Live from Sydney - Night 1

Greetings from Sydney, Australia. For a Wisconsin boy who doesn't get out of the country much, this is really, really cool.

I had the pleasure and good fortune to connect with some great people on my first night in Sydney. First was Tony Munos, who I've known for a few years since his days as director of UW-Platteville's Master's Degree in Project Management program and as a participant in one of my courses, is now an adjunct professor of project management at various universities worldwide including University of New South Wales and Univeristy of Wisconin - Platteville. Tony is dedicated educator who has taught project management worldwide.

We met up with Dr. Derek Walker, professor of project management and director of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's project management doctoral program, and his wife Beverly (lecturer in human resource management at Victoria University of Technology specializing in emotional intelligence). Derek is co-author of an exciting new book called Procurement Systems - A Cross Industry Project Management Perspective and also is Journal Editor of the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.

Derek's walkthrough of Procurement Systems - A Cross Industry Project Management Perspective was very intriguing. As project procurement management is a critical component of successful projects in all verticals, this book offers important insights into building value into project procurement planning and execution. It focuses on the role project managers play in the project procurement process and the importance of influencing and making decisions that deliver value to project stakeholders and the organization.

We were also joined by Derek's friend and colleague Paul Steinfort, PMP. Paul is the founder and Managing Director of PSA Project, a project managment consulting firm, and is the immediate past President and a Fellow of the AIPM (Australian Institute of Project Management)(Victorian Chapter). Paul is speaking at the conference about his recent experiences and observations on practice and application of project management in post-disaster scenarios, most notably post-tsunami Indonesia. Paul's presentation should be interesting, as he delves into the key differences between accepted best practices and actual applications of project management in situations where much of the structure often taken for granted is simply not available.

It was both a great pleasure and humbling experience to talk project management and other topics with this group of people who contribute so much to the project management profession from the practice and academic perspectives. Today (Monday here) is the first full day of the conference. In my next post I'll let you know how it goes.