About speaker:
Gene Gendel is an organizational design specialist, agile/lean coach and trainer, consultant and adviser to senior leadership. Almost 15 of 20+ years of his professional experience – Gene dedicated to working with companies of various sizes and lines of business, trying to help them improve internal dynamics, organizational structure and becoming a better place to work. Gene engages at all organizational levels: senior- and mid-level management, teams and individuals. In his work, Gene uses various methods, tools and techniques to amplify learning by others and to ensure that people gain autonomy after Gene “coaches himself out of the job”.

Gene is Certified Agile Coach (CAC), by Scrum Alliance – small elite community of Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coaches (CEC). Today, he is the only CEC who resides in NY State. Gene is also one of the co-creators of Team Level Coaching Certifications (CTC) program for Scrum Alliance.

Gene is also one of very few (22) Certified LeSS Trainers (CLT) globally and one of very few that are based in the United States.

The biggest, most active and fastest rowing LeSS NYC community (pushing 4000 people) has been built by Gene.

He is also well-recognized blogger and publisher:
Adaptive Ecosystems: Collection of Essays About Agility
Agile Coaching: Wisdom from Practitioners (free pdf).
Best Agile Articles of 2017 and 2018 and 2019.

Gene significantly contributes to global and local agile communities, where he influences people by running workshops, webinars, seminars, panel discussions, lunch & learn, coaching retreats, professional gatherings and other events. Recordings of some of Gene’s past past public appearance can be found here. His upcoming events are listed here.

While teaching and coaching Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) to organizations, Gene has built the biggest in world (today) LeSS meetup community that is used as a free educational hub about LeSS available to many people.

Gene’s industry recognized elevated credentials are:
Certified Team Coach (CTC)
Certified in Agile Leadership (CAL),
Certified in Large Scale Scrum (CLP)
LeSS-friendly Scrum Trainer(LFST)
Certified in Scrum @ Scale (S@S)
CSM, CSPO, CSP, PMP

Here is the list of areas of Gene’s professional focus:
Organizational/System design
Enterprise-wide, scaling agile solutions and frameworks
Promoting System over Local Optimization
Moving companies away from Skinnerian Behaviorism
Converting Taylorian Corporate Culture to Kaizen
Educating about Motivation/Rewards/Incentives
Adaptive (Agile) Product Ownership and Management
Adaptive (Agile)/Flexible Budgeting and Rolling Forecasts
Coaching Sr.Leadership, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Teams
Implementing Agile frameworks: Scrum, Kanban
Mentor to Coaches

Presentation Topic:

Exposing Uncomfortable Topics: Errors and Omissions with Scaling

Abstract:
"Bad scaling is one of the biggest 'agile problems' of modern days for companies.
Bad scaling is one of the three (the other two are : "agile tools" mania and falling a victim to big consultancies' industrial model [see/play Dave Snowen's view here: http://www.keystepstosuccess.com/2020/05/05-05-less-talks-dave-snowden-answering-tough-questions-qa/ ) most expensive mistakes companies make, when they set themselves on a wrong 'agile course'.

Bad scaling is one of the three corners of "Trippe Taxation" triangle:

Bad scaling comes in the form of trivializing agility at is core, weakening agile roles, plagiarizing and relabeling someone else's experiments and calling them 'operating models', copy-pasting Scrum and Scrum roles into Fractal Geometry that look great on paper.

Are there better ways to work? Probably not, if the ultimate goal is to relabel existing enterprise complexity with fancy agile terminology and then call it "enterprise scaling". But there could be better ways to work if an ultimate goal is to simplify existing complexity (de-scale), and by doing so, improve your chances to scale agile ways of working (e.g. do Scrum, by more than one team, working for the same Product Owner, on the same product, out of the same backlog).

About speaker:
Keynote Speaker, Executive Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Trainer. Call me "Mr. Do What Matters".

My day job: I teach people how to do Scrum. What I really do: I inspire people to change their situation for the better. I help companies transform into more effective, more successful and happier organizations.

I am the creator of The Personal Agility System (tm), the simple framework for doing more that matters.

Presentation Topic:
Getting Beyond Fixed-Price, Fixed-Scope: The Ten Risks That Can Kill Your Proeject and 10 Agile Contracts to Master Them

Audience:
Executives, Stakeholders and Managers in Product Development, Sourcing, Service Providers (In-house, On-shore, Near-Shore or Off-Shore).

Abstract:
Murphy was an optimist. Everything that can happen will happen, including the risks that can bring your project to a standstill - unless you take action to ensure that they don’t occur. A digitization project is ultimately a software project. How do the risks of a software project differ from those of, say, a construction project? Scrum and other agile frameworks have been developed to reduce risks and increase the likelihood of success for software development projects. How should Scrum work? What are the most common risks that should be avoided in a digitization project? We'll examine delivery risk, time and budget risk, scope risk, and seven other risks, and how Scrum and other agile frameworks are designed to prevent and mitigate those risks.

About speaker:
Angel is a very energetic, proficient and forward-thinking Coach who specialises on coaching organisations throughout their Agile journeys. His pragmatism and experience in Organisational Coaching and Business Agility are the driving forces behind his perceptive methods of action. As a coach, trainer, and mentor, he’s helped to nurture Agility in a diverse set of companies, from small startups to fortune 500 multinational organisations.


Throughout his 12+ years of hands-on experience in Agile coaching, Angel has provided expert guiding to achieve remarkable growth for organisations and agile professionals from more than 30 countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

He holds the three highest level certifications in the field from the Scrum Alliance: CST (Certified Scrum Trainer), CEC (Certified Enterprise Coach) and CAL Educator (Certified Agile Leadership Educator). Additionally, Angel is a certified professional coach by the International Coaching Federation (PCC) a certified co-active coach, specialist in team coaching and systemic leadership.

