Hey everyone, happy April. It's Steve. I just wanted to let you know that I'm back from Florida — back in the cold for a couple of days, and now it's starting to warm up again. The greenery is starting to come out; it's really a great time of year.
Another highlight of this time of year was our recent volunteer celebration. It was great — packed with volunteers and their guests. If you've never considered volunteering for the chapter, please do; it's really a fun time. This year's theme was a casino night. We had gambling tables, and it was a really professional job. Our VP of Marketing, Rocco Ricardi, was the DJ. It was a great time, and I hope you'll consider volunteering so you can be included next year.
Please check out our website for our 40th Anniversary PMI New Jersey Symposium.
First, the Sunday seminar — we have Beth Roulette. She's been with us before, and we're always happy to have her back. She'll be leading a Sunday seminar on emotional intelligence and how to successfully navigate change, applying that to human systems.
Track speakers: Greta Blash will be talking about cognitive AI and how it transforms human-machine interaction. Josh Jazilski will be giving us the science behind civil engineering projects — that's especially interesting to me, since my father was a civil engineer, so I'll be very interested in hearing what he has to say. Lori McDaniel will be talking about a systems map for AI sustainability and value delivery.
Our very own Rocco Ricardi will be returning for "PMs and DMs: The Great Improvisers." Caric Raguraman and Tanya Boyd will be talking about mastering inclusive project management for neurodiverse teams. Beth Roulette will return on Monday to present "The Science of Change: Rewiring Our Brains for Project Success."
One of our favorite speakers is coming back again — if you haven't heard her before, please come out and watch her talk. This time, Kimmy Hirozawa will be returning to talk about executive leadership. I don't know if you've been to any of her sessions before, but she always brings great insight, and she's just delightful. I encourage you to come hear her speak.
Doug Drexler, a winner of American and British Academy awards, and a visual effects artist for Star Trek — from Star Trek: The Next Generation all the way through Star Trek: Enterprise, where he redesigned the Enterprise — will share the strategies he's used throughout his career, applying the science of people skills to achieve results with actors, directors, producers, and more. A lot of great background that I think we can take into our day-to-day work. I think it's going to be amazing.
We also have a late addition: Dr. Ken Carpenter, who has worked for NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope, among several other NASA projects. Really looking forward to hearing him speak.
There will be a panel discussion later in the day, after all the tracks have spoken, featuring Brian Rothschild from Stevens Institute, Doug Drexler, Kimmy Hirozawa, Dr. Carpenter, and Beth Roulette, discussing the future of project management. It will run for an hour and will be moderated by our own Judy Baliban, our past president.
Following that, there will be a VIP meet-and-greet available for about two hours. If you'd like to wait out the traffic and talk with some of our speakers, they'll all be there — it's going to be a great networking event. Please come to that; it's going to be awesome. I'll be there, along with our other board members. Not to be missed, so check it out.
Register now — register once, register often. Get your tickets before it sells out. Again, mark your calendars for May 4th. Hope to see you there!
