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Professional Development Day

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Cynthia Elm Statistics Instructor| Clovis Community College North Fork, Ca, United States
Our chapter is hosting a professional development day later this year, and I am inviting suggestions and advice. What have been the most successful practices for your chapter's professional development day?
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
I helped PMI Nova Scotia chapter with their PD days before. While it's nice if you can line up speakers on one particular theme, you may find that you will accept any topic if you cannot fill all time slots.

While the overall goal for the day is about professional growth, don't underestimate the networking opportunity. Make sure you include a meal, say lunch, to keep people together.

Advertise your speakers ahead of schedule. Make sure your MC has an introduction for each speaker. If you can, designate someone to be timer to keep speakers on time. If not, the MC should give time indications to the speaker.

While some speakers invite questions throughout their presentation, it is not recommended. Tell speakers how much time they have for their presentation, then tell them there will be a Q&A after. I suggest the MC step in to moderate the Q&A portion.

Don't forget to have tokens of appreciation for your presenters. Try to get sponsors to help out with the cost, rather than relying solely on the attendees. Not only can they help out with meals and venue, but they can be a great source of door prizes.

Are there specific areas you are concerned?
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Feb 14, 2016 9:38 AM
Rami Kaibni
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Great points Stephane !
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Feb 13, 2016 11:25 PM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
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I helped PMI Nova Scotia chapter with their PD days before. While it's nice if you can line up speakers on one particular theme, you may find that you will accept any topic if you cannot fill all time slots.

While the overall goal for the day is about professional growth, don't underestimate the networking opportunity. Make sure you include a meal, say lunch, to keep people together.

Advertise your speakers ahead of schedule. Make sure your MC has an introduction for each speaker. If you can, designate someone to be timer to keep speakers on time. If not, the MC should give time indications to the speaker.

While some speakers invite questions throughout their presentation, it is not recommended. Tell speakers how much time they have for their presentation, then tell them there will be a Q&A after. I suggest the MC step in to moderate the Q&A portion.

Don't forget to have tokens of appreciation for your presenters. Try to get sponsors to help out with the cost, rather than relying solely on the attendees. Not only can they help out with meals and venue, but they can be a great source of door prizes.

Are there specific areas you are concerned?
Great points Stephane !
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Cynthia Elm Statistics Instructor| Clovis Community College North Fork, Ca, United States
Thank you, Stephanie. I had not considered having an MC, but after reading your suggestions, I think we cannot do without one! I also like the idea of having sponsors help out with the appreciation gifts (something else I had not thought of). Thank you for your advice.
I was thinking about having one keynote speaker, then breaking the day into tracks that follow a classroom format. Each track's theme would be a leg of the talent triangle.
Are most PDD's done this way?
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
You will find having a keynote speaker and parallel tracks much more work, Cynthia. This makes more sense when you have a multi-day conference.

Trying to fit it all into one day involves a lot more rooms and more people to pull off. (For example, you will need separate MCs for each track.)

I want to clarify your mention of "appreciation" gifts. I strongly suggest that tokens of appreciation to the presenters come from your chapter, not sponsors. Sponsor-provided gifts make more sense for attendees.

PMI Nova Scotia was doing single-day Professional Development Days when I was helping them out. PMI New Brunswick will be having their second two-day PDD this spring. Chapters do what they can with the resources they have.
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James Porter Sr. Project Planner| Hitachi Rail STS USA Glenshaw, Pa, United States
Our chapter runs a PDD. Two tracks, 4 sessions per track plus a keynote at the beginning of the day. Light breakfast, lunch, and refreshments included. Each attendee gets a "padfolio" with pen and a tote bag (bag comes from a sponsor). Some vendors set up tables but not in a separate area - they are in the main hallway. Attendees must register in advance for each session they wish to attend so room sizes can be assigned based on demand because they get a huge turnout. Name tags are given to each attendee and along the bottom they use small stickers that indicate which sessions the person has registered for. At the entrance to each meeting room before each session there is a person who eyeballs the name tags as people enter to make sure they are in the right room. I estimate they have at least 20-30 volunteers at the event, and each one is given a dress shirt with chapter logo so you can always identify the people who can answer a question or provide assistance if needed.

Speakers in the sessions often are ones who have spoken at chapter meetings. One caveat - we once had a PDD speaker who was impressive on paper but no one had actually seen him speak. Terrible. His presentation turned out to be 50% on the actual topic and 50% sales pitch for consulting work. And on top of that he was a lousy speaker with very little knowledge of the actual topic.

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