A project management vendor exhibition and showcase is being planned for the 1st UTD Project Management Symposium, to be held on Monday 6 August 2007 in Plano, Texas, USA. The conference is being sponsored by the Graduate Program in Project Management in the School of Management’s Executive Education Center at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), in cooperation with the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and PMForum, Inc. PM vendors interested in participating should contact or visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/project-symp.htm.

Suppliers and vendors of program and project management products, services, software and technology are invited to participate in this first major project management conference to be sponsored by UTD.

The 1 Day Project Management Symposium will focus on topics important to organizations, industries and the economy of North Texas. Keynote speeches, professional presentations and discussions in the following tracks are planned:

Track 1 – Program & Portfolio Management
Track 2 – Project Management: Critical Organization Success Factor
Track 3 – Software Development & Agile Project Management
Track 4 – PM for Product Development, including small projects
Track 5 – The Role of Project Management in Corporate Governance
Track 6 – Project Management in the Global Economy

Other Conference Features will include an Opening Ceremony with Keynote Speakers, book signings, all breaks and lunch in the vendors’ exhibition area, and a closing keynote speech.

Venue & Facilities

The Symposium will be held at the Plano Centre, a beautiful full service, multi-purpose facility located in one of the most vibrant communities in the North Dallas Metroplex. It is conveniently located near a variety of hotels and restaurants, shopping malls, historic downtown Plano, numerous golf courses (public & private), and the world famous Southfork Ranch. The beautifully landscaped Plano Centre is an 86,400 square foot facility with a variety of meeting and breakout rooms. Offering the most modern audio-visual equipment and state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems, the Plano Centre was designed with today as well as future convention and meeting technology in mind. Plano Centre is located at 2000 East Spring Creek Parkway in Plano, Texas.

The Vendor Exhibition area at the conference will include booth and table space for exhibitors in a traditional setting (similar to PMI congresses). The symposium schedule is being planned to maximize the exposure of participants to the vendor showcase, with all breaks, meals and social events to be conducted in the exhibition hall. Exhibitions and sponsorships are being offered at the following rates: exhibition space $600; bronze level sponsors $1,500; silver level sponsors $2,500; gold level sponsors $5,000. Conference registration and vendor participation information can be found at http://som.utdallas.edu/project/project-symp.htm.

Both the PMI Dallas Chapter and the UTD’s executive education program in the school of management are registered education providers with PMI, so up to 5 Professional Development Units (PDUs) will be available for attendees plus another five for presenters.

Founded in 1984, the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) is one of the oldest PMI chapters in the world. With nearly 4,000 members, it is also one of the largest. Monthly dinner meetings feature a wide variety of project management experts and topics, and typically attract over 200 attendees. The chapter sponsors workshops, PMP development opportunities, an annual Vendor exhibition, a school outreach program, corporate interaction and other activities. The president of the Dallas Chapter in 2007 is Mr. Dwaraka Iyengar. For additional information, visit .

UTD’s Project Management Program provides application-oriented education for professionals with significant project, program or general management responsibilities. Established in the Executive Education center in UTD’s School of Management, students have the option of earning a Certificate in Project Management, a Master of Science degree with an emphasis in project management, or a Master of Business Administration degree with project management emphasis. The UTD PM program, originally developed in 1997, is accredited by the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and is a PMI Registered Education Provider (PMI R.E.P.). The program is taught by world-class faculty with a blend of industrial project management, consulting and teaching experience. UTD’s PM Program in delivered both on campus and online, and attracts students from across the United States and around the world. For more information, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/.

Alain Bensoussan, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and former Chair of the European Space Agency, will be the keynote speaker at the 1st UTD Project Management Symposium scheduled for August 6, 2007, in Plano, Texas. Dr. Bensoussan is the Director of the International Center for Decision and Risk Ananlysis (ICDRiA). Professor Bensoussan has an extensive research background in stochastic control, probability and stochastic processes and will speak on the subject of risks on technology programs and projects.

Alain Bensoussan is Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris Dauphine. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in 1962, and obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Paris in 1969. Dr. Bensoussan is a member of the French Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Technology, of the Academia Europae, and the International Academy of Astronautics. He is an IEEE Fellow, and has received the Von Humboldt award as well as the NASA public service medal.

