Today was the PMXPO2020. For those that are not aware, it’s a virtual conference held by the Project Management Institute and offers a series of online sessions, networking and an online exhibit hall which has a lot of vendors and opportunities to learn more outside of the sessions.

I was approached by the PMI to do a “Twitter Takeover” of one of their accounts and I was thrilled to be able to do this and share my day with all of their followers and share my thoughts of the event as it unfolded.

Today’s conference was especially interesting because there was a lot of discussion over the virtual aspect and connectivity as a result of the #COVID19 pandemic. In the lounge, there was a lot of support for the Spanish, French and Italian Project Managers who were in lockdown as well as sharing stories and ideas for working virtually at this time.

Here’s a summary of my key takeaways from this conference:

• Are we doing technical disruption right? Are we focusing our efforts on the right areas?
• Am I asking the right questions in my projects to deliver success?
• What is the dialogue that I want to communicate with my stakeholders?
• Are you mind-full or mindful?

The opening keynote was: Cara Brookins. She was not only inspiring in her ability to build a house after watching YouTube videos with her children but for her constant enthusiasm, determination and grit in the face of aversity.

The next session was Digital Transformation with Priya Patra. I’ve heard Priya talk previously and she’s always such a fantastic storyteller and during this session we learnt more about it and why it’s so important during Projects.

The next session was a quick 15minute blitz session was all around: Disciplined Agile. I will be honest that this is an area that I do not know a lot about so I really enjoyed this session and being able to learn more. I would love to have had more time to learn more.

The second session of the day was: Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez and his topic around the Project Economy and Why Projects are the Future. This session was useful at learning more around what is coming in the next year(s) and why we need to be ready to learn and adjust what we’re currently doing for the future of projects and Project Management. According to his presentation, 80% of the activities that we are performing today will be done by AI by 2030. That’s an astounding figure!

The third session was perhaps one of my favourite of the day! It was the lessons of the most influential projects. I think this was one of the ‘fun’ ways to learn from other projects.

One of the most energetic and lively speakers of the day was Dana Bernstein and her topic of: Mastering the Art of Human-ness in Project Management: Serving others through powerful communications. Her insight into Leadership and Personal Development really had a lot of feedback on Twitter and a lot of people could relate to her topic and story.

There was a theme running through this conference and it was: the effective nature of Storytelling in your projects and it has definitely made me think about how I tell stories in my projects and how I can effectively communicate the dialogue of my project with my teams and stakeholders.

The final session was very much “Future Focused” and was really interesting to see how the facts from various PMI surveys back up a lot of research around Talent Development, ROI, Project Investment and the importance of certifications in the coming years.

Dogs or Cats? Who’s your coworker?

Thanks to the remote nature of the conference, we were lucky to see some of the pets of our conference attendees! It started out with @MalikaHopeThePM sharing a picture of her lovely dog Kaiser. I shared a picture of my dog Boyska, @SWMaye shared a picture of his labrador, @JenniferLSimon shared a picture of her beautiful Rottweiler. The cats came in a little later than planned (and of course, being a typical cat, came in on their own schedule!).

Did you attend #PMXPO2020? What was your favourite session?