The first PM Camp in Hanoi

Last Saturday, Cornel and I organized our first PM Camp (Project Manager Camp) in Hanoi. After X sessions in Europe and with very positive feedback from the participants, we decided to extend these seminars to Asia. There was no reason why they should not be included. During these sessions, we offer project managers and other team leaders a forum for interaction and communication, where organizational, management and technology matters are openly discussed. These subjects cannot always be easily discussed around the coffee machine. We subsequently give them a framework for discussion during PM Camps.Cornel and I were able to coordinate our different schedules in order to conduct this session in Hanoi. As usual, we submitted a list of subjects, concerning technical and management subjects, a few days prior to our camp to better fulfill the expectations of those participating. So we discussed topics such as team conflict management, risk management, continuous integration … I must say I was favorably surprised by the interactivity in the discussions concerning these various subjects. Experiences, different points of view were shared and discussed in detail.The PM Camp also gives me the opportunity to address directly our Project managers and team leaders who play a key role between our producers and our future projects. So I was able to talk to them about:- Innovation, a key factor in our growth. It is not only just for the elite, wherever the ideas come from, they are valuable.- Remind them of the importance of their own proposals when communicating with their client. Their teams are not merely producers.- The industrialization phase of our organization is already well underway (process, metrics …) this cannot be done without them.- The responsibility they have in regard to developing the capacities and skills of the members of their teams.During this PM Camp French, English, Romanian, and Vietnamese were spoken. We shared many good moments together whether it was during the PM Camp or at lunch or over a glass of beer, sitting on the sidewalk on a (very) small chair eating gelatin rice stuffed with pork and boiled peanuts, or the “sausages” wrapped in banana leaves and dried squid.In short, there is a strong desire from management (no matter the branch they come from), to share their experiences and express their needs. This has reinforced our belief in the organization of such events. We already know that one of the participants from Hanoi will lead a discussion concerning a subject during the next PM Camp in Europe. All that remains is to find a subject!