The Critical Path

While we are disheartened about the reality of not meeting face to face during PMI live events this year, we want you to know that “where there’s a will, there’s a way!” With that said, have you heard the buzz about the new series of virtual events that PMI is developing? YES, new and exciting things are happening in the PMI Events World and we want you to be part of it!  How can you? Simply register for our next “Discover PMI - Ask Us Anything!” webinar, What’s All the Buzz about the Virtual Experience Series?, scheduled Wednesday, 22 July 2020 at 3:00PM EDT.

As you may know, the format of this series of webinars is executed through non-PDU bearing webinars, meant to encourage conversation with various PMI departments. Simply put, community members, like yourselves, having a one hour Q&A session with a particular PMI department. We are so thrilled to have Gina Alesse, Julie Ho and Michelle Brown from PMI Events, discuss the specifics of The Virtual Experience Series: Delivering Value, Creating Change & Advancing the World™ that will feature monthly virtual experiences from now through December 2020.

Register for FREE at https://www.projectmanagement.com/webinars/639279/What-s-All-the-Buzz-about-the-Virtual-Experience-Series-.  We certainly hope you will join us!

As always, our project is YOU. Your successes and setbacks, your passions and peeves—we want to hear about them all, and help you get to where you're going today and tomorrow. We hope these webinar series guide you in the right direction. As always, your feedback and ideas are most welcome!

Season’s Greetings from all of us at PMI and ProjectManagement.com! As another year comes to a close, we wish everyone a wonderful holiday season, and Happy New Year! Looking ahead to 2020, there is so much to be excited about in PMI’s online community. Here’s a summary of what’s happening in your December Community News You Can Use:

Volunteer Opportunity: PMI is currently seeking volunteers to validate translations of the PMBOK® Guide – Seventh Edition! The PMBOK® Guide will be available in eleven languages, and volunteers are needed in order to ensure that the translations are accurate. Learn more here. Please note that this opportunity closes on 20 December 2019.

#GivingTuesday: On 3 December 2019, the PMI Educational Foundation hosted an open house on ProjectManagement.com to bring awareness to Project Management for Social Good. If you missed the PMIEF Open House and are interested in how you can use project management to make a difference, you may reference the articles and on-demand videos here.

Community Ambassadors Program: The Community Ambassadors Program was recently announced on ProjectManagement.com. The first group of Ambassadors, Emily Luijbregts and Andrew Craig, will start in the newly created Ambassadors role on 2 January 2020. To learn more, view the announcement here!

Standards Transformation Webinar: Learn more about the Standards Transformation and the PMBOK® Guide during a webinar with PMI’s Stephen Townsend on 22 January 2020. Register here!

Attend a Live Event in 2020: Save-the-date for two exciting PMI events: PMI® EMEA Congress 2020 and PMI® Global Conference 2020. PMI® EMEA Congress will be held 14-16 June in Prague, Czechia! And Global Conference will take place 17-19 October in Seattle, Washington, USA! Stay tuned to PMI.org for more information.

Change Management for Project Managers: Stephanie Jaeger outlines six simple steps for getting started with change management in her latest article.  

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to a member of the Community Engagement team – we’re happy to help you. As always, stay tuned to the Critical Path for your community news!  

It’s the most wonderful time of the year at PMI! Global Conference is just around the corner, and with this year’s exciting 50^th anniversary celebrations, we are certainly counting down the days! If you will be in Philadelphia for the conference, please stop by the ProjectManagement.com Community booth and say hello. We would love to meet you!

In this month’s look at what’s currently happening around the community, we’ll let you know how to keep up with all of the excitement at Global Conference – from near and far – as well as the other great community activities occurring in the final months of 2019!

Register for PMI® Business Analysis Virtual Conference 2019: Registration is open for the PMI® Business Analysis Virtual Conference 2019 which will be held on Wednesday, November 13^th. This virtual event will explore the latest trends in business analysis and provide you with the insights, resources, and tools to advance your career and enhance project success. Register today! This year, we welcome:

• Bob Prentiss – Battle for the Planet of the Business Analysts: 5 Key Strategies to Prepare for Your Future

• Anton Oosthuizen – Managing Requirement Risks: A Different Perspective

• Joy Beatty – Curiosity Never Killed the Business Analyst

• Frank Saladis – Managing Difficult Stakeholders

• Barbee Davis – What Should I be doing as a BA in an Agile/Waterfall Hybrid World?

• Joyce Onore – Importance of Communication in a Business Analysis Role

PMI® Organizational Agility Conference Available On-Demand: If you were unable to attend the recent PMI® Organizational Agility Conference on Evolving Approaches to Resilient Value Delivery, you can view all of the sessions on-demand here.

Ask the Expert at PMI® Global Conference: Ask the Expert is back by popular demand at PMI® Global Conference 2019! These one-on-one sessions allow you to discuss your project question or problem, get advice about navigating the project management career path, or talk through issues currently facing the profession from a trusted and established ProjectManagement.com expert. If you are attending Global Conference, sign-up for a session here.

For those who will not be in Philadelphia, you can follow our Experts at Conference through the PMI Global Insights blog where they will share their experiences and insights from the event.

Industry Discussion Threads: This year, PMI launched a new initiative focusing on four industry segments in the fields of IT, Finance, Government and Construction. As part of that focus, we have been highlighting some existing PM Network content on ProjectManagement.com in order to engage the community and learn more about specific industry needs. Check out the industry discussion threads in Project Management Central!

