Arrivederci Roma! The USA scored our largest attendence in four years of World Congresses, with speakers and participants who enjoyed a well-managed, splendidly hosted (by ANIMP, the Italy Member Association of IPMA) 22nd IPMA World Congress in Rome, Italy, November 9-11. Not since the Budapest Congress, when asapm showed up en masse in our denim asapm shirts, have we seen so many of our people! In the photo above, we see the USA contingent (and friends) singing New York, New York.
The packed agenda included a stellar Young Crew event, a meeting of Nations-To-Nations Forum (N2N), great pre- and post-Congress sessions and events (more in Topic 8, below, on that), plus dozens of IPMA committee and group meetings. In all, a masterful job organizing and coordinating this complex project. Our thanks and congratulations go to Congress Chair Luigi Iperti, Project Manager PierMarco Romagnoli, President of the Scientific Committee Roberto Mori, our transportation hero and friend Ugo Forghieri, and many many other volunteers. Thanks! And, Luigi promises a list of Lessons Learned, so future IPMA Congresses can leverage Roma's successes.
World Congress highlights include a packed schedule of streams, each with compelling topics and speakers, plus the opportunity to network with old and new friends between sessions. My Judgement: Rome matched the elegance of Shanghai, and the spirit of Delhi (sadly, we missed Crakow).
 Sessions: The keynotes were great, including an appearance by Stanley Bing, at right, the long-anonymous writer, first for Esquire, then Fortune magazine. Stanley (Gil) spoke on the Rise and Fall of the First Multinational Corporation (the Roman Empire).
As a Stream Chair, I saw many of the papers I judged during August and September. Our speakers were great, and one session, by Krys Markowski and Stefan Czsoz, earned an Outstanding Presentation award; we especially liked the way they choreographed two presenters; they also adapted references to the prior day's keynotes into their presentation. Great job!
I had an unheralded opportunity to speak three times, once with asapm member Leanthia Lewis' paper, Risk Management For Development Projects In The Public Sector (in Developing Countries), and once with Howard Nutt in Collaboration and Competences in Business Development. But that is only two.
What do you do when a speaker fails to show? I improvised, and facilitated the audience in a round-table discussion of the original speaker's topic, related to Risk Management Practices. Nobody left, so that was a useful (if recursive) Risk Response.
Evening Events: One of the things that helps IPMA stand out from other organizations is the strong sense of the IPMA Family, a "happy place" to visit, make friends, and collaborate after the Congress "day events". The evening sessions are always a high-point for IPMA Congresses, and Roma continues the trend. The Rome Opera house and its highly-animated conductor, plus splendid Opera singers, competed with the Salone delle Fontane (no, we did not go into the fountains) and lively entertainment for best of show; I'll just say that both were splendid.
A highlight of the Farewell party at Salone was the Countries Songs, a singing competition organized by our Danish friend Morten Fangel. We originally planned to sing Clementine. We described this to the crowd as a PM lesson: the difference between knowledge and competence; both knew the water was dangerous, but neither was competent at swimming, so she died. David Pells instead proposed that we start with Clementine, then cut into New York, New York. Demonstrating characteristic project agility, we took our crowd outside to rehearse (perfecting our change control). David's suggestion was rewarded when the entire audience joined in as we kicked off New York New York! Thanks, David!
Exhibitors: An interesting accomodation for the Exhibitors (thank you!) had all traffic going through the Exhibit area. Because the Stream sessions were in a different area from the Keynotes, and the break areas were different yet, the Vendors saw a lot more traffic than past events (I did consistently get lost, though). IPMA World Congress Exhibitors with a presence in the USA included ESI International and Primavera Systems. Thanks to these Exhibitors for supporting this World Congress!
Unlike many other conferences, IPMA World Congresses tend to attract more experienced PM practitioners and decision-makers. That is just one of the reasons we enjoy them so much. We have attended so many other "congresses" where everybody there is a newcomer to the profession, and most speakers are describing discoveries we applied over 20 years ago. So forgive us if we "gush" a bit about IPMA Roma 2008. We really enjoyed it!
In all, IPMA's Roma Congress was a wonderful event; but I guess we'll have to return again to Bella Roma, if only to figure out why "goodbye" (arrivederci, which means "until we meet again") begins with "arrive"!
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