The power of the Digital PM Summit lies in the takeaways you’ll use to immediately transform the way you manage projects. Join us October 19-21 for our first-ever online Digital PM Summit and you’ll very quickly find a talk, topic, discussion, tip, or tactic to make you a better project leader.
This year’s agenda is full of opportunities to learn from and network with our speakers and your fellow attendees over the course of three days in keynote presentations, interactive sessions, process presentations, lightning talks, and breakout discussions.
Every session will provide a unique topic or point of view to discuss. Want to get excited about what you’ll take in? We asked our speakers to share one takeaway, topic, or theme that will be discussed in their session that will be valuable to you as an attendee. Here’s what they had to say:
“My session will talk about how to manage stressful social situations so you’re making better strategic decisions on your projects.”
— Yoon Chung, Strategic Decision Making in Stressful Situations
“We'll cover how to ask for professional feedback in a way that doesn't feel awkward or contrived - a skill that will serve PMs and leaders at any stage of their career.”
— Theresa Ward, Managing Tough Conversations: Effective & Empathetic Feedback
“One take away will be learning how to identify the Agile ceremonies that will benefit your team and your client. This is valuable because Agile is only successful when you take the time to understand which ceremonies of Agile to leverage.”
— Ordonna Sargeant, Agile: Specific Ceremonies, Not Every Ceremony
“The key takeaway is why influence is the most important skill to develop as a project manager. Influence is a skill that will allow anyone to grow to whatever level they aspire to.”
“When it comes to managing projects, you are almost always doing better than you think. Often, you are simply one phone call, email, or key micro-interaction away from setting a project on a better path. The trick is finding that one thing and doing it right away. We’ll talk about this and more in my presentation about digital projects gone horribly wrong (and the digital PMs who still save the day).”
“When it comes to being a project manager, most people assume you must be fairly outgoing given the constant communication (both internally and externally) that comes with this position. That isn't always the case. It's completely acceptable to not be the loudest voice in the room. To be more of a listener and observer. There's value to be found in taking more time to intake information ahead of responding.”
— Kacie Minner, True Life: I’m an Introvert in an Extrovert’s World
“Keeping the project team and the client aligned on the specific goals of a project is harder than it sounds, but it remains one of the most important things we can do as PMs. In my lightning talk, I’ll extend this responsibility to a broader scale and explain how, in partnership with an Account Manager, PMs should understand a project’s goals, as well as how this individual project fits into the client’s larger organizational goals for this quarter, this year, or even their five-year strategic plan. This elevates you from a day-to-day PM keeping the wheels on track, to a true valued consultant laying the trackwork alongside the client.”
— Jessica Sheng, Building Stronger Client Relationships with Your Account Manager
“At the end of the session, we will all fully understand the concepts of time and free will. OK...not really. But we will talk about time travel and parallel universes in order to help us plan better projects and set more realistic expectations with our clients. One example of this is using scenario planning: instead of having a singular project plan that is almost guaranteed to be wrong, we outline a variety of outcomes and the likelihood of each. This way, when things don't follow the ‘happy path,’ we're already prepared and can easily adapt. Even better, our clients are ready as well, so we avoid awkward conversations about changes.”
“In my talk, I will be discussing kick-off meetings and how to start on the right foot with your client and project team. Our objective when doing these workshops is first and foremost learning how to work effectively with the client by working on a challenge together. Second is coming away from the activity with a tangible asset. We try to choose something that usually has a lengthy approval process or a back and forth and work on it while we have all the necessary stakeholders at once.”
— Kayla Keizer, Hack Day: Kicking Off a Project the Right Way
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“Innovation is even more important for companies in the current state of the world. Given that, we’ll talk about how innovation projects differ from traditional projects, and what that means in terms of how they should be run.”
“So often as a Digital PM we get too focused on to-do’s, checking off the SOW, or doing what our company asks that we lose track of the experience we are providing. My session will ask us to take a step back from that to look at what we want your person branded experience to be when working with our clients.”
“‘The problem that sinks many projects is the lack of an efficient project management methodology’ (Forbes, 2015). The session is entitled Run Any Project With The Fusion PM Methodology. I created this Fusion approach, which integrates the lean, waterfall, and agile processes to manage projects and develop products more efficiently. Fusion is a flexible, scalable, and replicable PM Methodology.”
— Lester Frederick, Run Any Project with the Fusion PM Methodology
“Often we feel pigeon-holed into the way we manage so that we stay Agile and follow Scrum to the T, etc. I aim to show attendees how history has provided modern PMs a way to adapt and personalize their style using cross-curricular approaches and soft skills to maintain process while adding innovative and customized methods.”
— Jenna Trunzo, From Caveman to Warhol: How History Has Shaped Agile Culture & Soft Skills
Seems like a lot, huh? Well, don’t forget there is even more because there will be breakout discussions and networking events where you can meet, greet, and discuss topics and questions that are relevant to you, your projects, and your way of handling DPM.
There’s nothing better than attending a conference that feels like it’s been crafted just for you--and that is what the Digital PM Summit is all about! In fact, if you register now, you’ll be invited to our next monthly Digital PM Camp Session where we can get the discussions started--in advance of the event.
Register now and we’ll see you at the Digital PM Summit 2020 Online.