the smart pms blog http://thesmartpms.posterous.com Most recent posts at the smart pms blog posterous.com Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:26:00 -0700 Networking Tips http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/networking-tips http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/networking-tips

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Networking is one of the most useful ways to get references or contacts. For some people represent a challenge to meet another people and have an informal conversation, for others it may be natural to interact with others in any environment.

In general, I feel comfortable networking with people in live and virtual environments. I personally consider myself as an open virtual networker. Last month I have the opportunity to attend two congresses, one as a delegate and another one as presenter Taking advantage of this opportunity I was looking for new ways to network with the congress attendees. In both events, I was able to “break the ice” in several ways. Here are some of the techniques that worked out for me:

-       From virtual to personal. First, I checked if any of the members of my virtual networks would be attending the events and make the arrangements to meet and greet. This was a good start and is always good to “put a face to the name” or “put a real face to the avatar”. This technique led me to meet in person around five members of my LinkedIn network and a couple of followers in twitter.

-       Ask/Answer questions!!  This technique was spontaneous. During one of the presentations I attended, the presenter pooled the audience about who wrote articles about project management and I raise my hand. At the end of the presentation and during the questions and answers section I asked a question related to what publications he would recommend to approach to submit articles. When the presentation finished two delegates approached me and told me that they share the interest of writing articles and asked for recommendations and references. We exchange ideas and business cards and now we are members of our respective virtual networks and looking forward for the next article to be publish.

-       Differentiation. In both congresses credential ribbons were available for both presenters and delegates. The delegates attached the ribbons to their badges and it showed the different credentials the individual holds, if was member of a group of specific interest, first timer, presenter, etc. The Presenter ribbon makes the individual to stand out from the crowd. People usually approached to me to ask about the topic of the presentation, the time and the day of the presentation, asking for references about the topic or just to wish me luck.. Credentials are great differentiators. I am one of the few 500+ credential holders of the Program Management Professional (PgMP) PMI’s credential. The PgMP black ribbon created a lot of attention. The interest of program managers in this credential has increased in the last 12 months and many of them are pursuing it and looking for advice. The PgMP black ribbon led me to start a mentoring group for project management professionals from Argentina and Costa Rica.

-       Mistake as an ice-breaker. My congress badge included my name, company name, city and state. When I printed the badge, I did not realize that the city was incorrect. The city of the billing address was printed instead of the city of my home address. The final result Plantation, TX. This mistake gave me the opportunity to meet many Texan project management professionals who asked where in the great state of Texas was Plantation.

 Planning to use networking techniques or creating new one on-the-spot are good ways to start your professional network and meet other people that share your same profession or common interest.

When attending any event do not forget to bring business cards. If you do not have a company business card you can design and order your own personal/networking cards. During the event and at the end of each day send a follow-up email to the people you meet that day, this will keep your network warm and will let you remember later the topics or common interest of the people you met.

 

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Sun, 17 Oct 2010 07:48:00 -0700 Speaking Engagemet at V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administración de Proyectos http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/speaking-engagemet-at-v-ap-con-2010-congreso-0 http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/speaking-engagemet-at-v-ap-con-2010-congreso-0

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V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administración de Proyectos. 

 

The event took place in San Jose, Costa Rica on September 22rd thru 24th and brought together more than two hundred project managers from Central America and the Caribbean. The event was organized by the PMI Costa Rica Chapter  and  Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles.  

 

Jamie Gelbtuch and I were guest speakers. The title of our presentation was "Formando un Equipo de Proyecto Multigeneracional de Alto Rendimiento" (Developing a High Performance Multigenerational Team). The audience included project management professionals from Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, the United States of America,Costa RIca and Brazil. 

 

 

 

Jamie and I decided to combine our personal experience in cross-cultural and project management environments to which we had been exposed throughout our professional careers. During a discussion, we concluded that today's project managers not only wrestle on a daily basis with budgets, schedules and team issues, but for the first time in many decades with a new element of diversity  — the management of multigenerational teams.   

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The outcome of that discussion was the article "Multigenerational teams and Their Impact in Project Management" published in April's PMI Community Post. The article was well accepted by the project management community and as a result we were invited by the PMI Global Diversity Community of Practice to conduct their inaugural webinar last August (2010).

The presentation used in the webinar was adapted for the V Central American and Caribbean Project Management Congress in order to address the Central American and Caribbean audience.

The event was very well organized and Jamie and I would recommend that you consider attending the congress next year.

 

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Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:52:00 -0700 Thank you Letter from PMI Costa Rica Chapter and the Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de Costa Rica http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/thank-you-letter-from-pmi-costa-rica-chapter http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/thank-you-letter-from-pmi-costa-rica-chapter

A nice token of appreciation from the the PMI Costa RIca Chapter and the Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de Costa Rica for the Presenters of the V Centro American and Caribbean Congress of Project Management held in San Jose, Costa Rica.

 

Pura Vida Costa Rica !!!

Thank_you_letter_pmi_costa_ric

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Sun, 26 Sep 2010 15:25:00 -0700 Speaking Engagemet at V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administración de Proyectos http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/speaking-engagemet-at-v-ap-con-2010-congreso http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/speaking-engagemet-at-v-ap-con-2010-congreso

V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administración de Proyectos. 

Jamie Gelbtuch and I were guest speakers at the V AP-CON 2010 Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Administracion de Proyectos (5th Central American and Caribbean Project Management Congress) organized by the PMI Costa Rica Chapter  and  Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles.  

The event took place in San Jose, Costa Rica on September 23rd and 24th and brought together more than two hundred project managers from Central America and the Caribbean.

The presentation topic was "Formando un Equipo de Proyecto Multigeneracional de alto Rendimiento" (Developing a High Performance Multigenerational Team).The audience included project management professionals from Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and the United States of America.

Jamie and I decided to combine our personal experience in cross-cultural and project management environments to which we had been exposed throughout our professional careers. During a discussion, we concluded that today's project managers not only wrestle on a daily basis with budgets, schedules and team issues, but for the first time in many decades with a new element of diversity  — the management of multigenerational teams.  

The outcome of that discussion was the article “Multigenerational Teams and Their Impact in Project Management” published in April's PMI Community Post. The article was well accepted by the project management community and as a result we were invited by the PMI Global Diversity Community of Practice to conduct the August 2010 Monthly Webinar.

The presentation used in the webinar was the adapted for the 5th Central American and Caribbean Project Management Congress in order to address the Central American and Caribbean audience.

The event was very well organized and Jamie and I would recommend that you consider attending the congress next year.

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