Taiwan and NYC

You should have seen the size of the frog's legs I had in Taiwan... my hosts didn't think I knew what they were, but I did. They really do taste like chicken - bad, dark meat, like Copps-broasted fried chicken. I mostly fulfilled my self-promise not to eat anything western while in Taipei, although at the height of Typhoon Megi's torrential rains, so help me I did get Haagen-Daz and Pringles from the 7-11 across the street from my hotel.

Anyway - my students in Taipei all needed this course to graduate with their master's degree in project management from International University of Monaco, and were well-prepared and attentive. It was interesting to see the similarities in project management whether practiced in Taiwan, China or the United States. Seems we all have problems with unreasonable sponsors and stakeholders, challenging team members and how to best balance theory and practical application of the PMBOK process areas.

It was an amazing trip, and a tremendous learning experience. Aside from teaching, my hosts took me to the National Palace Museum. Look this up - the history of this museum is almost too stunning to comprehend. On another scale, the same applies to the 2nd tallest building in the world, Taipei 101. The shopping mall there was identical to any you'd find in, say downtown Chicago, but Taipei 101 is taller than the Sears Tower and truly awe-inspiring, even when the views are diminished by typhoon rains.

Just last week I presented my final SeminarsWorld of the year in New York City. PMI outdid themselves by selecting the Mariott Marquis right on Times Square for the location. Had a full load of 30 people for Tools and Tactics for Recovering Troubled Projects. I hadn't been to NYC since before 9/11, and it was fantastic to be there again, and to get more feedback from a diverse group of students from Colombia, the Netherlands, Norway as well as across the United States.

Closer to home I spoke at Milwaukee PMI's Professional Development Day on November 8. This chapter always draws good attendance for their events, and so we had a large room for my talk on "When Agendas Override Objectives" case study. Time to retire that one, except for when it appears in my book. Yes, I've been working on a book for about two years now. It's a collection of essays detailing my career in project management and providing case studies and lessons learned for many of the more interesting projects I managed along the way. And I've had more than my share of interesting projects.