When The SMILE Conference occurred in Washington D.C. in April, everyone in the room knew we were on to something. Social media law officers from four countries came to speak, attend, learn and connect. The energy was high throughout the 3 days. We had chiefs, deputy chiefs, PIOs, Investigators, Constables, every rank. But rank went out the window for the time being and everyone knew they had as much to learn from each other and they could teach someone else.

#SMILEcon #2 is on the way

LAwS Communications is working to identify several possible locations for future conferences all over the world. But the next stop is Santa Monica. Chief Tim Jackman has graciously offered his agency as host of The SMILE Conference. We’ll be in session from Jan 10-12 at the RAND Center right across the street from the PD. January on the beach in southern Cal? How bad can that be?

Same name, widening the concept

When we dreamed up the first SMILE Conference we played around with several website name choices and when S-M-I-L-E occurred to us, we looked no further. Standing for “Social Media in Law Enforcement”, it was perfect. However, it was during the conference in D.C. when several of us realized it’s about more than social media and that a tweak to the acronym was in order. It is now known as “Social Media the Internet and Law Enforcement”.

To that end, we’ll cover community engagement, reputation management and the many operational pieces on Monday of the conference. On Tuesday we’ll discover the numerous applications in investigations. On Wednesday, we’re exploring related topics that encompass social media like possibly interoperability, information management, risk prediction, and others. In fact, we would welcome your input as we put the agenda together. Each day starts with an hour and 45 minutes of training.

Registration is open

If you know for sure you’ll be attending, register before Sept 30th. We’ve set the conference rates as low as possible and until then, it’s just $399. Oct 1-Nov 30 the rate will be $499 and then it goes to the full rate of $599 and $649 at the door. However, there will be discounts available through PoliceOne and possibly others off the full rate.

Speakers

Some of the speakers from D.C. will be returning, include Chris Duque (retired Honolulu) Mike Bostic (Raytheon) Emily Williams (LAFD) Michael Vallez (Altegrity) Scott Mills (Toronto PD) Todd Shipley (VereSoftware)  Mike Alderson (Open Eye – UK) and others. New faces include Santa Monica’s Chief Jackman, who will be on hand not only as our host but also as a speaker together with Captain Rich Lucero of the Fremont PD. Sgt Tom LeVeque (Arcadia PD) will also be on hand.

We hope to see you at The SMILE Conference.