Registration received After May 1

Member:       $525 per day (Thurs or Fri)Member:       $950 both days (Thurs & Fri)

Non-member: $575 per day (Thurs or Fri)Non-member: $1050 both days (Thurs&Fri)

Carol Evans - Keynote Speaker
President and CEO, Working Mother Media and Working Mother Magazine           

Carol Evans is the founder and CEO of Working Mother Media (WMM). Ms. Evans' history with Working Mother Media has been a long and illustrious one.  From 1979 through 1989, Carol took the advertising revenue of Working Mother Magazine from $100,000 to more than $14 Million, expanded circulation from 100,000 Quarterly to 700,000 Monthly, and launched such initiatives as: Working Mother 100 Best Companies, now in its 22 year. In 2001, Carol bought Working Mother Magazine, Work Life Congress, and the National Association of Female Executives, creating what is now Working Mother Media. In January of 2007, after purchasing Diversity Best Practices, Working Mother Media became the largest US media company focusing on diversity, work life balance, and culture change.  WMM also publishes several well known and respected lists, such as: Best Companies for Multicultural Women, Best Companies for Women of Color, NAFE top 30 companies for Executive Women, and Best Law Firms for Women.  Carol’s first award winning book, This Is How We Do It: The Working Mothers’ Manifesto, was published and released in April 2006.  She is a highly acclaimed keynote speaker on the subject of work-life balance, the advancement of women, barriers facing women of color, and leadership, and has appeared on every major talk show including The Early Show, The Today Show, Oprah, Good Morning America, Montel Williams, PBS’ To the Contrary and on hundreds of radio shows and in newspapers nationwide.

KEYNOTE TOPIC:  This is How We Do It: The Working Mothers’ Manifesto

In this talk Carol Evans shares from her research of the experiences of 500 working mothers, the wisdom of nearly 3 Million Working Mother Magazine readers, the practices of the highly competitive 100 Best Companies list, and her own personal strategies.

As a result of this research, you will learn specific, innovative, tried and true solutions of how working mothers across the country successfully balance family and career.  By creating a network of working women within your community, you will learn how to ask for and get what you need and companies will better learn how to provide it. 

This session will help you to transition from a work life to a life that works.

Laurie Ford, Ph.D.
President, Critical Path Consultants

Patricia Shafer
President, Compel Organizational Excellence Alliance, Ltd

Patricia Shafer is president of Compel Organizational Excellence Alliance, Ltd., dedicated to Evoking Courageous Leadership.  Shafer specializes in four practice areas: inspiring leaders, mentoring multinationals, empowering women, and transforming technology.  In 2005, Patricia was a contributing author to the best selling business book Enlightened Power: How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership.  In 2006, Patricia led the global research initiative - The World at Work: Men and Women Managers Tell Us What's Changed and What Still Needs to Change in Organizations, and in 2007 she co-authored The Women in Technology 2007 Report.

SESSION TOPIC:  POWERFUL and CONNECTED: An Interactive Workshop on Women Transforming the Future Through Project Management

Project management is central to the success of 21^st century organizations.  Women have become essential to project management, leadership, and teamwork. Never before have women influenced so many complex organizational networks of information, relationships, and tasks. But what does the future hold? This three-part, interactive workshop and dialogue will answer this question and empower you to demonstrate a new level of courageous leadership in project management.

Based on Patricia Shafer’s research and work, she has conducted this workshop for thousands of women in mid-level and senior project roles. You will learn how the increasing importance of communication, connection, collaboration, participation, relationships and “meaning creation” are essential to achieving project success. The "Powerful and Connected" workshop goes right to the heart of this matter. 

Part One, “A Call to Women for Transformation” begins with an overview of global forces that are pressing for a new style of project management particularly suited to women’s ways of managing and leading. But seeing possibility is just one step; getting in action and overcoming personal and organizational blocks is another.

Part Two, “Tapping My Own Deeper Power” acknowledges messages women receive every day about how much “power” they do or don’t have.  It will give you tools you can use to more confidently influence your surroundings.

In Part Three, “Getting Connected: Becoming a Collective Force” you will participate in an exercise to help you more effectively align with other women (and men) to become a leader of positive change. You will leave the workshop with renewed energy and specific steps to take back to your job, which will empower and assist you to make a difference in the “real world”.

Donna James
Managing Director, Lardon & Associates LLC
Past President of Nationwide Strategic Investments
On the Board of Coca Cola Enterprises and Limited Brands

Plenty of hard work, combined with her superior business and entrepreneurial skills, enabled Donna James, once a single, teenage mother, to climb the corporate ladder to become the first African American women executive at Nationwide, one of the country’s largest insurance and financial services companies.  During her tenure at Nationwide, Donna was VP of Human Resources, Executive Vice President of Nationwide Insurance and Financial Services, as well as President of Nationwide Strategic Investments.  Holding those positions enabled Donna to advocate and initiate programs for diversity throughout the corporate world.  Currently Donna James is the managing director of Lardon & Associates LLC and corporate director for three Fortune 500 Public companies including Coca Cola Enterprises, Limited Brands, and Conseco Inc.  In 2005, Donna James was named by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the top 75 African Americans in Corporate America.  Donna is an excellent motivational speaker for business and non-business related groups.

KEYNOTE TOPIC: Turning Points

Donna James talk, Turning Points, is drawn from the personal experiences, triumphs, set-backs, and lessons learned from her life.  In spite of, or because of pressures coming from all sides, she strove for and accomplished a balance between motherhood and personal life, and being a highly effective and respected corporate executive.  She overcame the odds!  In the male dominated insurance industry she rose to prominence as a woman, and an African American woman at that.