Angel has participated as a speaker in more than 50 international conferences and Agile events in Europe, Asia and the Americas, being a significant contributor to the international Agile community since 2009.

Presentation Topic:
Developing business resilience in practice

About speaker:
In Software development since 2007 acting as a QA and ScrumMaster. 8 years of teaching his own program at courses & providing workshops. Winner of IT Awards Ukraine 2015 (Best QA of Ukraine). 

Artem helps many companies as an Organizational Coach on Agile frameworks / approaches, actively shares experience speaking at conferences and by providing workshops. Founder and producer of Simplicity Day conferences (One of the biggest in Ukraine, focused on hot topics from QA and Agile world presented by top practitioners in a simple way). 

He is CSM, CSPO, CSP, CAL-I certified by ScrumAlliance, Certified LeSS Practitioner by LeSS (learned from Craig Larman), PSM I by Scrum.org & certified KMP-I by LKU.

Artem is a guest lecturer at MBA by Kyiv Mohyla Business School and also has a video channel on youtube. He is just a person who really likes to share experience, and continues to learn personally.

Presentation Topic:

Agile Leader is coming to the pub Team, what to start from?

Abstract:

It happens that the Leader comes to the existing team and with good intentions begins to build relationships with people around but do it not in the best way. We will discuss a few examples, and Artem will share ideas and some tools of change leader (Scrum Master / Agile Coach / Consultant) aimed at not harming and to build a good relationship and trust, which will be the foundation for further change in processes and results.

Presentation Topic:

Systems of Professional Collaboration: Life in a Post-Lean, Post-Agile World.

Abstract:

Individuals work in teams to provide value.

In agile we have practices to help teams, in Lean we have practices to increase value. Both Agile and Lean talk about individuals, but can't really figure out what to do with them.

Individual professionals on our teams must have the right environment in which they can form a healthy team and really dedicate time to providing customer value.

Jim Benson has worked around the world in software development, international governance, engineering, architecture, construction, health care, law enforcement, and a host of other verticles. His software company started Agile with a pre-press copy of Kent Beck's XP Explained, in 1997. He is an inventor of Kanban, Personal Kanban, and Lean Coffee. He's used Agile and Lean practices in many verticals and situations.

He's seen the promise of them and the failings.

In this keynote, Jim Benson will talk about that journey and provide real, tangible ways to create a real, professional environment for your team...one that thinks about the individuals, the teams, and the value. One that thinks about management, leadership, customers, and all other partners, as collaborators and not interruptions. One that respects everyone involved.

Presentation Topic:

Post-Covid Office Environments & Team Structures

Abstract:

Work-from-home and work-from-office are part of our future. With rare exceptions, companies will blend the two concepts to create work environments that enable remote-working and in-person interaction as well. Let's explore recent signals in the market that indicate the most likely scenarios as companies re-engage a post-Covid world of work.

Presentation Topic:

How to innovate smarter and build world-changing products

Abstract:

Methodologies such as Lean and Agile have taught us to harness the power of iteration to innovate faster -- we've learned how to drive faster, but our ability to set the destination hasn't kept pace. When we iterate in the absence of a vision and strategy, our products and companies become bloated, fragmented, and driven by irrelevant metrics. They catch “product diseases” which are often fatal to innovation.

This talk introduces you to a radical new approach to build successful companies and deliver world-changing innovation repeatably. We’ll challenge conventional wisdom about what makes a good vision and talk about where the current mantras for product development fall short. You’ll walk away with practical tools to develop a vision for the change you want to bring about in the world and translate that systematically into reality.

About speaker:
Dave West is the CEO at Scrum.org. He is a frequent keynote at major industry conferences and is a widely published author of articles and research reports, along with his acclaimed book: Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design, that helped define new software modeling and application development processes. He led the development of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) for IBM/Rational. After IBM/Rational, West returned to consulting and managed Ivar Jacobson Consulting for North America. Then as VP, research director Forrester research where he ran the software development and delivery practice. Prior to joining Scrum.org he was Chief Product Officer at Tasktop where he was responsible for product management, engineering and architecture.

Presentation Topic:

How to Navigate the Messy Connection between Work and Value in your Team

Abstract:

Everyone knows that agile approaches are designed to deliver value. The idea of incremental delivery in pursuit of a mission for customers is fundamental to Scrum and the Agile Manifesto. So why is it so hard to decide on a Sprint Goal? And why, when asked about progress, do people talk about velocity and Story Points? Many Scrum Teams’ reality is that their very reason for being is defined not by value but by work. But what changes when teams and organizations look to value instead of work?

In this talk, Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org, discusses the interesting, messy connection between work and value. He outlines how changes to the Scrum Guide have shone a spotlight on the challenge that many teams face when delivering more value.

In this talk we will cover:
- Why value is important and what happens when you are missing it.
- How to measure value inside and outside the team.
- What teams and leaders can do to better orient towards value.

About speaker:
Cassidy is currently the Director of Product for Organizations at Vimeo, as well as an instructor for Mind the Product. She has over a decade of experience in B2B SaaS, and loves solving hard problems for real human beings. She's currently based in NYC.
https://www.cassidyfein.com

Presentation Topic:

How to Get to No: Ruthless Prioritization for Product Managers

Abstract:

This talk is for you if:

• You’re a product manager at any level of experience, or
• You work with product managers and want to better understand their perspective

In the face of a crowded market and limited resources, it is a product manager’s job to prioritize what gets built. But it’s hard to get a feature to the finish line when everyone seems to want shiny new features built.

