PMFORUM Breaking News

Reported by Rob Posener in Sydney


The PMI Global Congress Asia Pacific 2008 Project Management Conference opened in Sydney on Monday 3rd March, with speeches by Greg Balestrero, Philip Diab and Robyn Meredith. The conference is being held at The Hilton in Sydney during 3rd to 5th March, 2008. Approximately 750 project management executives and professionals attended the opening session on Monday afternoon.

The conference was officially opened by a troupe of Australian aborigines giving a performance of indigenous music (highlighted by the playing of a didgeridoo and music sticks) as well as traditional dances for clearing of the bad spirits, welcome and uncanny animal mimicry.

Greg Balestrero, PMI CEO, opened the conference with a slide show of his recent motor biking holiday with Gordon Bartlett (PMI Region 10’s Mentor) , linking this to the world of project management by asking the audience to think of the project management efforts that went into building the roads over a 50-year period.

Philip Diab (pictured), Chair of the PMI Board of Directors, reconfirmed the value of project management to the assembly and introduced the keynote speaker, Robyn Meridith.

Keynote speaker Robyn Meredith is well-known for her book “The Elephant and the Dragon” which deals with the rise of the Indian and Chinese economies respectively. She carried over this theme to her speech in Sydney which summarised how, while they are different, they each are currently having and will continue to have a very significant impact on the rest of the world’s economies. Meredith, who lives in Hong Kong, is senior editor-Asia for Forbes magazine.

The two and a half day conference has 64 different topics being presented. For more information, visit http://sydney.pmichapters-australia.org.au.

The PMI Global Congress – Asia Pacific is one of four global congresses organized each year by PMI®, along with congresses in the Europe Middle East Africa (EMEA), Latin America and North America regions. The PMI Global Congresses are some of the largest project management-related events in the world and include educational seminars, professional paper presentations, vendor exhibitions, networking events, and professional meetings. PMI also conducts regional leadership meetings in connection with each Global Congress, at which leaders of PMI components, committees and operations staff meet on PMI business. For more information about Global Congresses, visit http://congresses.pmi.org/.

With more than 260,000 members in 171 countries, the Project Management Institute (PMI®) is the leading membership association for the project management profession and the largest association dedicated to project management in the world. As the leading advocate for the profession, PMI is actively engaged in setting professional standards, providing a professional career path for project managers and maintaining a family of globally-transferable professional credentials: Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®), Project Management Professional (PMP®) and Program Management Professional (PgMPSM). Additionally, the Institute provides members with access to the knowledge, skills, educational support and networking opportunities needed to drive business results through project management. PMI is highly regarded for its extensive research capabilities. PMI was founded in 1969. Visit PMI.org for more information.

Robert Posener International Correspondent Australia Mr. Robert Posener is an International Correspondent for www.pmforum.org in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Posener is also founder and Managing Director of PMComplete Pty Ltd, a project management professional services company in Australia. For the last 30 years, Robert has managed projects for computer hardware, software and technology companies in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Hong Kong and USA. Rob can be reached at robert.posener@pmcomplete.com.au. More information about Robert Posener can be found at www.pmforum.org/pm forum team/index.htm#Posener.