Driving Business Success into the Future

Virtual Teamwork is critical in today's fast paced, dynamic environment. Yet, getting people to work together towards a common goal is one of the most challenging tasks faced by Project Managers. Years of research have shown that what separates successful teams of any kind, virtual or not, from unsuccessful teams is the quality of relationships amongst their members.

As with so many situations in which technology affects our lives, the technology only offers opportunities, and it's the people factors that determine whether those opportunities are realized. To gain buy-in and support, you need to create a cohesive virtual project team through improved communication a cooperation and collaboration. This session will give you tips and techniques to build relationships at a distance.

As the driving force behind the training/consulting firm of Virtual Team Builders, Claire Sookman brings to the table over a decade's worth of corporate training experience, working with well over 4,500 Managers in the past three years alone Specializing in virtual team building and communication strategies, Claire's company provides training that enables global teams to work more efficiently and effectively.

Claire's personalized, focused seminars have garnered numerous accolades, putting her services in high demand Worldwide. Some of her clients include: AT&T, Weyerhaeuser, CIBC, TD/Canada Trust, Siemens, Bell Canada, Ministry of Correctional Services, USDA Forest Services, Sick Kids, Orange FT and the Insurance Board of Ontario.

In addition to acting as a consultant and trainer, Claire has participated in a range of public speaking conferences including: Project World, Seminars World, CEPEX, Federated Press, Institute For International Research, Human Resource Professional Association and McMaster's World Congress. In addition, Claire's articles have been published in CIO magazine, Computer World, Network World and in the Training Report. Claire is also a published author on Virtual Teams.

Distinguished as Canada's pioneer in virtual team building, Claire's Virtual Team Certificate Program helps reduce costs and teaches global teams to work more effectively together.

Her polished communication and training skills were honed though both practical and educational channels including a Master Trainer Certification through Langevin learning Services. Claire's technical expertise in training is complimented by the Canadian Association for Professional Speakers and a long-standing association with Toastmasters International.

BI and BPM Suites are complementary disciplines. BPM focuses on automating policies and procedures. BI focuses on analyzing and discovering patterns from historical or real-time data. The ultimate BPM+BI business value emanates from the operational execution of the policies and procedures discovered by BI - in other words through BPM Suites. The keynote will focus on this increasingly important business improvement trend, where the discoveries of BI are made active in BPM solutions.

Dr. Setrag Khoshafian is one of the earliest pioneers and recognized experts in Business Process Management. He has been an innovator of numerous BPM technologies, products, and solutions. He has been in the BPM area for the past 15 years. Currently, he is Vice President of BPM Technology at Pegasystems Inc. He is the strategic BPM technology leader at Pega and is also involved in various technology, marketing, alliance, and customer initiatives.

He is the lead author of nine books as well as numerous business and technical articles. His latest book is Service Oriented Enterprises. Prior to his role at Pegasystems, Dr. Khoshafian served as Senior Vice President of Technology at Savvion. In addition to BPM, he is a noted expert on SOA, object-orientation, and database technologies. Setrag holds a Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Strategy has two facets. One involves keeping the organization true to its core objectives and strategies. The other has to do with moving the organization to new levels of performance and achievement. This is Breakthrough Strategy Deployment and this is the mechanism by which the executive suite moves the organization forward.

Unfortunately the level of success in executing breakthrough strategies is unacceptably low. Linking strategic intent to execution actions continues to be a difficult nut to crack. This session will focus on how Program and Portfolio management and Process Performance Management can team up to dramatically close the Strategy-to-Execution gap.

Angelo has been delivering business focused solutions to leading organizations for over 25 years. His focus is:

• Strategic project management
• enterprise Process Performance Management™ & Reengineering
• Consulting, Training & Coaching

Angelo is pioneering the integration of project management and process performance management teamed with experiential training to deliver superior results. The integrated approach has been designed into a comprehensive system called ePPM™ (enterprise Process Performance Management™) and is based on classic principles including TQM, Six Sigma, Lean and Business Process Engineering.

Angelo has presented at numerous conferences including several PMI Global & Leadership Conferences as well as Project World and has been an active volunteer with the Lakeshore Chapter.

Project management and IT professionals often find it challenging to communicate their ideas and recommendations to senior management and executives, especially those from the business side of the organization. As a result, valuable insights are being ignored in decision making, which often leads to suboptimal decisions.

