PMFORUM Breaking News

The PMI Moscow Chapter opened its second international annual conference Thursday with almost 200 participants. The 2-day event, which is themed "Evolution and Management", featured an impressive line-up of speakers from Europe and North America.

Chapter President Alexey Bazhenov opened the conference by welcoming the participants and speakers, and reporting that the Moscow Chapter had doubled in size since the first annual conference in November, 2004.

PMI Frankfurt Chapter President and newly elected PMI Board member Thomas Walenta teamed with PMI Switzerland Chapter Vice President Alexander Matthey to discuss "Project management state of the art for the whole of Europe". They presented a comprehensive picture of project management in Europe, touching on standards, certifications, research, organizations, and conferences.

Dr. Augustin Purnus, President of the PMI Romania Chapter, wrapped up the morning plenary session with a fascinating review of project management trends in Romania, highlighting the gap between the aggressive infrastructure program in Romania and the available project management skills to execute it.

Dr. Russ Archibald opened the afternoon plenary with a presentation entitled "State of the art of project management in 2010". He presented a series of predictions in the areas of strategic project management, specialization by project category, total project life-cycle management, PM systems, tools and practices, PM discipline and individuals, and the "profession" of PM.

"Getting value from PMI membership" was the title of the next presentation by Ed Fern, President of Time-to-Profit, Inc. He urged PMI members to not just attend meetings and read the magazines, but to get involved.

The closing plenary address was delivered by pmforum.org Managing Editor Hugh Woodward. Through a series of project "stories", he explored the question "The evolution of project management: are we getting better?"

Judging by the discussion at the reception following the plenary sessions, the participants were excited about the conference and what they learned. They could have been discussing Moscow's horrendous rush-hour traffic, or the abnormally warm weather the city is enjoying. Instead, they huddled in small groups to mostly discuss the day's events and opportunities to expand the application of project management in Russia.

The conference continues Friday with presentations, workshops, and seminars presented by sponsoring companies in seven parallel sessions.