How Can We Prevent Project Management from Falling Into the Artificial Intelligence Darkness?

Marc Lahmann and Adrian Stierli

In this session, we will explain what risks project managers need to be aware of when dealing with artificial intelligence (AI) and which limitations exist for AI in project management. Furthermore, we will describe how project managers can deal with AI myths and what causes the fear behind these myths; help to prepare project managers to use AI; and enable them to get the most out of using AI in their projects.

Intellectual Property Management

Presenter:  Lisa Desjardins

Intangible assets such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs and copyrights can make up a significant portion of a company’s value. Whether it is a project deliverable or a procured resource in your project, understanding intellectual property rights is important for both project managers and project sponsors. For example, an IP strategy can be a criterion to receive project funding.

In this presentation, you will learn the basics of intellectual property rights in Canada, how to build an IP strategy, IP commercialization, and some important IP considerations during R&D projects.

Learning Outcomes:

1. You will get a general understanding of the role intellectual property (IP) plays in today’s economy so you can better protect your project sponsors’ intangible assets.
2. You will learn the basics of what trademarks, patents, industrial design and copyright are, how these are protected so you know what to do if someone wants to use others’ IP or invent/create their own.
3. You will know the steps to take to build an IP strategy and learn some of the ways to use, share and protect intellectual property while it is being created.

Adapt, Adopt and Thrive: The Robot Revolution, Agile and their Impact on Your Profession

Mike Palladino, PMP

The next Industrial Revolution is upon us. Robots, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, digital this and digital that. Incorporating change? Improving your skills? Come see a different perspective on the future in this fun, interactive session, and see how you may need to adjust your thinking. Be prepared to view the world in a different way. Learn why specific change details are less important than applying a personal approach to adaptation.

Better Conversations = Better Projects

Nadine Fortin

Did you know that according to a Stanford University study, nine out of ten conversations miss their mark?

As Project Managers, we spend 80-90% of our time communicating with team members and stakeholders. At times, our communication may be misunderstood. This can have a critical impact on projects and outcomes, not to mention critical relationships.

Take the next step towards better conversations, sign up for this webinar and learn how to:

• Be more aware of filters that stop you from being “in-sync” with other members of your team.   
• Pay attention to crucial dynamics, ensuring conversations are more productive and creative.       
• Equip yourself with tools to understand (and correct) factors that stop your team from functioning at its best.           

Blind Spots: Unconscious & Implicit Bias in the Workplace

Dr Tana M. Session, PHR, GPHR, SHRM-SCP

YES, you are guilty of unconscious bias and so am I...but it is treatable. In the current political climate, it's more important than ever to understand our own bias and how it impacts decisions we make in the workplace. Everything from recruiting, promotions, employee development and performance management are each impacted by personal unconscious bias. As human resources professionals, we are the gatekeepers of the company culture, and it is more important than ever to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all employees. This session will provide key actionable steps HR professionals can implement in their departments with key stakeholders to help shift unconscious bias in the workplace.

Building a Portfolio Roadmap

Presenter:  Laurel Sim

The presentation brings thought leadership for project portfolio management, sharing perspectives regarding challenges in building an effective portfolio which executive leadership can connect while still having tactical perspectives. This session will emphasise how a portfolio can be structured to have effective oversight on programs while allowing for flexible project delivery oversight.

This interactive presentation will use a case study to build a portfolio road map.

Business Continuity Planning/Pandemic - Getting to your New Normal

Daniel Fay, PMP, PMI-PBA, Managing Director, BrenDaniel Productions Corp.

COVID-19 has impacted our lives, businesses, and our way of life. There is a good possibility we may never ‘get back to normal’ in the way we do our business, there is going to be a ‘New Normal’. Home Offices, Virtual Meetings, and social distancing are becoming the norm. This may impact ‘How’ you are doing business, but what should not change is the ‘Why’ your business exists. Your core values. By attending this webinar you are showing an understanding that you may have to adjust the way your business operates. leave with immediate actions for post-pandemic success.

Colorful Projects: Cultural Diversity as a Strength on Virtual Teams

Dr. Ralf Friedrich, BCC, CPCC

Virtual teamwork changes rapidly. Think about the new technical devices such as smartphones and tablets offering new usage and processing of information. Moreover, different generations come together: “digital natives” who are born into computer technology and “digital immigrants” who came in contact with computers later in their professional life. All these different aspects influence the success of virtual team collaboration and have a huge impact on our projects.

This session will highlight the benefits of multicultural teams in a virtual environment. Many practitioners are frustrated by cultural differences. However, cultural orientations can be used as a strength on virtual teams, creating solutions that are impossible to achieve in unicultural environments.

