I attended the PMI Asia Pacific Congress in Kuala Lumpur in early Feb. It’s almost a week-long event consisting of series of meetings and seminars. The first two days were devoted to PMI’s Leadership Institute’s Meeting which allowed volunteer leaders to meet and discuss chapter and component business. As a regional component mentor of PMI, I found the meetings informational. They also presented a great chance to connect with volunteer leaders from other part of Asia.The main Congress ran from 9th to 11th of Feb. As usual, there were many parallel sessions led by project management practitioners or consultants. Among all the sessions I’ve attended, the following three are the most interesting:
1. ‘How to Identify, Measure and Manage Risk Throughout the Life Cycle of the Project”. The speaker, Torsten Koerting, is an experienced project managers and an excellent speaker too. In this three-hour double session, he used a lot of real life practices and templates to illustrate a risk methodology throughout a project life cycle. His demonstration of report samples and scenario based on a corporate project made it credible. One of the best sessions in the Congress. Interested readers may take a look at the presentation slides at: http://www.torstenkoerting.com.2. “A Comparison between Three Leading Program Management Standards”. Michel S Thiry is a leading expert in program management. His analysis of the three standards – one from PMI which is more US oriented, one from the OGC of the UK government, and one from Japan, resulted in an enjoyable read both from the perspective of process and … culture. Michel’s style is somewhere between an academic and a practitioner. His work is stringent yet not boring. Well done, Michel.
3. “In the Pursuit of the Elusive: Showing PMO Value!” I never heard of the speaker Jack Duggal. Apparently he is an expert in the area of PMO and his session is very entertaining and informative. I may be slightly biased since both of us are doomsayers of those PMO that don’t show any tangible values. In his unique way he managed to show us a framework for quantifying the value of PMO.
Over the years and after so many conferences and seminars, I’ve learnt to be content with 2 or 3 great ideas. To be honest, most of these education or experience sharing sessions are too banal for a veteran like me, and all I am looking for is just a few brilliant insights. Judging by this standard the PMI Asia Pacific Congress is worth my time and money. And I’ve made many new friends too. Look forward to seeing you in one of these events.
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