Coaching professionals and managers on effective communication with the business, the speaker has identified a number of key problem areas and typical challenges. He will share his observations with the audience and provide valuable no-nonsense recommendations on overcoming them.

Ilya Bogorad is the Principal of Bizvortex Consulting Group, a management consulting company located in Toronto , Canada . He helps forward thinking organizations realize high ROI from their investment in IT departments, people, systems and processes.

Ilya serves on the ICT Advisory Committee at the Toronto Board of Trade and on the Finance and Audit Committee at the Community Foundation of Mississauga. He holds an MBA from Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto.

While scope creep, shifting project priorities or requirements uncertainty are all causes of project delays, inaccurate estimation of resource availability is an equal contributing factor.

Few resources are dedicated to project work and most work simultaneously on multiple projects and operational activities. Executives, resource managers and the resources themselves do not have a good understanding of utilization and without this, resource planning is reduced to guesswork.

Beyond the delays to projects, this lack of clarity results in poor resource utilization - some resources are overworked while others are underutilized. This causes reduced returns on investments in project portfolios.

There are multiple approaches to resolving this challenge, but how these approaches are implemented is as critical as the scope of the methods themselves. This presentation provides a roadmap for improving resource availability planning incorporating best practices across people, process and tools.

Kiron is the Manager, Client Services for Solution Q Inc. which produces and implements Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions. He has managed multiple mid-to-large sized IS projects and has worked in both internal and consulting project management roles. He has setup and managed Project Management Offices and has provided PPM consulting services to clients across multiple industries.

Kiron has published PPM and PM articles in PM Network, PMI-ISSIG Journal, ILTA Peer-to-Peer and ICFAI Project & Profits. He has delivered multiple webinar presentations for the PMI Healthcare SIG and has presented at ProjectWorld 2007 & 2008 and HIMSS 08.

Kiron is actively involved with PMI and has served on the Board of Directors for the PMI Lakeshore Chapter for six years.

Do you ever require cooperation from others to accomplish your objectives or get what you want? Chances are, persuasion and negotiation are a part of your daily life, whether you like it or not.

The ability to influence and persuade effectively is the most important attribute of personal and professional success today. And the greatest skill an influencer possesses is the ability to "connect" with others. In this high-energy keynote, Juri will discuss the art and science of influential communication, and will reveal the key principles of persuasion.

Juri Chabursky, CSP, works with professionals, sales teams, and results-driven organizations who want to improve their personal and professional bottom lines. Over the past 15 years, Juri (pronounced "yuri") has addressed hundreds of audiences from Boston to Bahrain. His interactive keynotes and workshops specialize in sales, persuasion, and personal achievement, and are described by clients as "High-energy!", "High-content!", and "High-impact!"

Juri has earned two CSP designations, that of Certified Speaking Professional, and Certified Sales Professional. There are only three speakers in the world who have earned both CSP designations.

Preparing for the 'New frontier' of project Management (PM) is a 'Position Paper' that brings into perspective new ways to evaluate the value of project management modeling. The paper sets at the 'foundation' of Project Management a "Dynamic Integrated Scheduling Model" as the 'critical link' that enables all aspects of project performance and management. It is the foundation upon which Product Life Cycle activities are modeled; from Program Vision to throughput and final delivery.

The author contends that a 'weak link' in Project Management is the failure to develop and effectively execute "Dynamic Integrated Scheduling Models." In order to realize the benefits from 'web-enabling' technology, project management practitioners must develop expertise in this critical area.

Errol is recognized as an expert in all aspects of Project Management - Process Designs; Planning and Scheduling, and Project Controls. Errol is a strategic and analytical thinker, who can develop systematic Project Management (PM) process methodologies for all phases of a project life cycle. Errol is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

He has 25 years of experience on major Engineering, Procurement, Manufacturing and Construction (EPMC) projects. During his career, Errol held positions such as: Planning & Scheduling Engineer/Officer; Project Management Analyst (PMA); Scientific Technologist; Sr. Process Designer and Sr. Project Management Consultant.

Errol wrote and co-presented a full length "White Paper" entitled: "Manufacturing Engineering Project Office" (MEPO) - 'A Critical Link to Supplier Integration'; at the 2000 PMI World Symposium on Project Management in Houston, Texas.

