On May 17-18, 2010, the Project Management Association of Canada challenged project managers to think about their career growth in terms of developing competence rather than just accumulating PDUs. PMAC had a booth at the annual ProjectWorld Toronto conference, attended by about 1,200 people this year. The annual conference brings together PM thought leaders, industry, and the practitioner community in a week-long event, two days of which make up the public symposium. This year, PMAC had a booth at the event promoting the association's competence and agile PM certifications, as well as the new Canadian National Project Awards.

PMAC Director of Awards, Alex Jalalian, and PMAC Vice President, Kevin Aguanno,
manning the booth. Photo taken by PMAC Director Keith Farndale.

In addition to long discussions with many project managers who stopped by the booth, PMAC Vice President Kevin Aguanno was also featured in a panel discussion that closed out the symposium, titled "There is NO value in certification!" in which he agreed that knowledge-based certifications like the PMP have become too common, eroding their value, while employers are looking for something else that distinguishes the "good" PMs: competence certifications.

The PM community showed a lot of interest in PMAC, with even PMI SIGs asking for details and requesting that PMAC hold a presentation for their members on competence certification.

In a related move, the PMAC has reached a preliminary agreement in principle with the hosts of the ProjectWorld Toronto conference to have our annual Canadian National Project Awards hosted at next year's event. More details will follow on this exciting development.