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Two-Day Symposium to Feature Speakers from Lockheed Martin, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and More

(Feb. 11, 2016) – The University of Maryland Project Management Center for Excellence is proud to name five in-demand keynote speakers to headline its third annual Project Management Symposium, taking place May 12-13 at the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Md.

Bob McGannon of Mindavation, Catriona M. C. Winter of Clark Construction Group, Dr. W. Michael Hawes of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Kenneth B. Sheely of the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Laura Barnard of PMO Strategies will provide symposium participants with a big-picture view of how project managers play an integral role in government, industry, and academe.

To kick things off on May 12, McGannon will pull from more than 25 years of IT, project management, and project analysis experience during his presentation, “Intelligent Disobedience.” With Mindavation, McGannon specializes in strategic program and portfolio management, and has helped set up project management offices on three different continents.

During lunch, Winter will share her expertise on the world of construction management as she presents, “The Wharf at Southwest Waterfront, Washington, D.C.” As co-leader of one of Clark’s MidAtlantic business units, Winter is uniquely positioned to discuss the challenges of managing commercial, residential, and higher educational projects.

Hawes will wrap up Day 1 of the Symposium with a spellbinding presentation titled, “New Space and Human Space Rely on International Partnerships.” As Vice President and Orion Program Manager for Lockheed, Hawes will offer a fascinating look at what it’s like to lead the way in developing the first “next generation” of flight for space exploration.

The next morning, Sheely will present, “Applying Agile Development Techniques to Improve Program, Portfolio, and Enterprise Manage,” and give a firsthand look at leading efforts to maintain, operate, and modernize the National Nuclear Security Administration’s general purpose infrastructure.

Rounding out the keynote presentation list, Barnard will share lessons learned from her 20 years of experience implementing change for a broad range of organizations. In line with her calling to “help those that help themselves,” Barnard has spent over a decade serving the Project Management community as a board member of PMI chapters, currently in the role of Vice President, Marketing for PMI, Washington, D.C.

Symposium attendees can customize their event experience by choosing from a dozen session tracks on topics including agile/IT, risk and big data, construction management, public private partnerships, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and sustainability. New this year, attendees can also participate in an Aerospace & Defense Best Practices track, led by Aviation Week Network.

With this year’s symposium projected to draw record-breaking attendance, those interested in participating are strongly encouraged to register in advance of the April 1 early-bird deadline.

Industry, Government, and Academic Experts to Ask: “What’s Next for Project Management?”

Third annual UMD Project Management Symposium Will Address Emerging Challenges, Opportunities Impacting the Field at Large

In just six months, project management professionals from the Washington-Baltimore area and from regions around the world will gather at the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Md., to explore what’s next for the field by playing an active role in the Project Management Center for Excellence’s third annual symposium.

Taking place May 12-13, 2016, the symposium will build on the success of years past and will feature new, in-demand sessions to keep attendees on top of the latest trends impacting the field. In addition to presentations on agile/IT, construction management, disaster management, people in projects, risk and big data, sustainability, and PM methodology, the 2016 symposium will also feature expert-led sessions on Building Information Modeling (BIM), and Acquisition – including Public-Private Partnerships and Integrated Project Delivery.

“Since our inaugural symposium in 2014, we’ve already seen countless examples of how the field of project management has evolved,” said John Cable, Director of UMD’s Project Management Center for Excellence. “The emergence of new technologies and methodologies, along with increased trust in the role of the project manager, has reshaped the field at large, presenting project managers with new challenges and opportunities. As such, our mission each year is to offer project managers of all disciplines and career stages a way to stay ahead of trends on the horizon. Given our faculty expertise, the range of industry and government professionals who come to share their insights, and the feedback we gather each year from prior symposium attendees, we’re able to craft an information-packed agenda that covers topics pertinent to project managers of every background and experience level imaginable.”

Turning Knowledge into Practice

In 2016, the University of Maryland Project Management Center for Excellence’s annual symposium will focus on the theme, “turning knowledge into practice,” to further encourage open dialogue between academics and professional project managers. In this way, the center offers a truly unique experience for conference-goers: the chance to approach challenges with both research expertise and the benefit of lessons learned from some of the biggest names in the field.

“The 2015 Project Management Symposium provided a great opportunity to learn from academics and industry professionals the latest best practices and case studies, and enabled me to walk away with a toolkit to support me in my career,” said Evan Piekara of BDO USA LLP.

“The Project Management Symposium is a wonderful opportunity to learn, network, and build great relationships,” said Dr. S. Atyia Martin of Northeastern University. “As a person not certified in project management, I will bring all that I learned back to my organizations and industry.”

Over the past two years, UMD’s Project Management Symposium has featured speakers ranging from NASA Chief Knowledge Officer Dr. Ed Hoffman and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Karen Durham-Aguilera, to International Institute for Learning’s Dr. Harold Kerzner and the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s Karen Richey.

“For more than four decades, we relied solely upon time and cost as the only two metrics needed to manage a project,” said Kerzner. “We knew that time and cost alone could not determine the project’s health, nor were they a good indicator of project success or failure. Today, however, we are entering a new era in project management, where project information can be provided to everyone rather than just a selected few.”

Those interesting in helping to shape the agenda for the 2016 Project Management Symposium are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract by Dec. 11, 2015. Requested in-demand topics include: agile/IT, Building Information Modeling (BIM), construction management, disaster management, acquisition, sustainability, and education.

Early-bird registration rates for the 2016 symposium are now available online via the Project Management Symposium website: http://pmsymposium.umd.edu/pm2016/.