PMI uses three dimensions to define what is considered a "competent project manager": knowledge, performance and personal competencies. While a project manager's knowledge can be demonstrated by obtaining the PMP or equivalent certification, assessing the performance and personal competencies is much more difficult.

PMI addresses this gap with the Project Manager Competency Development Framework (PMCDF), currently at the Second Edition. It includes not only a clear definition of competencies required of project managers, but also examples of evidences that can be used to demonstrate them. It also provides the outline of a generic process to assess and improve individual competency level.

This presentation will demonstrate how PMCDF can be used by any Project Manager to improve their own capabilities, and apply them within an organizational context to increase the likelihood for project success. The goal is to assist the participants in:

• Understanding required competencies and how to assess them.
• Learning how to improve their competencies in project management.
• Using PMCDF to create an organization-specific improvement framework.

George Jucan is a successful independent consultant in Project Management, speaker at conferences and PMI events, trainer and regular author of articles in Project Management. He is currently acting as Vice-Chair of the Advisory Committee representing Standards Council of Canada (SCC) for the creation of ISO 21500 - project management standard.

Previous PMI standards leadership positions include Chapter 10 Team Lead for PMBOK® Guide 4th Edition, Core Team for Project Manager Competency Development Framework - 2nd Edition and Chapters 5&10 Team Lead for Government Extension to the PMBOK® Guide - 3rd Edition.

Credentialism is becoming a necessity in today’s market - but is that all it takes? What are the requirements for a great project manager and what is the PMP profession really all about? This session will explore the value of having a PMP designation and more importantly the critical skills that all project managers need to be successful.

Susan Ksiezopolski is currently the Acting Director of the Project Management Centre of Excellence, with the Ontario Ministry of Government Services. She has 26 years of experience in working on projects within the Ontario Public Services and has a passion for the project management profession. She has spoken at numerous conferences spreading the word about project management discipline and also teaches Project Management to Queens University Masters in Policy Administration students.

In this overview of Networking, the 5 key elements of networking are revealed. Participants will learn that although the width of a network is important, depth is the key. We don't give you the fish but we'll teach you how to fish.

In this interactive session, participants will:

• Benchmark their networking effectiveness
• Understand why it's VITAL to know your contacts
• Discover the anatomy of networking: what it is and is not
• Be aware of Networking Plan Success Factors
• Develop your Introduction

Rick Mamros is all about relationships.

His business experience has been predominantly in financial services and referral networking. With over 20 years in the financial services space, Rick has seen so many people enter this fabulous industry, only to watch them leave because they were never taught the elements or processes of effective and accurate networking to help build their practices.

Learn2Network, has taken him throughout North America, speaking to audiences in financial services, the retail industry and professional associations in the fields of engineering, accounting, dentistry and law.

Team dynamics on an agile team are very different than traditional approaches, and a project manager's role shifts from managing to helping the team understand how to best implement agile team practices.

Agile requires that the business and IT to work closely together during the entire lifecycle. Teams need to self-organize to develop the best approach to get the job done. Conversation is crucial to the success and special tools and techniques are used to increase the effectiveness of that communication.

The team will learn new approaches of test driven development and continuous integration, and appreciate that working software is the only measure of progress. Regularly, the team will reflect on how to become more effective, and tune and adjust its behavior accordingly. And project managers and the organization need to learn how to be coaches and supporters for the agile team.

Robert is a Business and IT consultant with 15 years of industry experience in delivering large IT application development projects. He has delivered projects with the Insurance Bureau of Canada, Bell Canada, Independent Health, Scotiabank, Enbridge Gas Distribution, CIBC, Union Gas, the Federal Aviation Administration, S&H Greenpoints, Mothernature.com, the State of New Hampshire, and the State of Maine. In addition, Robert has been a leader in the Program Management discipline, developing and enhancing tools and processes around Agile Methodology and training teams on the use of Agile. As a consultant he offers services in project management, training, facilitation, and business and IT strategy and application delivery.

Robert has been a lead facilitator in front of large groups of people on many occasions. These sessions have involved setting objectives, guiding design workshops, and delivering presentations on final project outcomes and status. Robert has presented at the 2008 ProjectWorld Conference and for the PMI Southern Ontario Chapter on the topic of preparing the organization for agile adoption. As well, Robert conducts internal and client facing training sessions in facilitation, project management, and agile development.

