Benjamin is a quintessential project manager, PMBOK /Agile pedagogue, Knowledge Management evangelist, and a technocrat with more than 20 years of result-driven leadership experience in managing complex and multinational programs and projects. He is known as a charismatic leader and "value adder" who is passionate about PMP, spurring the creation of strategic plans that have increased sales and volunteerism by more than 400% in organizations. He has mentored and coached hundreds of small businesses, NGOs, PMs, and leaders. Benjamin is the charismatic President of PMI Austin, having served in the board as VP of Marketing and President-elect. As a Senior Project Manager at TxDOT, he manages an Enterprise Knowledge Management program. Benjamin has an MBA degree and is a certified PMP. He also serves on other boards, including Juliana King University Houston where he was honored with a doctorate in leadership.

In this interactive and action-packed session, participants will learn how to effectively engage difficult stakeholders in a complicated project, and a hostile and politically-charged environment. The principles are based on real-life successful projects, using some of the best research in persuasion science, leadership, and management. This session utilizes continuous buy-in principles, “Gratitude Altitude,” personal Net Performance Score (pNPS), “Pre-assignment @ charter” and shared ownership, logic-politics, managing up, participatory design principles, and more.

Kristen Hartnagel is a Sr. Consultant with Southwestern Consulting. Having motivated thousands, Kristen travels the nation for speaking engagements and training workshops, always leaving audiences empowered and inspired. She specializes in leadership, vision, team engagement and motivation. Her passion is changing lives and creating sales cultures. She is also an Infinite Possibilities Certified Trainer.

Favorite Quotes:
“Your brain doesn’t know what it cannot do until you tell it.” ~Ed Strachar

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead

What kind of leader do you aspire to be?

When you have great leaders, you have great performance. And great leaders are made from great habits. The thoughts we think are largely habitual and we attract what we think about. The attitude of gratitude brings more to be grateful for. Are we seeing people through the lens of our past experiences of them or seeing them for who they can become?

In this session, participants will explore powerful ways to master their mindset with possibility thinking and the attitude of gratitude.

Todd has a diverse background – as a developer, architect, testing leader, and PM – leading dozens of business & technology projects with a proven track record of satisfied sponsors and team members.  He led the testing project team for the case study – a $90 MM program to replace an aging legacy system.

Todd is an active member of PMI, currently serving on the Governance Board of the Northeast Ohio Chapter.  He is a graduate of PMI’s Leadership Institute Master Class and was recognized in 2017 for his contributions to profession with the Dr. Harold Kerzner Award for Project Management Excellence.

Connect with Todd at www.linkedin.com/in/toddrjones

Agile best practices can be applied to a variety of situations.  Most prevalent is IT projects, often for software development.  But can you apply agile methods to a ‘portion’ of a software implementation project? 

In this case study, Todd provides an overview of a successful example where agile techniques were applied to a multi-year, multi-million-dollar IT program – specifically to the testing phase – that included legacy replacement, new software development, creation of a new enterprise data model and document management solution, and complex financial balancing.  After briefly describing the challenges faced by the organization, Todd covers the guiding principles from the Agile Manifesto – describing the practical approach he used to implement agile techniques and showing information radiators that were used to track velocity and demonstrate progress to program stakeholders.  Through this discussion, he outlines key benefits this brought to the business as well as lessons the team learned along the way.

Leave with a greater appreciation for the testing complexity of a large-scale software implementation, a better understanding of best practices and lessons learned, and practical agile techniques and tracking tools you can apply to your current project.

Shirley R. Maeir, sphr is a facilitator of workplace solutions, visual process professional, human resources consultant, management trainer and performance improvement maven. Over her 30-year career Shirley’s overarching professional objective has always focused on help clients realize their best work.  Using tested and practical approaches, her efforts can be categorized in four areas:  Catalyst for Individual Improvement, Management and Leadership Trainer, Organizational Effectiveness Guide and HR Functional Consultant. 

Her big-picture, practical management style and hands-on experience serve to form the foundation of her work. Shirley approaches organizations with a commitment to customer service, strong interpersonal skills, strategic problem solving and sound business orientation. 

Shirley has held positions of increasing responsibility in a variety of industries such as social service, healthcare, financial services, restaurants, technology, consumer products and client service/consulting.  Positions both inside and outside of organizations have shaped her point of view.  She has led within complex organizations as well as served small & medium size organizations as an external consultant.  Shirley has been successful with diverse populations, business cultures and organizational size where she has detangled a myriad of compliance and staff issues in regulated businesses and unionized work settings. 

