Our local panel members, and the meeting participants, will discuss project success factors. Is it finding the right project manager, good project management practices, methodologies, tools, training and education, the organization, or what? How does PMI come into play? What about various project management certifications?

Panel members are:

• Terri Knudson - Director EPMO, Mayo Clinic
• Deb Smith - Senior Project Consultant, EPMO, Mayo Clinic
• Brian Boser - Manager, Platform Management Build and Development Service
• Kay Wais - Owner, Successful Projects

Deb Smith is a Senior Project Consultant in the Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO) at Mayo Clinic. She has responsibility for the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of the enterprise project management methodology standards, tools, and templates; the project management curriculum at Mayo, and the PM resource matching and mentoring programs.

Brian currently is Manager Platform Management Product Engineering, at IBM where he has worked since 1982, including the role of Project Manager in the early 2000's. He is PMP-certified and he uses his project management skills both in his job and in his activities, including: IBM's Wildlife at work IBM's National Engineers Week, IBM's MentorPlace Program IBM's United way Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign.

Kay Wais is the owner of Successful Projects, a project management training and contracting company based in La Crosse. Kay is the Program Director for the Certificate in Project Management Program that is offered at six Wisconsin and Minnesota colleges. Kay is PMP certified and she was the founder of our La Crosse PMI Chapter in 2003.