In this talk you’ll learn:

• How to determine what’s most important and keep your team focused on it
• How to avoid the dreaded "Swoop and Poop" from exec or your board
• How to keep sales focused on selling when all they want is more features

Cassidy will discuss how to ruthlessly prioritize, get your team on board while defending them from requests and insertions, and to lose any fear of saying "No"

About speaker:
Richard Knaster is the Vice President and Chief Scientist for Value Stream Management at Digital.ai. He has more than 30 years’ experience in software and systems development and IT. Before joining Digital.ai, Richard was a SAFe methodologist, and principal consultant at Scaled Agile, Inc. Prior to that Richard was Chief Agile Methodologist at IBM and has held several executive roles in IT and software development (CIO, CTO, VP Development). He has been leading large-scale Agile transformations for well over 15 years and is passionate about helping organizations create a better work environment to deliver value, improve quality and flow, and be more engaging and fun. Richard has written 5 books on SAFe and recently published an eBook on Value Stream Management.

Presentation Topic:

Accelerating Value Delivery with Value Stream Management.

Abstract:

In today's fast-paced digital economy, Agile and DevOps are not enough to get the full benefits from a digital transformation. Enterprises must adopt value stream management (VSM) to deliver innovation better and faster than their competitors.

According to Gartner, by 2023, 70% of organizations will use value stream management to improve delivery flow. In this talk, Richard Knaster, Chief Scientist will explain core VSM concepts and how they can accelerate value delivery. Learning objectives include:

• How to define value and what is a value stream
• The difference between value stream mapping and management
• How to organize teams to deliver value faster
• Key metrics for measuring progress
• How to get started with value stream management

About speaker:
I've been working in projects for 22 years. I started as a project planner in construction projects, and then moved to large process-plant projects. In parallel, I was also involved in IT projects and startups.

I gradually moved from project planning into the wider project management domain by helping project managers and companies to improve their project, program, and portfolio management systems.

Nowadays, I'm spending most of my time contributing to standards (P3.express, NUPP, PRINCE2®, PRINCE2 Agile®, and PMBOK® Guide), and developing eLearning courses in our company, Management Plaza.

Presentation Topic:

P3.express: Minimalism in Project Management

Abstract:

We keep making our project management systems so complicated that they are not usable anymore. Then, we can't use those structured approaches for managing our projects and instead do it intuitively, which is difficult, expensive, and risky.

There's a solution: We need to have a simple, straightforward project management system. It doesn't have to be perfect, and it doesn't have to provide all the possible benefits of a structured approach. Instead, we have to focus on the essentials and keep the system practical.

P3.express is such a solution: a minimalist project management system designed for those who don't have magical powers! People like you and me. In this presentation, I'll give you a quick tour of this non-proprietary system and introduce resources for learning more about it.

About speaker:

• Program & Project Leader 
• Align Strategy & Execution 
• Leading Change & Transformations
• Enabling & Empowering Teams & Future Leaders

Annmarie Curley has over 20 years’ experience managing global teams and complex projects across financial, healthcare, Higher Education, and IT consulting services sectors. She has a track record of focusing on high-risk areas of a project or program, realigning projects that need rescuing, and delivering improved processes and technical solutions that result in tangible business value.

Annmarie launched Newgrange IT Consulting in 2010 to help clients transform their organizations by delivering their most important initiatives.

She is passionate about helping clients develop a culture of delivering the right results for their organization by aligning their strategy with execution and building strong collaborative teams to ensure that the initiative will succeed. She empowers leaders to step into their own leadership potential and establish environments where their teams can be successful through her project leadership and coaching programs.

Originally from Ireland, Annmarie moved to Vermont in 2006 after spending 10 years in New York City. She enjoys all the outdoors activities that Vermont has to offer and can be found on the ski slopes with her family in the winter and hiking and boating on the lake in the summer!

Annmarie has a BSc in Applied Computing from University of Ulster, Ireland. She holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) credential from the Project Management Institute, the SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) credential and Leading Safe Agilist (SA) credential from Scaled Agile. 

Presentation Topic:

From Chaos to Confident: The 6 Pillars Project Leadership Framework

Abstract:

Are you overwhelmed by constantly shifting priorities, changing visions and constant interruptions? 

Are you spending too much time putting out fires rather than addressing the root cause of the chaos? 

What if you could confidently lead your team, boost engagement and accountability, increase your influence to create unstoppable momentum, and accelerate outcomes and results for your organization? 

The Six Pillars Project Leadership framework outlines the power skills required to effectively lead teams and projects rather than simply manage them. 

During this session, we will review the core capabilities that project leaders need to develop to confidently lead, empower and elevate their teams. You will walk away with clarity on what you need to do to boost your team’s performance in 2021.

Presentation Topic:
Diversity in Agile

Presentation Topic:

Flattening the competence curve

Abstract:
In today’s world there is a plethora of information of the skills and trainings required for project managers and a dwindling light on the competence of the entire project team.

This session unveils strategies to build not just the competence of the project manager, but all touch points in the journey to delivering value. By “Flattening the curve”, the goal is the balance the knowledge and skill level of the project team.

Presentation Topic:
Fireside chat

Abstract:
After a year-long sabbatical, Crystal is currently Head of Product at an early-stage edtech startup based in San Francisco and Consultant/Coach to select product teams and product managers internationally. Before moving into Product, Crystal was a Senior Software Engineer at LinkedIn and had a short stint in Private Equity as well. She then went on to lead Client Experiences, a core product pillar, at GOGOVAN: Hong Kong’s first unicorn startup, operating across Asia. Beyond her roles, Crystal shaped and open-sourced LinkedIn’s Women in Tech Trainee Program, dabbled briefly as an Investor, and continues to serve on the alumni advisory board of an international education foundation.

