Local conferences are a great development opportunities and ways to represent UVic in the IT community. Systems staff member, John Foxgord shares his experience from this year’s PMI-VI conference.
(Author: John Foxgord)
Given the expense of travel, lodging, and registration, I am always on the lookout for good local conferences. Last year, I attended the 2018 Project Management Institute, Vancouver Island (PMI-VI) chapter professional development conference as a way to continue learning about project management and to earn professional development units (PDUs) towards the maintenance of my PMP certification. PMI-VI did a great job in the planning and execution -– the sessions, the networking opportunities, and of course the food -– it was all a great value.
Naturally, I jumped at registering for the PMI-VI 2019 Professional Development Conference, titled Project Management in the Era of Digital Transformation and Disruption, which was held May 6-7 at the Delta Ocean Pointe Hotel.
There was big growth this year; 176 delegates, roughly double from 2018. Most of the delegates were local, encompassing the private and public sectors, along with several PMs from UVic. The speakers were sourced internationally and locally. Our own Nav Bassi presented a session on Project Managers & Cybersecurity Risks: Closing the Gap. For both years that I have attended, the conference organizers have shown a talent for selecting interesting speakers who deliver compelling and actionable ideas.
The Sessions
I initially had reservations about the conference title. How many of us have sat through tedious sermons about “Transformation and Disruption”? But this conference avoided the nebulous preaching. One clear theme that echoed and resonated throughout the two days was that digital transformation was more about the people and less about the technology. Speakers explored some of the roots causes for transformation failures while also providing specific strategies which support project success.
During each day there were keynotes and then various concurrent events; the 2018 conference was a single track event, so the greater variety this year was a significant improvement. There were 21 sessions over the two days; I will describe a couple of sessions to give a flavor of the content.
A session on design thinking illustrated how empathy, brainstorming, and experimentation can assist in arriving at innovative solutions. The phases of design thinking are iterative in nature because experiments may not always give the user exactly what they want – think of the PMBOK processes which are revisited over the lifetime of the project. It was interesting to see how design thinking can work with both waterfall and agile, although there is a better fit with the incremental nature of agile.
The Women in Project Management: Opportunities, Challenges and Advice panel was warm and funny, yet a bit eye-opening at times. Each of the leaders on the panel shared their own stories of recent times with a sense of humor and positive outlooks. As the session progressed, they opened up to some of the inequalities and frustrations that persist. I was surprised by what I heard –- and proud to say that UVic is ahead of curve on many of these issues.
I also attended a session where a project manager candidly spoke of their personal journey when trust and the working relationships broke down with senior leadership. It was a challenging but valuable session to sit through; so many ‘what-ifs’ … so many ‘lessons learned’. I had never heard this sort of candor at a conference.
While most of the sessions I attended focused on topics such as emotional intelligence, resilience, creativity, change management, agile, and design thinking, the last keynote provided a technology-oriented primer on the lingo and concepts around big data. It was a thought-provoking sort of shock-and-awe presentation depicting the potential of algorithms, networks, and storage, without getting tied-up in privacy issues. Opportunities and risks abound! Nonetheless, I now have a better picture of how the big data pieces fit together.
Networking and Food
A local event of this scale also provided unique networking opportunities to meet with PMs and other professionals from across the region. It was interesting to get a sense of life outside of UVic, and it was also great to talk with UVic PMs from outside of University Systems.
And I have to mention the food -– we were indulged by the hotel; which was very refreshing. No table service with food you may not enjoy; we simply lined up at one of several buffet stations and quickly selected what we wanted. The quality and assortment of entrees, salads, etc. was first-rate, while not being too complicated. The dinner and evening keynote held after the first day was well worth attending; an excellent way to end a long, but fulling day of learning.
The Value Proposition
In terms of value, this conference delivered. Registration was $400 (plus taxes and $20 registration fee) for members of PMI. The quality of content, networking, and food was compelling, and each of us earned 15 PDUs. This was such a convenient event (i.e., no travel or expensive hotels in downtown Vancouver), where we were provided with content and connections that will help sustain us in the work we do.
The PMI-VI 2020 Professional Development Conference is scheduled for May 4-5, 2020. If you are a PM, or you work on projects, or you are simply interested in this space, I enthusiastically recommend that you join in. And it would be great to see some more folks from University Systems attending in 2020!
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John Foxgord is a Senior Systems Administrator in Data Centre Services (DCS) for University Systems, helping maintain the operational effectiveness of the university’s server and storage infrastructure for the institution’s business-critical administrative and teaching systems. He holds BSc and MSc degrees in Computer Science from UVic, and also earned a MCPM through the Gustavson School of Business. He holds a PMP certification, and like many other Systems employees, he worked at the Computer Helpdesk as a student. In his spare time, John is active with the newly-formed UVic Elocutionists Toastmasters club, and he enjoys Pro-D opportunities through local ISACA and PMI chapters.