Beating the Odds: Mexico's Pan Am Games Make Project Management A Winner

  PM Network  

Jorge A. Lozano Dueñas is feeling the pressure. As project manager for the organizing committee of the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, he has less than a year to organize the multi-sport event. He’s already knee-deep in status reports and dog-eared blueprints, and the deadline is looming. That’s not to mention the committee’s slow start out of the gate—the result of the sponsors’ tardy selection of such logistics as transportation suppliers.

“Right now we’re in the fast-track phase,” Mr. Lozano Dueñas says. “And if we don’t meet all the necessary milestones, we’ll have even bigger problems on our hands, so we can’t afford any more delays.”

From 14 to 30 October, plenty of eyes will be on the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco as more than a quarter of a million visitors descend to watch 5,000 athletes from 42 countries take part in 36 sporting events.

For Mexico, hosting the Pan Am Games, with competitors hailing from all around the Americas, has required the federal, state and local governments to work with the private sector on an investment of nearly MXN4 billion. The event encompasses 19 programs and 70 projects, many of which are being overseen simultaneously. A large part of the megaproject involves the construction or repurposing of 41 venues&…

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