Join us for this fireside chat to learn from Crystal's experience across functions, industries, geographies, and more, and how it informs her work as a product leader today.

About speaker:
Klaus Boedker is part of the Disciplined Agile methodology & IP team at the Project Management Institute (PMI). He has over 10 years of experience helping organizations to be more successful with project delivery using a combination of agile, lean, and traditional approaches.

Klaus has worked with several of Canada’s largest companies to build awesome, self-organized teams that deliver innovative products early and often to the delight of customers. Klaus is a Certified Disciplined Agile Coach and Instructor. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

Workshop:
Choose your Way of Working with Disciplined Agile

Abstract:

Aina Aliieva (DA Ambassador from PMI Toronto - DASSM) and Klaus Boedker (DA Methodology & IP team member at PMI - DA Agile Coach and Instructor) will conduct this interactive workshop that will give you a practical experience on how to pair the freedom to choose from the best of modern agile and lean practices with guidance to understand and narrow your options on an Agile Project.

Using the DA tool kit, we will explore how teams design and evolve a way of working that continuously fits their context.

About speaker:
Aina Aliieva is a passionate, insightful, and thought-provoking change agent. She believes the best way to evolve organizations and businesses is by evolving their people.

Aina is a program Manager, Disciplined Agile in CWCC and also DA evangelist in PMI Toronto Chapter. She can be contacted on LinkedIn.

Workshop:
Choose your Way of Working with Disciplined Agile

Abstract:

Aina Aliieva (DA Ambassador from PMI Toronto - DASSM) and Klaus Boedker (DA Methodology & IP team member at PMI - DA Agile Coach and Instructor) will conduct this interactive workshop that will give you a practical experience on how to pair the freedom to choose from the best of modern agile and lean practices with guidance to understand and narrow your options on an Agile Project.

Using the DA tool kit, we will explore how teams design and evolve a way of working that continuously fits their context.

Presentation Topic:

Creating Groundbreaking New Products

Abstract:

In this presentation, Marcel Furmie, Director of Product at Quantgene and founder of Fifo Technologies talks about his product design process, from inception to launch.You will hear how he is working at Quantgene to democratize healthcare services to bring early cancer detection to everyone, and how at Fifo he is creating autonomous firefighting systems that can automatically detect and extinguish wildfires.In this frank discussion about the precarious journey that a product can go through, Marcel shares lessons from more than 14 years of experience in technology.

About speaker:
Agendashift founder Mike Burrows is the author of Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (2nd edition March 2021), Right to Left: The digital leader's guide to Lean and Agile (2019, audiobook 2020), and the Lean-Agile classic Kanban from the Inside (2104). Mike is recognised for his pioneering work in Lean, Agile, and Kanban and for his advocacy for participatory and outcome-oriented approaches to change, transformation, and strategy. Prior to his consulting career, he was global development manager and Executive Director at a top tier investment bank, CTO for an energy risk management startup, and interim delivery manager for two of the UK government's digital ‘exemplar’ projects.

Presentation Topic:

Up and down the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation – business agility at every scale

Abstract:

A modern take on a 70's classic, we take some of the tools of modern product and organisation development and plug them into Stafford Beer's Viable System Model, a model that (still) describes organisations of all sizes that have the drive to survive in a changing environment. The result of this exercise will feel remarkably familiar to Lean-Agile eyes, and yet it helps to reveal some of the serious dysfunctions too often experienced with current frameworks, both team-level and larger.

About speaker:
Mishirika Scott is a certified project management practitioner (PMI-ACP®, PMP® and CAPM® through PMI) from Los Angeles, CA. For years, she has dedicated her purpose work to student success. Whether in the boardroom or the classroom, she’s committed to inspiring leadership excellence. In 2018, as a Project Manager, she was handed her first failed project, and optimistically took on the challenge to bring the project teams and goals into alignment with business value. She attributes her successes to building a culture of antifragility into her teams and projects.

As the Project Manager at California State University, Los Angeles, Mishirika leads the campus-wide initiatives of EAB Navigate LA, a $1.2-$4M technology-based student management system.

Mishirika published her first article through PM.com, titled, “The College Touch: Paving the Way for New Professionals.” She is an active member of PMI-LA Chapter, and a familiar face in the PMI community as a presenter who brings her audience face to face with the question: What Do You Want to be Known For?

She earned her graduate degree in Project Management from DeVry University, and a people-centered bachelor’s degree from University of Southern California.

Presentation Topic:

Antifragility is the Vision

Abstract:

As project practitioners, we’re mostly after one thing: project success. But when ill-defined, success can mean something very different, even to members on the same team. Is it possible for project leaders and teams to become stronger, better, and more efficient during change, ambiguity, and chaos? Absolutely. Antifragile team communication can be a first step in the right direction. Innovation for the future will only be as strong and stable as the teams creating such a future. If project leaders are the head, then teams are the heart of project success. Together, let’s discover new ways to inspire high-performing, healthy teams during tough change.

