Written by Valarie Merced, PMP, AVP of Communications

The first year of PMI Atlanta’s Education /Academic Program at Kennesaw State culminated with great success.   The Kennesaw State Program was initially championed by PMI Atlanta board member Cathy Luby who reached out to Richard L. Teters, Jr., Professor at Kennesaw’s Michael J Coles College of Business to develop a partnering relationship.

Initially the Chapter provided speakers who presented core areas of project management drawn from the class syllabus and incorporated with real life project management experiences. The student’s understanding of project management was amplified by the application of real world knowledge to written concepts and the opportunity to participate in discussion with industry professionals.   Professor Teters and his students were Cathy’s guests during its Project of the Year (POY) Award dinner where they were able to network with the PMI community and Cathy connected them with SITA, one of the POY winners. The connection between Professor Teters and Bruce Weaver of SITA sparked an innovative idea that would immerse the students in the Project Management profession with exceptional results.

As an added bonus for attending, you are eligible to win a FREE registration for the February or March Dinner Meeting!

Be sure to check your inbox for a link to complete a survey.  We will choose 2 random respondents as our winners on January 29th at 5pm!

If you do not receive the link, please email memberquestions@pmiatlanta.org.

by: Jacqueline Grant, MBA, PMP, VP of Professional Growth

PMI Atlanta members arrived early Friday morning at Lenox Mall to participate in Professional Growth’s first “off-site” meeting at the Microsoft Store. David Huseonica of Cloud AG, a Microsoft partner, sponsored the “Microsoft Solutions for PMPs” event on January 17th. This exclusive event, only for PMI members, occurred prior to the store’s opening, which allowed free reign to test all the store had to offer. We had access to display bars with a full array of active laptops, tablets, and cell phone products. The store’s attentive staff helped to answer questions and even assisted in setting up member’s personal devices.

After a period of hands-on engagement, we shifted to a classroom style area for an engaging presentation by David on cloud-based, Microsoft Office 365. He covered the recent updates and changes to the software, as well as the benefits of use, particularly for project managers. David was later joined by Laura Crawford of PM Resource Group, who covered MS Project within the Microsoft Office 365 suite.

Microsoft and Cloud AG generously provided breakfast, several door prizes, free trials and a discount on all Microsoft has to offer, to the event participants.

by Mike Ososki, PMP, Communications Committee

Wow. Outspoken and direct, well-credentialed and subtlely humorous, Dr. James T. Brown of Seba Solutions, rocked the house at our first Dunwoody Dinner of 2014. It was a new house, too: The Westin Atlanta Perimeter North. With 200+ attendees (the most in 2 years), Dr. Brown’s “Three Overlooked Attributes of a Successful PMO” presentation was well-received.

To creatively encourage dynamic live audience participation, each table had 3 remote voting devices that immediately reported audience survey results to the big screens. Inspired by our collective responses, Dr. Brown offered an encouraging “I love Atlanta.”

James asserts that project management is nothing new, except perhaps as a formally recognized profession. Consider the Great Pyramids, the historical architecture of Europe, and putting men on the moon. There have always been plenty of moving parts to manage in any complex endeavor. These days—especially here in Atlanta—it’s mostly software and IT endeavors!