Past Breakout Session Speakers
Previous Breakout Sessions Speakers from 2018 PD Days in Moncton, NB
Greg Doucette
Successfully Managing Highly Charged and Political Projects
On occasion Project Managers are required to manage highly charged and political projects. Whether we are dealing with the integration of multiple vendor workstreams for delivery, intellectual property concerns, NDAs or contracts, quite often a Project Manager will be required to play mediator role in order to deliver a project on-time and on-budget. This session will discuss strategies to alleviate these issues with concrete examples of project issues and how they have been managed.
Bio: Greg Doucette is the VP of Solutions Delivery & GRC for Bulletproof. Over the past 25 years, Mr. Doucette has developed a broad range of experience in public and private industry. He leads a dedicated professional services business servicing the Gaming and Lottery industries. Over the past seven years he has specialized in the end to end delivery of highly complex and costly Lottery system modernization projects. Developing program and project management governance structures with strict project control and monitoring has allowed projects to be delivered on-time and on-budget. Mr. Doucette is a Project Management Professional (PMP).
David Barrett
So, What’s The Plan? – The 3 Pillars of Strategic Planning: Your Work, Your Career, Your Life
Strategic planning is now a part of the PMI’s Talent Triangle – now identified as a critical component to our current and future roles. However, reading and hearing is one thing but how many of us are in a position to practice strategic planning and execution? All of us. This session will show us how strategic planning is a key to our success at work but, as well, to our careers and our lives. We will learn how to create a solid plan for any of the three legs and we will leave with the start to our own Professional Strategic Plans.
Bio: David Barrett is a National Program Director at the Schulich Executive Education Centre for the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto. He has authored five books relating to strategy execution, project success, project planning, business analysis, and leadership. He is also a weekly blogger and the author of ‘The Weekly One Minute Video Series”.
Don Dickson
Taking your PMO from Good to Great
Projects operate in complex business environments. The successful delivery of projects is no longer dependent on good project management alone. To continue to improve project performance and overall organizational effectiveness, PMOs must look beyond the bounds of traditional project management. Taking on additional responsibilities into the PMO and managing process integration points is key. Learn how to take your PMO from merely being good to being great.
Bio: Don is a project and portfolio management consultant with 25 years of project management experience ranging from team member to managing programs and the project management office. This experience spans various industries from government, heavy construction, nuclear and information technology. Helping companies implement and optimize their PMO governance processes, Don specializes in Demand Management, Capacity Management, Resource Management, Portfolio Management, and Project Management as supported CA Technologies' Clarity PPM Software.
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Jeff Fearn
Our Transition from Waterfall to Agile
Over the years, many of us have successfully developed our Project Management careers, launching new products, services and infrastructure, using the traditional Waterfall methods. While we are proud of our past successes, today’s customers, competitors, regulatory agencies and other market influencers are demanding change, at an ever increasing accelerated, adaptable and iterative pace that requires a more agile approach to delivery. Drawing on his experience gained from leading waterfall and agile projects, session participants will be engaged in an exploration of the Agile values, methodologies, tools and leadership models needed to enrich our career growth.
Bio: Jeff Fearn, Bell Aliant, has an extensive Project and Program Management background, spanning Senior Telecommunications, Business and Startup leadership roles, in Canada and US. With over 20-years in managing service creation, technology integration and professional services programs, Jeff is currently responsible to deliver the next generation technology and service platforms for national video services offered to Bell Canada, Bell Aliant and Bell MTS customers.
Daniel Allain
Opportunities NB - Find Ways to Support Growth
ONB will present ways project managers and their organization can support business growth in New Brunswick. Daniel will review support services available to help New Brunswick businesses of all sizes grow and succeed; how organizations can proactively pursue high growth opportunities through exports and foreign investment; and how to work with industry partners, economic development stakeholders and public sector partners to identify, build and support a portfolio of significant high growth opportunities both within and outside the province.
Carolyn Kervin
Self-Directed learning to strengthen your PM skills and enhance your overall knowledge
As Project Managers, we find ourselves looking to expand our skills and increase our general knowledge and business acumen for a variety of reasons; to stay marketable, to perform our jobs well, to satisfy our own personal life-time learning goals, etc. But there are can be challenges to meeting our development objectives, such as the amount of time and financial resources at our disposal. In today’s economy, education budgets within many organizations are limited, and personal budgets must stretch to meet family demands. This break out session will explore self-directed low and no-cost educational and developmental options that can work in our professional and personal schedules. Expect this session to be interactive with lots of group discussion
Cheryl Logan
Flipping the Script: Turning difficult/challenging conversations into productive ones
We’ve all been there. The conversation has gone horribly wrong, the sponsor is angry, blaming the team who are panicking and trying desperately to “fix” things. You as the Project Manager want to step in and “save” your team – but it’s hard to do. Flipping the Script will help Project Managers understand how to recognize situations that can lead to difficult conversations and provide some practical tips and tools to help “flip the script” and bring the discussion back to a productive place. In this interactive workshop, we will explore frameworks and tools to help you frame conversations, and develop messages that minimize the potential for confrontation. The concepts covered in this session are applicable to managing teams, dealing with executives, and communicating effectively with peers/stakeholders. PMs are often in the position of mediator in difficult situations or when resolving conflict. Understanding and applying these frameworks for active listening and productive conversations will help PMs build skills that are critical at leadership levels and thus provides one piece of the platform for advancement. As someone who can capably move a conversation from toxic to productive you will be in high demand in leadership roles.