Learning outcomes:

• Learn six project documents that can take your team vision from snore to score
• Learn the value of simple project documents that keep your team aligned with a clear vision of success
• Learn how to embrace antifragility as your new team culture moving forward

About speaker:
Founder, expert in Objective and Key Results (OKR) and executive coaching, MBA, TEDx speaker

Presentation Topic:

TOP-5 mistakes in Objective and Key Results (OKR)

Presentation Topic:

Essential Product Management skills

Abstract:

1. Product management – intro and ideation framework
2. How & what to measure, customer funnel
3. Prioritization frameworks
4. Dealing with engineers

Presentation Topic:
Agile and agility in context: a complexity perspective

About speaker;
Benjamin Anyacho is a Nigerian-born Texan for about two decades. Passionate and fun, relational “bridge-builder.” A servant leader who has spent most of my life helping people to become their best. Missionary. Quintessential project and portfolio manager. Knowledge Management strategist. A philanthropreneur. Complex-complicated projects and stakeholders are his bailiwicks. An expert of conversation, collaboration, leadership, project, and knowledge management, with the goal of mentoring one million authentic leaders. Benjamin chairs a national KM research sub-committee. He serves on several national and global boards, committees, and project panels. He is a reviewer of an International Journal of Knowledge Management

Presentation Topic:

Help! Managing Projects and Stakeholders from Hell

Abstract:
In this interactive and action-packed session, participants will learn how to effectively engage difficult stakeholders in complicated projects, hostile and politically charged environments. These principles are based on successful real-life projects, using some of the best research in persuasion science, leadership, and management. It cuts through the clutter with practical applications—utilizes continuous buy-in principles, “Gratitude Altitude,” personal Net Performance Score (pNPS), “Pre-assignment @ charter” and shared ownership, logic-politics, managing up, participatory design principles, and more.

Presentation Topic:
Managing User Churn as a Product Manager

Presentation Topic:

How to innovate by an ex-founding PM an ByteDance/TikTok

Abstract:
Learn the process to achieving product market fit and what to do once you reach it

Presentation Topic:

Understanding and Curating Data in PM

Abstract:
Why is data important in product and project managers, how to use historical data to dictate future success, and how to curate the data story and present relevant information.

Presentation Topic:
Building Relationships for Healthy Conflict

Presentation Topic:

How to make your product team thrive

Abstract:
Join Campbell to take a deeper dive into some of the product soft skills we don’t talk about enough. We’ll be covering 3 strategies to set your product team up for success.

• Setting a strong narrative upfront
• Creating a fail fast culture
• Protecting your teams energy

Presentation Topic:

How to differentiate yourself as a generalist PM

Abstract:

• what is a generalist pm;
• benefits and opportunities of being a generalist;
• how to select projects to differentiate yourself;
• how to make your impact translate across industries;
• branding yourself beyond your company.

Presentation Topic:
Fаst-paced Change-Threat Or Opportunity?

Abstract:
The Key challenge organisations are facing today is having to deal with the exponential rate of change which is happening in the external environment. The extent and pace of change is so disruptive that no organisation, regardless of age or size can take their competitive advantage or even their survival for granted.


The speaker will highlight the impact of fast paced change, and the implications for organizations. The talk will suggest practical approaches which leaders can adopt to make their organizations ready to embrace change and leverage it for creating competitive advantage.

About speaker:
Eric “Doc” Wright, PhD, is a dual-service, dual-era military veteran, serial founder, and 2X Amazon #1 Best Selling business author, philosopher, and linguist that helps other military veterans achieve meaningful, lucrative careers and businesses through provable fluency in the language of management and its specialized dialects of project management, cyber security management, HR management, and general management and entrepreneurship. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn as docwright2012, and at www.vets2pm.com/blog.

Speaker Qualifications:
I have decades of experience as a project management practitioner, university professor, and executive teaching and doing project management, as well as founding organizations to solve societal problems around me. In addition to being an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author, I also coach other small Veteran Owned Businesses the fundamentals of running successful small businesses.

Presentation Topic:

Agilizing Predictively Planned and Delivered Projects: Evolving Your Project Management Mindset

Abstract:

Very few buzzwords in recent memory have captured the hearts, minds, and conversations across
corporate America’s project, product, and general managers like the buzzword ‘agile’. But what is agile? Is it a “lightweight framework” for managing projects, and if so, which types of projects? Is it an
adjective? Oh, or maybe it’s a project management methodology? Or is it a process or system? And if
this all of this confusion isn’t enough, why in the world are there over three dozen flavors of it and
counting! In one seasoned project manager’s mind, based on decades of experience planning and
delivering projects of all sizes, in every sector of our economy, in each of the three primary project
planning and delivery archetypes of predictive, agile, and hybrid: it’s really, a mindset. One that focuses on planning and delivering value in the form of the project’s product and its benefits to the project’s customers. In this highly entertaining, highly educational session, attendees of all types of project and product management experience backgrounds will discover the key words, concepts, and tenets that they can use to develop or extend their own agile mindset, which in turn increases their personal value and professional capability to their employing organization and its customers, which increases their professional stock price within their organizations.

Attendees will be able to:
1. Identify agile project management’s four values and twelve principles and how they can apply
to any project.

2. Discuss the project management profession’s evolution from historical hiring and promotion
conversation to today’s emerging hiring and promotion conversation.

3. Identify the six tenets necessary for today’s project or product managers to develop an agile
project management mindset: 1. Include customers (agile term) and stakeholders (predictive
term) in the process which is embracing change; 2. Practice Continuous Process Improvement
(“CPI”) using lessons learned in a disciplined-yet-organic manner; 3. Create empowered High
Performing Teams (“HPTs”) through Servant Leadership; 4. Fail fast to know what you know!; 5.
Demonstrate value often; and 6. ABC, Always Be Courageous using courageous candor and
saying “no” in your conversations.

About speaker:
Founded SAVVI AI to make AI/ML work for all of us.



