Meetings + Networking + Shopping + Eating = Awesome?

After an enlightening day of meetings, what better place to hang your hat than the Hilton where the Symposium is being held? For those of you who don’t get to Birmingham very often, the location is great. The Summit features some fantastic shopping and restaurants. Take 280 West and head downtown for great sightseeing. Make your .hotel reservations. Mention PMI Birmingham to get the discounted rate of $129 a night. Looking forward to meeting everyone at the Networking event. I will be the one standing at the cash bar.

1 More Tip Needed for a Base 10 Society

I’m sure you’ve been in a fair number of ineffective meetings. Paul Burek has a fabulous presentation at the Symposium on 9 tips to make your meetings more effective. I have to wonder how Paul resisted the urge to have a list composed of ten items. How can he scorn the well paved path given to us by the likes of Moses and David Letterman? I say we offer up a 10th way to make meetings more effective in the discussion session! What’s your biggest pet peeve in a group meeting? Post a comment and vent with the rest of us!

Hail to the Chief!

One of the real advantages to being a member of PMI Birmingham is how often we get to hear our President, Rick Morris. For those of you who have heard Rick, you know he is an engaging speaker who uses real-world scenarios. Rick’s address for our Symposium will be on “Making Emotional Conversations Un-emotional.” Short of bringing Mr. Spock into the workplace, how can we better assist our projects by diffusing emotionally charges situations so that a real conversation can take place? Rick will show us simple techniques to remove the frustration and apathy responses and get to the facts. I’m personally hopeful these techniques work on spouses and children too!

ROI and Fun? Is that a Misprint?

Debbie Lundberg has been confirmed as a keynote speaker for the Symposium. Reading her biography is like stepping into another world. Debbie is committed to “applied knowledge, growth, fun and ROI”. When she’s not writing a book, founding organizations or serving on the Tampa chamber of commerce; she is a life coach. She carried the Olympic Torch in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Not to mention, her picture is cute. I would hate her on principal except that I am fascinated by how she has made coaching an art form. Debbie will provide us all with an interactive lesson to make us better coaches by teaching us to coach to corrective action, coach for sustained results and coach our team members to the next level. Maybe then I can coach myself off the couch at night…

Hear that sizzle? It’s the first ever Alabama PMI Symposium heating up!

What happens when you combine a “magic city”, a “rocket city” and the “Capital of the South”? No not, “a magic rocket that talks with a drawl” (Although, good guess.) You get an array of project management philosophies and practices. The industries in Alabama are widespread. In a weakened economy, making sure projects are successful is more important to Alabama businesses than ever. The Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomery PMI chapters are proud to present a two-day event: “Alabama Horizons: the Project Management Kaleidoscope”. Over the course of two days, you will see project management from a variety of seemingly arbitrary, yet symmetric viewpoints. We will provide speakers with local flavor and speakers with national expertise in the field of project management. After attending, you will have real take-aways that can improve yourself, your team and most importantly, your projects. Check back daily for updates on speakers and their topics. Get ready to change how you see projects!