Author: Carlos Martinez Arteaga, PMP

Dear members and newsletter subscribers,

Well... it's time to say until next time :). This will be my last editorial for a while.

I has been almost 3 years of doing editorials for our Chapter's newsletter and I feel that I would like to do something else, not sure what, but different, and I also need time to think on what to do...

I have shared with you some of my thoughts, personal matters and in some cases things that you should not miss.

The editorials were written in different parts of the world, different timezones, on a bed, in a quiet room, at the beach...

It has been quite rewarding, as I had never before written an editorial, and in the end I got the hang of it, at least words came out easily.

We are in a double year, 2020, this can mean only that whatever we do this year will impact others twice as much.

There I leave it! Until next time.

Cheers,

Carlos

Author: Philippe Soupart, PMP

Dear Members and Newsletter Subscribers,

Few days ago, on February the 6^th, the Annual membership Meeting took place in Zürich in the very modern Swiss Re building. It was a very nice evening, and as always very well organized by our Events team.

We had a speech from our CEO, Sunil Prashara on “Powering the Project Economy”. Sunil is a great leader and he gave some good hints on the future of the profession, some positive energy, and some advices on where to orientate our future.

We had the opportunity also to welcome on stage the new board formed for 2020. This year many board members were reaching the end of their term and gave the opportunity for others to bring new fresh ideas. The 2020 board is now composed of six members. Compared to the ten we were before, this is a major change.

During the elaboration of the roles distribution we had two main optimization ideas:

• To group some similar departments.
• To create committees to run those ones.

So Events, special events and social goods were merged together to form the Events committee who will provide one of the most important deliverables of our chapter. 

Communications, marketing and sponsorship has also been merged to one committee regrouping all those activities requiring the same type of skills.

Membership and Volunteers departments were also merged into one committee.

The idea behind committee is to share the workload and spread the knowledge to bring redundancy on board. Too many time we were facing one member having trouble and the other had difficulties to help.

With this setup, we will ensure a full power management board and we believe we will be able to place more interesting work to the directors and volunteers.

Finally the AMM has seen a panel of non-members, members, volunteers and Board members on the stage for an interview providing ideas on what others are experiencing being around PMI.

Speaking about experiences, I was particularly enjoying the fact that the PM conference team - just formed to deliver the PM conference in September - made such a great event. A successful story recognised by the volunteer of the year award.

I was returning back home with plenty of new contacts, stories, experiences bringing a new bunch of energy on my PM life. I’m really hoping to all of you who were there that you had the same positive feeling.

Philippe Soupart

your VP Operations

Author: Agata Czopek, PhD, PMP

It is with the greatest pleasure that I would like to invite you for upcoming Annual Membership Meeting on February 6^th in Zurich. This year the event will be very special – for the first time in PMI Switzerland history we will have a PMI President and CEO on stage. Sunil Prashara will be our special guest and keynote speaker on the topic of “Powering the Project Economy”. From my personal interaction with Sunil I have to assure you that he is a very kind and approachable person, great speaker and a very good listener. I encourage you all to take this opportunity to speak with Sunil, ask questions about PMI future and share your needs when it comes to development of the profession. Knowing details of the event I assure you that we will have a lot of good humor and inspiring discussions. The event is free for our Members and is organized in a beautiful location just at the lake side.

Hope to see you there!

Agata Czopek, VP Social Good

Author: Adi Muslic, PMP

Goodbye 2019, Welcome 2020!

We are already well in the new year with new objectives to achieve, targets to meet, or wishes that we would like to see realized in 2020. You certainly spent some time thinking about what you wanted to change or improve in the new year or even more, in the new decade. How far in the future did you actually go with your thoughts? This would depend on whether the objective is achievable in a short time or not. It could be a month effort, for example, getting training completed or several months, like getting a certification. Or it could be something that you plan to achieve in 5 years.
Typically longer-term objectives will also depend on the environment that we are working or living in. We need to be aware of the changes that may impact our long term objectives, business or personal, and be able to regularly adjust our objectives in relation to the environment around us.

There were many important changes in the world around us in 2019. There will be even more in 2020. Just thinking about the new virus threat that is suddenly changing lives and plans and may become the most important event of 2020. Keeping up with the latest news and all other kinds of information made available to us takes a lot of effort and has a certain impact on our private and professional lives. Keeping the right balance is a great challenge. Selecting appropriate resources to be informed and finding the right references to compare to is the key to remain competitive or simply survive in the fast-changing world.

We have seen many changes in the Global PMI organization as well. It is a clear sign that the association is set to remain the global reference in project management and will keep influencing the way other organizations achieve their profit or non-profit objectives.
Swiss chapter is actively participating in this change and has been preparing a lot of exciting events. The most important one is the annual conference. This year's conference might be exceptional. You will find why in the Message from the Board.

Wish you a healthy and successful 2020.

Best regards,

Adi