Jack MacDonald, Anthony Boland, & Kevin Silliker
City of Moncton: Downtown Event Centre Project
Jack MacDonald, Anthony Boland, and Kevin Silliker will present on the Downtown Event Centre Project. They will provide background information and an update on the development and status of the project. This session supports the leadership component of the Talent Triangle and is eligible for 1 Professional Development Unit.
Bios: Jack MacDonald - is a Professional Engineer residing in Moncton New Brunswick. In 1995, Jack joined the City of Moncton as Director Public Works and Utilities. Jack was appointed Director of Design and Construction. In 2005, Jack was appointed to the position of General Manager, Engineering and Environmental Services. In addition to his regular duties, in 2016, Jack was assigned project lead for the construction of the Downtown Event Centre. Jack serves on various committees and is Past Chair of the Transportation Association of Canada's - Chief Engineers Council and is an active member of several associations.
Anthony Boland - is a respected project leader with over 25 years of experience managing large, complex municipal, commercial and industrial projects. He excels at bringing order to projects with multiple end users, and ensures that each stakeholder is given a voice at the table that results in the full support by all parties involved. Having provided project management oversight of all phases of project life cycles, including initiating, design, monitoring and controlling, execution and close, as well as staffing and budget management, he has an excellent knowledge and understanding of the pros and cons of different contracting methodologies, and construction best practices.
Kevin Silliker - is the Director of Economic Development with the City of Moncton where he has worked since 2007. Kevin has been involved in many City files including the development of the $100 million downtown multi-use events centre and the implementation of the City’s new downtown and heritage financial incentive grant program. Kevin also oversees the immigration portfolio for the City of Moncton and led the development of the Greater Moncton Immigration Strategy in 2014 and the establishment of the Greater Moncton Local Immigration Partnership.
Miriam McLaughlin
Atlantic Immigration Pilot: Public Policy, Immigration and Project Management
Have you ever been a Project Management Professional (PMP) that’s parachuted in on a team? Ever experienced needing to debunk myths and misunderstandings of what project management is? This presentation will provide a brief overview of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot (AIP). It will further share highlights of best practices and learning opportunities from a PMP perspective. The AIP is an example of a complex project that was underway prior to having a PMP. Experiences with identifying sub-projects, metrics and the linkages to process improvement activities will be shared as part of the presentation.
Don Moore
Using Project Management to Support Strategic Management
Knowing the basics of Project Management can help us understand how to enhance and support your Strategic Management goals and objectives. This session outlines the strategic management process and how knowing project management principles can help an organization grow and reach its vision.
Stephane Parent
Learning to Listen
This interactive workshop is about learning about your listening and identifying the three listening modes we use. The workshop will have participants experience and understand the weaknesses and strengths of each listening mode. Participants will learn techniques and exercises to get you on the road to better listening. Who will benefit? Any project management practitioner serious about improving their communication skills. What are the benefits? With better listening, communications with various stakeholders will become more effective and efficient.
Bio: Stéphane Parent is a semi-retired project manager with over thirty years in information technology. He holds Project Management Professional, Scheduling Professional and Risk Management Professional certifications from PMI, along with an ITIL Foundation certification from Axelos. Stéphane has been part of Toastmasters International for 11 years, earning its highest achievement, Distinguished Toastmaster, in the fall of 2017. Toastmasters is an organization set up to help individuals grow their communication and leadership skills. Stéphane always seeks to become a better listener. The question always is: how do you do that? Today Stéphane will lead you through a workshop to help you "learn to listen".
Larry Schriver
Selecting the best project management approach to software development for my organization. Is it Waterfall? PRINCE2? Agile Scrum? Perhaps the answer is all three.
We’ll walk through the primary processes used within the Waterfall, PRINCE2 and Agile Scrum approaches, and discuss how each can be effective – and not effective – in a variety of organizational situations. As project managers we strive to make our initiatives predictable and repeatable, and we’ll discuss criteria we can evaluate when determining the right approach.
Bio: Larry Schriver, PMP, Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner. During Larry's 29-year career he has worked in several organizations in various roles including application developer, analyst and project manager. Many years of gathering requirements from business experts and managing development teams in several IT shops have given him the opportunity to use several approaches during software development. He is looking forward to sharing observations about three project management approaches and discussing ways to increase the likelihood of success.
Kristin Root
The Importance of Your Personal Brand
Kristin Root will discuss how your personal brand impacts your career. This session falls under the Leadership category of the Talent Triangle.
Ron Smith
Rockstar Estimating skills
Is your organization struggling with estimates? You are not alone. Ron will clarify why there is a GAP between IT development estimates and give you tools to unlock the process. You will leave with a better understanding of how to discuss thorough estimates with your IT.
Bio: Ron Smith is Author, Speaker, Podcast Host, Consultant, and Founder of Chalder Consulting Inc (chalder.ca). Chalder is a company specializing in IT and Business Project Management as well as Trouble Project Recovery. Ron is also the host of the Managing Projects Podcast (managingprojects.ca) and the cohost of the Ardent Development Podcast (ardentdev.com).