Introduction
For the 5th consecutive year, the PMINJ
celebrated the International Project Management Day at the
beautiful Somerset Palace Park, on November 4, 2010 with a
roaring success and was well attended by over 500 project
management practitioners.
International Project Management (IPM) Day Seminar
provides area project managers an opportunity to network
and collaborate, and together, reflect and re-energize
with a healthy exchange of ideas on the topic of the day.
Dynamic and knowledgeable speakers discussed issues
related to International Project Management.
The day was started with an opening statement by
Chapter President John Bufe followed by a welcome address
to all guests and speakers by Deven Trivedi, VP Symposium
of the PMINJ.
The keynote speaker, Lothar Katz, PMP, set the tone
for a very upbeat and positive day. Lothar Katz spoke on
the “Secrets of Successful International Project Leaders”.
In a high-energy, interactive session reveals powerful
practices and methods that can turn International Project
Managers into effective global leaders. The presentation
explored leadership strategies, best practices, and
effective tools for global project leaders in areas such
as high-impact communication across cultural and other
barriers, foreign stakeholder management, project team
leadership, and change management. Lothar’s key message
was for International Project Managers to “become
comfortable with being uncomfortable”, to successfully
adapt to changes in the international market place.
Brandi Moore, The second speaker in the morning
session, aptly followed this with a specific focus on the
emerging global powers with her talk on “A Road Map for
the International Project Manager: Cultural Strategies for
the BRIC Countries”. As a successful business owner with
personal experience working in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia,
India, and China) countries, Brandi shared some valuable
insights on the need and techniques for Project Managers,
to adapt to and meet the demands of the increasingly
global workplace caused by off-shoring and outsourcing.
Brandi explained why the BRIC matters to the PM today,
where we came for cheap labour, and stayed on for
potential customers, and each PM is a “Desk Diplomat” with
globalization right at your desk. With special emphasis on
the BRIC, Brandi provided some very engaging tips, using
her own copyrighted process – AIM (Assess, Identify,
Mediate) - that introduces Project Managers to a framework
for working across different cultures.
The third speaker of the day, Kevin R. Wegryn, PMP,
CPM, MA spoke about “Managing without Walls”. Kevin shared
his experiences and tips for managing virtual teams, and
emphasized that a project manager needs to understand many
aspects of project management to be effective, but three
key elements are e-mail, conference calls and phone calls.
In addition to the pros and cons of the current day tools
such as IM, web conferencing, and social networks for
effective global teams, Kevin introduced an interesting
twist with the need to consider generation issues and
communications preferences between traditionalists, baby
boomers, Generation X and Generation Y or millennial
groups – since with the rise in the retirement age, this
overlap of multiple generations is very real In the
current global economy.
The afternoon session was a dynamic workshop,
presented by vibrant speaker, Tom Kennedy, on “Great
Presentation, or Death by PowerPoint…Your Choice”. Tom’s
message during this interactive workshop was that project
management is about leadership, and leadership is getting
people to want to follow. Leadership is a communication
skill and virtually all business leaders agree that
communication skill is a key to success, and most say it
is the key, to personal, career, project and business
success. Tom used video presentations and discussion with
the audience to convey his message that emphasized the
need to prepare for any communication in advance, know
what you want to achieve, start with the intended message
and summary, focus on the audience, and audience alone,
and never rush through the meeting.
The session ended with closing remarks by Jerry
Flach, Director of Symposium, PMINJ. Jerry concluded the
day thanking speakers, attendees and 50 volunteers who
helped made this IPM Day event a huge success.