Donna will share many of her practical life lessons shaped by her corporate experiences: how she overcame what for many were showstoppers, to rise to the top in her career and mentor others to far succeed their own career expectations.

Today Ms. James is living a life of purpose.  You will be inspired as Donna shares her power and her passion for making a difference for others through philanthropy and the vision she continually brings into reality as founder of the Center for Healthy Families. 

Susan Hall
Vice President, Transformation Consultants International Inc.

Susan Hall is Vice President of Consulting at Transformational Consultants International Inc.  With over 20 years of experience, Mrs. Hall’s expertise lies in strategic planning, global and domestic diversity, high performance team building, and communications.  Susan is a highly sought after consultant and coach for executives and high-level managers for the development and expansion of their managerial and leadership skills.  In addition, Susan is a highly skilled Birkman consultant and is one of a few individuals certified at Level II by Birkman International Inc.

SESSION TOPIC:  Creating Powerful, High Performance Teams

As project managers, we are all used to working in and usually leading a team, or are we?  In this presentation, we will differentiate between groups of people working toward a common purpose and those that function as a TEAM.  You will learn the characteristics that differentiate groups from TEAMS, and the benefits possible for TEAMS that are not available for groups.  Using a four step developmental process, you will follow the creation of a highly effective TEAM, from Forming, through Storming and Norming, to Performing. 

Throughout this four step process, and in virtually everything that we do with others, you will see that one critical factor is communication.  By examining a general communication model, you will learn how to have your communications work for you.

Finally, we’ll look at team members themselves and how our behavioral styles dictate our strengths and orientations.  Through an interesting exercise, you will see your own behavioral style and how you naturally act and react.

BOTTOM LINE …you will leave this presentation with the insight and tools you can use to transform your project team into a highly effective and performing TEAM.

Rose Mary Tyler / Lisa Foster
President, Women In Project Management SIG, Project Management Institute

Rose Mary Tyler, PMP has over 20 years experience in IT and project management, and is employed at Electronic Data Systems as a Senior Project Manager.  Her passion is project management which she promotes both within EDS in her project manager role, as well as in the Project Management Institute(PMI) as a volunteer leader.  Currently Rose is Chair of the PMI Women in Project Management Specific Interest Group which has 3000+ members across the globe.  She is also a member of PMI's advisory group for virtual community transformation.  Rose is also active in the PMI Great Lakes Chapter.

Lisa Foster, PMP has over 20 years experience in IT and project/program management and is employed at Electronic Data Systems as a Senior Program Manager.  Lisa is a member of the Women in Technology Mentoring Program at Walsh College where she also teaches project management courses as an Adjunct Instructor.  As a member of the American Association of University Women, Lisa conducts the annual Explorathon workshop for the AAUW-Birmingham Michigan chapter; which encourages girls in middle school to stay in the math and sciences.  Lisa is also active in both the PMI Great Lakes Chapter and the PMI Women in Project Management SIG.

SESSION TOPIC:  We've Come a Long Way, Baby: Women Make Great Business Leaders! 

  As the old VirginiaSlims Cigarette ad campaign used to say, "You've Come a Long Way, Baby!"  Women have, in fact, come a long way in being accepted as great leaders and a significant force in today's world economy.  Who ever thought Fortune Magazine would have an annual issue devoted to the top female leaders in business?  Ditto to the realm of world politics-who ever thought the U.S. would have a woman running for president in 2008?  There are even cable TV stations dedicated to the women's market.  But in spite of validation that the female gender is powerful, a lot of old attitudes and questions still haunt women in many industries and occupations, including our beloved project management profession.  Is leadership really impacted by gender differences?  Does displaying emotions undermine you as a leader?  Can women be wives, mothers, and leaders at the same time and be successful in all of those roles?  Is the proverbial "glass ceiling" finally developing cracks?

This presentation will provide you with some insight into several key points about gender stereotypes, leadership traits, challenges in our project management profession, and what we can do to transform ourselves into great leaders in all of the roles we perform.

From this presentation you will:

    *    Learn why and how networking and mentoring can be your greatest asset
    *    Be able to identify key characteristics of a good leader
    *    Identify the resources you have that can make a difference in your personal and professional life
    *    Gain increased awareness of gender differences in the field of project management and how to 
          make best use of those differences  

Anne Donnellon
Associate Professor of Management at Babson College
Faculty Associate of Babson's Center for Women's Leadership

Dr. Donnellon is an Associate Professor of Management at Babson College and a faculty associate of Babson's Center for Women’s Leadership.  She teaches leadership, negotiation, teamwork, and organizational design in the MBA and executive education programs.  Anne authored Team Talk: The Power of Language in Team Dynamics, published by Harvard Business School Press and also developed with them an interactive corporate training product entitled Teams That Work.  Dr. Donnellon has also taught at Harvard Business School and the University of Colorado.  Her areas of expertise include leadership and influence, negotiation and conflict management, teamwork, and organizational change.

SESSION TOPIC:  Negotiation

 Project management is perhaps one of the most underappreciated roles in today's companies.  The organizational ability, discipline, and operational intensity that undergird this work are critical to organizational effectiveness, but too often project managers are not recognized for the value they are creating at their firms.  Sometimes this is because a PM may prefer to stay under the radar and let others take the glory, sometimes the PM does not get recognition because she takes on too much of the work herself, sometimes it is because a PM doesn't know or take advantage of the power she can have in influencing people over whom she has no authority.  All of these limit the responsibility, recognition, and resources potentially available to the PM.

In this session, we will focus on key negotiation concepts that will help you improve your project management practices and enable you to negotiate more effectively for yourself.  Through this presentation, case discussions, and roleplays, you will learn and practice techniques for creating value through negotiation and allow you to claim your fair share - in both professional and personal settings.