Experienced project managers know that it takes more than project plans and issue logs to successfully bring in a difficult project. Soft skills are the key to success. This wide range of abilities includes team building, conflict resolution, internal marketing, meeting management and coaching.

How can an individual lean these skills? I know nothing beats experience and self review but courses and workshops such as these can help. This one hour session will expose you to the world of project management politics and give you an understanding of the proficiencies involved.

With 25 years in planning and implementing change, Kirk's project management career has spanned numerous industries and three different countries, Canada, United States, and Australia. Past projects include IT product development, package selection & implementation, and consulting in a wide range of industry verticals.

Kirk has served as the General Manager of a plant automation software company, the Manager of Systems Development for a major medical lab, and IT Manager for a light manufacturing company. He has worked for major multi-nationals such as IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Visa International.

Kirk is a certified Project Management Professional that believes in soft skills for motivating staff and resolving stakeholder issues. Kirk's education includes a BA in Psychology and Technology Management, and a business coaching certification.

This workshop will be most beneficial to those who have managed primarily smaller and mid sized projects and are looking to move up to managing larger and more complex projects.

Larger projects are not just small projects with more people and larger budgets. Larger projects require a different management structure and greater leadership skills to succeed. Larger projects typically are more complex, carry a greater risk of failure and have a greater impact to the organization. Larger projects require more detailed planning, more supporting documentation, formal communication plans and well structured governance. This workshop will review the approach to successfully plan and execute a larger project through the entire project lifecycle. There will also be a review of leadership approach and skills required in the larger projects.

Sam is the Associate Director of Managed Services Solutions at Bell Canada, responsible for a team of Project Managers and Business Analysts who integrate new customers and onboard staff into the network services division of Bell.

Sam has led projects of all sizes including a large new product introduction with an expenditure of $42 M. Sam has managed IT projects, New Product Development and Outsourcing projects. Sam is a strong Project Management supporter within the Bell family of companies having participated in the creation of Project Management Offices in two divisions and has strongly encouraged his staff to upgrade their skills through training and coaching.

Successful Project Management is not "one size fits all". In order to manage a portfolio containing projects ranging in size and complexity, it is essential to strike the right balance between process consistency and flexibility. Tools and techniques must be in place to allow the portfolio/program manager to assess the risks and priorities within her/her portfolio and scale the application of project management processes accordingly, following consistent guidelines. This will result in a lean PM organization focused on only the real work of managing projects, rather than on non-value-added effort or the PM equivalent of "killing a fly with a sledgehammer". More data does not always result in more clarity - sometimes just the opposite when making time-sensitive decisions.

Key principles underpinning nimble PM processes are:

• The right amount of information at the right time
• Risks and priorities defined and managed
• Strong communication and teamwork, with shared business objectives & measures

Deborah Luff is the Director, Project Management for the CANDU Services division of Atomic Energy of Canada, Ltd. (AECL). She has 11 years of experience in the Project Management field, previously working on design/build and reactor refurbishment projects and currently managing a large portfolio of projects providing parts and services to operating nuclear plants in Canada and around the world. Deborah has also performed as Manager, Continuous Business Improvement and has a keen interest in process design and improvement.

Deborah is an experienced speaker and workshop facilitator, providing training on project management techniques, process improvement and culture change. Deborah is an active member of Women in Nuclear (WiN) and most recently spoke at the WiN Golden Horseshoe West quarterly meeting.

International petrochemical technology licensing and project execution is a complex undertaking and especially so when there is more than one company involved in selling the license and supporting the engineering, procurement, construction, training, commissioning and start up of the facilities.

Shaw's relationship with SABIC Innovative Plastics, formerly GE Plastics, has lead to the successful licensing of polymer plants in China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These licenses will be explored to exemplify the people, business, technical and project execution challenges experienced by SABIC Innovative Plastics, Pittsfield NY, USA and Shaw, Toronto, Canada.

Dave has over forty (40) years of professional experience most of which has been in technology development, international licensing, process engineering design, engineering management and project management.

