Project Management Community September/October 2005

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PMI GLOBAL CONGRESS NORTH AMERICA FEATURES PM EDUCATION AND CANADIAN CULTURE

Canadian Mounties

Morning break

PMI’s annual North American Congress 2005, which was held in Toronto, Canada, opened with red-coated Mounties Sunday afternoon and closed with a “coast to coast” reception Tuesday evening.

The participants were welcomed to Toronto by David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure for Renewal. He described his government’s program to re-introduce common sense and eliminate “white elephants”.

PMI CEO Greg Balestrero gave a long speech describing what PMI is doing to answer three questions he is often asked:

  1. Why should companies spend one more dollar on project management?
  2. What is PMI doing to improve project management maturity?
  3. What is PMI doing to provide career guidance for project managers?

PMI Chair Louis Mercken also addressed the opening general session, answering three additional questions:

  1. What is PMI doing to respond to disasters?
  2. What is PMI doing to enhance community?
  3. What is PMI doing to build leaders?

Keynote speaker, Keith Harrell

Presentations

The keynote speaker was Keith Harrell, a motivational speaker and author of “Attitude is Everything: Ten Life Changing Steps to Turning Attitude into Action”. Harrell captivated the audience with an entertaining speech built around the acronym TEAM, for Trust, Effort, Attitude, and Motivation. At various points, he had the audience praising themselves, high-fiving, and holding hands. He even enticed three people, including PMI Board member Bruce Rodrigues, onto the stage to demonstrate how their dogs will welcome them home.

For the next two days, the attendees enjoyed some excellent presentations grouped into eight separate tracks including New Trends, Project Management Maturity, and Problems with Projects: How to Avoid or Fix Them.


Presentations

The Sunday evening reception, “A Taste of Toronto” was held in the exhibit hall to give the participants an opportunity to visit the PMI Bookstore as well as the almost 100 exhibiting companies. Monday evening’s reception, “Club Ice”, was billed as a “hip, happening venue”, while the final reception Tuesday evening featured “Canada: Coast to Coast”.

First-timers and veterans are not looking for the same thing at a project management conference, but they seemed agree this was a good one. Even the Toronto weather cooperated. Visitors to Toronto enjoyed three very pleasant days – both outside and inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

 

 

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