It has been quite a while that i was presenting at a conference. February 2009 at the PMI Congress in Kuala Lumpur. Now this years first presentation is about a chapter in my new book ‘Kompendium fuer ITIL V3 Projekte‘ released as the 2nd edition in January 2010.
Within this book we are talking about a model that we have identified and developed to visualise complexity, put the complexity into context and be able to adapt measures that help you in your day to day life as a project manager.
How ever, I will talk about this Model in a future Blog Post. At this point in time I would like to refer to the video taken and the slides presented. Please see below and feel free to comment on the model and the approach itself.
To do that you need to be capable in understanding German as a language.

And here are the slides:

Currently I am preparing a presentation for this years interPM conference in Glashuetten (small little town close to Frankfurt). The topic is something about Risk / Complexity and how to identify, measure, manage and communicate it.

How ever, as I perceive, Germany is still a little behind using real time social media as part of their events like conferences. You do not see many people in the audience with a Laptop, iPhone or other devices to real time blog or tweet (using twitter) about the presentation or event. There are some geeks out there doing this. Thomas Witt (@thomas_witt, blog at www.thomas-witt.com) is one of them as he recently tweeted from the TEDx event in Berlin (#TEDxBerlin).

So I am thinking of making twitter in integral part of my presentation and my slides. What I am thinking of is using that kind of approach and functionality for …

• Receive feedback from the audience based on a predefined hashtag
• Real time voting and polls
• Auto Twitter the slide and notes you are currently presenting on

All this of course is dependent on three things …

• Public WiFi or LAN in the room and Laptop connected to it
• Critical Number of people in the room with a mobile device like Laptop, iPhone, RIM and others
• and of course the Plug-ins for Powerpoint

I can’t really influence the first two. Hope is my only method :-) How ever, the last bullet I am able to influence and therefore I was looking for tools and plug-ins to be able to make that functionality part of my presentation. So I stumbled upon the plug-ins from Timo Elliot, an evangelist for SAP. He has developed some pretty neat tools and Shockwave Plug-Ins for Powerpoint that allow you to exactly to do what I was looking for.

1) Receive feedback from the audience based on a predefined hashtag

The plug-in provides the capability to provide real time tweets based on hash tags (#) and usernames (@), you can configure the format (bubbles or boxes), the refresh rate in seconds, special custom feeds (great for search terms outside the average hash tag approach and you can manual refresh the page.

So if you introduce a specific hash tag at the beginning of your presentation (eg. #TKOinterPM, make sure you make it shorter than I just did) and let people tweet during your presentation you can show the audience what the audience has tweeted about your presentation.

That’s how the page could look like (used the #pmot hashtag for ‘Project Managers on Twitter’)

2) Real time voting and polls

You can ask specific questions and have people vote for one or the other answer. If you really want to have your ass kicked ask how the audience liked your presentation. It could go from ‘lame’ via ‘average’ to ‘autostanding’ or whatever you choose. Here is how it works:

Choose a hashtag for the voting like #voteTJKinterPM and than ask the audience to put a number up in front their tweet representing the vote. Like ‘1 i really like your presentation #voteTJKinterPM’ or ‘1 #voteTJKinterPM’. Wait a couple of seconds depending on the internet speed and show up the slides with the results.

Here is how the result could look like:

3) Auto Twitter the slide and notes you are currently presenting on

If you want to tweet life updates of your presentation, you just need to put <twitter> and </twitter> in your notes page before and after the text you want to be tweeted on twitter. This should be either a small summary of your page or the key facts. You can configure that functionality by connecting to your twitter account and provide the hash tag you want to be connected with your tweets. That allows you to use different hash tags for different presentations with the same slides.

Here is how the configuration screen looks like:

Summary

What a fantastic way to interact with your audience and use the real time social media functionality that changed our world of communication and interaction with others in the recent past. What i explained in this post is one way how YOU could enhance this ‘Game Changer’ to enhance your way of communicating with your audience. Go ahead and try.

Downloads and further information (Thanks to Timo Elliot):

• More detailed Instructions you can find here.
• The Powerpoint Plug-in can be downloaded here.

What do you think? How will these options enhance your way of communication and interaction with your audience? Please comment !