Professor Alain Bensoussan has held important positions and responsibilities in the French research system. He was President of the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) from 1984 to 1996, and President of the French space Agency CNES from 1996 to 2003. He was Chairman of the "http://www.esa.int/" target ="_blank">ESA (European Space Agency) Council from 1999 to 2002. He is Officer of Legion d’Honneur from France and Officer Bundes Verdienst Kreuz from Germany.

The 1st UTD Project Management Symposium will be held on Monday 6 August 2007 at the Plano Center in Plano, Texas, USA. The conference is being sponsored by the Graduate Program in Project Management in the School of Management’s Executive Education Center at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), in cooperation with the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and PMForum, Inc.

The 1 Day Project Management Symposium will focus on topics important to organizations, industries and the economy of North Texas. Keynote speeches, professional presentations and discussions in the following tracks are planned:

Track 1 – Program & Portfolio Management
Track 2 – Project Management: Critical Organization Success Factor
Track 3 – Software Development & Agile Project Management
Track 4 – PM for Product Development, including small projects
Track 5 – The Role of Project Management in Corporate Governance
Track 6 – Project Management in the Global Economy

Other Conference Features will include an Opening Ceremony with Keynote Speakers, vendor exhibition, book signings, breaks and lunch in the vendors’ exhibition area, and a closing keynote speech. Registration fees are $200 per person, $150 for PMI Dallas Chapter members and UTD students. Vendor participation and sponsorships are also available. Conference registration and information can be found at http://som.utdallas.edu/project/project-symp.htm or contact .

Both the PMI Dallas Chapter and the UTD’s executive education program in the school of management are registered education providers with PMI, so up to 5 Professional Development Units (PDUs) will be available for attendees plus another five for presenters.

Founded in 1984, the Dallas Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) is one of the oldest PMI chapters in the world. With nearly 4,000 members, it is also one of the largest. Monthly dinner meetings feature a wide variety of project management experts and topics, and typically attract over 200 attendees. The chapter sponsors workshops, PMP development opportunities, an annual Vendor exhibition, a school outreach program, corporate interaction and other activities. The president of the Dallas Chapter in 2007 is Mr. Dwaraka Iyengar. For additional information, visit .

UTD’s Project Management Program provides application-oriented education for professionals with significant project, program or general management responsibilities. Established in the Executive Education center in UTD’s School of Management, students have the option of earning a Certificate in Project Management, a Master of Science degree with an emphasis in project management, or a Master of Business Administration degree with project management emphasis. The UTD PM program, originally developed in 1997, is accredited by the Project Management Institute (PMI®) and is a PMI Registered Education Provider (PMI R.E.P.). The program is taught by world-class faculty with a blend of industrial project management, consulting and teaching experience. UTD’s PM Program in delivered both on campus and online, and attracts students from across the United States and around the world. For more information, visit http://som.utdallas.edu/project/.

The Kansas City Mid-America Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) has announced the dates, venue and speaker for its 2007 Professional Development Days. Following their successful 2006 PDD, the 2007 event on the general topic of “Project Management: Today & Tomorrow”, will be held during September 10-11, 2007 at the Overland Park Convention Center, Overland Park, Kansas, USA.

The two-day event will include two keynote speakers, 30 workshops, networking opportunities and other activities.

Keynotes speakers will include:

Jill Richards, President of Inovacent Solutions, on the subject of “Politics, Today and Tomorrow - What to expect; What to look for; and most importantly, WHAT TO DO!” Jill Richards has extensive experience as a Project Manager and as a Project Management trainer. Jill was one of the popular presenters at the 2006 KC-PMI Professional Development Days. Now she has agreed to return to offer new insights from her work and new views that we can all use to help us cut through the politics. A speaker directly from the PMI Global Congress and Seminars World, coming to us in Overland Park!

David Maxfield, Director of research for VitalSmarts, on the subject of: "Silence Fails - Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution". David Maxfield has recently completed studies where the acts of omission and ignoring poor performance cause projects to fail. But he offers hope that solutions can be found in breaking the code of silence and achieving better communications. David has delivered his message to industries and government all around the country. His results are even posted on the PMI Global Website. Now he is bringing it to the Project Managers in the Midwest.

For additional information about the Professional Development Days, visit http://www.kcpmichapter.org/pdd07.html or contact Bob Bolinger at .

