I have been invited to address the MBA, BBA and B.Com students at Sri Sankara Arts and Science College at Kanchipuram on 3rd Sep as part of “Margadarshan 2010″ their two day National Symposium. I feel honored to be part of the program and putting together the message I want to give them. If you got an opportunity to address the future leaders of this country, what will be your message? Please share it as as comments in the blog or send me mail. Thanks.

I see that many of my friends let the PMP credential expire because they find accruing PDUs difficult. Actually it is very easy. You can get 15 PDU for just being in project management profession; Another 15 for self directed learning; You can get 10 PDUs for speaking or writing on project management; More PDUs for attending training programs on project management etc. So 60 PDUs in 3 years is quite easy if you just want to do it.

I bought the Mblaze mobile broadband device to stay connected when I am in the PMP boot camp. I am quite happy with the product.

> I bought it in Tata Croma. It was a delightful experience.

> The entry price is affordable. (I bought it for Rs.2300/- It has come down to Rs.2000/now – and is available for even Rs.1500/- in some shops)

> The setup and user interface is very simple. Just plug, install and play.

The July month PMP boot camp went well with 15 project managers from iSoft, HOV, Zenta, CSC, TCS, Ford and iNautix joining us at Raj Palace Sundar on 10th 11th 17th and 18th of July. The unique thing about this team was that all of them were from IT companies and all of them could speak Tamizh. (Are you asking if we gave all examples, from IT in tamizh? not exactly.)

Right from the day I founded “Management Scholars Academy” I was sure that I can reach my customers by focusing all my campaign online. In the last six months I did a lot of work (I can’t tell you all the trade secrets) and the results are quite satisfying. Thought of sharing with you the visitor statistics  and seek advise from techies here to take it to the next level. (The summary is June visitors count. The graph shows the trend. Three more days left in June. I am hoping the June numbers will take over the May numbers) Click on pictures for larger view.

The June month PMP boot camp was conducted successfully on June 12,13,19 and 20th.  The feedback from the participants was very positive.

The response for the July month boot camp is very encouraging. In addition, we are getting inquiries for Agile project management / MS Project / Risk Management workshop etc. We are sure that we can offer good value through more and more project management training programs.

Gravatar is a webware (free, of course) http://en.gravatar.com/ to add a picture or icon to your name / company that will become your globally recognized avatar (or look) that will follow you wherever you go in internet (in blogs when you leave comments and so on).

The June month MS Academy PMP boot camp started last Saturday with 12 participants. The special news about this boot camp is the profile of participants. We have

Krishnakumar R, AVP Quality Isoft who came from Bangalore

Chandrakumar, SPIN Chennai president and Program Manager at HP

Sammy Kumaresh, an entrepreneur who had come all the way from Toronto, Canada,

Balaji Ramamurthy a full time planner in Dana Gas who came from Sharjah, UAE

In order to apply for the PMP® Exam you will have to evidence “35 contact hours of formal education on project management”. The PMI explains this as follows in the PMP® Credentials Handbook:

• Verify at least 35 contact hours of specific instruction that addressed learning objectives in project management.
• The course work must be completed at the time you submit the application.
• The course hours may include content on project quality, scope, time, cost, human resources, communications, risk, procurement and integration management.”

By God’s grace, May month PMP boot camp went very well with the participation of 13 PMs from organizations like Gemini Communications, TCS, Siemens, HCL, iSoft and 3iInfotech and 5 of us trainers. The boot camp was held at Raj Palace Sundar, R.A.Puram. The venue, ambiance, food and service were great. The success of any training program depends on the participants. This group of project managers were very focused on learning, always willing to share their knowledge and help each other.

My SPIN talk yesterday was a good event with around 50 people attending it. The program was well organized by Chandrakumar and his team. The venue was Henry Maud Slay hall in Mechanical engineering department where I was going every day for 4 years between 1986 and 1990. I am a B.E. Mechanical Engg. graduate from CEG. I recounted my life journey after I left the college and how I am trying to discover my personal hedgehog. I shared introspection tools from the books “Six hats thinking” and “FLOW” to find one’s point of optimal experience and personal hedgehog. This was in the context of the audience who were mostly SQA team members. I was telling them that they should use their unique strengths to stretch and contribute to PMO.