Mrs. Maeir received an MA in Industrial Organizational Psychology from New York University and BS from the University of Iowa where she majored in Psychology and minored in Women’s Studies.  She has 30- years of business experience and holds the designation of Senior Professional of Human Resources issued by the Certification Institute of the Society of Human Resources Management.  Additionally, Shirley is a Certified Visual Coach®; trained by Christina Merkley, pioneering Visual Coach and creator of The SHIFT-IT Visual Coaching Process®.  SHIFT-IT® is a unique coaching experience that expertly employs visual maps to guide individuals, pairs or trios through the powerful process of SHIFTing work and/or life. 
 

THE DYNAMIC EXCHANGE BRIDGE: The Smartest Route from Bold Strategy to Real Results!

Organizational goal achievement is possible when individual workers, those who interact with clients and engage in the organization’s purpose, undertake their role in a manner consistent with the its strategy. The Dynamic Exchange Bridge is a leadership framework based on discovery, support and feedback. Leaders who apply this approach enable workers to gain a behavioral and role-specific understanding their how their efforts can contribute directly to the organization’s success.

Alan Mallory is an international speaker, author and professional development coach who is passionate about leadership and human performance. A graduate from Queen's University, he has worked internationally with large organizations as a professional engineer and project manager. Living and working abroad has given Alan the opportunity to deepen his understanding of individual and team challenges, better appreciate cultural diversity and successfully adapt to different organizational structures.

Through his work and life experiences, he has discovered that his true passion is helping people reach new heights by cultivating effective ways of thinking and taking action. Building experience through a lifestyle of adventure and challenge, in the spring of 2008 Alan embarked on the journey of a lifetime: to attempt to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Along with three members of his immediate family, Alan climbed through some of the most challenging yet exciting conditions imaginable and set a world record when all four of them set foot on the summit. The expedition involved two years of planning and two months of climbing through immense challenges but they were able to overcome these obstacles through strategic planning, healthy team dynamics, self-awareness and perseverance.

Alan delivers a number of exciting presentations and training programs designed to help individuals, team members and organizations reach new heights in the way we think and the actions we take in order to achieve breakthrough performance.

Climbing Mount Everest is considered one of mankind's greatest feats of human endurance. The two-month expedition to the top of the world’s highest peak is a journey filled with unparalleled physical and mental challenges through some of the most extreme conditions imaginable.

Alan Mallory took on the challenge and set a world record when he, along with three members of his immediate family, reached the summit of Everest. This incredible, self-guided expedition challenged the mental, emotional and physical limits of their entire beings and at every stage of the ascent demanded unwavering commitment and resilience. From teetering across ladders spanning seemingly bottomless crevasses and fighting the many altitude-related sicknesses to climbing through a blizzard in the dead of night, every segment of the climb was filled with intense, extraordinary challenges. Alan’s dynamic presentation focuses on developing leaders and strengthening project teams by reinforcing the professional development and project management skills that are essential for success in any project. It highlights the processes, tools and project stages that are involved in planning and executing difficult projects by using the challenge of Everest as an example of such a project. Alan puts specific emphasis on adopting an agile mentality so that we are:

• not too rigid in our thinking
• re-framing activities to focus on results rather than tasks
• developing a level of trust in professional relationships
• gaining alignment and commitment
• working through change
• recognizing strengths
• managing schedule and risks
• adopting an iterative approach which incorporates immediate feedback
• effectively working together to achieve strategic goals.

The underlying message is about how we as project managers need to reach new heights in the way we think and the actions we take in order to advance our profession and achieve breakthrough performance.

William S. “Bill” Ruggles is the Chief Operating Officer of Ruggles LLC, a boutique management consulting firm specializing in Project  / Program / Portfolio Management, Performance Excellence, and Business Process Improvement based in Fair Lawn, NJ.

He holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University, a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut, and has earned professional certifications in Project Management (PMP), Lean Six Sigma (CSSMBB), Quality (CQM), and Agile/Scrum (CSM).

He is the co-author of Effective Portfolio Management Systems (2015) and Project Management for Performance Improvement Teams (2018), both of which are published by Productivity Press.
 

The managers of projects, programs, and portfolios who want senior leaders in their organizations who are truly “grateful” can do so by aligning each of those initiatives with their Mission, Vision and Values. 

This presentation describes how to achieve that alignment.