Yesterday I attended a presentation session, organized by the GPM (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projekt Management), called “Agiles SW-Projektmangement - Ist Softwareprojektmanagement ohne agile Techniken und Werte noch verantwortbar?”, which basically means weather you can ‘afford’ to do Software Development Projects without using Agile Apporaches. Presented by Dipl.-Ing. Bernd Oestereich, Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter oose Innovative Informatik GmbH, based in Hamburg. The outline says:

Aktuelle Studien zeigen, dass agile Methoden wie Scrum, APM und XP sich immer mehr verbreiten. Ebenso bedienen sich auch viele traditionelle Projektmanager immer systematischer bei den vielen einzelnen Techniken aus dem agilen PM. Was dafür sorgt, dass die Übergänge fließend werden.
Statistiken von Standish, Gartner & Co. in den letzten Jahren zunehmend mehr erfolgreichere SW-Projekte ausweisen, so sind die absoluten Zahlen doch weiterhin unbefriedigend. Als ein entscheidender Unterschied zwischen erfolgreichen und weniger erfolgreichen Projekten wird immer wieder das so genannte agile PM angeführt.
Trotzdem ist Agilität kein Allheilmittel. Eine aktuelle gemeinsame Studie von GPM, PMI und oose zu den Erfolgsfaktoren agiler Projekte belegt, dass weniger die Wahl einer Methode wie Scrum, APM etc. erfolgsentscheidend ist, sondern das richtige Verständnis und die richtige Anwendung weniger ausgewählter Konzepte und Techniken. Welche das sind und vor allem, was das bedeutet, stellt Bernd Oestereich in seinem Vortrag dar.

Bottom Line, you should look at Agile Approaches and decide which one could work in your project, like making small iterations rather than slow motion waterfall and other approaches.

Great presentation with lots of facts. I was sitting in the audience and used a different type to minute that presentation. I used twitter to highlight the key messages. Here is the stream:

1. Attending GPM presentation in Frankfurt on agile software project management. Keen. Will start soon.
2. Interesting study results are presented. Agile vs waterfall - succesful vs unsuccessful.
3. It’s all about applying the right agile technics to the approach you are using for your software project.
4. Iterations are short and sweet. Average 4 weeks and certain technics (planning, retrospective, etc.) are to be applied.
5. Changes are welcome in agile. Requirements are designed, developed and presented to customer. Achievements secured.
6. Milestone vs timebox. Deliver a scope or deliver a timebox (things achieved in a certain timeframe).
7. Project level followed by release level followed by team- and iteration level incl feedback loops and propability questioning.
8. From project target via product features via release features and iteration features to the word order.
9. Now we see an example where agile methods have been applied. Container terminal software project in hamburg.
10. Explaining the apm-timebox-iteration-modell. Wow, what a slide @presentationzen wouldn’t like this one.
11. Question on costs. Agile more expensive but higher quality, higher likelihood to be successful, customer receives what expected.
12. Q&A almost over. Question on who would apply the approaches presented … Small number of hands. How ever, great pres.

Interesting way of floowing a presentation and stepping into a discussions with followers on Twitter. Looking forward to the next session.

After almost two weeks I have returned from Kuala Lumpur attending and presenting at the PMI Global Congress for Aisa Pacific. What a great experience.

Thanks to the PMI Team putting this great Congress together. Thanks to SK for taking us on a tour, thanks to Tim for the great accompany, thanks for Robert for the great feedback on my first run of the Risk Management Workshop and thanks to everybody attending my two sessions. It has been a pleasure presenting in fron of you, it has been a pleasure to see your participation and it has been a pleasure to share so much expertise during the hours we spent together. Also thanks to everybody for their keenness to receive the slides and the templates.

First of all the slides. You can click through them right here or download them from the slideshare.net website. The templates will be emailed to the ones that have dropped me their business card. Feel free to comment in this post I like to hear your comments about this Congress.

There is a guy called Matt, travelling around the world attracting and convincing people to dance with him in front of famous places and locations. Some of you might have seen this video that is the outcome of his journey. Viewed by almost 30 Million people there are some key lessons we can learn from the “Making of …”.
Watch the video first.

In the following Video below Matt describes the “Making of” in 5 minutes and 15 slides. He is explaining how he started the idea, how it developed and how he was able with the help of his girlfriend to attract people all over the world to dance with him. He planned it all upfront and found models for different cultures and age groups. He also explains why the second take was always the good one.

And then see what happens after his presentation … Unbelievable.

It shows how things can be planned in advance with a different, intelligent and creative approach and how a great outcome can be presented as a video plus in a short presentation.

Again, a week ago we had our November PMI Chapter Meeting for the Queensland Chapter and again a great speaker with some new ideas. This time we didn’t focus on the classic areas of project management but looked at relationships in projects and how the could impact the success and risk of project failure.
Graham Scott, the presenter, is an Organisational Psychologist with Masters qualifications. Prior to studying Psychology Graham worked in the Construction Industry at trade and Management levels. For the past thirteen years Graham has being working in Projects mostly in recovery around “communication” and “people issues”. Graham is running the company ORG consulting and can be reached via www.orgconsulting.com.au.
Graham is such an expiring inspiring speaker and gave a lot of examples, even by looking at the NASA Columbia and Challenger disasters to talk about effective relationships and how they could impact the project.
The presentation highlighted the need for effective management of relationships in projects. It covered relationships from a risk management perspective and showed how to develop a rigorous planned approach that will impact on delivery outcomes through effective group dynamics, interface management and good leadership methodologies.

