Conferences Galore!

The conference circuit seems to be even busier this autumn than those that have gone before. With the major Gartner BPM event having taken place in the USA in September and events by IRM and Management Events in the UK. Personally I only attended the Project, Program and Process Challenge event in London in September (www.projchallenge.com) it was truly amazing to see the level of interest in process at this event, which I suggest may actually be the largest such event that takes place in the UK. Free to attend it has been consistently drawing in around 1,000 plus people per event (the event runs twice a year – spring in Birmingham and autumn in London). This year the process program, a series of free sessions delivered over two days drew in some pretty large audiences, the organizers tell me that there was an average of 60 plus attendees per session across the nine presentations given in the zone, providing great exposure for the speakers and vendors who were present.

This autumn's event saw an even greater emphasis on the people side of change and the soft issues surrounding process success, which as regular readers will know is music to my ears. So if you are looking at a great way to keep current and at the same time meet with a wide range of exhibitors then I strongly urge you to give the show a look. With no cost, other than your time and a speaker line up every bit as good as many of the paid conferences you can't help but win.

As I prepare to head out to Vienna next week for the 4^th Annual BPM in Telecoms event (http://www.jacobfleming.com/conferences/telecom/4th-annual-quality-and-bpm-in-telecom), I have to share with you that it was great to attend their earlier conference on HR this month. With so many of the issues of BPM success being centered around People and Communications, it was great to have had the opportunity to directly work with and communicate with one of the key groups in any real change management initiative. I just hope that in my interactions I helped them understand a little more of the key roles we need them to play in helping us transform our businesses using BPM.