Discover PMI - Ask Us Anything! Series: Learn more about PMI’s Job Board by viewing the latest session on-demand - Powering Your Career with PMI: Explore the PMI Job Board to Power You Career - featuring Ansley Stauffer.

Project Health Framework: Join fellow community member, Uri Galimidi, as he discusses A Billion Dollar Project Health Framework in his eight part webinar series. You can now access Part 1 through Part 5 on-demand! Check the Live Webinars calendar for the remaining sessions.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to a member of the Community Engagement team – we’re happy to help you. As always, stay tuned to the Critical Path for your community news!  

Ask the Expert is back by popular demand at PMI® Global Conference 2019! These one-on-one sessions allow you to discuss your project question or problem, get advice about navigating the project management career path, or talk through issues currently facing the profession from a trusted and established ProjectManagement.com expert.

Over the course of our annual three-day event, you'll have the opportunity to meet with experts from various industries representing a wide variety of areas of expertise to discuss all things project management. Learn more about our 2019 experts below and through their blog, PMI Global Insights.

Community experts will be available during the following times:

Saturday, 5 October
10:30AM – 11:30AM
3:00PM – 4:00PM

Sunday, 6 October
10:00AM – 10:30AM
2:30PM – 3:00PM

Monday, 7 October
10:00AM – 10:30AM
12:00PM – 1:00PM

NEW THIS YEAR! Join us for lunch time round-tables on Saturday and Sunday for group discussions about topics that affect your project management world every day. No sign up required. Just grab your lunch and come on over!

Saturday, 5 October, 12:45PM – 1:45PM EDT:
Project Recovery – Tips for Turning Around a Troubled/Failing Project!

Sunday, 6 October, 12:00PM – 1:00PM EDT:
Influencing Stakeholders in the Absence of Authority  

Meet our Experts!

Andrew Craig	Dave Maynard
David Davis	Kiron Bondale
Lorelie Kaid	Lori Wilson

Are you unsure about signing up for an Ask the Expert session at PMI® Global Conference 2019? Don't quite understand how to use the 20 minute session? Review our FAQs below to learn how you can make the most of this opportunity!

1. Why should I sign up?

Meeting one-on-one with one of our experts can help you refine your project or program implementation to better meet your requirements, serve your organization’s goals, and ultimately, make you more successful and your job easier. You may also receive advice from a peer that can help guide you as you continue on your project management career path.

2. What type of questions can I ask the experts?

Pretty much anything about planning, executing or closing your current projects is fair game. Experts are also open to discussing their experiences with career growth.

3. What questions aren’t appropriate for Ask the Expert?

Where to find your favorite restaurant in Philadelphia – While this may be a valid question, expert time is better spent discussing real project management problems and challenges.

4. What if I can’t think of a question for Ask the Expert?

You don’t want to miss this opportunity, so find a question! Open your project list for inspiration. If it helps, last year’s popular topics were starting a PMO, Agile transformations, scaling process in regulated environments, and tracking risks on active projects.

5. Who are the experts that I’d be meeting with?

It depends on your question! We have several experts lined up with expertise in nearly every area of project management. Simply click on their names above and learn more about their areas of focus.

6. What should I do to prepare?

You’ll have dedicated time with your expert focused entirely on your specific problem or question. Consider writing down the details of what you’re trying to accomplish, what you’ve tried, and prioritize your questions beforehand to be sure that you are making the most of your session.

7. How do I request an Ask the Expert session?

To start, you must attend PMI Global Conference on 5-7 October, 2019 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA to have an Ask the Expert session. If you’re not registered, what are you waiting for? Having an Ask the Expert session to discuss your business needs will help justify your attendance! Go.

Simply request an Ask the Expert session, either online using the link below or at the Ask the Experts - Community at PMI Exhibit booth in the Exhibit Hall. Provide some specifics on your question, because we’ll use those details to help prepare your expert for your session.

8. What can I expect onsite for my Ask the Expert session?

The Ask the Expert area is located at the Ask the Experts - Community at PMI Exhibit booth in the Exhibit Hall. You will meet one-on-one with your expert in a semi-private setting.

• If you already have a session scheduled: Come to Ask the Experts - Community at PMI Exhibit booth in the Exhibit Hall and we’ll guide you to your assigned table to meet with your expert.
• If you need to schedule an Ask the Expert session onsite: Stop by Ask the Experts - Community at PMI Exhibit booth and we’ll help you to fill out the request form, assign an appropriate expert, and schedule your session.

Sign up before you join us in Philadelphia to secure your spot! Onsite sign-up is also available, space permitting.

Reserve your Ask the Expert session today!

This year, the PMI® Organizational Agility Conference will explore Evolving Approaches to Resilient Value Delivery during an exciting day of networking, professional development, and learning. The members-only virtual event will be held on September 12^th from 9am to 5pm ET, offering the opportunity to earn 6 PDUs.

Join us as we examine the concept of change resilience with professionals who are driving it within their organizations—and those who are living it as part of their own development. We are excited to welcome the following speakers:

• Josh Seiden – Sense & Respond: Principles for the Next Century of Work

• Tony Maughan – Adopting New Ways of Working: ANZ's Delivery Transformation

• Johanna Rothman – The 3 Principles of Organizational Agility

• Mike Griffiths – The Change Resilient Professional

• Michel Biedermann – Lessons Learned in Hybrid Agile/Waterfall Delivery

• John Medcof – Reinventing the Playbook: Driving Change in the Canadian Federal Government

Register for PMI® Organizational Agility Conference 2019 today!