
1:45 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.......Trade Show
2:15 p.m - 3:45 p.m............ Concurrent Sessions
I)Managing Growth - The New Challenge in Call Centres
This session will examine the strength of Ontario as a growth location for international and domestic call centres. By examining our strengths in the area of labour, technology and operating costs, strategies for handling growth will be developed.
II) Measuring Your Call Centre's Efficiency and Making Greater Profits
Measure and evaluate both human and Call Centre technology. Learn how newly developed state-of-the-art software can analyze vital outcomes and set quality bench marks that will skyrocket your operational efficiency and marginal profitability.
4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m........... Concurrent Sessions
I) Alternative Channels of Communication Via Call Centres
There is a growing acceptance in terms of mixing the Call Centre and the Internet, but very few living examples of how it should be done effectively. S & P will bring these issues to the forefront and examine the possibilities of blending new channels with existing ones.
II) ISO 9000 and the Service Sector, An Informed Overview
This topic will cover ISO conformance standards, the ISO organization, registration process, and interpretation of the standard requirements.
Note: Trade Show will remain open until 5:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m............ Cocktails
7:30 p.m.............President's Banquet
Tuesday June 2, 1998
7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m...........Breakfast
8:15 a.m. - 9:45 a.m...........Concurrent Sessions
I)People Power
This session will address the development of soft skills and attitude behaviours.
II)Training Your Reps to Handle Difficult Calls
In this session you will learn specific techniques to manage difficult calls; how to escalate prefessionally and how to recover effectively. You will also learn efficient and creative training methodologies designed to accomodate Call Centre time constraints.
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m..............Concurrent Sessions
I) The Next Generation of Workforce Management
Success in almost anything requires PLANNING prior to the event, effective MANAGING of the event, and then careful ANALYSIS after the event to improve the success of future events. Workforce management systems incorporates all the steps needed to do this both effectively and efficiently.
II)Virtual Call Centres, What Are the Options?
What about my business needs; calls pre-routed; soft phones; remote shelf solutions; my disaster recovery plan; following the sun philosophy plan .... How will a virtual Call Centre impact IVR, CTI, outbound technologies, etc.?
11:30 p.m. - 12:00 p.m.......Trade Show
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m........ Informal Luncheon & Networking
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.......... Concurrent Sessions
I)Best Practices Case Study
This small and focused study of twelve call centres, reported on the recruitment, selection, and training of call centre representatives. This session will discuss and recommend that these results are initiatives that all call centres would benefit from.
II)The One to One Future and The Role of Call Centres
In this session you will get a glimse of the future for marketing, and learn, through case studies and trending data, how companies are successfully using direct marketing today to ensure that they remain competitive tomorrow.
2:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.......... Concurrent Sessions
I)Call Centre Certification
The great debate continues - Who is qualified to set the standards? Is certification necessary? What will certification do for the industry? Many questions have been asked about certification. Some deem it necessary and others do not. We invite you to a friendly debate on the issues surrounding certification of both CSR's and managers.
II)Telemarketing Fraud
Understanding telemarketing fraud, the effects on the victims and what those in the call centre industry can do to reduce it.
Closing Remarks and Conclusion of Conference
If you are interested in obtaining more information for the CALL OF THE FUTURE '99 please visit our Information Request Page