Enjoy the video

and the slides

Almost a week ago, we had our October 2008 PMI Queensland Chapter Meeting. Beside several announcements from the Board and the successful pilot of the Evening Discussion Groups we had Matthew Tati, a Project Manager at Flight Centre, talking about Project Management at Flight Centre.

Especially questions around how IT and the projects engage with the business, how they obtain the resources required as well as some interesting benchmarks around their PMO are provided.

Whatch his interesting presentation here and see the slides below

and the slides

 PMIQ Chapter Meeting - October 2008: Download

As i mentioned  in my keynote at the Project Risk Management conference this year, the world is changing, its becoming more complex and we have to stay on top, as project managers and individuals, to be able to ’survive’ and to be ’successful’ in that environment. 

Paola Antonelli, a MOMA design curator and a presenter at the famous ‘TED - Ideas worth spreading‘ events, held a presentation about “Design and the Elastic Mind” in December 2007 and it just got posted on the Ted.com website. The abstract reads like this:

MOMA design curator Paola Antonelli walks through the groundbreaking show “Design and the Elastic Mind” — full of ideas, products and designs that reflect the multi-tasking, quickly shifting way we think now. 

Watch the video here or go to the ted.com website.

After explaining the approach and the difficulties I have faced by compiling one of my first keynotes, today it’s about to share the video and the slides for that very keynote at the IQPC Project Risk Management Conference late September 2008.

Looking back, what went well:

• The new slide concept (PresentationZen) worked out fine and was appropriate for the event. However, far more effort could have gone into it as not all the great features have been used and applied nor even tried.

• 120 slides fit into 40 minutes and still some Q&A time at the end.

• I felt very comfortable with the story line even if it is not my strongest habit.

• I loved the opportunity (Thanks to IQPC), I loved presenting in front of a great audience, I loved to take myself out of my comfort zone.

What didn’t go so well

• Even if I felt comfortable with the story line, I am not an expert in the field of why “The world is flat” and “The inconvenient truth”, therefore all the great stories that Thomas Friedman and Al Gore as the Authors of these fantastic books could and have to share are not in my repertoire and I can’t talk for years about these things. A headline, some side lines and that was it.
  Lessons learnt: You need to be ready for a topic, otherwise do not present.

• I spent a long time in front of Power Point to produce the slide set. After three days, I couldn’t see Power Point anymore.
  Lessons learnt: Take your time or delegate. Garr Reynolds (PresentationZen) says, if the presentation is important its worth doing, so go for it.

• The topic wasn’t probably the one that the crowd expected by looking at the program and the conference is a boutique conference and not a ‘real’ one with hundreds of participants.
  Lessons learnt: Do real keynotes just at a real keynote occasion.

• My conclusions “What does that mean for us as Project Managers” have been thought through, however, I could have worked more on them, but I ran out of time.
  Lessons learnt: Finish you storyline to the end and put all the effort in, don’t stop 200 meters before the finish line (if you do a marathon).

What do you think? How did I go? What would you do different?

 The Critical Value of Project Risk Management: Download

As I recently compiled a presentation for the IQPC Project Risk Management Conference I applied (tried to) some new concepts around the slides to be presented. My former slides all have been bullet point heavy and i was able to cover most of the content in 10 to 15 slides.

I wanted to do slides differently for a long time and just waited for a reason.

So i bought a number of books in the last 2 years, and “PresentationZen” from Garr Reynolds was spot on. In this post though i do not want to look at the whole book I just want to talk about the experience to put a presentation based on the described approach together.

How ever Garr is describes beside others (Handout as PDF) the following concept in his book:

Reduce the text on your slides to an absolute minimum. The best slides may have no text at all.

This may sound insane given the dependency of text slides today, but the best PowerPoint slides will be virtually meaningless with out the narration (that is you). Remember, the slides are suppose to support/supplement the narration of the speaker, not make the speaker superfluous. Yes, it is true that many people often say something like this: “Sorry I missed your presentation, Steve. I hear it was great. Can you just send me your PowerPoint slides?” Well, you could. But if they are good slides, they may be of little use without you.

As a result by having more than 50 slides, you need to find and identify 50 pictures that support a specific message. The picture has to be found, embedded, adjusted, cropped and referred to. All this might take time.

Garr recommends iStockphoto which is a service where you can ‘buy’ pictures to use for that reason, which might become a very expensive exercise if you need to buy 50 pictures. Another option is to use flickr and use the advanced search and narrowing the search to “creative-commons-licensed-content”. Most of the pictures can be used for non commercial approaches.

So I used that approach for my presentation / keynote to be prepared:

• I ended up 3 days in front of Powerpoint (after I put together my story line and the key messages I wanted to get across, so this time is not factored in the 3 days).
• I used 120 slides for a 45 minutes presentation
• after 3 days I couldn’t see Powerpoint nor my computer anymore