Delivering Complex Tech Government Projects

Saby Waraich

Have You ever jumped from an airplane?

The journey of delivering a complex project in government, can sometimes feel just like that.  Join us, and gain an insight into how public sector projects are uniquely complex and how you can position yourself for success. We will focus on a real-life example of a decade long project with multiple failures, as well as its thrilling turn around.  

Learning Objectives:

• Actionable tips that can be used by those who are managing complex projects.          
• Enhanced professional knowledge around driving large & complex transformation.
• Insights into complexities and challenges specific to government technology-focused projects.

Ethical Trends & Challenges in Projects

Joe Garritano, PMP

This session will raise awareness of global trends and challenges that may influence projects; alert practitioners to ethical dilemmas that may occur throughout the project life cycle, whether intentional or by accident; and foster an appreciation of the relationship between the law and ethics and show how they are both similar and different.

How can Project Practitioners Prepare for the Next Normal?

Amin Panjwani

The world of work is changing, disruptive technologies are accelerating change at unprecedented speed rendering many traditional ways of doing work obsolete. This change is causing ripple effects forcing every organization and their staff to assess how they should compete in this new world of work. In addition, the recent pandemic will change the world of work drastically, leaving many traditional project roles obsolete.

To prepare for this next normal, project practitioners are adapting and demonstrating their relevance by focusing on value delivery and strategy execution and in doing so becoming more strategic. They are upskilling and pivoting to succeed in this dynamic economy.

As we look towards the future, technology will enable Project Practitioners to become free from administrative tasks and focus more on strategic tasks that deliver business value through their projects and program. As knowledge workers, they will seek more personal development and in return, they will expect organizations to support their growth.

According to a Gartner Prediction:

“80 percent of the work of today’s project management tasks will be eliminated by 2030, as (AI) takes on traditional PM functions such as data collection, tracking and reporting.

“How AI will reinvent Program and Portfolio Management” Gartner March 20th, 2019

Attendees will walk away with tips and tricks that they can apply immediately to their work.

How to Rescue a Project - Advance Your Problem-Solving Skills

Christine Aykac, PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP, PMP - Wareness Training and Consulting, Program Manager and Problem Solver

Imagine being in a position that you know exactly what to do to ensure you get to an innovative and acceptable solution when you hit a problem during a sprint. It would give you the ultimate confidence when dealing with project problems; knowing which template to use, who to speak to and what type of questions to ask.

Our objective is to teach participants how to reach a consensus on all aspects of the analysis to foster buy-in and commitment for implementation. If project problems are handled correctly with the right methodology, excellent project management is one of the few ways to prove yourself and gain recognition in the organization.

Ultimately, our goal is to use a problem-solving process that provides you and your team with the “know-how” and confidence to collaborate with Subject Matter Experts; gather factual data, intuitive guesses and creative suggestions on how to solve a problem situation. The aim is to ensure the team keeps momentum and for that they need robust and disciplined templates that would help them to deal with any project challenge without having a glitch. All they need to know is which template to utilize for what type of problem situation.

The problem solving typically involves five templates with worked questions to cater for five types of problem-solving situations. The five project challenges could be usually started when there are many issues, and no one knows how to proceed. The second problem situation is one where there is an ill-defined issue without any clear concept of what is involved. The third situation is a technical deviation from the standard, and the project team needs to find the accurate cause of that deviation before the team can make any progress. The fourth approach involves taking innovative action so that an incident does not reoccur. The last situation is to think creatively on how to avoid anything from going wrong with your implementation. This involves identifying hidden risks and creatively circumvent them in such a way that it does not have any impact on your plan.

Good problem-solving practices have the following characteristics:

• Include the information sources closest to the problem being experienced. It is not about the “best brains” but rather a case of the “most appropriate” brains.
• Information generated is made visible and recorded to help the team to arrive at a commonly supported answer.
• Inputs through collaboration with the right information sources are actively promoted.

The most basic purpose of the critical thinking methodologies is to ensure that the project manager engages the right information sources to answer pre-defined questions which enable the project team to a successful solution. This approach would provide the project manager and team members to reach out to stakeholders in such a way that would stimulate innovative thinking.

Less Dunks, More Assists – Transitioning From Project Manager to Project Leader

Nara Acharya - Assistant Director in Client Technology – Global Assurance - Ernst and Young

In this session, we will first discuss the changing role of the project manager and some trends that are driving it. Next, we will be sharing some of the skills we have gained from our professional experiences and from our participation in leadership development programs at work and through PMI. These are skills that today's project managers need to add to their toolkit to successfully transition from project manager to a true project leader.

