PPSOSIG Conference Starts Today – So What About Tomorrow?

I’m going to be out and about the next two days at the 10th birthday party conference for the PPSOSIG*- Programme and Project Support Office Specialist Interest Group – yeah a mouthful I know! But you know what? The PPSOSIG conferences are always a mouthful – loads of presentations, discussion, debates, moans, groans yet loads of good interactive stuff that people can take back to their own PMOs back at work.

Lindsay's Brain Dump

And that’s always the issue with conferences isn’t it? You listen to something, mull it over, start jotting down a few ideas on how this relates to your own situation. You might start to get a little excited about the possibilities – wouldn’t it be great if we could do this? Why aren’t we doing this? And so on.. The issue is how do you recapture this the next day when back at work and more importantly how can the great ideas be turned into action?

Years ago when I first went to a PPSOSIG conference whilst still working as a Project Office Manager I was scribbling away, ideas coming from all directions – I could do X, Y , Z with the team; I could talk to senior management about introducing this process or this system; I could do a survey with the PMs to see what they REALLY wanted; and so on

The reality was I ran with one thing – one small change, a quick win** And I think that’s all anyone can expect to take away from a two day conference isn’t it, but what happens to the other great ideas?

For me personally I’m a big lover of notebooks – currently got four on the go – not counting the day book! It’s pretty ironic because I’m also an Apple freak with the iphone and ipad being available to capture my thoughts and ideas but for some reason I can’t live without my notebooks. So that’s what happens with my ideas and thoughts from conferences, seminars, meetings etc; all tucked away in good old fashioned scribbled format.

What about you? I’m interested to know how others manage – are you a techno freak or an old fashioned gal like me? How about on your projects? What do you use everyday to keep track? What about the conferences you attend – any tips on how to use what you’ve learnt back in the workplace?

* We’ll be tweeting from the PPSOSIG conference next week – just follow @ppsosig

**That quick win BTW was about getting the PMO team sharing knowledge more amongst themselves – trying to get the more experienced PMO co-ordinators sharing what they knew with the less experienced. One meeting room and a pack of doughnuts once a month seemed like a quick win to me