Date with Delightful Dublin!

 

Dia daoibh ar maidin! (“Good morning all” in Irish/Gaelic)

Forty days back (Rewind)…

Time certainly flies when you’re having fun or anticipating it! Forty days back, an unexpected email tantalized me, promising a date with delightful Dublin, a date that would last at least five days!

As a PMI volunteer and volunteer leader since 2005, I’ve been an attendee to 30+ events in several countries, presenting at many. Every single one of them gave me valuable opportunities to learn, share, network, and grow.

PMI was inviting me to cover the EMEA Congress 2019 in Incredible Ireland, a country that I had never visited before!

My mother tongue is Tamil, the world’s oldest living language. Skeptical? Go ahead -- Fact check it online!

“Do you want to be paid to eat sweet, delicious sugarcane” is a well-known Tamil phrase.

Would anyone in their right mind refuse this offer? 

First steps…

Registration was very simple. However, it wasn’t at all easy to select sessions from the amazing variety of topics and speakers for each time slots. You can't have your cake and eat it too, can you?

40 Shades of Green!

It was exhausting traveling on a red-eye flight to London, waiting at Heathrow for four hours, and then learning that the connecting flight to Dublin was delayed by an hour.

All that fatigue cleared when the pilot announced that we'd shortly land at Dublin. Acre upon acre of many shades of green told me that Dublin was certainly delightful. 'Emerald Isle” is certainly a very apt name for Ireland! Celebrity singer Johnny Cash certainly wasn’t exaggerating when he famously sang about Ireland’s “40 Shades of Green.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0oTDS9ur_U)

Ireland's charm was further enhanced by the genuine warmth of everyone I met, from the immigration officer, the airport employees who guided me to the taxi lines, and the staff who cheerfully and efficiently arranged cab rides.

Mohan, the cab driver, told me how the area around the Dublin Convention Centre had transformed from a seedy area with crumbling warehouses. It is now a thriving Finance and IT hub with swanky modern buildings!

Let me fast forward back to the present!

Day One of the big event has dawned!

I really look forward to joining my amazing team members, Emily Luijbregts, Stephanie Jaeger. and Moritz Sprenger in taking you, our valued PMI community member in front of, and behind the scenes of PMI EMEA Congress 2019.

We'll cover the key points made by speakers in all important sessions, interview speakers where possible, chat with your peers.

You can participate in a mystery online quiz THREE TIMES every day. Winners will get a HAPPY prize and be featured in our Social Media coverage.

Our team coverage will be on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. On this blog too!

Stay tuned to for continuous updates all day! Give us feedback and ideas on how we can make our coverage even more exciting!

Meanwhile, have a great day, or as they say in Irish, “Bíodh lá maith agat”

Today, I plan to attend and cover these great sessions:

• "The Disruptive Leader!" Opening General Session and Keynote Speaker: Jamil Qureshi
• “Project Managers – Get Your “Game On” to Usher Success" by Priya Patra
• “Mastering Project Management Technical and Leadership Skills Through a Simulation Games” by Vered Holzmann
• “Social Intelligence: Why We Need It and How to Get It!” by Ruth Pearce
• "The Journey Towards Agility: Lessons Learned From Successes and Failures" by Simona Bonghez

Please follow, like, comment, and retweet our continuous coverage on Twitter (https://twitter.com/KarthikPMO), LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/kramamurthy) and Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/forkarthik )

Meanwhile, keep smiling, keep shining, and keep inspiring!