Beyond Publishing – Creating Brand YOU

Publishing has drastically changed in the last 5 years, with the influx of self-publishers onto the stage through the help of such sites as Amazon and Apple. Like any other business, the business of publishing is plagued by branding and direction. Furthermore, with the introduction of ebooks into the mix many are lost or rather overwhelmed with what is available and how best to deliver competitive products in the publishing electronic boom. It is an industry that needs cheerleaders and coaches alike to help all those involved in the process. At PMI’s July 22 meeting, SO&SO Co LLC owner Aspen Kuhlman will describe how to navigate through the world of publishing and how important it is to build the brand of YOU. Not a writer or in publishing, no worries, this talk is great for anyone who is looking to innovate in an ever changing world. 

Speaker:  Aspen Kuhlman

Aspen Kuhlman is an ebook developer and owner of SO&SO Co LLC, a full-service book conversion company taking publications from manuscript to marketplace. Aspen has been producing validated ebooks in both .epub and .mobi formats for clients such as the NCAA since 2011. She loves being a cheerleader and coach for all things publishing by educating authors, designer and publishers on making the best use of their time by using the tools available to them. Her comical Ignite presentation, Why I Married InDesign and Ran Away with EPUB can be found on YouTube. Plus, don’t miss her #InDesignChangedMyLife Ignite presentation given this year at the PePcon: Printing + Publishing Conference. You can also follow her at @soaspen.

 PDU Information:  1.5 PDUs    Activity Date:  7/22/14

  IT Data security and privacy

There has been renewed interest in IT security and privacy due to the recent security breaches reported in the news such as Target, Marshalls, state of South Carolina, etc.  How does an organization approach information security and privacy?  What framework is used to define projects to address audits, compliance, and build a sustainable information security program to avoid security gaps? 

Speaker: Nancy Thompson, PMP, CISM, CGEIT, CISA

Nancy is a consultant for IT data and privacy.  Nancy has more than 30 years IT experience.  She has a broad IT background at many levels from programmer to statistician to software development, data center, and call center manager, to executive applying IT and project management skills.  Most recently she has applied this IT background for government and private industry IT cyber and data security and privacy.

PDU Information:  1.5 PDUs  Activity Date:  6/24/14

Members; Click on image to view presentation.

Gather More Than Requirements

Learn and experience more about  project assumptions and constraints to make your projects successful.

Projects never start in a clear manner and uncertainty puts the fingerprint on the project initiation phase.  Project Charter, Project Scope Statements, Requirements are usually the items we start with. 

When managing requirements, we naturally focus primarily on the business need or opportunity the requirements will address. We pay attention to how requirements are formulated, and whether they are clear, comprehensive and aligned to the project goals. There's nothing wrong with focusing on the "what" of requirements — that is, what is asked to be delivered. But to avoid any major problems during the project, it's also important to identify the related assumptions, constraints, dependencies and risks. 

Speaker:  Tracy Sharp, PMP

Tracy has 18 years of project management and PMO experience in government contracting, manufacturing, financial, and insurance industries. She is a PMP and has extensive experience with project management methodologies, building and maintaining project management offices, SOX project audit processes, and project governing committees.

PDU Information:  1 PDU    Activity Date:  5/27/14

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The Exceptional Project Manager;

5 Best Practices to Take Your Project Leadership from Ordinary to Extraordinary

Thanks Kevin for a great presentation tonight!  Always inspiring us to be Extraordinary Leaders!

Kevin Ciccotti, Certified Professional Coach and Founder of Human Factor Formula, Inc.

Learn transformational practices based on the methods of the most successful and exceptional leaders in the world. These practices have been identified as some of the most effective methods for creating more engaged teams, enhancing the leadership skills of leaders at all levels of the organization, and creating an environment where creativity, innovation, and progress are encouraged and rewarded. 

PDU Information:  1 PDU    Activity Date:  4/22/14

Members; Click on image to view presentation.

Overview of Office Politics Talk

As a project manager, our abilities to succeed rely as much on our project management skills as our soft skills - communication, management, leadership, and politics. The hardest to see, learn, and navigate is office politics. In this talk we will go through office politics from different angles, and provide you with some tried and true best practices for navigating and winning in difficult political situations.

Speaker:  Julia Childs, PMP

Julia Childs, PMP, has over 15 years’ experience in project/program management and 10 years in marketing. Her background is in researching, designing, managing, and marketing new products and product lines for high tech companies in Silicon Valley and gaming companies in Nevada. Julia has run marketing for two corporations, managed three PMO organizations, and helped start and run two non-profit organizations. She was a founding member and helped start of PMI-NNV and is currently the President-Elect for the chapter. 

PDU Information:  1 PDU    Activity Date:  3/25/14

Members; Click on image to view presentation.

Understanding Agile from a PMPs Perspective!

Exploding the Myth that Agile is not in the PMBOK

Speaker: John G. Stenbeck, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, CSP, is the Founder of GR8PM, Inc. (pronounce “Great PM”).

John is the best-selling author of “PMI-ACP^® and Certified Scrum Professional Exam Prep and Desk Reference” which has achieved over $1 million in sales and the soon-to-be-released “Agile Government Contracting”.   He has a combined background in Accounting, Operations and I.T. Have you been wondering, “What is the PM’s role in Agile?” or “Can Agile projects coexist in a Traditional environment?” or “What is the relationship between project-type and Agile tools?”

Many PMP^®s have been told, often by well-meaning but uninformed, “experts” that Agile is outside the PMBOK^® Guide and there is no role for project managers. Those myths have no basis in fact!

Fact #1 – Long before the Agile Manifesto the PMBOK^® Guide included Rolling Wave Planning, Progressive Elaboration, and Decomposition… three core concepts Agile simply can’t live without.

Fact #2 – The Agile focus on serving the customer, as practiced by many agilists, has a blind spot because it ignores the needs of the company – what we call the organizational customer – for budgeting and sophisticated scheduling tools that none of the Agile frameworks provide. 

Those two facts are the tip of the iceberg! Learn the whole truth during this powerful presentation.

PDU Information: 
1 PDU    Activity Date:  2/25/14

Members; Click on image to view presentation.