Project Management Institute     New Zealand
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Speaker brief

Background

The New Zealand Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI) holds an annual conference, which this year will be at Te Papa in Wellington on October 17^th - 19^th 2007. The theme of the Conference is "Lights!   Camera!   Action!” The conference will attract people from diverse industries, countries and backgrounds. It is open to PMI members and non-members and will interest those who practice, teach and study project management; those who wish to employ project management disciplines; and those who use project management outside a “normal” working environment. The expected attendance is between 450 and 550 people.

There will be four Key Note Speakers and a Master of Ceremonies who will manage proceedings during the formal Paper presentation phase of the Conference (see Schedule):

• Key Notes #1 (Opening Keynote) and #3 will be on the Thursday and Friday morning respectively
• Key Note #2 will be on Thursday after lunch
• Key Note #4 (Closing Keynote) will be on Friday afternoon after the final Papers/encore presentations.
• Backup Speakers will be arranged with Celebrity Speakers on a “best endeavours” basis, if required to fill in for any of the Key Note Speakers at short notice
• The Master of Ceremonies (MC) will control the smooth running of the Speakers’ presentations and ensure introductions and votes-of-thanks are appropriately delivered.
• Key Note presentations are scheduled to be 45 minutes each in duration to allow time for introduction of the Speaker by MC; vote-of-thanks at end of presentation; and movement between sessions by the audience.
• Key Note Speaker presentations should link in with the themes developed by the Papers team, to ensure relevance to the overall conference and the respective segment of each Key Note.

Conference Attendees and Paper presenters

These will include:

• PMP (Project Management Professional) candidates – career focused individuals, relatively new to PMI
• PDU (Professional Development Units) collectors – career focused, wanting to keep their PMP qualification current, some years in PMI
• Explorers - looking to find out more about project management
• Professional specialists
• Academics
• Networkers
• Conference ‘junkies’
• Vendors

MC Role

• Entertain and inform delegates
• Introduce Key Note Speakers
• Acknowledge Sponsors
• Present housekeeping instructions: Toilets; What-to-do-in-case-of-emergency; Break times; Format for the day; Changes to Programme
• Control proceedings during Speaker presentations eg. timing
• Invite vote-of-thanks at end of presentations - Voter pre-arranged with PMI contacts
• Facilitate orderly and timely transitions to next session
• Understand and support Conference programme and protocols
• Deal with the unexpected in an appropriate manner
• Other activities as agreed with PMI and/or The Conference Company

Speaker Role

• Inform, motivate, entertain, even “wow” delegates
• Align to the Conference theme of “Lights!   Camera!   Action!” where possible/ plausible
• Time allocated for your presentation including Q&A (if applicable) is 45 minutes

About the Project Management Profession

In today’s global marketplace, complexity and speed are certainties. In such an environment, a good axiom for project management is: Do It, Do It Right, Do It Right Now. Creating clear direction, efficiency, timely response, and quality outcomes requires project managers who are agile -- adept at change. The associated disciplinary areas are clearly spelled out in the following PMI definition.

“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of a particular project. Project management is comprised of five Project Management Process Groups

• Initiating Processes
• Planning Processes
• Executing Processes
• Monitoring and Controlling Processes
• Closing Processes

as well as nine Knowledge Areas. These nine Knowledge Areas center on management expertise in:

• Project Integration Management
• Project Scope Management
• Project Time Management
• Project Cost Management
• Project Quality Management
• Project Human Resources Management
• Project Communications Management
• Project Risk Management
• Project Procurement Management.”

Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), - Third Edition

Finding individuals with this broad range of expertise is challenging, which is why expert project management leadership is a highly desirable competency.

For more information on PMI and its objectives, go to http://www.pmi.org/

Lights!   Camera!   Action! – The filmmaking process

• Development:
  • Writing the screenplay - see Development Hell
  • Purchase of a screenplay
  • Financing
• Pre-production:
  • Budgeting
  • Scheduling
  • Casting
  • Rehearsals
  • Set construction
  • Location scouting
• Production:
  • Principal photography
  • In-camera special effects
• Post-production:
  • Film editing
  • Visual effects
  • Musical scoring
  • Sound editing
  • Sound effects
• Distribution and Exhibition:
  • Marketing
• Merchandising

For more on the filmmaking process, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_production