Reflections on the PMI Global Congress

It was a pretty quick trip for me down to the PMI Global Congress this week. I didn’t even try to get in early for all the LIM stuff and didn’t stay for the training sessions that are happening the rest of the week. Pretty much flew in… gave my Agile PMP talk… and got on my way. I’ve gotten to the point where most conference sessions don’t really interest me. The value for me happens in between sessions and over drinks afterwards. That said… the time in between session and over drinks is worth the price of admission.

One of the coolest parts of the conference was getting to meet and spend some time with Bas de Baar. I have been following his Project Shrink blog for a few years now and it was cool to share ideas on project management, social media, and other career related stuff. It was the first time that I got to spend any significant time with Dave Prior (Valtech) or Rodney Bodamer (AgileX). Also spent some time with George Schlitz and Brian Bozzuto… both from Big Visible… both great guys. It’s the connections that make these events so special. I was sad that Michele Sliger won’t sit next to me anymore ;-)

It will be really intriguing over the next few years to see how the PMI Agile community of practice evolves within a traditional top down organization. It will be fun to see if agile methods are embraced or rejected by the masses. As complexity and uncertainty in software project management goes dramatically up… I can’t imagine that standard project management approaches to building software are going to hold. At some point the facade is going to implode and we are going to have to get real about what it takes to manage software portfolios. Hopefully we can lead enough change in that time to really make a difference.

As you’d expect from a conference by Project Managers for Project Managers… everything was well planned, well run, and top notch. The Gaylord Palms hotel is always a great choice for a conference (was there for the Scrum Gathering earlier this year) and the reception at Universal Studios was a nice touch. Having the conference in Orlando gave everything a much different vibe from the conference in Denver last year. Denver seemed much more corporate… Orlando felt a little more laid back. Oh… and my talk went pretty well too.

All in all a pleasurable trip… but happy to be going home!