Igniting Ideas 2016: Agenda

Automation is a simple and cost-effective way to make your lives easier by providing your customers the information they need, when they need it. Join us for a lively discussion about how best to leverage automation in your communication initiatives.

Nearly half of AEP's customer web traffic comes from mobile devices –up to 90 percent during major storms. Eric will share mobile design tips, showcase usability testing, and demonstrate mobile solutions like alerts, notifications, billing and payments, and outage reporting. Eric has been a user experience practitioner for more than 20 years, specializing in usability, information architecture, user interface design, research, and more.

We'll take you beyond Questline's 2015 Energy Utility Email Benchmarks report with insights behind the data. Learn how you can use the report to showcase your utility's success and secrets to the top performers. Plus, get a sneak peek at the latest benchmarking data for 2016.

Keeping a finger on the pulse of the ever-changing energy utility industry isn't easy. But it sure is fun! Hear from our very own Mike Carter, who travels the nation meeting with energy providers, industry experts, vendors, and clients like you to stay ahead of emerging trends and advances in power. Plus, he'll show you some cool new gadgets.

Join TV personality and author Jeff Wilson for a fun and informational look at how you can encourage your utility customers to attack energy efficiency. From saving money for your residential customers, to the PR benefits of "Being Green" for your small business customers, Jeff will arm you with some great ideas to get your customers to engage with energy efficiency. Jeff has appeared in nearly 200 episodes on HGTV and the DIY Network and is the author of The Greened House Effect: Renovating Your Home with a Deep Energy Retrofit.

Since our last summit, we've introduced new best-practice RelationshipBuilder newsletter templates, and have a fresh approach to content marketing with more engaging, multimedia content types – ideal for boosting engaging and social sharing. Let's take a look at the evolution in utility content marketing.

Listen as industry expert Joe shares tips for improving customer service to large, managed accounts. He'll touch on managing by a "Segment of One," implementing a joint planning program and the best practices of utilities with highest or most improved scores in the TQS annual benchmark study.

There is a lot of information to share with your residential customers. Explore how one utility has improved their residential customers' experience through brand consistency, overarching campaigns and transparency across teams and partners.

During lunch, we'll celebrate industry top innovators, recognizing utilities setting the trends in customer communications and marketing and achieving remarkable results.