PM Talk: Future of Web Design
This past month has been professionally gratifying for a number of reasons. As time goes on, it feels like the work I have put into this blog and other activities surrounding the promotion of digital project management is starting to pay off. The content is being well-received and the community is growing. It's all happening!
I was given the honor of presenting at Future of Web Design in NYC on 10/9. I presented "Making Projects Easy" on the Rising Stars Track. My slides are on speakerdeck.com, linked below.
It was probably the most daunting forum for a talk I've ever experienced. The event took place in an AMC theater in Midtown Manhattan. While speaking, there was a camera on me and I looked up at the audience from the bottom of the theater with a projection screen facing me. Yikes!
I edged my way to the front of the room so I could see some faces. Thankfully, most were smiling and nodding (not gonna lie: I think one may have been sleeping). I presented a lot of points about team communication and collaboration that hit home for people. Maybe some of them were not new ideas, but reminders about the types of things designers and developers can do to keep projects on the rails. The whole idea is that what we do as project managers is not difficult as long as you practice sound communication habits. It's the skills we're hard-wired to do as humans that we often forget and can make life at work difficult.
I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to speak at an event like FOWD alongside some of the web industry's brightest practitioners. I learned a lot and met a lot of smart, fun people. The video of my talk will go up with the others on the Future Insights site later this month. I won't be watching (cringes), but maybe others will.