The Kansas City Mid-America Chapter of PMI was chartered in 1993 and today has more than 1,100 members. Membership in the KC Mid-America Chapter provides the opportunity to network with other project management professionals and practitioners in a diverse range of industries throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area, eastern Kansas and western Missouri, USA. The mission of the KC Mid-America Chapter is to promote project management knowledge, standards and ethical practice for members, the profession and the community. The chapter president for 2007 is Lu Bever. For more information, visit http://www.kcpmichapter.org/index.html.

With more than 200,000 members in over 165 countries, PMI is the world’s largest and best-known project management professional society. PMI is engaged in advocacy for the PM profession, setting standards, conducting research and providing access to a wide variety of information and resources. PMI also promotes career and professional development and offers certification, networking and community involvement opportunities. PMI was founded in the USA in 1969, but is now a global organization with members, chapters and offices worldwide.
For more information, visit www.pmi.org

Moving Mountains in a Flat World! Are you ready for a select conference designed to improve CIO excellence? Join an elite group of 75 chief information officers (CIOs) for roundtable discussions, experience sharing, and networking activities designed to address the emerging concerns of today’s CIO. These are enticements offered by CIO International, which will host an inaugural CIO conference in Breckenridge, Colorado, USA in September.

The conference will focus on the changing global business climate and concepts popularized by journalist Thomas Friedman in his book “The World is Flat”. The three day CIO event will be held September 10 - 12, 2007 in beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado, USA, a mountaintop setting renowned for breathing fresh life into old thinking, an ideal backdrop for discussions about how emerging global trends affect business.

According to CIO International, “we have rewritten the rules on executive conferences -- gone are the days when one spends three ‘out-of-office’ days returning with loose nuggets ofdisconnected information. This conference will be different and will enable CIOs to leverage traditional thinking with that of their peers, and to take back ideas for conquering real business and technical challenges.”

Information Communications and Technology (ICT) experts lined up to present at the CIO International conference include: Dr. Bill Curtis, one of the originators of the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM®); Carol Dekkers, PMP, P.Eng.; Thomas C. Staab, MS; and Dr. Rebecca Staton-Reinstein. To encourage networking and knowledge transfer, all presenters will stay on-site for the duration of the conference. Social events are planned to maximize networking opportunities through a relaxed, environmentally friendly atmosphere against the backdrop of the magnificent Rocky Mountains. According to the conference information, the focus will be on participation, knowledge sharing and creative problem solving. The conference is planned to be a gathering of CIOs for and by CIOs.

Accommodations are available at the conference venue, the beautiful Mountain Thunder Lodge, boasting luxurious and elegant all-condominium-suites nestled in a quiet forest, in the heart of Breckenridge. Additional information can be found at www.ciointernational.com.

Primavera, one of the world's leading project management software and technology companies, has announced that John Cleese will be the keynote speaker at the the 24th Annual Primavera Conference on Monday, October 22nd. John Cleese, one of the world’s most influential comic writers and actors of the past 40 years, will show you how an element of creativity in the business world can reap untold dividends, from recruitment, training and retaining employees, to better and more enjoyable customer service, to helping businesses innovate and accommodate change.

ohn Cleese was born in Weston-super-Mare. He eventually recovered from this and won a place to study science at Cambridge. After sampling the conversation in the Chemistry laboratories, he switched to Law. However, the success of the 1963 Footlights Review saved him from a solicitor’s career.

After appearing in a Broadway musical, in which he was forbidden to sing, he became a writer-performer in The Frost Report, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the Monty Python films, Fawlty Towers and A Fish called Wanda. In 1972 Sir Tony Jay invited him to co-found Video Arts. This company became the largest producer of business training videos outside the U.S. He also helped psychiatrist, Dr Robin Skynner, to write two best sellers, Families and How to Survive Them and Life and how to Survive It. He also started the Secret Policeman’s Ball concerts for Amnesty, and has continued to do a lot of charity work, much of it for the BBC.

In his twilight years he passes his time writing film scripts, making speeches to business audiences, doing seminars on creativity, teaching at Cornell and UCSB, playing “Q” in the Bond movies, constructing a virtual reality on his website, www.thejohncleese.com, podcasting on www.johncleesepodcast.co.uk and, of course, trying to grow a decent tomato.

The organizing committee of NORDNET'2007 has issued an invitation for project management professionals and executives around the world to visit Reykjavík, Iceland on the 26th to 28th of September 2007. The aim of the conference team is “to provide you with interesting presentations and challenging discussions on the issue of managing projects under risk.”