Previously, cofounder/CEO GPShopper, acquired by Synchrony (NYSE:SYF) in 2017. While at Synchrony, was the SVP Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) and CPO Fintech/AI. Served on SYF’s Investment Committee where I helped the SYF Ventures team evaluate prospective venture investments. Also, served as Synchrony’s CPO on emerging D2C Fintech / AI products focused on mobile and machine learning.



Current interests are innovative ML/AI based products, tools, and companies and supporting fellow diverse founders refine their operations, technology, visions, and strategy as they go through their entrepreneurial journey.

Named by Forbes as a TOP TEN CEO disrupting the retail industry through technology.

Presentation Topic:

Building with ML – How to develop products that learn

Abstract:

Building software that is designed to learn requires a significant mind shift. In this session, Alex goes through the evolution from Agile software process (now 20 years old) that nearly all software development currently uses, to a new AI centric software development process. As the current Founder of SAVVI AI and the former Chief Product Officer, for Synchrony Financials AI enabled Products, much of Alex time was spent managing large and talented teams to implement products that learn. Those products learned to improve personalization, enhance credit decisioning, grow profitability and reduce customer complaints. Alex walks through specific case studies and examples of how to plan for AL/ML in your software, via adding “Learning Stories” into your software process. In this session he will also explain some of the pitfalls and how to overcome them, especially around getting colleagues comfortable that software that learns can be very safe and extremely effective.

Presentation Topic:

Infrastructure Projects – What Makes then Different and Difficult?

Abstract:

Many PMO portfolios are over 30% Infrastructure projects. These PMOs want to use Agile for infrastructure projects and realize the benefits of waste reduction, faster turn-around, and better prioritization. This session involves examining a hospital network upgrade using a KANBAN approach. When done, you will have a new network. You will have created stories, used a product backlog, communicated status, transitioned to operations, delivered benefits, and completed a workshop retrospective.

Learning Objectives:
1) Explore several Agile tools, protocols, and principles and their compatibility with Infrastructure projects.
2) Prepare radiators and other status reporting tools to communicate the plan, the iterations, and the progress/status of the project.
3) Use a hybrid approach to upgrade a network infrastructure in a hospital including new network switches, upgrade to Medical Grade Wireless, Firewall installation, VPN access, and video clinical care service.

About speaker:
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez is a leading expert in project management and strategy implementation, creator of concepts like the “Project Economy” and the “Hierarchy of Purpose.” His work has been recognized by Thinkers50 with the prestigious award “Ideas into Practice.” He is the author of the recently published Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook, as well as Lead Successful Projects, The Project Revolution, and The Focused Organization. He has been teaching the value of project management to senior leaders for more than two decades at Duke CE, Instituto de Empresa, Solvay Business School, and Vlerick. Antonio has held executive positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, BNP Paribas, and GlaxoSmithKline. Former Chairman of the Project Management Institute, he is the founder of Projects & Co and co-founder of the Strategy Implementation Institute. He is a member of Marshall Goldsmith 100 coaches. You can follow Antonio through his LinkedIn Newsletter - Lead Projects Successfully or his website. 

Presentation Topic:

From Project Managers to Strategy Implementation Professionals 

Abstract:

In the next five years, the world will see more projects than ever. The reconstruction of the economy, healthcare, social care, and society at large after the devastating global pandemic crisis, will be unprecedented in human history. These are millions of projects, which will need millions of project managers. However, despite this positive outlook, significant trends will put at stake the project management profession that we have learned to know in the past 40 years. We should consider these signals as an urgent call for profound change in our practices and a much needed in our competencies.

About speaker:
I am a senior level enterprise agike coach with considerable agile experience . I also have spoken at many events on agile and PM.

Presentation Topic:

A case study of an Agile Transformation -- in a FINTECH firm

Abstract:

1) setting the context of the company;
2) a 10-step transformation approach;
3) toolkit that the audience can use.

Presentation Topic:

Platform product management / technical product management

Abstract:

How tech and platform PM impact business

Presentation Topic:

Design Thinking for Innovative Solutions

Abstract:

Do you have to be a designer to practice Design Thinking? All great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it. In this talk we will explore how design thinking processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn and apply the human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way in our designs, products, business processes, program management and in our lives.

About speaker:
Dr. John Alver Dobson’s mantra is to ‘help entrepreneurs make a living around their passion’.

He is the founder of the DYME institute, which uses problem-based learning approaches to help students develop their entrepreneurial skills. Prior to joining academia, John was a successful entrepreneur. He started his own venture as an undergraduate student, so he understands the challenges of launching a successful business. The business focused on connecting indigenous producers to global markets to improve livelihoods and markets. After selling his business, he transitioned into academia. He has a master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics and a Doctorate from the University of Manchester (UK).

He is currently associate professor at Clark University, Adjunct Professor at Harvard, and currently holds the MayBank Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship. He teaches and travels widely and has taught at various global settings such as; Colombia, Mexico, China, Peru, Honduras, Spain, France, Malaysia, Nepal, UK, & Canada.

Through his DYME institute, he has worked with many universities to help develop their entrepreneurship program. He hosts an annual faculty development workshop at Harvard University, where he brings faculty from around the world to learn about the DYME methodology of Teaching and Learning entrepreneurship. 

He is currently developing Re-Entry Entrepreneurship program for returning citizens in both Spanish and English. Students will learn how to successfully launch their own businesses, helping build a better future for themselves and their families and become productive members of society.

He has published a number of articles and books designed to help nascent entrepreneurs develop their ideas into entrepreneurial opportunities. His current project involves developing online teaching and learning material to give small scale producers in developing countries access to world class entrepreneurial education through the development of online learning materials.

Presentation Topic:

DYME (Develop Your Model of Entrepreneurship): Evidence-based approaches to finding creativity and innovative solutions to sticky problems.

