2018 Project Management Conference

2018 UNH Digital Marketing Conference Agenda

8:30am-9:00am
Registration & Breakfast

9:00am-9:10am
Welcome to the 2018 UNH Project Management Conference

9:10am-10:00am
Developing Your Leadership Soft Skills
Steve Lundquist, PMP, M.Sc., Senior Manager of Program Management, Elbit Systems of America
Soft skills are the often overlooked attributes that comprise ever great leader.  Rarely do we spend time developing these important traits such as listing, critical thinking, giving feedback, and time management, but they represent the critical backbone required of every project manager.  Learn how you can lead more effectively and efficiently by focusing on improving your soft skills in a practical environment.

10:10am-11:00am
The Integration of Creativity & Innovation in Project Management in Business
Kathleen Koson, PMP, Senior Project Manager, HighLiner Foods
It’s hard to find a company today that hasn’t made Innovation a top priority, but when it comes to driving innovation initiatives, Project Management is often seen as an enemy of the creative process.  Why?  I think it’s in part because Project Management has a P.R. problem.  Let’s take a look at some of these common misconceptions, why they exist and explore ways to re-frame them to show why a skilled Project Manager is really the ideal business partner for driving successful Innovation strategy, whether in products, process, systems or corporate culture.

11:10am-12:00pm
PM Without PMO: Defining and Implementing Project Management Practices – without a Project Management Office
Pamela Oberg, PMP, Portfolio Manager, Measured Progress & Jake Goldsmith, Assistant Director, Measured Progress
What happens when an organization would benefit from implementing consistent project management practices, but lacks a centralized project management office to provide guidance, direction, or oversight? How can a single functional group develop approaches that the larger organization will adopt? During this session, participants will learn how Measured Progress utilized a broad range of approaches -- including work groups, distributed responsibilities, and cross-functional participation – to design a road map for practice definition and adoption. This multi-faceted plan allowed Measured Progress to create company-wide interest in and support for the development and implementation of consistent, key project management practices during phase one of a much larger initiative – and without a PMO.

12:00pm-1:00pm
Lunch

1:00pm-2:15pm
Creating Sustainable Value in a Values-Driven Organization
Dagmar Vlahos, Lean Black Belt, Senior Process Engineer, UNH Project Management Office & George Cookman, MBA, PMP, Senior Consultant, Lean East
Just because you successfully completed the project deliverables, does not guarantee a return on the investment in the project itself.  This presentation will focus on the connection between organizational strategy, and the project outcomes that can be tied to that strategy, as well as sustainably maintaining  ongoing results long after the project is completed. 

2:25pm-3:05pm

Make Room for Empathy on Your Project Team
John P. Tansey, MBA, PMP, Principal PMP, PM Partnership
Empathy often escapes us as Project Managers when driving execution under the pressures of Schedule, Cost, or Quality. Although Empathy is an emotion (albeit, a very important one) it is possible to structure your project teams as such. The PMBOK Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM, RACI, or ARCI) is a helpful tool to establish responsibilities of the role throughout the project lifecycle. The Meyer's Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is additionally helpful when layered over the RAM to understand one's natural disposition versus the responsibilities of the role. This interactive lecture, including Q&A, will shallow-dive into the RAM and MBTI tools.

3:15pm-4:00pm

Understanding and Bridging the Project Management Competency Gap

Rich Maltzman, PMP, Principal, EarthPM
The project management body of knowledge is changing rapidly, requiring organizations to acquire competency rapidly in months and weeks – not years.  As a result, organizations are experiencing a competency gap in their project management capability, based on dynamic PM competencies. Are we capable of describing and bridging this gap? This session will help answer that question. What do PMs think of this gap? How do PM thought leaders believe we should tackle it?  This session provides you an opportunity to define and understand the competency gap in your organization. Using the several new tools and templates, the presenter will introduce an approach to define and improve competencies for PM population. A case study on project management career paths will be presented.

The 2018 Project Management Conference will take place in the Piscataqua Room in Holloway Commons (75 Main Street, Durham, NH) on the University of New Hampshire.

Free parking will be available for all conference attendees in the UNH Campus Crossings Visitor Lot.  Those registered will recieve additional information on the location and parking by email one week prior to the conference.

Breakfast and lunch will be provided at the conference and is included in the cost of enrollment.