Tonight I attended my first Project Management Institute – Minneapolis Chapter event. Their February dinner included a number of short presentations prior to the main event. Want to know what you can get out of a 4 hour PMI-MN event?
Career Networking
The first hour was a networking presentation provided by a recruiter who gave us some great tips on growing your network through references from existing contacts. The best advice he gave was to try and make yourself useful to the people you want to connect with. That might sound counter-intuitive, but you are trying to build a communication path, and it has to be a 2-way street.
Practitioner Communities (PrCs)
There were different options for next 45 minutes and I choose to attend the PrCs presentation called “Can SCRUM Flip a House?” It was a great talk about how to apply SCRUM principles outside of IT. I’m excited to apply the agile principles to a non-work project.
New Member Orientation
Next they offered a 30 minute new member orientation. There was a short overview of what PMI-MN provides its members but most of the time was spent with the n00bz discussing their goals. It was a great lead into the dinner.
How to be a Chameleon: A Key to Enterprise Project Success
The main presentation was 50 minutes, and focused on the soft skills of project management. By this point I was getting pretty tired, and it wasn’t the most riveting presentation. I did take away a tip on making sure that not only do you identify all your key stakeholders, but know everyone that will have an impact on your project. Never forget the admins! I also loved that he described himself as a gun-slinging chameleon (he used a different picture).
That was $32 well spent. I made two networking connections and got some great practical tips on pursuing my PMP certification. The dinner was pretty good too, and fit my 8WW diet! I look forward to attending future events.
How do you make the most of these professional events? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
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