This biennial international project management conference provides the opportunity for attendees to discuss new project management research findings and teaching methods.

This year the conference featured over 75 paper presentations, symposia and poster sessions that covered various topics in project management research and education.

Insightful Plenary Sessions

The conference included one plenary session each day. Lisa Lahey, PhD, presented a workshop to a combined session of the Academic and Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) Forums on strategies to close the gap between intentions and behavior in personal and organisational transformation.

Each attendee paired with a partner to get feedback on what might need changing, and the partners helped each other realise their immunities to change. As Dr Lahey noted, “Only one out of seven heart patients can change their habits, even under the threat of death. If we can understand why change is hard, we can figure out dynamics to promote change.”

Another plenary speaker was Kathleen Eisenhardt, PhD, the Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor at Stanford University, California, USA, and co-director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, who spoke about the opportunities and challenges of theory-building from cases.

Dr Eisenhardt discussed how best to use case-study research, including single versus multiple case studies and discerning patterns from multiple cases. For practitioners in the audience, she mentioned that this research technique could be used to gain support for a project they think is worth doing.

Charles Pellerin, PhD, a former director of astrophysics for the U.S. space agency NASA and two-time recipient of NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal, was the plenary speaker on the final day of the conference.

Dr Pellerin related physics’ unifying field theory with teambuilding, particularly team social interplay. He noted that the root causes of NASA’s Challenger space shuttle accident and issues with the Hubble Space Telescope were not technical problems, but leadership failures. “Contractors were not telling NASA all the agency needed to know,” he said.

Left to right: Ms Senga Briggs, Lynn H. Crawford, David Cleland, Janice Lynne Thomas, Thomas G. Lechler, Jefferson Leandro Anselmo

Kononika Patel, who is pursuing her PhD degree at SKEMA Business School in France, gave a 20-minute student presentation on project marketing. She urged other PhD candidates to present at this sort of conference at any phase of their studies.

“You get feedback and suggestions for improvement,” said Ms Patel. “It is really worth it. It is a learning process; you learn from the audience and get encouragement from them. As a lonely PhD candidate, you need motivation.”

As a conference attendee, Ms Patel was happy that practitioners were present at the conference, and that the researchers included the practitioners’ point of view.
“It helps assure you that the research will get applied and, with practitioners attending, you can see implications of your research for a lot of people, how it can be applied in industry,” she said.

Philipp Horn, head of facilities management strategy and operations at the EIB, presented a case study on "The EIB New building—Project and Environmental Management", during which he described the project management model and the construction process of the EIB’s new building. He listed the lessons learned:

• Have second opinions on important issues (e.g. value engineering, verification of budgets)
• Do not mix the project management mission with other missions (e.g. quantity surveying, value engineering)

Philippe Wetzel, head of business development at Paul Wurth, an engineering company active in the iron and steel industry and the non-ferrous metals sector, presented the basic contract approaches in construction. Mr Wetzel gave a brief overview of contract models for managing complex construction projects, and presented the drivers to improve project results:

• Simplicity—eliminating contractual waste
• Responsibility—discouraging opportunistic behaviour
• Integration—with clients entering the design process, and bearing costs and risks of decisions

Jos Dell, representative of the Ordres des Architectes et des Ingénieurs-Conseils (OAI) and architect at m3 architectes, presented the relationship between client, architect, engineer and project manager in the design and building process. When concluding his speech, Mr Dell underlined that:

• The relationship must be a real partnership during the whole process
• The architect must acquire knowledge in project management or entrust the mission to a specialist
• A well organised and well managed project may be a failure in architectural terms
• The roles of all partners must be clearly defined
• Echoing Philipp Horn's observation on the project management mission, the project manager must subordinate himself to the project, assume his function as a manager, and do nothing else

Download the event presentations from the PMI Luxembourg Chapter website.

Learn more about the PMI Luxembourg Chapter events and activities.

Last May the 14^th PMI Israel Chapter Annual Flagship event, that took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, welcomed around 1,000 project management practitioners from various areas of industry — military and government, telecommunication, high-technology, consulting, universities and more.

Participants had the opportunity to attend more than 40 lectures in eleven areas of focus such as: project management in agile surroundings, risk management, project management tools, project management methodologies, soft skills in project management, body language workshop, CIO's Panel, and OST (Open Space Technology) round tables discussions.

