The 9th Annual Project & Risk Management Conference will be held during 14-15 March 2007 in Birmingham, UK. The Conference is being organised by Project Manager Today, co-sponsored by the APM and PMI Risk SIGs and The Projects Group plc., and co-located with the Project Challenge Exhibition.

The Office for Government Commerce (OGC) will be launching the updated version of its best practice guidance on risk at the two-day Conference, to be held in the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. Management of Risk (M_o_R®) provides a route map for risk management, bringing together principles, approach and processes with advice on how these might be embedded within an organisation.

During the Conference, Frances Scarff, Manager for OGC’s Best Management Practice Guidance, will be looking at ‘Management of Risk: building on past experience’ explaining the way in which M_o_R has been used successfully by many different organisations. Other speakers at the event will be challenging perceptions and demonstrating the effectiveness of risk management in major organisations.

Keynote speaker, Eddie Obeng, has helped many organisations transform their project and programme management effectiveness. He is one of the UK’s most thought-provoking, entertaining and inspiring speakers. Obeng will be asking ‘Are you paranoid enough?’ as he explores the myths of risk management.

Mike Robertson will be revealing the results of a study he undertook for the Major Projects Association that looks at the experiences of risk management in major organisations. It will be the first opportunity for non-members of the MPA to benchmark their experiences against results that draw on some of the biggest names in the project world.

In total, 18 speakers are scheduled to present 15 papers over four sessions covering the two days; the second day contains three specialised sessions covering Earned Value & Risk; Leadership and Risk; and, Looking for Reality in Risk Management. Speakers will include: Jeremy Harrison, Head of Project Risk & Value at Network Rail; Liz Goodman, a trouble-shooting project manager; Andrew Taylor, Risk Manager, British Nuclear Group; Mike Walker, Chairman of the Institute of Risk Management and Director and Head of Consulting Services, Currie & Brown; Peter Simon, Lucidus Consulting; Val Jonas, Risk Decisions; Nicol Jarvie and Patrick Kennerson, Thales UK.

Delegates booking both days of the Conference will receive free copies of two leading risk books worth £75: ‘Understanding and managing Risk Attitudes’ by David Hillson and Ruth Murray-Webster and Managing Risks for Projects and Programmes’ by John Bartlett (a speaker at the conference).

Delegates will also be able to attend the Project Challenge exhibition which is co-located with the Conference. For more details on the conference, visit www.pmtoday.co.uk, call +44 (0)118 932 6665, or contact Jim Potter at jimp@projectmanagertoday.co.uk or check our Events Calendar at www.pmforum.org/events/.

The College of Performance Management (CPM) of the Project Management Institute (PMI®) has announced that registration is now open for the PMI-CPM’s 23rd Annual International Conference – May 9-11, 2007 at the Hilton, Clearwater Beach Resort in Florida, USA. This annual conference is one of the world’s leading events with a focus on Earned Value Management (EVM)

Billed as EVM World 2007, the conference is scheduled to be held in Clearwater Beach, Florida during 8-11 May 2007. The conference will include educational workshops, featured speakers, seminars, tools tracks, training seminars, vendor exhibition and networking opportunities.

Additional information on opportunities for project management experts and professionals worldwide to participate are summarized below:

Professional Education Training Seminar: Training Seminars are part of the Professional Education Program of PMI-CPM. Seminars include principles of Project Management, Schedule Management, Earned Value Management, EV Metrics and Analysis, Technical Management and Project Management Integration. Contact Frank Anbari.

Practice Symposia: Lessons learned and best practices on the implementation of Earned Value Management, updates on recent developments, and integrating EVM with other management techniques. Contact Ray Stratton .

Workshops: Workshops provide a forum to introduce and develop new and emerging practices and techniques to improve program management using EVM. Objectives are to identify potential solutions. Workshops are not intended to provide training or instruction on EVM. Contact Joe Houser.

Tools Track: Tools Track covers the range of commercially available, world-class, performance management tools from earned value tracking to scheduling to reporting. Contact Efrain Pacheco.

Registration Fees:

CPM Members
Early Registration Fee $500.00
Received After April 12 $550.00
Non-CPM Members
Early Registration Fee $600.00
Received After April 12 $650.00

For General Conference Information, visit college@pmi-cpm.org or telephone +1 703.370.7885. The EVM World 2007 Conference Program Manager is Susan Wood, PMI-CPM Vice President for Conferences and Events.

The College of Performance Management (CPM) is a knowledge-based component of the Project Management Institute (PMI®), the world’s premier professional organization for project management professionals. CPM was originally established as the Performance Management Association, but became the first college of PMI in 1999. The PMI-CPM an international, non-profit professional organization dedicated to the disciplines of project management and performance measurement. The PMI-CPM assists the earned value professional and project manager in professional growth and promotes the application of earned value management. PMI’s CPM is a growing body of professionals dedicated to managing projects on time and on budget. Additional information can be found at www.pmi-cpm.org/pages/home/index.html.

PMI’s 2007 EMEA Congress Project Action Team includes: Alfonso Bucero, Zolton Czibok, Herbert Gonder, Robert Hierholtz, Isabelle Levavasseur, and Thomas Zimmermann. Alfonso Bucero, pictured at right, is also an International Correspondent for PMForum.org in Spain. For more information, visit the congress website at http://congresses.pmi.org/EMEA2007/.

According to Wikipedia, Budapest is the capital city of Hungary and the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial and transportation centre. Budapest has approximately 1.7 million inhabitants and is the ninth largest city in the European Union. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the Danube River with the amalgamation on 17 November 1873 of right-bank (west) Buda and Óbuda (Old Buda) together with Pest on the left (east) bank or the river. More information about Budapest can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest.

Moving Mountains in a Flat World! Are you ready for a select conference designed to improve CIO excellence? Join an elite group of 75 chief information officers (CIOs) for roundtable discussions, experience sharing, and networking activities designed to address the emerging concerns of today’s CIO. These are enticements offered by CIO International, which will host an inaugural CIO conference in Breckenridge, Colorado, USA in September.

The conference will focus on the changing global business climate and concepts popularized by journalist Thomas Friedman in his book “The World is Flat”. The three day CIO event will be held September 10 - 12, 2007 in beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado, USA, a mountaintop setting renowned for breathing fresh life into old thinking, an ideal backdrop for discussions about how emerging global trends affect business.

According to CIO International, “we have rewritten the rules on executive conferences -- gone are the days when one spends three ‘out-of-office’ days returning with loose nuggets of disconnected information. This conference will be different and will enable CIOs to leverage traditional thinking with that of their peers, and to take back ideas for conquering real business and technical challenges.”

Information Communications and Technology (ICT) experts lined up to present at the CIO International conference include: Dr. Bill Curtis, one of the originators of the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM®); Carol Dekkers, PMP, P.Eng.; Thomas C. Staab, MS; and Dr. Rebecca Staton-Reinstein.

To encourage networking and knowledge transfer, all presenters will stay on-site for the duration of the conference. Social events are planned to maximize networking opportunities through a relaxed, environmentally friendly atmosphere against the backdrop of the magnificent Rocky Mountains. According to the conference information, the focus will be on participation, knowledge sharing and creative problem solving. The conference is planned to be a gathering of CIOs for and by CIOs.

Accommodations are available at the conference venue, the beautiful Mountain Thunder Lodge, boasting luxurious and elegant all-condominium-suites nestled in a quiet forest, in the heart of Breckenridge. Additional information can be found at www.ciointernational.com.