The conference will be split into three streams, State of the Art, Research and Innovation where scholars, experienced project managers and other professionals will discuss the topic from various points of view. A draft of the schedule can be found under the link Programme on the conference website.

Some themes expected to be covered include:

• Geothermal Deep Drill Project
• Icelandic Coast Guard
• High Risk Investment Assessment
• The Icelandic National Concert & Conference Centre
• New Hi-Tech Hospital Project in Iceland
• Massively Multiplayer Online Games

The 2007 APM national Project Management Conference - The Business of Projects - has been announced and will be held at The Brewery conference centre, London, 30-31 October 2007.

The APM Project Management Conference 2007 will be an interactive forum bringing together project management professionals and key decision makers across the public and private sector. The aim is to set out and debate key subjects on the national project management agenda.

The conference will be structured around five topics representing key issues on the current project management agenda. The topics graduate from tactical elements of delivering business benefits through projects, through strategic issues of governance and the project management skills gap, to national issues of mega projects such as the Olympics and the global issue of sustainability.

The APM Project Management Conference panel invites you to take part in developing the national and international project management agenda by attending and participating in this important conference.

An important project management event has been announced by the Valencia, Spain chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI®), to be held during 22 November 2007. The last PMI Valencia Board of Directors meeting, celebrated on March 14th, has meant the first step on the Valencia’ Project Management days preparation. That PMI Valencia Chapter is being run every year very successfully. Information Technology and Communication projects in the Industry Sector will be the foundation from which they will develop these days on November 22nd 2007 in the Spanish city of Valencia.

This year the design, planning, managing and running of this event is announced like a Project Management Case Study. That way, the PMI Valencia Chapter has requested to their Chapter members to present themselves as project manager candidates for those days; leading this challenging project and working on team with the PMI Valencia Chapter Board of Directors. Additional information about this event will become available in the near future.

NASA’s Goddard Space Center in the USA has announced the time and location for the NASA Project Management (PM) Challenge 2008.

WHEN: February 26-27, 2008
WHERE: Hilton Oceanfront Hotel, Daytona Beach, Florida
THEME: Reach Higher
REGISTRATION OPENS: November 1, 2007

PM Challenge is sponsored by the NASA Office of the Chief Engineer, the NASA Academy of Program/Project & Engineering Leadership (APPEL), and the NASA Office of Safety & Mission Assurance. Conference Co-Chairs are Dorothy Tiffany and Walt Majerowicz. WEBSITE: http://pmchallenge.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Created by The National Aeronautics and Space Act in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is America’s focal point for research, development and exploration of outer space. On January 14, 2004, President Bush announced “A Renewed Spirit of Discovery: The President’s Vision for U.S. Space Exploration”, a new directive for the USA’s space exploration program. In accordance with that directive and the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, the US President and Congress committed the United States to exploring the solar system and beyond: completing assembly of the International Space Station, flying the new Crew Exploration Vehicle no later than 2014, returning astronauts to the moon by the end of the next decade, and sending human missions to Mars and beyond. For nearly 50 years, NASA has been leading the world in the development and usage of advanced program and project management. Additional information about NASA can be found at www.nasa.gov

The Happy Projects'08 "PROJECTS & SALES" will follow the 25 year tradition of the former pm days and will take place from the 29th to 30th May 2008 in the attractive Tech Gate Vienna as Austria’s biggest international project management event.

The happy projects’08 conference is expected to attract more than 320 international project and process management researchers and practitioners to Vienna. International top experts will present the main topic of the conference “PROJECTS & SALES” in interactive workshops, presentations, case studies of process- and project-oriented companies, panel discussions and round tables.

International pm researchers and practitioners, young pm professionals and pm students who are interested in advancing the state of project and process management are invited to participate in the happy projects’08. The conference is being organised by the ROLAND GAREIS CONSULTING in cooperation with the PROJEKTMANAGEMENT GROUP.

Academic workshop

In the yearly organised academic workshop on 28th May 2008, international researchers and professors will discuss the most recent trends of project and process management in education and research.

Learn from the Best!

Four expert seminars on 31st May 2008 will offer the excellent possibility to further develop knowledge about programme and project portfolio management, auditing, assessment centers in project-oriented companies, and international project and programme management approaches – in comparison. International top trainers as well as networking in a group of experienced seminar participants are just two reasons for participating in these seminars.

For further information regarding the programme, registration modalities etc. please visit the homepage www.happyprojects.at or contact the project manager Ms. Claudia Fehrerberger ().