With over 150 international attendees, the Global Project Management Conference 2016 held at Lawrence Technical University in Southfield Michigan on May 13 & 14th of this year brought together internationally recognized experts from Australia, China, Germany, India, the United States and United Kingdom.
Project Management Consulting firm orbitak International LLC, hosted
over 35 students and high ranking industry representatives from VW, Ford, GM and Siemens, the attendees were as varied in range, experience and demographic as the topics covered.
From project management on the local scale for Detroit, to international aspects of Project Management, the attendees were especially pleased with the wide range of presentation subjects.
Conference moderator, Dr. Thomas Baumann, CEO and President of orbitak International LLC kicked off the event and then later lead panel discussions on industry initiatives and global project business demands, while speakers from IPMA-USA and universities shared how they are collaborate with industry on project management competencies.
Keynote Speaker, Irene Spanos, Director of Oakland County’s Office of Economic Development and Community Affairs explained the counties global strategy. Next, Architect Dan Kinkead of Detroit Future City mapped out the goals and attained creative projects of the organization.
Other stand out speakers included Dr. Mary McKinlay (IPMA), Chris Svensson (Ford), and Dr. Gerhard Roth, (via live stream on Skype).
The panels were made up of internationally recognized experts from USA, China, India, Germany, UK and Australia and addressed the topics of successful project management in their countries, establishing successful global teams, stress and burn out in a global project world, and improving quality in global projects and portfolio management.
Issues covered were establishing successful global teams, stress and burn out in a global project world, and improving quality in global projects, and portfolio management. Executives from Brose, Durr, Hella, Ford Motor Company, and Volkswagen Group of America discussed mastering various aspects of global project management and shared best practices from a company perspective.
Maximilian Doyen, Consultant of Orbitak International LLC and part of the conference planning committee, stated, “I believe the conference went very well; sometimes events spanning over multiple days on one topic can exhaust the theme way before the event is over. By having a broader approach to topics, all under the PM-roof, many interests and topics could be covered.”
Plentiful and well presented, continental breakfasts and buffet lunches were presented by the venue itself with a dinner and networking that followed the first evening.
Though this was the pilot year for the Global Project Management Conference, Orbitak has conducted other Project Management conferences in 2011 in Ann Arbor, 2007 in Bremen, Germany, Frankfurt, Germany in 2008 and this year in Cologne, Germany.
There is no event planned for next year at this time, however, currently attendees are providing feedback on how often they would like such an event to occur.
orbitak is located in Bingham Farms, Michigan, and has affiliates in Germany, India, China, UK, Brazil and Russia. Their website is www.usa.orbitak.com
For a full look at the conference details, the website still may be listed at http://usa2016.kmfest.com.