Day Two of the 2009 PMI EMEA Global Congress.

After tweeting almost the entire time at PMI’s Leadership Institute Meeting we started at the Global Congress yesterday. Unfortunately the service is weak and expensive, so I’ve fallen behind in my posts.

Some quick Agile highlights….

The most significant event at PMI’s GC this year (IMHO) was the Agile Pecha Kucha sessions. This has been a long time coming and I hope we see a lot more of it. For those who are unfamiliar, the format is 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide. So, rather than watching someone read slides to you for 60 minutes. He now get to watch a much more vibrant presentation in 6:40 seconds. The style also focuses heavily on slides featuring large images or small amount of tax. The lightweight slide format forces the presenter to carry the show instead of the other way around. This is an alternative that has been greatly needed for some time at PMI Congress and Leadership events. With each of the presentations focusing on Agile it made the sessions even more cutting edge. While Agile is certainly not new in the technology space it still represents an innovative approach for the traditional project management crowd. There were four agile sessions over all during Global Congress. Each of them was well attended and the information presented was well received. The last agile session of the Congress was a roundtable discussion featuring Juliette Andrew from EMC, Mattias Petrén from Leadway and PMI Sweden, Excella Consultant and PMI Agile Forum Founder, Jesse Fewell and myself with Bob Tarne, IT&T SIG VP of PR and former Chair as moderator. We had a great crowd with some lively discussion. There is a definite spark within the PMI Community that is picking up on Agile as an important way of adding to the toolset that enables you to solve project problems.

Quote of the day: “It’s really easy to pick the Agile people out in the crowd. They are the ones who don’t look stressed out.”

There is a lot more to tell, but I have to head downstairs for the Taste of Holland reception.