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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Report from the PMI UK Chapter 4th International Project Management Day Concludes at Glaxo Smith Kline in Stevenage
Reported by Philip Smelt in UK
Now in its 6th Year internationally, host Peter Wilks welcomed everyone to Glaxo Smith Klein (GSK) on 11 November 2009 for the PMI UK Chapter's fourth International Project Management Day event. Set in expansive grounds the venue was easy to travel to, and provided excellent event facilities.
This year, for the first time, the day long event was free to PMI members. Centring on the theme of 'When it all goes wrong…!' the packed programme of talks fully delivered its brief to an audience of some 200 project and programme professionals.
Presentations on 'Titanic Lessons for IT projects', Mark Kozak-Holland; 'What happens when projects get into trouble', Prof. Terry Williams; 'When it goes wrong breathe normally', Peter Taylor and 'Reflections on lessons learned from failed projects', Dr. David Hancock were followed by an update by the President of the PMI UK Chapter Chris Field on the activities of the board and how the Chapter is working to benefit its members.
Delivering some 30 events a year, Chris (photo left) explained that the Chapter consists of only one employee with all other work undertaken entirely by volunteers! Spelling out the PMI UK Chapter's Mission of 'Enabling our members to be better Project Managers passionately', Chris went on to announce the development of the Chapter's new website in the New Year. The site would include a members' area and Chris hopes that it will provide a vibrant platform for discussion.
Chris also described the UK chapter's ambitions regarding the 'regions' and the use of technology to deliver events directly to the members e.g. webinars etc.
A two minute silence was observed across the GSK site at 11:00 hours, during proceedings.
The networking lunch was followed by three further presentations. These were entitled 'Behaviour and its impact on project management', Howard Lees; 'What went wrong: The forensic approach', Geoff Vincent and 'Trouble finds even the best teams', Brian Munroe.
Martin Price then led a panel discussion on the general theme of the day taking Q&As from the audience. Chair for the day Patrick Bird summarised and then closed proceedings.
The use of Turning Point's interactive response system made for an entertaining break during Howard Lees 'Behaviour and its impact on project management' presentation. However, CITI's Geoff Vincent use of this approach throughout his 'Forensic approach' presentation allowed the audience to share their opinions in terms of project management experience. For example the more mature project managers believed Sponsors to be at the root of project failure something those new to project management did not recognise. (Indeed those that professed to be Sponsors also failed to recognise - surprise, surprise).
In all I found the event to be informawtive, engaging and entertaining and already look forward to attending the PMI UK Chapter's IPM day, next year.
Finally, I must mention Vanessa Randle (photo at left) of www.thinkingvisually.com who was on hand to provide a more creative approach to capturing the proceedings. To attempt to describe Vanessa's technique would not do it justice, so please visit www.flickr.com/photos/thinkingvisually, for a visual treat.
Details of the event together with photographs will be made available via the UK PMI website http://www.pmi.org.uk/
Now in its 6th Year internationally, host Peter Wilks welcomed everyone to Glaxo Smith Klein (GSK) on 11 November 2009 for the PMI UK Chapter's fourth International Project Management Day event. Set in expansive grounds the venue was easy to travel to, and provided excellent event facilities.
Presentations on 'Titanic Lessons for IT projects', Mark Kozak-Holland; 'What happens when projects get into trouble', Prof. Terry Williams; 'When it goes wrong breathe normally', Peter Taylor and 'Reflections on lessons learned from failed projects', Dr. David Hancock were followed by an update by the President of the PMI UK Chapter Chris Field on the activities of the board and how the Chapter is working to benefit its members.
A two minute silence was observed across the GSK site at 11:00 hours, during proceedings.
The networking lunch was followed by three further presentations. These were entitled 'Behaviour and its impact on project management', Howard Lees; 'What went wrong: The forensic approach', Geoff Vincent and 'Trouble finds even the best teams', Brian Munroe.
Martin Price then led a panel discussion on the general theme of the day taking Q&As from the audience. Chair for the day Patrick Bird summarised and then closed proceedings.
The use of Turning Point's interactive response system made for an entertaining break during Howard Lees 'Behaviour and its impact on project management' presentation. However, CITI's Geoff Vincent use of this approach throughout his 'Forensic approach' presentation allowed the audience to share their opinions in terms of project management experience. For example the more mature project managers believed Sponsors to be at the root of project failure something those new to project management did not recognise. (Indeed those that professed to be Sponsors also failed to recognise - surprise, surprise).
Finally, I must mention Vanessa Randle (photo at left) of www.thinkingvisually.com who was on hand to provide a more creative approach to capturing the proceedings. To attempt to describe Vanessa's technique would not do it justice, so please visit www.flickr.com/photos/thinkingvisually, for a visual treat.
Details of the event together with photographs will be made available via the UK PMI website http://www.pmi.org.uk/