The 2018 Digital PM Summit took place at The Guest House at Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. Fitting that the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer used the phrase “TCB ⚡️” (“Takin' Care of Business–In A Flash”) in his time. What a perfect tagline to be plastered all over the place at a conference for people who truly take care of business—Digital PMs!

And did we take care of business:

  • Two half-day workshops presented by Rob Harr and Peta Kennett-Wilson.

  • A welcome reception attended by 70% of attendees

  • Two full conference days:

    • 7 keynotes and main stage presentations

    • 2 interactive sessions with 9 options for attendees

    • 2 breakout conversation sessions

  • A fun social event sponsored by MailChimp

  • Major giveaways from TeamGantt

  • Conversations and fun swag from Accelo

  • Exciting offers from 10,000ft

  • Sightseeing and dining in Memphis: Graceland, Beale Street, Roy’s Hot Chicken, BBQ, and more

We certainly crammed a lot into a few days, and that made for a great #dpm2018 all around. Huge thanks are in order for the speakers, volunteers, sponsors, and attendees who helped make this year’s event uniquely awesome. Read on to discover what made it so awesome and get a taste of what’s to come for the Digital PM Summit 2019 (which, yes, we’re already planning).


The People

Every year, hundreds of people travel to the Digital PM Summit. We’ve been to Philadelphia, Austin, San Antonio, Vegas, and of course, Memphis. This year, we had project leaders join us from all over the world: Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Italy, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and 35 states in the USA, to be exact. Folks were pretty evenly split between in-house and agency backgrounds, so we gave them time to connect by making in-house and agency-specific sessions for breakout conversations. That’s where the peer groups, meetups, and support systems form at the Summit. There’s just something about sitting down with a group of people who do what you do in a similar organization and talking about the challenges and triumphs you face on a daily basis.

 
 


The DPM Summit Experience

Each year, project leaders and industry experts present and moderate sessions to not only help attendees to learn, but to think and talk through their challenges to arrive at solutions that will work for them, their teams, and organizations. But don’t take it from us, check out the attendee quotes below to get a sense for the overall experience.

“As a first time DPM Summit Attendee I didn't know quite what to expect. I was thrilled when I realized I was walking away from it with a wealth of knowledge, tools for success, and amazing new friends!” - Erica Lenhoff, Track 5 Media


“Sometimes as a PM, you feel like you're on an island. The Summit was a great opportunity to connect with other project managers and learn that the challenges are often common ones and that there are solutions out there.” - Justin Hardison, Eastern Standard


“Conferencing together with colleagues enhances the learnings we get from stepping out of our day jobs. This one was on point.” - Tara Nicholson, Discovery

We recorded the keynotes and presentations, so you can look forward to seeing those soon, as well as the slides for all sessions. We never record the breakout or interactive sessions, because those are all about conversation, exercises, and sharing. There’s a lot going on and it would be impossible to capture the magic on film. So, you’ll have to attend next year to get in on that, or check out the slides to see what was included.

We Got Social

Get DPMs all riled up and together in a room, and the conversation just takes off. At the first Summit in 2013, we begged DPMs to join Twitter and join the bigger conversation. That’s now happening much more, and the feedback on the Summit has been awesome. Check out what attendees shared, and feel free to search #dpm2018 for more.

Two members of our #ProjectManagement team, Rachel and Janice, spent this week at #dpm2018 in Memphis. We're excited to see their learnings come to life.

19 Likes, 1 Comments - @90octane on Instagram: "Two members of our #ProjectManagement team, Rachel and Janice, spent this week at #dpm2018 in..."

@tcaldsimon telling the story of her path to DPM and beyond at #dpm2018.

29 Likes, 3 Comments - Digital PM Summit (@digitalpmsummit) on Instagram: "@tcaldsimon telling the story of her path to DPM and beyond at #dpm2018."

See You in 2019!

We’re hard at work planning your 2019 event, and we’ll be using our post-event survey to continue to make our event better. We hope to have a location and a call for papers to announce by the end of the year, if not sooner. Keep an eye out on our Twitter account, Facebook page, and website for updates.


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