PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Larry Suda from Krakow, Poland

Adesh Jain, immediate past president of IPMA and now currently serving on IMPA’s Advisory Board Council of Delegates, kicked-off the “First IPMA Nation-to-Nation Forum” in Krakow, Poland on Sunday, 17 June, immediately preceding the start of IPMA’s 21st World Congress on Project Management. Mr. Jain’s inspiring and high energy presentation provided the background information on why the world needs a Nation-to-Nation Forum.

According to Mr. Jain the world marketplace continues to move toward global teams delivering goods and services. “Business by projects is a reality.” “It is imperative for national associations to begin sharing knowledge and best practices at an increasing rate.”

Mr. Jain initiated the IPMA Nation-to-Nation Forum with the approval of the IPMA board in July 2006. It provides the opportunity for governments, industry and academia to come together as a formal network to exchange knowledge, worthwhile experiences and practices in the spirit of mutual learning. Mr. Jain indicated that the Forum is an outgrowth of the Global Project Management Forums that occurred from 1995 through 2005.

Another goal of this Forum according to Mr. Jain is to “create more wisdom sharing” that can be passed along to the next generation of project managers. Mr. Jain indicated that “we need to bring this knowledge and success stories so we all learn and begin developing the future ‘thought leaders’ in the disciple of project management.”

After Mr. Jain’s introductory presentation, he introduced Rear Admiral Simon Henley from Great Britain who presented a keynote speech on how project management is the key to national competitiveness. Rear Admiral Henley provided international examples of how the project management discipline was instrumental in the success of some very complex projects. Despite a well developed competency set by many associations, Rear Admiral Henley indicated that national critical projects still fail. He went on to indicate that project work is becoming ever more complex and interdependent and called for more research on project complexity drivers and what new skill sets are needed to better manage in complex environments.

IPMA’s Nation-to-Nation Forum”, or IN2F, was launched at the 21st IPMA World Congress in Cracow, Poland on June 17, 2007. After the opening on Sunday, Nation-to-Nation activities will run at all stages of the Congress, at all hours and in many locations, for the greater benefit and enjoyment of members of the international project management community. Whether as individuals, representatives of organizations, government institutions, industry or academe or as part of the Member Associations (MA) of IPMA, IN2F is intended to provide a great opportunity to exchange knowledge and share experience within a spirit of mutual learning, trust, respect, understanding and friendship. The Chair of the 2007 IN2F is Adesh Jain; Co-chairs are Mr Ed Naughton (Ireland) and Mr Leszek Staśto (Poland).

Founded in 1967 and registered in Switzerland, the International Project Management Association (IPMA) is the world’s oldest project management professional organization. IPMA is an international network of national PM societies that serve the specific development needs of each country in its national language. IPMA provides an umbrella organization to represent them at the international level. IPMA is a global organization with over 40 national representative societies in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. IPMA’s internationally acclaimed 4 Level Project Management Certification Programme continues to grow, with over 50.000 professionals having now achieved IPMA Certification. The IPMA annually presents project management awards to teams that achieve great feats in project management. IPMA maintains its continuous presence in the global PM arena through regular hosting of International Symposia, Expert Seminars and its Annual World Congress. The president of IPMA for 2007-2008 is Veikko Valila. Additional information is available at www.ipma.ch.

Larry Suda International Correspondent USA based in New York City Lawrence V. (Larry) Suda is an International Correspondent for PMForum based in New York City, New York, USA. Mr. Suda is also CEO and Managing Partner of Palatine Group/Management Worlds, Inc. Larry has over 30 years of project management consulting and training experience and has designed and delivered world-class project and program leadership workshops using computer simulation, including a number of award-winning PM training courses and programs for NASA. A former assistant professor at the University of Maryland, he has also taught at the Universities of Iowa and Pittsburgh and is currently adjunct professor at Drexel University, where he teaches project leadership. Larry holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Wayne State University and a BA from Pennsylvania State University in the USA. Additional information about Larry Suda can be found at (link to Suda bio on Correspondents’ Page). Larry Suda can be contacted at lsuda@thepalatinegroup.com.