Jim is a project management champion with more than 30 years of professional experience in the areas of project and program management, and professional and organizational development. He retired from AT&T in December 2013 after a long and satisfying career. At AT&T, he created and led several professional project management organizations, including the corporate Project Management Center of Excellence (PMCOE).

Jim has delivered numerous presentations at PMI meetings, both at the national and local levels. He has been a contributing author for several recent project management books and has taught at Stevens Institute of Technology and Montclair State University.
 

Most, if not all, of the problems we encounter while managing our projects can be traced to a communications breakdown of some sort, perhaps even a lack of effective communication. When you are able to communicate effectively, you are better able to interface with others and develop stronger relationships.

This lively presentation will provide you with the whys, whats, whens and hows of effective project communication.

Judith W. Umlas is Senior Vice President at International Institute for Learning, Inc. and author of The Power of Acknowledgment and Grateful Leadership: Using the Power of Acknowledgment to Engage All Your People and Achieve Superior Results. With more than 25 years of professional experience, Ms. Umlas has successfully trained over 50,000 executives and professionals to develop superior leadership and interpersonal skills, better engage their employees and build strong workplace cultures where people feel valued and produce their best work. Her workshops have a loyal following of repeat clients including Fortune 500 Companies, Universities and government agencies. She is also the author of You’re Totally Awesome, The Power of Acknowledgment for Kids, geared to anti-bullying initiatives in schools.

Judith W. Umlas will energize, engage and bring about immediate positive changes for leaders and their teams. Learn to tap into the power of personal commitment and dedication by acknowledging people in an authentic, heartfelt manner. Inspire your team, and bring out the best in your people by dramatically increasing the level of engagement, productivity and willingness to take initiative.

Judith regularly leads both onsite and virtual courses on Grateful Leadership and The Power of Acknowledgment. She has led many Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter meetings and was a featured speaker at the PMI ISSIG Annual Conferences in ’07 and ’08 . Judith also co-led a session at the PMI Global Congress in 2007 and was chosen again to present in 2008 at both the Global Congress and the Leadership Institute. In 2009, she delivered a keynote address at the IPMA Conference to 800 project managers in Helsinki, Finland, the closing keynote address to Recognition Professionals, International in 2010, and the American Society of Association Executives Executive Leadership Forum in Quebec City in 2013. She was the keynote speaker addressing 500 project managers at PMI’s Mega Seminars World Conference in 2011.Judith has taught onsite courses at many organizations, including Armstrong Industries, T-Systems, Gateway Engineers, The World Bank, Volvo AB, MD Anderson, Wartsila in Finland, the NANA Development Corporation, headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska and the Westervelt Company. In 2016 she gave the keynote address at University of Maryland University College for Women’s History Month. She has delivered many programs to corporate audiences at major companies such as Ericsson and HPE.

It takes courage to deliver heartfelt and authentic acknowledgment—even when, and especially if, it makes you feel vulnerable. When you summon up the necessary courage to do this, you will inspire all of your stakeholders to perform their best and reach their highest levels of engagement. People simply can’t do enough to get the job done when they feel valued and appreciated. They become loyal to the organization and committed to their jobs and to their vision of what they can accomplish. Learn how to generate this transformation and see the amazing results

With Extensive IT Strategy, Data management strategy and CIO/CISO/Senior Management Consulting (including multiple international assignments) experience within Financial, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Power, Retail, Automotive, Instrumentation, Defense, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industries, Ratan is also a frequent speaker at Life Sciences PM forums and KPMG Leadership conferences.

Ratan has led multiple Executive Level Governance Boards, PMOs and works directly with Business and IT leadership to develop transformational strategies and realistic plans to execute strategies that change the course of the enterprise.

As a PM or in PMO, we have all created or have seen PMO dashboards while managing large initiatives. These dashboards provide a holistic view of the portfolio health, portfolio financials, resource status and metrics for strategic investments.

But the important question is: How much can the PMO dashboards be trusted?

To understand that, we need to go underneath these dashboards and look closely at the components that make these dashboards (i.e. DATA) and then establish the quality of this most important component.

In this interactive talk, the speaker will share his professional experience (at Fortune 100 corporations) with the data quality issues and how it impacts effectiveness and messaging of the PMO dashboards. The various approaches to improve the quality of data that feeds the dashboard will be discussed and an optimal solution for the given scenario will be presented. There will be a practical take-away from this talk that will help attendees improve the quality of their PMO dashboards.