PMI Palmetto Chapter

2023 Symposium Speakers

Keynote Speakers

Morning Keynote

Kim Essendrup and Kate Anderson
Kim Essendrup and Kate AndersonFeeling Disconnected in an Overly Connected World
As PMs we have collaboration coming out of our ears, yet we often feel disconnected from our work, from our teams and even from our personal lives. And that’s our own dang fault! But that’s OK, because the very freedom that lets us make our own lives harder also gives us the power to turn that around and feel meaning and connectedness at work and at home – hybrid, remote or otherwise.

 

 

 

 

Kate Anderson is an Information Security professional who is a recovering Project Manager. Having spent 10 years in Tech driving difficult projects to closure, her current focus is in the M&A space. She lives in Chicago with her wife, dog, snake and yes, she loves the weather, even the winters.

Kim is a PMP certified project manager and PMI Registered Education Provider with over 20 years of experience managing projects, programs, and PMO’s, and the resulting emotional trauma. Partner at the PPM consulting firm Kolme Group, LLC, he also has an unnatural fascination with PPM tool deployment and optimization. You can email Kim, or find him on LinkedIn.

Afternoon Keynote

Scott Welle
Scott WellePeak Performance for Project Managers
Our worlds changed forever in 2020. Homes converted to our home-offices and Zoom became a substitute, not a supplement, for human contact. One thing the pandemic didn’t change? The principles of peak performance. Join Scott Welle, #1 Best Selling Author and Founder of Outperform The Norm, as he shares the strategies used by high achievers and top project managers to be your best: - Challenge limiting beliefs about your performance standards that may be holding you back. - Establish a peak performance routine by utilizing the “Vital 4%” - Recognize the crucial components shared by ALL Outperforming teams - Boost positivity and happiness by up to 30% - Enhance communication style and feedback to inspire and motivate your team members This dynamic, high-energy presentation will help you raise your personal standard of excellence and give you an effortless action plan to put into place immediately.

 

 

 

 

Outperformers are not born; they’re made. We ALL have the capacity to “raise our game,” and Scott Welle has spent more than 15 years helping people do this, personally and professionally. Scott’s 9 bestselling books, articles, videos, podcasts and online programs inspire hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. He has a master’s degree in Sport Psychology, is an adjunct professor at St. Olaf University and was recently named the 2021 Midwest Motivational Speaker of the Year. For “fun” (and because he’s a little crazy!), he’s completed 31 marathons, 5 Ironman triathlons, a 100-mile ultra-marathon, and serves others by showing them how to tap into the mindset of challenging their self-limiting beliefs and aspiring to Outperform every day.

Morning Technical Session

Dr. Detra German
Dr. Detra GermanBest Practices of Effective Virtual Communication with Remote Teams
Out of every $1 billion an organization spends to fund a project, nearly $75 million is at risk due to ineffective communication. Virtual organizations often fail to achieve objectives due to ineffective communication in a virtual workplace. Although the virtual workforce grew amidst the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the failure rate continues to increase for reasons including poor management and communication breakdowns. This session will reveal best practices project managers may use to foster effective communication among virtual teams via the use of emotional intelligence, self-confidence, and trustworthiness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Detra German has been an active member of the Palmetto Chapter since 2020 and currently serves as the VP of Membership.  She has worked in the Information Technology field over a decade as an IT Project Manager, Certified Scrum Master, and Lead Quality Assurance Engineer in both Waterfall and Agile environments.  Her experience spans across diverse industry sectors including Aerospace/Defense/Security, Education Technologies, Mortgage Servicing, Benefits Management and Business Transformation Solutions.

Dr. German has earned her PMP (Project Management Professional), CSM (Certified Scrum Master) and CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) certifications.  She also has a B.S. Computer Science, MBA, and Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) degree.  Her area of expertise is improving virtual communication through the development of emotional intelligence, self-confidence and trustworthiness, which she’s presented at several conferences over the years.  Dr. German is also a certified life coach helping others to maximize their potential.