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: (1) discuss the trends that are changing the role of the traditional project manager;(2) identify the leadership skills the modern project manager needs to transition to a true project leader.

Disrupt Conventional Silo Thinking by Managing Projects Using Kanban’s Value-Based Systems Perspective

Annette Vendelbo, PMP, PMI-ACP - Project Director, Agile Expert, Xvoto ApS

Kanban is much more than an agile method. It's a different way of looking at projects as part of a value chain that reaches beyond the single project. This session will demonstrate how Kanban's systems approach, value-based focus, and simple practices keep project managers in control. We will share a case story showing how Kanban facilitated higher project efficiency, smarter resource allocation, and proactive handling of cross-team dependencies, which are some of the biggest killers of project efficiency.

Managing Stress and Burnout

Swati D. Doshi

In this session, Swati will discuss practices to help your team manage stress and burnout. At the conclusion of this session, you'll be able to recognize how language and the definition of the word stress impacts your mindset. You'll also walk away with Human Results' control matrix and their RISE framework which walks through physiological and mindset tactics to combat negative stress.

Open Your Eyes to Your Blindspots

Amany Nuseibeh, PMP

With a lot at stake and daily pressures, successful leadership is made possible as project managers manage their blindspots!  Do we know what our blindspots are? Are we identifying them? Are we managing them properly? In this dynamic session, Amany will engage OVOC events audience to define and identify blindspots as well as discuss approaches and tools to proactively manage them.

READY, Set, Change!  Accelerate and Simplify Organizational Change Management

April Callis-Birchmeier, PMP, CCMP

Organizational Change Management is defined as moving an organization and its stakeholders from the current state to a future state. The extent to which employees are ready, willing and able to adopt change is a key indicator of project success.

READY, Set, Change! provides a framework which complements traditional organizational change initiatives with an intense focus on advanced preparation and integrated support. Discover a simpler and faster approach to help individuals and organizations adopt change, to ensure business objectives are met.

Soft Skills, the Key in Project Management

Presenter:  David-Alexandre Paquette

To perform in know-how and apply knowledge, you must initially excel in soft skills. Projects are carried out with people. The soft skills are the ability to adapt to various situations while remaining authentic in your behavior to create satisfying relationships on a personal and professional level. In connection with the environment. In this webinar, you will learn how to develop the full creative potential of you and your teams, through interpersonal skills.

Strategic Design and Project Delivery - Bridging the Gap

Lee R. Lambert, PMP, PMI Fellow, CEO Lambert Consulting Group 

Strategic Design and Project Delivery! - The critical relationship between organizational strategy and the execution of projects has been one of the essential topics, as in present scenario business are facing sudden changes. “Simply” being a good project manager will not be enough to survive in today’s world of careful selection of value-add projects. The sooner it can be determined that a project is not making a strategic contribution to organizational business objects, the sooner alternates can be considered.

The webinar will be able to provide solution and focus on transforming PMs mission into action, vision into reality and success.

Strategic Project Governance 2.0 - A Leadership Initiative for Project Leaders

Phil Weinzimer

A recent study by MIT/CapGemini identified Governance as a major obstacle to successful execution of Digital Transformation efforts that seek to leverage technology as a strategic asset. As a result, the many technology-driven project requests that aim to enhance customer value, improve operational processes, and re-engineer business models are at risk and could negatively impact business success if you have an ineffective or immature project, process, and leadership excellence model. Tactical governance processes in these three areas need to be aligned with a mature strategic project governance model that reduces enterprise risk, ensures total alignment in project selection/execution, and enables the business to accomplish its strategy, goals, and objectives.

This presentation will provide you with a new Strategic Project Governance Model 2.0, methodology framework, case study examples, maturity assessment tool, and an implementation approach to improve your strategic project governance competency.

Task Overload!  When It's Just Too Much

Mishirika Scott

When unwelcomed change, conflicting priorities and emotions are the norm, chances are better than good that you are experiencing task overload and increased stress. This webinar will demystify unwelcomed change, align task management with purposeful planning, and explore a practical decision-making model. When it’s just too much, a webinar like this comes along to save the day.  Followed by optional interactive exercise so that participants will gain knowledge and engagement.

The Innovative "It" Factor for Scrum Masters and Project Managers

Niel Magsombol, SPC, SSM, CSM, ESP, CKC, PMP

This workshop covers critical, yet often overlooked, aspects that companies are looking for in scrum masters and project managers from the perspective of someone who has trained, certified and hired scrum masters and project managers. Whether someone is a traditional project manager or scrum master, it will cover how to be an entrepreneurial leader who fosters innovation, has an agile mind-set as a project manager, helps to develop a dynamic cross-functional project management office (PMO) and is a true servant leader.