Event Type: Marketing Community

Event Topic: Mixing Project Management and Strategy

Synopsis:
Project managers are becoming more involved with marketing strategies for projects. At this event, we'll be hearing tips and stories about how members of our project community have mastered strategy on projects.

Presentation #1 - Ann Sutton 

Project management and marketing are two sides of the same coin.   Both disciplines: 
- Deliver a product or service 
- Require great communications 
- Are a bit mysterious – especially to each other! 

Great project managers know how to use marketing concepts to get answers to strategic questions that can make – or break – their project. 

Ann's presentation will focus on the value of the project managers as a strategic partner in business success and the importance of business strategy at the project level. 

Presentation #2 - Karla Klein 

Project managers possess a unique view of the inner workings of an organization because they work with people at all levels within the company. That “top to bottom” view coupled with “how things really work” experience is fundamental to not only building effective strategies but also to building products that make companies great. In this session, we will explore the role a project manager plays in creating the strategy and its business value add. We will learn critical skills that empower people to translate the “blue sky” vision into a project plan through the application of a meaningful benefits realization management framework. We will learn practical techniques that will enable you to transform a roadmap into a plan and lay the foundation to successful achievement of any strategy. 

Karla's presentation will focus on: 

- Understanding the project manager’s role as an agent for the business 
- Differentiating between perceived challenges and real challenges 
- Understanding how the strategy and project plan are interconnected 
- Sharing implementation experiences, lessons learned and outcomes 
- Obtaining project planning techniques that will increase project delivery success 

Presentation #3 - Keith Durrant 

When starting ecentricarts over 15 years ago, our first hire was a project manager. We believe PMs are the most consistent day to day contact for our customers, and require business knowledge and foresight to anticipate our client’s needs and their customer’s needs. Over the next three years it will be more important than ever that PMs can work in peer based teams. They need to know a little about a lot and be confident in the knowing about their customer’s industry, their company’s business model and performance, and coach their project teams. It’s going to be critical PMs have business analysis training and analytic literacy. In this talk you get to know about how to self-educate yourself and what it takes to be hired by a CEO. 

Keith's presentation will focus on the value of the project managers as a strategic partner in business success and the importance of business strategy at the project level. 

Bios:

Ann Sutton is a surveyor of people and operations who has invested much of her 20+-year career into strategic enterprise transformation and consultation. 
Just below the surface of Ms. Sutton's vibrant, charismatic personality lurks an introspective and analytical side that fuels deliberate decisions empowering multimillion-dollar projects. This includes driving implementation of an enterprise optimization initiative impacting a $50M IT portfolio in Financial Services as well as a series of revenue growth and competitive marketplace initiatives, some which were wrought with entrenched skepticism, histories of failure and ambiguity. 
Ann's portfolio of corporate and business relationships includes CIBC, Aviva Canada, Toronto Star, MacLaren McCann Direct & Interactive, Wunderman and digital@JWT. With each undertaking, she coalesces and applies learnings from her MBA with her Bachelor's in Journalism and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, as well as a Project Management Professional certification.
Complementing her ability to align project complexity with management rigour is Ann's leadership acumen that relies upon a muscular vocabulary and respectful tone to inspire motivated project and program teams. High-impact communications are further characterized by a deft irreverence and empathy that help defray stress and rejuvenate beleaguered professionals.
Whatever the challenge, whoever the team members and however unraveled the executive leadership may have become, Ann Sutton's sophisticated, yet in-the-trenches problem solving talent delivers. Against all odds, she makes things happen.

Karla Klein is a certified Project Management Professional who believes that successful project execution is founded on collaborative leadership that is forged through a common purpose and vision. For the past 15+ years, she has worked alongside Senior Executives in both the private and public sectors across many verticals including: healthcare, information technology, government, management consulting and manufacturing. Karla advocates for the value project management methodologies can bring to organizations who aim to be adaptive, customer-centric and transparent. Through her pragmatic management style, Karla transforms strategic ideas into action plans and leads teams to successful delivery of their project goals.

As head of ecentricarts, Keith Durrant has provided strategic advice to a variety of B2B, B2C, and Not-for-profit clients.  His expertise in marketing and knack for discovering client needs has enabled him to develop impactful, award-winning digital solutions for over 20  years. Ecentricarts’ portfolio includes Scotiabank, BellMedia, Shred-it, Diabetes Canada, and software partnerships with Kentico, Epi, and inRiver.

Agenda:

6:00 PM - Doors Open / Registration / Networking
6:00 PM - 6:50 PM - Warm Dinner / Open Bar
6:50 PM - 6:55 PM - Opening Remarks and Welcome
7:00 - 7:25 PM - Presentation - Ann Sutton
7:30 - 7:55 PM - Presentation - Karla Klein
8:00 - 8:25 PM - Presentation - Keith Durrant
8:25 PM - 8:30 PM - Closing Remarks and Thank You
8:35 PM - 9:00 PM - Networking / Dessert / Open Bar

PMI-SOC Members (login prior to registering) - $30.97
Non-Members and Guests - $39.82 

PDUs: 2.0 (1.00 Strategic/0.75 Leadership/ 0.25 Technical)

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Cancellations must be received by 5:00 pm, 5 business days before the event and must be sent in writing by email to events@soc.pmi.on.ca. There will be a 20% administration fee charged for cancellations, subtracted from the refund. Cancellation/refund requests will not be accepted less than 5 business days before the event. However, substitutions are welcome. Please let us know by 12:00 noon the day before the event of the person you wish to substitute by emailingevents@soc.pmi.on.ca.

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