Abstract:

Professor Dobson, will review the futility of current Entrepreneurship Education approaches to actually effectively develop a creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial team.  Entrepreneurship is becoming increasingly viewed as a fundamental engine for increasing employment, reducing poverty, and driving economic development. Academic research institutions seek to understand and develop novel methods to effectively develop the next generation of entrepreneurs. However, there is an ever-growing supply of entrepreneurship education (EE) without a corresponding increase in student’s actually starting businesses. There is a growing body of research that identifies that part of the problem resides in the teaching methodologies that are commonly being used as a factor of the ineffectiveness of EE to actually develop entrepreneurs. The problem appears to reside in the use of teaching approaches that rely on theory/process-based approaches that depend on hypothetical business plans, models, and canvases.

Professor Dobson will contrast the fundamental epistemological differences between Management and Entrepreneurship. Identifying a way for businesses to create a creative and innovative team.

About speaker:
Frank is on a mission to help aspiring project managers gain practical experience. He does this through his writings, sample projects, tips, and innovative ways of teaching the PM methodologies.

We learn to be better project managers not by attending one short classroom training, but by gradually learning and practicing new skills and constantly keeping on the edge of our comfort zone. Frank would like each organization to provide their project managers with a skill development plan, and this is why communities like PMI and IPMA are so important.

Presentation Topic:

Making it easier for the world to Teach, Learn and Practice project management

Abstract:

We learn to be better project managers not by attending one short classroom training, but by gradually learning and practicing new skills.

Normal project management courses have their place, but it is even more important to provide practical project management training. Attendees must gain confidence in the following project management techniques:

• Filling in a Project Description (Project Charter)
• Facilitating a Project Breakdown (Deliverable map) Extracting Requirements
• Planning / Scheduling
• Using an online application
• Day to day follow up activities
• Having a minimalist project process to follow

Frank will introduce an open-source project management system and offer the following which are free and sponsored by the EC (European Community)

• Online project management course (project simulation)
• Practical Course slides for any trainer to use

About speaker:
Jesse Fewell has mentored thousands of technology professionals across 14 countries to improve their teams & companies using Agile methods.

A management pioneer, he founded the original Agile Community of Practice within the Project Management Institute (PMI). Since then, he has promoted modern management by defining or refining three industry certifications, and authoring publications reaching over a half-million readers in eleven languages. His industry contributions have earned him a IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Award.

Today, he specializes in helping tech professionals get the reward of transforming their office, driving results, & changing lives.

Presentation Topic:
Developing Agile Leadership - Daily Practices for Becoming a More Effective Agile Champion

Abstract:
What do we say when the boss asks "This agile thing is interesting. How can I help?" What concrete steps and practices can we offer them beyond "Be a servant leader?" and what does that even mean? Even more worrying, do WE actually exhibit the very behaviors we demand of our leaders? And how do I develop those behaviors?

In this high energy session, you will learn research-based frameworks for describing agile leadership. Then, you will get "hands-on" practicing concrete tips, hacks, and routines that will improve effectiveness for you and your boss, whether you are a project manager, supervisor, departmental head, or executive.

Presentation Topic:

The flexibility of Agility

Abstract:

In this talk we will cover:

• The reality of agility in teams when the expectations are not the same as reality.
• How to champion an agile mindset within teams and have a whole team approach when decisions have to be made.
• What scrum masters and the team can do to avoid conflict and friction between what is expected and what is evident.

Presentation Topic:
7 Agile and DevOps Insights I Wish I Knew Earlier

Abstract:
In user surveys by VersionOne each year, over 80% of respondents claim faster delivery, better teamwork, and closer stakeholder alignment. However in quantitative studies, Agile is no better than other delivery methodologies. Wait, WHAT?!!! Why is that?

Companies are moving to DevOps, BusDevOps, DevSecOps, SalesBusDevSupportSecRinseRepeatOps (and the list goes on), but few teams can agree what that means or how to do it. What are we missing?
In this session, we’ll look at seven patterns and insights that will help you understand why these programs aren’t achieving their full value and what needs to change to fully succeed.

- Understand the primary reasons why Agile and DevOps teams are struggling
- Learn the most important key to successful team delivery (Hint: It’s not methodology.)
- Discover ways to help influence and transform your teams into highly productive ones.

About speaker:
Your speaker, Greg Githens, is a top ranked project management speaker and is the author of the best selling book, How to Think Strategically. Sharpen Your Mind. Develop Your Competency. Contribute to Success.

Presentation Topic:
Strategic Thinking: A Rare and Valuable Competency

Abstract:
The core message: Strategic thinking is an individual competency. Project professionals who understand and can demonstrate the ability to think strategically are more valuable to their organizations, make more impact, and are more promotable.

Short abstract: Research shows that the next generation of project leaders must be able to demonstrate their ability to think strategically.

This engaging presentation will help the audience recognize and describe the four pillars that define strategic thinking, how strategic thinking is different from strategic planning, the four DICE X-factors of strategic thinking, the Ben Franklin technique for applying the microskills of strategic thinking, and why “competent strategic thinker” ought to be part of your personal brand.

This presentation will also include how strategic thinking reinforces personal and organizational resilience. In the “great reset” of post-pandemic recovery advantage will accrue to those individuals who can bounce forward (rather than bounce back).

Presentation Topic:
What Project Professionals Should Know About Strategic Development

Abstract:
"How do you knuckleheads come up with strategy, anyway?"

This was a question asked by one of our project managers when I was an executive talking about a new project they were to lead. We are often assigned to lead projects with little context as to why it's important. When asked, a typical answer is "Because it aligns with strategy!" But what does that really mean?