Since 2002, Dave has worked for the Shaw Group and is based in Toronto. Currently he is the Project Director for all polymer projects and reports to the Senior VP Petrochemical Projects in Houston, USA. From 1997 to 2002, he was the General Manager of Licensing for NOVA Chemicals Ltd. From 1991 - 1997, Dave was VP Process Sector for Stone & Webster, Canada and Senior VP Technology for Stone & Webster, USA. Prior to 1990 he spent 20 years working for ABB Lummus Global in Canada, USA and the UK having responsibilities for technology licensing, process engineering, and projects.

Dave has a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Bradford (UK), is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (UK) and a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario and Alberta. He was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto in the 1980's teaching undergraduate course in plant design and post graduate courses in Health, Safety and Environmental Engineering.

What is your organization's biggest risk? The failure of a major software implementation? Market volatility? A major IT security breach? Chances are, the biggest risk is that your risk analysis - and therefore your risk management - doesn't really work. Popular risk analysis and risk management methods used throughout business and government are unscientific, are known to have fundamental flaws, and do not improve decision making.

Douglas Hubbard, inventor of Applied Information Economics and author of the #1 bestseller in business math, How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business (John Wiley & Sons, 2007), will present a preview on the topic of his next book The Failure of Risk Management: Why It's Broken and How to Fix It (John Wiley & Sons, April 2009). He will review the critical flaws in the risk management methods that are quickly becoming "best practice" standards. He will also describe how to get on the right path before it is too late.

Mr. Hubbard is the inventor of Applied Information Economics (AIE). His methodology has earned him critical praise from The Gartner Group, Giga Information Group and Forrester Research. Doug is an internationally recognized expert in the field of IT value and is a popular speaker at numerous conferences. His published articles are in Information Week, CIO Enterprise, and DBMS Magazine.

He was formerly with Coopers & Lybrand and has over 18 years experience in IT management consulting including 10 years experience specifically in teaching organizations to use his AIE method. His other professional experience includes managing large IT strategy and software projects in insurance, manufacturing, nuclear power, banking and pharmaceuticals. Doug has an MBA in Management Information Systems from his home state at the University of South Dakota.

Whether you are an individual practitioner or part of a larger firm, your success depends on how you can contribute to building the practice and the business.

It's a skill required in good times. It's essential in tough times. The most valuable consultant is the one who makes a contribution, not just in terms of billing, but to the practice itself.

In this workshop, we will explore the components of a consulting practice - from service development to sales. Jim Love, a consulting veteran who has run international and local practice areas -- big and small -- will give you advice and tips on how to survive and prosper. He will talk about the importance of renewing your practice and your skills. Jim will share his vision of how consulting is changing and how you can adapt to that changing world.

Who should attend? If you are starting a practice or are a seasoned consultant looking for ways to grow and expand your practice this is a workshop for you.

Jim Love is the chair of CMC Canada's largest member services chapter, a Fellow, Certified Management Consultant (FCMC) and President and Managing Partner of Performance Advantage, a Canadian consulting company with international reach and experience in a range of industries, including financial services, natural resources, aerospace, health care, government, manufacturing, and high tech.

Jim is a consulting veteran with over 30 years of experience in both senior business and IT roles. His consulting career has included roles as Global Vice President for DMR Consulting and Principal at Ernst & Young. Jim is an expert in a number of consulting disciplines, including Strategy, Performance Metrics, Lean & Six Sigma, Portfolio Management, and Program Planning. He is passionate about leveraging people, processes and technology to enable high performance teams.

Jim has written numerous publications and is a frequent contributor to prestigious journals such as the U.S. based Cutter Journal. His recent articles include "Getting On the Same Page - Dashboards and Strategic Metrics", "Get Real With Strategic Budgeting", March 2006 and "SOX Without Losing Your Shirt - Compliance and Process Transformation".

He is currently working on a new series entitled "Portfolio Management Without Tears" - The Convergence of Portfolio Management and Lean Thinking. Jim's blog which is called Change the Game can be found at therealjimlove.wordpress.com.

Are you using social media and social networks to develop your consulting practice? Should you? Do you have clients who are seeking your advice in this emerging area?

Many of you are on groups like Linked In, Plaxo, Facebook and others. Some may have blogs. Some of you are leaning to the cutting edge and exploring the use of new tools like Twitter. Some of you are still trying to figure it all out.

Our panel consists of experts in this new emerging area who are currently working on an online book on the many uses of social networking. They will sort through the hype and help you understand how you can effectively harness the power of social media. The panel consists of: