Bill Fournet
How to Stop Herding Cats: Leading Project Teams Through The Chaos

Do you feel that managing your project team is like managing a herd of cats?  Do you have people going every direction?  Do you have the accountability and control of the process and the team that ensures a successful project?  Most project managers feel that they spend more time herding cats than actually leading the project. This presentation focuses on why this happens, and how project managers have gotten their “cats” under control.  Discussions include current project team management trends, team performance opportunities, and applying principled leadership. Participants will learn effective techniques that will address project teams’ challenges, various communication approaches, and project leadership skills that have successfully improved team interaction and results. This informative workshop not only will motivate, but it also will help project managers develop the skills to create a focused, disciplined team through material and interactive exercises.

Learning objectives:

• Identify and understand best practices for project team performance challenges—including work habits, drivers, and performance incentives
• Apply Principled Leadership techniques to project teams
• Develop Project Principles for your current project team 
• Understand effective collaboration techniques to improve team interaction and results
• Bring focus to your team during crises

 Speaker Biography:
When you want a program that transcends the ordinary, you need a speaker who doesn’t regurgitate tired material or canned speeches. Bill Fournet, who is hailed by colleagues as an accomplished rising entrepreneur, takes the same innovative approach to his programs as he does to The Persimmon Group LLC, the company he founded and leads today. Bill, a member of the National Speakers Association, is a highly professional yet personable speaker whose youthful energy coupled with a matter-of-fact style has demanded repeat engagements from leading corporations and associations. His sought-after presentations feature a high-level of audience participation, and his shoot-straight-from-the-hip, no-nonsense approach to business is guaranteed to keep the crowd motivated and engaged.

Bill, who earned his Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Vanderbilt University and his Master’s in History from Oklahoma State University, has also taught within the higher education system. A Louisiana native, he and his wife, Christy, have been married for 17 years and reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma with their 3 sons and dog. He is an active member of his community, having served as vice president of his children’s school association, as a Cubmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster, and a coach for youth sports teams. He also is a member of various business chambers and affiliations. In 2010, Bill was named the Small Business Person of the Year by his region’s Metro Chamber of Commerce.

back to top

 Luke Hohmann
Bridging the Gap: Linking Strategic Roadmaps to Tactical Project Plans

One of the challenges facing project, program and product managers is linking strategic, forward planning roadmaps with tactical project plans. This challenge looms ever larger as fast-moving Agile organizations stress traditional approaches to roadmapping and prioritization. In this half-day workshop, Luke Hohmann, Founder and CEO of The Innovation Games® Company, will demonstrate two complimentary and practical techniques for aligning stakeholder requirements, marketing roadmaps and engineering constraints, while encouraging innovation. And Luke will lead the group through an innovative and powerful prioritization technique – to help you with the challenge of “too many” requirements. Thankfully, these techniques are more than just practical: They are fun games that you can play with internal and external stakeholders, using both in-person formats for co-located teams and in online formats for distributed teams.

Learning objectives:

• Practical Techniques to improve your stakeholder alignment and project prioritization
• Innovation Games® to increase collaboration and innovation on your projects
• Hands-on experience in using both in-person and online versions of the Innovation Games® Prune the Product Tree and Buy a Feature.
• A clear understanding of The Innovation Games® Company Collaboratize(SM) process, which has been endorsed by leading organizations such as the Scrum Alliance.

 Speaker Biography:
Luke Hohmann is the Founder and CEO of The Innovation Games® Company the leading provider of seriously fun games that produce seriously great market research results. The author of three books with long titles, Luke’s playfully diverse background of life experiences has uniquely prepared him to design and produce serious games.

Luke graduated magna cum laude with a B.S.E. in computer engineering and an M.S.E. in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan. In addition to data structures and artificial intelligence, he studied cognitive psychology and organizational behavior under such luminaries as Elliot Soloway, Karl Weick, and Dan Dennison. He is also a former United States National Junior Pairs Figure Skating Champion. In his spare time, Luke likes roughhousing with his four kids, his wife’s cooking, and long runs in the Santa Cruz mountains to burn off his wife’s cooking. Luke’s an old school Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Instead of building a company to flip, he’s building a company to change the world. E.B. White is proud!

back to top

 Halina St. James
Universal Strategies for Compelling Communication

As a project manager you are a leader. One of your most important leadership skills is how you communicate. This workshop is about unleashing your power to lead by speaking with confidence and power.

We created and trade-marked the The TalkitOut^TM Technique to help people deliver compelling messages that get remembered. The technique makes nervous speakers good - and good speakers great. And it happens very quickly.

As one senior executive told us: “I've been looking for a long time for a method of public speaking that would allow me to communicate my ideas in a compelling and exciting way. I found that with TalkitOut^TM. It's the best leadership investment I have ever made.”

Poor presentation skills are a threat to any project:

• They result in mis-communication.
• They waste time.
• They waste money.
• They increase risk.
• They diminish your credibility as a leader.

Learning Objectives:

• Deliver your strategies credibly and confidently to any audience
• Harness your leadership power by using the TalkitOut^TM Technique to plan, structure and deliver your messages
• Engage and hold any audience by understanding and using the Three Languages of Communication (Body, Spoken and Inner) to maximize your Communication Impact.
• Make your message stick, thereby guaranteeing proper implementation.

People who have learned the technique say it transforms their ability to engage and hold an audience. More than that, it changes them as communicators.

The TalkitOut^TM process helps them find their true voice. And that gives them the confidence to speak and lead with passion and conviction.

 Speaker Biography:
Halina St. James works with people who want to be better communicators – in speeches, presentations, or in front of the media. Her secret is her unique TalkitOut^TM Technique. She created TalkitOut^TM to help speakers inject power, passion and authenticity into speeches and presentations.

Halina St James is a former network television news reporter and producer whose assignments included the first Gulf War, the Romanian Revolution and the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Barcelona and Lillehammer. She developed the TalkitOut^TM Technique to train broadcasters – and realized it’s simplicity and effectiveness is perfect for anyone who needs to upgrade their communication skills. Ever since she’s been coaching leaders in business, politics and government to unleash their power as speakers.

back to top

 Jason Tanner
What Happens to Project Managers When Organizations Adopt Agile

As more organizations select Agile frameworks for solution delivery, people crave understanding for how they will fit into the new paradigm. This session explains the roles of Scrum and maps project management to those roles. We will also explore the project manager’s role within other popular Agile frameworks. During the session, participants will apply what they discover using a roadmapping technique to visualize a long-range plan between the charter and the detailed backlog and release plan.

This session focuses on alleviating the anxiety and concerns of project managers transitioning to an Agile environment with clear information and guidance for navigating the change with enthusiasm and without stress. Through observations from several teams who transitioned to Agile, Jason will illustrate the range of opportunities for project managers to adapt and thrive. Attendees will participate in several activities to explore and learn what to expect when adopting Agile. The final activity provides the attendees with a roadmapping technique to take back to work.

Learning Objectives:

• Upon completing this session, attendees will be able to describe Scrum roles and how project management responsibilities map to those roles. Attendees will also understand other Agile roles and their potential fit for those roles.
• Attendees will understand the common patterns of Agile transformation initiatives.
• Attendees will learn roadmapping techniques and receive access to roadmap templates.

 Speaker Biography:
Jason Tanner leads Enthiosys, an Agile Product Management consulting firm. He joined the company as a Senior Consultant in 2008 and has over 20 years of professional experience with software companies, a telecommunications company and the Marine Corps. His expertise spans Agile software product management, product marketing, business planning, partner management, project management and leadership.

As general manager in his most recent company position, Jason led an IT chargeback product team including product management, product marketing, pre/post-sales support and training. He worked with multiple clients ranging from Fortune 500 enterprises to government agencies enabling their adoption of new technology and methods to optimize their IT organizations. His prior position with a startup software company included experience migrating from waterfall to Agile development methods. Jason collaborated closely with engineering to integrate product management into the Agile workflow.

Jason is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, Agile RTP, Agile Boston, Agile New England and the Triangle Product Management Association. He frequently facilitates sessions and speaks at pcamps and Agile Alliance conferences. He holds a BS degree in mechanical and aeronautical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA with a concentration in entrepreneurship from Duke University. Jason lives in Cary, NC with his wife and two children. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

back to top