Where is the urgency?

 

As we enter the holiday season, I sense a note of waiting. Many appear to not know where we are going, or for that matter, where we want to go.


I've been going to conferences, and a little further down I'll show you what we've got planned for your Construction CPM Conference, which is rapidly approaching. It is January 21-25, 2012, at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Florida. 

 

But first a few words about where I've been.


During the past two months I have attended a number of industry and professional society conferences. The DBIA (Design-Build Institute of America) conference, October 19-21, focused largely on the need to educate those who develop projects (owners) on the design-build process, and not so strongly on how to better effectuate the synergies between designer and builder.

 

The PMI Global Congress 2011, October 22-25, had a large focus and major attendance at sessions relating to Agile scheduling. Once again, the end goal is not quite certain, but as we endeavor towards our general destination, we can hone our final vision. Our SCoP (Scheduling Community of Practice, formerly known as the College of Scheduling) sessions perhaps provided more succinct instruction on technique, but to a far smaller crowd.

 

The CMAA (Construction Management Association of America) conference, November 6-8, also appeared to focus upon the wooing of owners with some notable exceptions. Perhaps the highlight of the conference for me was a standing room only session chaired by Rocco Vespe (currently a vice president of Hill International) titled “How to Avoid Claims Against the Construction Manager”.


We started the Construction CPM Conference last year, taking over the old “Primavera User Conference” (with full permission and support from Oracle) and expanded it to include all major CPM software vendors: Oracle P6, Microsoft Project, Deltek Open Plan, Phoenix Project Manager, Asta Powerproject, Micro Planner, PMA Netpoint and many others.


Our program was credited by PMI for 24 PDHs (we believe model states will similarly credit for P.E. continuing education) and our attendance approached 200. We expect far more this year.

 

This year we have expanded and will have Autodesk and Bentley, Synchro and Vico, and others discussing the interconnect of BIM and CPM. Our litigation track (last year approved by the Florida Bar for 8 hours continuing education for attorneys) is being expanded from one to two days, once again culminating with our signature Mock Trial. 


Major sponsors include Acumen Fuse, Oracle and Synchro, and many others.


We find that our event has become a focus for others to join in, before and after, and are now bracketed by specific software vendor user conferences and courses:


MSS P6 R8 training in Spanish on JAN 19-21,

PMA Netpoint 2nd Annual User Conference JAN 20-12,

Asta Powerproject training JAN 21,

Synchro 1st Annual User Conference  JAN 25

 

I do not know if 2012 will see a return to booming times for us construction professionals. I do know that we have been in the wilderness too long, that the world has moved on while we rested, and we all need to hone our skills for that day.


Your conference was created to address these issues and others that you have raised in response to this blog. So your continued suggestions are requested.