PMFORUM Breaking News

The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) has announced the final program for the 2^nd Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium to be held next week in North Texas. The conference, subtitled "Leveraging Project Management for Business Success!", will be held in the School of Management on the UT Dallas campus in Richardson, Texas, USA during 18-19 August 2008.

The 2 day Symposium will include keynote speakers on both days, five tracks of professional paper presentations by 40 authorities, executives and experts, a small exhibition and networking opportunities for participants. With a focus on topics important to organizations and industries in North Texas, the paper presentations will be in tracks on global project management, project governance, project management methods and processes, information systems and agile PM.

The Conference will include a welcome address by Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Dean of The UT Dallas School of Management and an opening Keynote address by UT Dallas President Dr. David Daniel. A second keynote on Monday morning will be by George Consolver, Strategy Director for Texas Instruments. Tuesday will feature an opening keynote speech by Michael Kennedy, CEO of Targeted Convergence, and closing speeches by Ricardo Vargas, PMI Director, and Veikko Valila, President of the International Project Management Association (IPMA).

Dr. David Daniel is the fourth president of The University of Texas at Dallas. He received his bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, and served on the faculty at UT Austin from 1980 to 1996. In 1996, he moved to the University of Illinois, finishing his service there as Dean of Engineering before being appointed UT Dallas' president in 2005. Dr. Daniel will speak on Monday morning on the topic of "Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina and Implications for Managing Critical Infrastructure Systems".

As director of TI's Strategy Process, George Consolver is responsible for integrating principles of strategy, learning, leadership, and teamwork to develop shared understanding among TI leaders on key company issues. The overall goal is building unity and momentum in achieving TI’s Vision and Strategic Direction. These responsibilities are under the direction of TI’s Chairman / President / Chief Executive Officer, and the TI Strategy Leadership Team (SLT). George will speak on Monday morning, 18 August, on the topic of "Strategy and Project Management Connections."

Mr. Michael N. Kennedy, CEO of Targeted Convergence Corporation and author of Product Development for the Lean Enterprise, will be the first keynote speaker on Tuesday, 19 August. Before founding Targeted Convergence Corporation (TCC), Mr. Kennedy worked for Texas Instruments Defense Electronics for 31 years in product development, in manufacturing, in systems development - in both individual contributor and mid-level manager positions. He retired as a Senior Member, Technical Staff (SMTS) with the role as leader in the creation and adoption of improved product development processes. His efforts helped TI win the Malcolm Baldrige award for process excellence. The topic for his speech will be "Managing to Achieve Toyota Excellence in Product Development."

Ricardo Vargas, is a Director-At-Large on PMI’s Board of Directors and Chair of the board’s Strategic Planning and Program Alignment Committee. From Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Ricardo is also chair of Macrosolutions, a consulting company that works in Brazil, the United States, Africa and Europe. He will speak on Tuesday afternoon. He has served as president of the PMI Minas Gerais Chapter and as component mentor for PMI in Latin America from 2003 and 2006. He is also sponsor for the PMI Education Foundation in Brazil. Ricardo will speak on the subject of "Project Management as a Strategic Competence."

Veikko Välilä, current president of IPMA, will be the closing keynote speaker on Tuesday, 19 August. Veikko is also Chairman of Project Management Association Finland and Practice Leader of Marsh Ltd., a global insurance and risk management organization. He has more than 25 years experience in project and risk management, has been Scientific and Industrial Commissioner of Finland for China and Southeast Asia, and has lived and worked in nearly 50 countries. He was a co-founder of Soredex Oy and responsible for start up of new insurance underwriting operations in the London market for Hansa Industrial Insurance. Veikko will speak on "Where is Project Management Going."

In addition to the above, paper presentations will be provided by such well known executive leaders as Robert Prieto, Senior vice president of Fluor Corporation; J. Kent Crawford, CEO of PM Solutions; Lee Lambert, popular author and speaker, and many others. Tuesday afternoon will also include three panel discussions on general topics of interest to project managers everywhere today - global teams, agile vs. traditional PM, and the future of project management.

Don’t miss this educational and networking opportunity

With a reasonable registration fee and a full professional program, this will be one of the highest value project management events in Texas this year. It should not be missed by project management professionals and leaders in project-oriented organizations in North Texas. For more information, to register, or for exhibition and sponsorship information, please visit http://pmsymposium.utdallas.edu/.

The symposium is being sponsored by the Graduate Program in Project Management at The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), in cooperation with the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI^®) and PMForum, Inc. Both the PMI Dallas Chapter and UT Dallas are registered education providers with PMI, so attendees can receive up to 14 Professional Development Units (PDUs) for PMP recertification.

The Project Management Program at UT Dallas provides application-oriented education for professionals with significant project, program or general management responsibilities. Established in the Executive Education center in the School of Management, students have the option of earning a Graduate Certificate in Project Management, a Master of Science degree with an emphasis in project management, or a Master of Business Administration degree with project management emphasis. The UT Dallas PM program, originally developed in 1997, is accredited by the Project Management Institute (PMI^®) and is a PMI Registered Education Provider (PMI R.E.P.). The program is taught by world-class faculty with a blend of industrial project management, consulting and teaching experience. Delivered both on campus and online, the program attracts students from across the United States and around the world. For more information, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/.

The PMI Dallas Chapter is a volunteer-based professional association dedicated to supporting the growth and development of project management practitioners, as well as building awareness of the project management discipline and its critical role in business and organization success. With more than 240,000 members in over 160 countries, the Project Management Institute (PMI^®) is the world’s leading membership association for the project management profession. Founded in 1984 and with over 4,000 members, the PMI Dallas Chapter is one of the world’s largest PMI components. To learn more about the PMI Dallas Chapter and its service offerings, visit www.pmidallas.org

Established in 1995, www.pmforum.org was the world’s first website devoted to professional project management and is one of the world’s most popular sources of project management news and information. PMForum also produces the monthly online PM World Today eJournal where articles, case studies, papers and stories by leading PM authorities from around the world can be found; free subscriptions are available at www.pmworldtoday.net. Through its Events Partnering Program, PMForum helps develop and support major PM events worldwide. For information, visit http://www.pmforum.org/events/partner_program.htm.