Information Technology Management and Leadership and Presented at Southeast Regional Conferences

This keynote presentation will discuss the current IT environment at NASA and the IT challenges that the agency faces as it moves into a new era of space exploration. The CIO from the Kennedy Space Center will discuss new strategic directions and supporting initiatives being implemented across the agency to enable future mission success.

Understanding communications and developing good communication skills are critical to effective leadership and success across organizations. What styles of interaction are most comfortable for you? How can you adapt them to be effective with others? The keys to good communication are understanding how communication happens, accounting for individual communication styles, learning to diagnose the communication needs of others, and mastering the art of communicating with others in a way that takes into account their communication needs. This interactive seminar will focus on these key elements of communication with opportunities for self-discovery and discussions on adapting your styles to be effective with others.

Every IT organization must manage projects. In fact, our clients (customers) base much of their evaluation of IT on how well projects are managed. In this seminar, we will address managing single projects of all sizes, as well as how the IT organization can better manage its slate of projects. We will interactively discuss project management concepts and techniques, emphasizing practical solutions to the most common reasons given for project failures. Our exercises will provide an immediate opportunity to put what we discuss into practice, to experience first-hand well-managed projects and learn to use each project to improve the next one. This project management approach is grounded in theory that emphasizes both research and practice. Project management sites at the University of Memphis will illustrate how these basic principles can be applied in ways that help organizations plan and execute projects to ensure their success for the entire enterprise.