The who’s who of the Project Management community are meeting, they are here – PMI India, PMI US, all Chapters, many REPs, expecting a gathering of 600+, it’s an eventful day – I am at the PMI India Conference at Hyderabad!! HICC looks grand.
We are also exhibiting - Steve & Peter just walked in, expressed their gratitude for the support – being nice & humble creates an environment of collaboration & cooperation. It’s almost 1600hrs now, and the place is getting busy. I intend to write Live, so you can still be here and not miss the highlights…
Unleash the Power of Project Management for a Better Tomorrow is the theme and Raj Kalady opened the stage (day1) and V Sriniwas Rao (VSR) started passionately, shared the stats that were around India – few that were depressing and also many that were uplifting. He spoke about creating a Better Tomorrow. This talk repeatedly gave me Gooseflesh. I felt strongly for the country and the urge to make a difference.
Leaders with Foresight and Right Projects can create a Better Tomorrow for which VSR takes the lead for the Community – ‘Made in India Leaders’ working towards a peaceful, green, healthy, and prosperous India…part of a PMI Vision 2020
The chief guest of honor Jagdish Khattar former MD, MUL was full of encouragement for the delegates backed with an enriched background. His very Indian way of describing ‘how it was like to try managing a project without Project Management – it’s like trying to cross the road at 6pm Blindfolded’
Some MUL stats are worth noticing – 289workdays uninterrupted per year, consistent 95% average employee attendance, less than 3% spent on wages and achieved highest CSat over 10years. He also endorsed a Harward Business press publication ‘The Disciplines of Market Leaders’ and emphasized the importance of the value principles: Operational Excellence, Product Leadership, and Customer Intimacy.
To hear the stories from his wisdom you had to be here, they made my heart full. He ended with a message – ‘If you Fail to PLAN, you are Planning to FAIL’
It has been a busy day, exchanging greetings, sharing information, ideas, emerging trends, competitions, opportunities, possibilities of collaborations...
An observation that was quiet evident - a strong traction towards PgMP and PRINCE2 now after having done PMP. Also the need to maintain these credentials...we are ready already! The organisation focus continues to be on Project Governance, the value of PMOs is being felt more and more.
The day(2) started with a good discussion with Steven Fahrenkrog, Raj Kalady and few other PMI members with exchange of information, insight into strategies, opportunities available and how we can leverage it better, working jointly...closely.
A topic from the day's agenda picked my interest 'Help! My colleague is behaving strangely' :-)...the speakers dared to push some wrong buttons by talking about behaviours vs perceptions of genders. The Q/A time overshooted obivously :-) The speakers later came over personally to talk to me as they could notice my expressions - I was enjoying the overall subject and the interation - I gave the feedback and we had some exchange of perspectives.
My friend, Shobha from Microsoft Blore, was there to demonstrate the power of its Project/Portfolio server...they are keeping up with the ever increasing expectations of the businesses - the Project Server 2010 is coming out soon with added features...Gartner's magic quadrant is likely to look different then...specially with its Financial Management module.
Dr. Prahlad from DRDO, with presentation and videos of the different missile programs performed so far for the Defence, Navy, and Air Force moved the audiences. All those who were present there could feel so secure and also take pride in the advancements. They are, these days, in the process of making technology that will probably take us from Hyderabad to Delhi in less than 20mins! Our children can then take up jobs in different cities without going through the inconvenience of relocation :-)
And I am looking forward to a rendezvous with Dr. Kiran Bedi...
She had a message - project management starts from within; every person is a project in itself and the work begins from organising oneself, and together it will make things happen.
Evening was busy with networking again, and it was to be used upto its full potential...
My allergies kept me away from the action (day3) until noon, and I had to miss the message coming from Harold Kerzner. Hope will get the video...
All three days were packed with sessions of interest and powerful speakers, but I had jobs to do, hence could only manage to sit through a selected few...I shared those.
Later in the day it was about wrapping up and closing the talks with each other, and a commitment to follow-on and work on the actionables and continue to work towards a better tomorrow. Taking back a lot, to create more, and share even more...
Another take-away from Hyderabad is the famous Chicken Biryani from the Paradise counter...cannot miss that ever!
