PMI Gathers in Amsterdam May 2009
Download: Report from Karel de Bakker
PMI gathers in Amsterdam
Report from the PMI EMEA congress, Amsterdam 18 – 20 May, 2009
Karel de Bakker MA PMP
PMI RiskSIG Regional Director EMEA
e-mail: DirReg3@RiskSIG.com
PMI gathered in Amsterdam on 18 – 20 May 2009, and so did the RiskSIG! With around 25 members of the RiskSIG present at the PMI EMEA 2009 congress, including three RiskSIG Board members, there were numerous opportunities for RiskSIG members to meet each other. The problem with a SIG is that members often have never met before, so how to recognize your fellow RiskSIG members in a crowd of over 600 people?
This is where the picture of the dice starts doing its work. The picture (left) was sent in an e-mail some days before the congress together with the agenda for the Monday night RiskSIG events (start at 18.00 with “Take a group picture”, followed with “Have a beer” and “Have dinner”). RiskSIG members were asked to stick the dice on their name tag. This has worked well on both European and North American congresses since 2005, and it worked again this year.
The picture taking session during the opening reception was a success, with 16 RiskSIG members present. A somewhat smaller group continued their lively discussion that started during the reception at a local bar, enjoying a glass of genuine Dutch beer (which everybody knows, is named Grolsch), followed by a tasty dinner.
Several RiskSIG members presented during the congress. On Monday afternoon, Zoran Ljubicic and Seweryn Spalek started with their presentations: “Are Some Projects Hungry Enough to Bite into The Fifth Discipline?” and “To PMO or Not to PMO? That is the Question!”
Tuesday was a busy day, with presentations by a number of RiskSIG members. The kick-off was at 9.00 with “Overcoming Resistance to Change: Newton's Laws for Stakeholder Management” by Kik Piney, “How to Teach an Old Dog New Tricks” by Mark Gray and “Risk Management Does (Not) Contribute to Project Success” by myself. Later that day there were presentations by Hans Petter Krane (who also did another presentation on Wednesday): “Strategic and Operational Risks and Opportunities – How are They Handled Over Time, in Different Project Types?” and by David Hillson: “How Groups Make Risky Decisions”. And last but not least, Jose Costa Pinto presented “Financing the Project” on Wednesday.
It is interesting to see that everybody, although attending the same congress, has his or her personal experiences and impressions. Sometimes it makes you think that you went to a complete different congress, just because you were not attending a particular session, or you were not present at a moment certain things happened. Therefore I have asked some people to tell something about their congress experience. Here is what they have to tell:
First Kik Piney, who attended the presentation by Frank Parth, “Risk in Large Construction Projects”:
“Not many people attended this session as it had been listed with the Encore sessions and assigned an unregistered session number. This was a shame for both Frank, who had a lot of interesting information to share, and for the congress participants who missed it. Frank provided a graphic view of the product safety risks with a short video from Manila (Manila Building Collapse). This sort of risk is luckily untypical and construction projects generally exhibit many of the characteristics of projects in other industries. Frank underlined the importance for limiting change and uncertainty by applying front-end design and planning, as exemplified by the use of the Project Definition Rating Index: PDRI offers a means of measuring scope definition for completeness. Whereas construction projects in the oil & gas sector succeed in this way in controlling uncertainty so that changes only represent a 2% impact once the design and planning phases are complete, “iconic” projects such as the Sydney Opera House tend more towards an overrun factor of 1400%. Frank also provided an interesting list of typical risks to address in any construction project.”
Second, David Hillson who enjoyed both the presentations and the catering:
“As previously, the main highlight for me of the PMI Global Congress EMEA 2009 in Amsterdam was meeting old friends and making new ones, in the context of an event with useful papers and an interesting host city. I learned a lot about organisational and national risk cultures from Lynda Bourne and Anastasia Dzenowagis, as well as gaining some new insights into decision-making from Manon Deguire who explained why most project managers are “not normal”! Other highlights included smoked eel and 10-year-old Jenever, van Gogh’s “Starry night”, and the European World of Bluegrass music festival in Voorthuizen. See you next year in Milan!”
And third, Seweryn Spalek, who feels “ at home” with the RiskSIG:
“I would like to share with you some remarks about the networking possibilities that emerged during the EMEA Global Congress in Amsterdam about networking with other RISKSIG members. It was an excellent idea to keep the tradition to have the common photo and dinner together organized by Charles and Karel. We had a lot of fun and the opportunity to meet in person some people known only from the virtual world. It was a great time. I noticed also that the RISKSIG board and members fully participated in endorsed presentations which was a very good idea. They supported each other by sometimes asking a tough but “nice” questions, like David Hillson did during the interesting presentation of Karel de Bakker on his research “Risk Management Does (Not) Contribute to Project Success”. I could feel that RISKSIG members were acting together, supporting each other to reach the maturity required in managing both threats and opportunities.”
And my own impression? For me it was a rather stressful congress, and that was because I was doing my first presentation at a congress about my PhD research. The core question of my research is: “Does risk management contribute to the success of a project?”, and although this is a clear and simple question, answering this question is rather complex. My presentation discussed the first results of this research, which is based on both evidence from literature as well as evidence from my own case studies. I also attended a discussion meeting organized by the PMI Netherlands chapter, in which the success and failure of large public infrastructural projects in the Netherlands was the central topic. It was a great meeting and a lot of good discussion with project managers, researchers and representatives of the Dutch authorities, but with one disadvantage. The meeting was scheduled at the same time the rest of the congress attendees were enjoying their “Taste of the Netherlands” reception in the garden of the Amsterdam Hilton hotel, with typical Dutch food as “nieuwe haring” (raw herring (fish)), “poffertjes”, (little pancakes you eat with butter and sugar), “mosselen” (mussels), “mosterdsoep” (mustard soup, a speciality from Groningen, my home region) and “stamppot” (stew with potatoes and vegetables). Anyway; being a resident of this country I will probably have new opportunities to enjoy the local food.
The next PMI EMEA congress will be held in 2010 in Milan, most likely again in May, although the specific dates are not yet known. But before that, the RiskSIG will organize a congress in Rome, also in Italy, in collaboration with the PMI Rome chapter. This congress will be held on November 5 and 6, 2009. Let’s go Italy; I am already enjoying the idea of the “Taste of Italy” reception!
Upcoming Conferences:
"PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD" - RiskSIG and PMI Silicon Valley Chapter Project Risk Conference, Santa Clara CA, September 24-25, 2009.
CALL FOR PAPERS closed June 22, 2009
"PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT - AN INTERNATIONALPERSPECTIVE" - RiskSIG and PMI Rome Italy Chapter Joint Conference, Rome, IT, November 5-6, 2009 celebrating International Project Management Day!
