Digital PM Summit 2014 Speakers and Agenda Published

In October 2014 the entire universe will stand still as the second Digital PM Summit begins. While this may be a very slight exaggeration, what isn’t is the excitement and anticipation building in the digital project management community as we head closer towards October.

A screenshot of one banner from the Digital Project Management Summit site saying to clear your calendars, you don't want to miss this.
Obvs.

If you don’t want to read through this PR post then don’t and just go and buy your tickets now. Once you’ve bought them, come back and read this please innit.

The speaker list is now confirmed and the agenda is almost complete. I have to say the line-up looks bloody brilliant with a fantastic mix of people and topics.

I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Paul Boag’s amazing talk on Digital Transformation again and if you’ve not seen it I cannot recommend it enough. I also can’t wait to see Mike Monteiro’s keynote on managing clients, a subject close to my heart.

Then there’s Matt Griffin (one of my best and closest friends from Twitter, because we’ve spoken there at least twice), Rachel Gertz, who I was happy to be absolutely traumatised with last year on our first real speaking gig, Greg Hoy and Katie High aka the Cog Brigade, plus, despite only meeting them for a couple of days, two of my favourite people and awesome speakers, Nancy Lyons and Meghan Wilker.

What’s also great about this year’s line-up is seeing the grassroots aspect, with Carson Pierce, Adam Edgerton and Tera Simon all getting involved, so cool.

Oh yeah, Brett Harned is also speaking, he’s ok I guess.

Joking aside, this second Digital PM Summit looks so good and I genuinely can’t wait to see everyone from last year and meet those attending for the first time.

If you’re a freelancer of any kind, running any kind of digital business, work in digital account or project management or could benefit from understanding a little more about the challenges digital project managers face, then you really should be coming to this conference i.e. EVERYONE!!!

People are weird, I’m weird

The Internetz is full of articles about what tools and processes to use for digital project management, however this will only get you so far. In order to become a great digital project manager you must also know how to manage people, including: clients, project teams, other colleagues and your bosses.

But guess what, every single one of these people are individuals and yet consistently we try to apply blanket rules to their ‘type’ and consider our people management skills complete.

In this presentation, as well as explaining how he personally manages teams, Sam also posits that we should increase our awareness of the specific differences in people and adjust our views and behaviours accordingly when it comes to managing and working with other human beings.

The project management title vs. the role

Project Manager, Producer, Product Owner, ScrumMaster, Programme Manager, Senior Project Manager, Digital Project Coordinator, Production Manager etc.

While this list may have been slightly advantageous for SEO in 2004, nowadays all it does is highlight just how many job titles are associated with digital project management, but what do they all mean?

Hosted by Sam Barnes, this panel of fellow ‘whatevers’ will discuss the differences in job titles, day-to-day work, responsibilities and how these roles may differ dependent on company size and type.

The Internetz is full of articles about what tools and processes to use for digital project management, however this will only get you so far. In order to become a great digital project manager you must also know how to manage people, including: clients, project teams, other colleagues and your bosses.

But guess what, every single one of these people are individuals and yet consistently we try to apply blanket rules to their ‘type’ and consider our people management skills complete.

In this presentation, as well as explaining how he personally manages teams, Sam also posits that we should increase our awareness of the specific differences in people and adjust our views and behaviours accordingly when it comes to managing and working with other human beings.