DATE: 30-31 May, 2016
DELEGATES: 480
WHERE: Halls MN and City Rooms 1,2 and 3 and Panorama Ballroom

Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world’s leading not-for-profit professional membership association for the project, program and portfolio management profession.

Founded in 1969, PMI delivers value for more than 2.9 million professionals working in nearly every country in the world through global advocacy, collaboration, education and research.

In Australia, Project Management Institute operates through a network of State and Territory Chapters.

The PMI Adelaide Chapter was established in 2003 and shares the same standards, principles and ideas of the global entity recognising and embracing project management to achieve business results.

With more than 275 members, PMI Adelaide is one of the fastest growing chapters in Australia.

In 2016, PMI Adelaide was charged with the responsibility of organising the PMI Australia Conference in their home city.

With the concentration of PMI members located in the Eastern states of Australia, PMI Adelaide took on the challenge of creating an event which would at least match attendances at previous conferences held in the Eastern states.

Conference Program

The theme for the 2016 Conference was Adapt. Change. Disrupt.

The conference explored the need for project managers to be a strategic partner for business and be the disrupters or innovators who question the status quo to deliver success.

The conference consisted of a series of plenary keynote presentations, panel discussions and breakout sessions over two days. A third day (June 1) was dedicated to workshop presentations and masterclasses at other venues across the City.

In total, the conference program offered delegates a choice of 56 speaker presentations and workshop style sessions.

The conference was attended by a record 480 registered attendees, which surpassed attendances at previous national conferences held in the eastern states. More than 50 percent of delegates were from interstate.

More than 350 attended the two day conference, 170 attended the breakfast event and 70 attended the masterclasses.

More than 230 organisations from across Australia were represented. A small Expo also featured twenty-one exhibition booths.

The evening of the first day was dedicated to the PMI National Awards Dinner, which was held in the Centre’s Panorama Ballroom and attended by more than 200 guests.

What we did

The Centre had an existing relationship with PMI Adelaide through hosting smaller Chapter events, as well as a member of the Centre’s team serving on the South Australian committee.

The PMI Conference has only been running for a few years, and PMI Adelaide took on a big challenge in hosting and organising the conference with little or no experience in running events of this size.

PMI Adelaide was committed to ensuring the benefits from the conference flowed through to the local business community.

Therefore, they appointed a local professional conference organiser with a strong relationship with the Centre to help manage the event.

Along with the PCO, the Centre was able to use its knowledge and expertise to provide advice and guide the client on the options available and the best solutions to help meet the client’s objectives.

This included an effective allocation of the budget in order to maximise the experience for visiting delegates.

By making some simple suggestions regarding the event set-up, cost savings were able to be reallocated into areas where they’d have the most impact including the Gala Dinner.

The Centre was also able to provide some flexible options for the Conference depending upon the final number of delegates attending.

The flexibility to be able to scale up or down depending on numbers proved to be a significant asset to the Conference, which ended up attracting record numbers.

The PMI Australia Conference was a good example of the benefit of the team approach and strong partnerships formed between the Centre, host organisation and professional conference organiser.

 

Clients Comments

The conference surpassed expectations – our own, those of the other PMI State Chapters and the delegates themselves.

The Centre, along with our conference organiser Phil Plevin, played a key role in the conference’s success and gave PMI the confidence to return to Adelaide in the future.

Achieving 50 percent of delegates from interstate is a remarkable result, and this proves that delegates were impressed by the conference destination, venue and program.

The feedback from delegates has been overwhelmingly positive with 97% of delegates rating the Adelaide Convention Centre as good to very good.

Similarly positively results were achieved with feedback from the delegates on the Centre’s catering and the quality of the audio-visual.

Delegates remarked positively about how easy Adelaide was as a conference destination, with quick and easy access from the airport and good quality hotels on the Centre’s doorstep.

In comparison to our counterpart’s interstate, the Adelaide Chapter is relatively small, and the success of this conference has significantly enhanced our reputation within the national body.

The Adelaide Convention Centre proved to be extremely proactive with ideas and thoughts on how we could improve and enhance the conference experience within our budget. This included establishing a Twitter wall where delegates could engage throughout the plenary sessions.

This support and cooperation flowed through to the event itself where last minute requests were accommodated without fuss, including additional security and logistics for a VIP guest and her entourage.

The success of the conference was also highlighted by the number of sponsors and supporters we were able to attract, with fifteen coming on-board for the event.

We look forward to bringing back the Project Management Institute (PMI) Conference to Adelaide in future years.