2010 Project Management in Canada Conference and PMAC Annual General Meeting

Toronto (PMAC) 11 Dec 2010 -- We had another successful PMAC-AGPC annual general meeting in Toronto. As usual, we combined the event with an education opportunity: the 2010 Project Management in Canada Conference which gathered together some of the best project management speakers representing a broad spectrum of industries.

One highlight of the event was the inaugural Canadian Project Management Book Awards which saw submissions in three categories aligned with the Canadian Project Management National Competence Baseline (CPMNCB) . Winners included Bill Richardson's Thinking on Purpose for Project Managers: Outsmarting Evolution for the Behavioural Competence category; Leading Global Project Teams: The New Leadership Challenge by Russ Martinelli, Tim Rahschulte, and James Waddell in the Technical Competence category; and Agile Leadership and the Management of Change: Winston Churchill and the Battle of Britain which not only won the Contextual Competence category, but was also awarded the 2010 Canadian Project Management Book of the Year.

Alex Jalalian, PMAC Director of Awards, presenting the award to author Mark Kozak-Holland

Another highlight was the awarding of the 2010 PMAC Volunteer of the Year Award to Snehal Shah for his eager willingness to help out in many volunteer activities for the association, including managing the member newsletter, and his instrumental role in putting together our membership package.

Three excellent speakers provided the educational content for the event:

Bill Richardson presenting "Thinking On Purpose for Project Managers: Outsmarting Evolution," a fascinating presentation on the need for project managers to consciously take back control of their autonomic thinking processes and to learn how to reframe their thinking to resolve many common project management issues.

Mark Kozak-Holland presenting "Learning from the Past: An Overview of the History of Project Management," a repeat of his webinar that was awarded PMAC's 2010 Project Management Webinar of the Year award at this event.

Kevin Aguanno presenting "Using Project Shaping to Optimize Your Results," a session that challenged some common thinking on how to approach creating a project plan.

In addition to the excellent project management educational opportunities, we also held our 2010 Annual General Meeting. At that portion of the event, we passed all of the motions that had been put forth to the membership for voting, as well as reelecting the two Directors whose positions were up for renewal plus we elected a new Director: Glen Sabatier.

We also received the good news in our financial reports from Grant Kerr, our Treasurer; a certification update from Morley Selver, our Director of Certification and Chair of our Certification Body; an update on our Awards program from Alex Jalalian, our Director of Awards; and our professional development activities for the year from Kevin Aguanno, our Director of Professional Development. Absent from the event was our outgoing president, Beverly Pasian, though we presented her president's report at the meeting.

Morley Selver presenting his certification report

Grant Kerr presenting the treasurer's report

Kevin Aguanno presenting his report on professional development activities

As per our governance policies, Beverly Pasian will now move to the position of Past President, retaining a position on the Board of Directors for one more year, while Kevin Aguanno (formerly holding the Vice President position) will take over her role as President. Alex Jalalian was elected as Vice President by our membership and will now take on that role.

Our sponsor Multi-Media Publications Inc. brought a large selection of highly-discounted project management books for our members to purchase at the event.