Sales teams are now required to sell print, web, phone and other products. Writers are stretched to capacity with added blogging and social media responsibilities. Designers must learn new skills to produce additional ads and content for web, mobile and now the tablet. How do you create and maintain an environment that continues to motivate your staffs when more is required of them each and every day?

Jan van der Hoop of HiringSmart will be in Toronto to help us tackle this issue -- one faced across all departments. With more than fifteen years of HR experience, Jan will walk convention attendees through a concrete process to understand the driving factors of performance, measure what truly matters and plan the necessary steps to help ensure your paper remains competitive through the contributions of your staff.

So join us in Toronto for this timely discussion on how to get the most out of your employees.

How do you choose the right platform for your story? With the Web -- and now mobile -- you have more options than ever. At first glance they seem daunting, but these platforms offer exciting new ways to add depth to your stories and attract new readers. Award-winning multimedia veteran Regina McCombs of the Poynter Institute will be on hand in Toronto to help sort it all out in an hour-long session on July 16. McCombs' courses on video reporting, mobile news, and social media are the gold standard of the news industry, and convention attendees won't want to miss this invaluable session.

"This session is a natural extension of AAN's partnership with Poynter's NewsU to offer our members online training, particularly in the area of new media," said Editorial Chair Julia Goldberg. "Hopefully those who haven't taken advantage yet of AAN's discounts to the NewsU webinars will want to after they attend Regina's session in Toronto."

Does your sales team, or your overall sales approach, need a shot in the arm? Sales trainer Richard Farrell of Chicago-based Tangent Knowledge Systems will be at the Toronto Convention to offer a new tool that just might help you boost sales and land new clients. On Friday, July 16, he'll walk convention attendees through his unorthodox nonselling sales process, touching on things salespeople should be focused on, like understanding the customer's needs, and what they shouldn't be, like over-communicating their sales messages.

You probably know how much online advertising revenue you're making with your website, but do you know whether you're doing better or worse than everybody else in online sales? Borrell Associates, a research and consulting firm that tracks local advertising and helps media companies develop executive strategies, is currently conducting a survey of AAN members and their online advertising revenues. Andrew Martin, a senior associate with Borrell, will present the results of this benchmarking survey at the upcoming Toronto Convention on Friday morning, July 16. If you need a copy of the survey or have any questions, please contact Debra Silvestrin at debra (at) aan.org. The deadline to return the survey is June 4.

The 33rd annual AAN Convention is heading north to Toronto, where NOW Magazine will host a three-day gathering of enlightening programming, unforgettable parties and crucial networking with your AAN peers. The convention website, which launched today, has the details thus far on programming, registration deals, travel and accommodations, and more.