In this session, we'll talk about what strategy is, how leadership "knuckleheads" develop organizational strategy, how it should be communicated, and how you as a project professional fit in!

About speaker:
Scott is the Vice President, Chief Scientist of Disciplined Agile at Project Management Institute. Scott leads the evolution of the Disciplined Agile (DA) tool kit and is an international keynote speaker. Scott is the (co)-creator of the Disciplined Agile (DA) tool kit as well as the Agile Modeling (AM) and Agile Data (AD) methodologies. He is the (co-)author of several books, including Choose Your WoW!, An Executive’s Guide to the Disciplined Agile Framework, Refactoring Databases, Agile Modeling, Agile Database Techniques, and The Object Primer 3rd Edition. Scott blogs regularly at ProjectManagement.com and he can be contacted via pmi.org.

Presentation Topic:
Agile Enterprises are Hybrids, Is Your PMO Ready?

Abstract:
Truly agile organizations are hybrid in nature because they enable the teams within them to follow their own fit-for-purpose way of working (WoW). Some team WoWs will be more agile in nature, some more lean in nature, and some more serial in nature. Each team’s WoW reflects the context faced by that team and evolves over time as the team learns and their situation changes. In practice these teams typically have hybrid WoWs, comprised of agile, lean, and even serial techniques – even an “agile WoW” will have some lean aspects and some traditional aspects and that’s ok, your goal is to be effective not to be agile.

This talk explores this concept and how PMOs must evolve to operate successfully in this sort of environment.

About speaker:
Angel is a very energetic, proficient and forward-thinking Coach who specialises on coaching organisations throughout their Agile journeys. His pragmatism and experience in Organisational Coaching and Business Agility are the driving forces behind his perceptive methods of action. As a coach, trainer, and mentor, he's helped to nurture Agility in a diverse set of companies, from small startups to fortune 500 multinational organisations.

Throughout his 12+ years of hands-on experience in Agile coaching, Angel has provided expert guiding to achieve remarkable growth for organisations and agile professionals from more than 30 countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

He holds the three highest level certifications in the field from the Scrum Alliance: CST (Certified Scrum Trainer), CEC (Certified Enterprise Coach) and CAL Educator (Certified Agile Leadership Educator). Additionally, Angel is a certified professional coach by the International Coaching Federation (PCC) a certified co-active coach, specialist in team coaching and systemic leadership.

Angel has participated as a speaker in more than 50 international conferences and Agile events in Europe, Asia and the Americas, being a significant contributor to the international Agile community since 2009.

Presentation Topic:
Leading self-managed teams

About speaker:
I've been working in projects for 22 years. I started as a project planner in construction projects, and then moved to large process-plant projects. In parallel, I was also involved in IT projects and startups.
I gradually moved from project planning into the wider project management domain by helping project managers and companies to improve their project, program, and portfolio management systems.
Nowadays, I'm spending most of my time contributing to standards (P3.express, NUPP, PRINCE2®, PRINCE2 Agile®, and PMBOK® Guide), and developing eLearning courses in our company, Management Plaza.

About speaker:
Passionate leader in IT industry with servant leadership and Lean/Agile mindset. Enjoying working with teams to help with their processes, engineering practices, mindset and other aspects of teamwork.

Presentation Topic:
Moving away from SAFe is a sign of its successful implementation

Abstract:
The last 5 years I was one of the key drivers of Agile Transformation in danish fin-tech company. In 2015 company decided to use Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) as a basis for transformation from the classical waterfall approach. Retrospectively we can say that was a right decision that bring value and company’s transformation was recognised as one of the best examples of SAFe implementation in Scandinavian region.

In my talk I will describe why after 5 years using SAFe company decided to move away from it, and why this movement was a sign of its successful implementation. We will look at limitations of the framework and what real changes we made to remove these limitations, which in turns helped to improve the maturity level of the organisation.

Key theses of the speech:

• Planning on quarter basis (PIPE) doesn’t help with responding to change. Instead move to shorter planning period and to continuous planning eventually.
• Visualising and managing dependencies using Program Board is great, but we need to work on making self-contained teams and ARTs. So we do not need synchronised planning anymore.
• Empowering Product Owner role and moving away from hierarchy of product management. We did this by creating product teams with long term-focus on product instead of Agile Release Trains that have many sub-products inside.
• Cognitive capacity of teams might be overloaded in Agile Release Train and they will not be able to pull from the top of the backlog in an efficient way. Instead we have moved to product areas and product teams.

About speaker:
Daniel Zitter loves project management, and he's happy to talk about it to anyone who will listen. He appreciates the complexities of managing a project. He enjoys discussing it with others and teaching the methodologies, thought processes and how to deal with the questions and challenges that are sure to arise. And he's happy to share his knowledge and experience with clients, friends and acquaintances – because he believes deeply in what he does, how he does it and that doing it right makes a huge difference to the outcome. Daniel is an experienced and certified project manager. He is a licensed industrial engineer and holds a Project Management Practitioner Certification "In Good Standing" from the Project Management Institute (PMI). He is also an accredited PMO – Certified Consultant, of the PMO Global Alliance, and was a member of the Jugging Committee for the past three years at PMO global awards competition.

Presentation Topic:
Simulating managing a project - Enhance your team's Project Management skills

Abstract:
Pilots fly simulators before flying, doctors can conduct surgeries to train before they operate on people and even businesspeople use games to learn concepts of business, so why not project managers? Why can’t we let project managers simulate managing a project before they actually do? The question is how? If you want to know, come listen to us in the next PMO Insights session. Looking forward to seeing you all there!