The opening session in the general assembly was presented by Joseph Handler, president of the PMI Israel Chapter. Mr Handler emphasized the importance of this conference in opening new fields and views from mega projects to small ones and from the influence of soft skills to the projects managers.

In that session, Yuli Tamir, PhD, former minister of education of Israel and member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament), awarded the PMI Israel Chapter POY — prize for the Project of the Year. This prize is awarded according to a quantitative evaluation model based on the level of achieving list of parameters mainly: budget planning, scheduling, customer satisfaction, using management methodologies etc.

Project of the Year first prize. Left to right: Prof. Yuly Tamir, PhD, former minister of education of Israel and member of the Knesset; Rinat Dabush, PMP, and Arik Einhorn, PMP and POY winners; Joseph Handler, president of the PMI Israel Chapter; Haim Sobol, vice president of the PMI Israel Chapter and POY coordinator.

The 2010 recognition was awarded to Plasan's All Terrain Vehicle project. This protective vehicles project to the USA forces in Afghanistan by Plasan, was chosen to win the prize for successfully exceeding customer expectations on a very complicated project either in technical state of the art solution or management complexity.

Prof. Tamir also discussed the bad habits of organisations, which often may decide to do many small projects instead of looking at the overall picture and do projects and programmers that really contribute and make a change to the organisation.

Elisha Yanay, senior vice president of Motorola Inc. talked about the failure of organisations in managing the global crisis. He mentioned that the Israeli economy is one of the strongest as a result of its dominant high-technology industry.

The opening session ended with the lecture by Alon Klebanoff, an army historian who described the "D-Day" invasion in World War II as a project. He explained the importance of planning and preparation, and the significance of choosing the right people to the right positions.

The conference closed with a the lecture by Dr Haim Shapira, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of the College of Management in the Tel-Aviv University, on the subject of "The psychology of decision making."

Audience at the 14^th PMI Israel Chapter Annual Flagship event

Individualised, secure links to the PMI Board of Directors ballot have been sent to all members in good standing by PMI’s election vendor, Intelliscan, Inc. In addition, a postcard with access information has been mailed to all eligible members who do not have a valid e-mail in the PMI database.

If you have not received your link, please visit MyPMI to update your member profile and contact Intelliscan to request your individualised link. If you need to verify your PMI identification number or require assistance with updating your contact information, please e-mail PMI EMEA Customer Care.

The PMI online balloting site will remain open until 5:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time (GMT -4) 7 September, 2010.

E-balloting is another step in PMI's continuing effort to champion global sustainability, and we are excited to present the candidates to you in a refreshed and fully electronic format.

Please take the necessary actions to let your voice be heard!

• JK Michaels Project Management – Nigeria

View the R.E.P. Web pages on PMI.org to find a provider of project management education and products in your country.

PMI offers an array of products and services that can assist you with preparing for any of our exams, earning contact hours for the certification application and acquiring professional development units (PDUs) to maintain your credential.

Face-to-face learning is not always possible given your busy schedules, so PMI offers you online opportunities that fulfil your educational needs.

eSeminarsWorld^SM helps you to expand your project management horizons without leaving your home or office.

e-Learning on Demand delivers innovative courses directly to you. You can take any class at anytime and anywhere you want, with no additional software to download.

PMI^® Publication Quizzes provides you the opportunity to evaluate your project management knowledge and earn PDUs in an affordable and convenient way.

If you are organising a PMI event in the EMEA region, please let us know.

PMSA National Conference 2010
6-8 September
Johannesburg, South Africa

How to Lead Now - Strategies for Developing Leadership Capabilities
9-10 September
Paris, France

11^th PMI BeNeLux Day
2 October
Antwerp, Belgium
Project Managers - Prime Force for Excellent Results will be the theme of this 11^th edition.

Project Management for Engineers
7-8 October
Johannesburg, South Africa

PM–Summit 2010
15 November
Munich, Germany

Managing Portfolios in Turbulent Times
15-16 November
Madrid, Spain

5th Annual Conference on Project Management
18 November
Kirchberg, Luxembourg

EVA Europe 2010
The second annual earned value analysis conference for continental Europe
24-25 November
Ghent, Belgium

V International PMI Poland Congress
25-26 November
Warsaw, Poland