The SMILE Conference is the world’s premier source for training for police in the use of social media for community outreach, event management, and investigations.
The SMILE CONFERENCE®, May 20th-22nd, 2019, Houston, TX
The 16th SMILEcon will feature an optional 4th day for crime analysts and investigators on May 23rd.
• Early Bird rates through April 15th, 2019
• Attend the 3-day regular conference, or add the 4th day
• Investigators and analysts may elect to attend a special 2-day track the 3rd and optional 4th day only
Download the #SMILEcon flyer by clicking here.
Apply to speak at #SMILEcon by clicking here and filling out the form.
The SMILE Conference is the leading training conference devoted to Social Media, the Internet and Law Enforcement initiatives. The SMILE Conference has pioneered the adoption of social media by law enforcement agencies across the world for public outreach, crime prevention, and forensics since 2010. In conjunction with the ConnectedCOPS™ blog, The SMILE Conference has become both the go-to and most trusted source by law enforcement agencies worldwide. Come to learn from the best and network with an international audience of police social media practitioners.
Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and the men and women of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office will host law enforcement professionals from around the world at #SMILEcon #16 May 20th-22nd, 2019, with an optional 4th day on May 23rd.
The first day of the conference focuses on how social media has been used to build new relationships & develop trust & confidence with communities. Day two will feature various aspects of event management using social media platforms and will include break-out sessions. Day three will add content on intelligence gathering specifically for police Investigators and analysts. Day three will include breakout sessions for Investigators, analysts, and PIOs. Day 4 is ALL hands-on for investigator and analysts. Day four is limited to police professionals, sworn and civilian.
As at every SMILEcon, we are working on an international mix of speakers who are the leading thinkers in this area. Our subject matter experts will lead delegates through three public-safety-specific and information-packed intense days of social media and Internet education.
Join over 300 of your police colleagues. From the Chief to the newest officer in the agency, Investigators, PIOs, SROs and Community Policing Officers, The SMILE Conference is appropriate for anyone in public safety who is interested in social media and its many applications in the field of law enforcement, community engagement, event management, crime prevention, and investigations.
While there is no typical delegate, our guests are usually split between PIOs and their supervisors, investigators and crime analysts and typically run about 65% sworn and 35% civilian.
Delegate rates haven’t been raised in the entire ten-year history of the conference and include a hot buffet lunch.
The SMILE Conference will address social media as community media, investigative techniques and cases studies, officer safety, social media policy and strategy, legal issues, recruitment and retention and will also offer break-out sessions to meet the needs of delegates of varying levels of social media readiness.
The conference will also include one evening Town Hall meeting.
Tuesday evening at the Royal Sonesta – This Town Hall has proven to be one of the most popular events of the conference. It will provide everyone with an opportunity to further explore and discuss at length issues concerning social media and law enforcement that could not be fully addressed during the day. The Town Hall will be highly spirited, interactive and wrapped in a social media context.
The idea of a social media conference for police first percolated at LAwS Communications in late 2008 when Lauri Stevens was working with a midwestern police department creating their Facebook page and blog. But the demand didn’t appear until September of 2009, shortly after the ConnectedCOPS blog was created. So the first conference was planned for April 7-9 of 2010, in Washington D.C.
In 2011, there were three more SMILE Conferences, all U.S. based:
#2 – Santa Monica with the Santa Monica Police hosting
#3 – Chicago, at CPD HQ with Chicago Police hosting
#4 – Dallas, with the DPD as hosts
In 2012 took us to:
#5 – Vancouver, hosted by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police
#6 – Richmond, VA hosted by the Richmond Police
In 2013 we held SMILEcon in:
#7 – Sunnyvale, CA, hosted by the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety
#8 – Omaha, NE hosted by the Omaha Police.
In 2014:
#9 – Tampa, FL hosted by Tampa Police
#10 – Birmingham, UK, hosted by the West Midlands Police
In 2015:
#11 – Phoenix, AZ hosted by the Phoenix Police
#12 – Niagara Falls, ON hosted by the Niagara Regional Police Service
In 2016:
#13 – Alexandria, VA hosted by the Alexandria Police
In 2017:
#14 – Long Beach, CA hosted by the Long Beach Police
In 2018:
#15 – Miami, FL hosted by the Miami Police
In 2019:
#16 – Houston, TX hosted by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office
The SMILE Conference is the leading conference globally when it comes to police use of social media. Our delegates and speakers have attended from Kenya, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, United States, and Canada. Combined with the ConnectedCOPS blog, the ConnectedCOPS Awards and the Global Police Tweet-a-thon (also founded by LAwS Communications), we have connected and trained thousands of police officers around the world.
People who attend SMILEcon return over and over, to reconnect, stay abreast of new developments and keep their skills polished. Come to see what all the fuss is about.