NK Shrivastava
NK ShrivastavaNew Ways of Working (WOWs) for Remote Project Teams
Do you know that more that 70% communication is non-verbal, which includes body language and gestures? There is no doubt that almost all teams are highly productive and function best when able to meet and work together face-to-face every day. They have been made increasingly remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic and business environment changes. When teams go remote, many opportunities for informal conversations, water cooler talks, and quick decision-making are lost. That doesn’t mean that remote teams must be less effective, though. How can remote teams adjust their WOWs, or Ways of Working, to adapt to changes in the business environment? How they can overcome the challenge, including changes to their WOWs and tools that they can use, will be covered in this webinar. Attendees will leave with new ideas about how to improve their WOWs for remote project teams.

 

 

 

 

 

CEO of RefineM and Enterprise Agile Coach, NK is a pioneer in Project Management & Agile transformations. In last 30 years of his career, he has helped thousands of professionals, in companies large and small, learn and implement best project management and Agile practices.

 

NK is a seasoned and engaging speaker. He enjoys sharing his learnings at international, national, and regional conferences and training engagements. His speaking engagements include PMI Global Conference, PMI Seminar World, PMI chapter professional development events including a keynote presentation, and numerous RefineM public courses and corporate engagements. A natural storyteller, he draws from his decades of experiences to help audiences absorb and retain concepts and leave feeling inspired with specific action items to lead change in their organizations.

 

Afternoon Technical Session

Michael Roberts
Michael RobertsBest Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid for Migrating to New PM Tools
As someone that has worked on projects and technology for over 20 years, I’ve seen a lot of different migration needs, use cases, merges, and moves of data that is used to organize teams and larger groups of people. Sometimes the effort of moving data from one system to another is small, like moving a project of 50 tasks from one application to another. “Hey, worst case scenario, you can re-type those 50 tasks, right?” Other times it’s porting an entire application to a different hosting environment or combining multiple large instances together. Regardless of the scope or effort, organizations I’ve been in or worked with often make some major mistakes. These mistakes cause lack of efficiency or even worse, a stoppage in work!

 

 

 

 

Michael Roberts is an IT industry professional with more than 25 years of experience in bringing software to market. His industry certifications include those from ICAgile, Cisco, CompTIA, Microsoft, and the Scaled Agile Framework. With his experience as a technology executive, he’s guided many companies to successful IT and software projects.

Rachel Rai Henry
Rachel Rai HenryCultivating Creativity in the Evolving Hybrid Workspace
Recent studies show that nearly 45% of U.S. companies expect to implement a hybrid model in the next year. It’s safe to say that remote work is here to stay. As project leaders adapt to meet the demands of inevitable change, the future of hybrid work shows promising possibilities for organizations of every size. Creativity is the most desired soft skill in today's workforce. But what is its role in Project Management? As the workforce environment shifts, PMs will be asked to re-imagine the ways in which people, processes, platforms, and policy interact. Therein lies an opportunity for established and emerging PMs to shift from the traditional approaches to a more inclusive, forward-thinking culture.

 

 

 

 

Rachel Rai Henry is a dynamic speaker and creativity expert. Born and raised in Detroit, her vibrant spirit, both on and off stage, embodies the glory, grind, and grit of her hometown.

She helps agencies, businesses, and communities use creative thinking to foster leadership, promote innovation and create a more equitable future for all. A seasoned creative thinking and innovation facilitator with over a decade of project management experience, Rachel has dedicated her career to creating frameworks that help heart-centered people & organizations connect the dots and solve meaningful problems we face today. Throughout her career, Rachel has worked with renowned organizations such as Columbia College, Alpha Kappa Alpha, National Black MBA Association, and Women of Project Management, reaching thousands of people through keynotes and interactive workshops.

She is also the founder and CEO of the Creative Flow School, the premier peer-to-peer skills exchange platform designed to help future leaders foster creative genius to create the life they envision. When she’s not working - Rachel is passionate about hosting soulful events for family and friends, practicing yoga, wandering across the world with her passport in hand, and whipping up magic in the kitchen every chance she gets!