From Russia with love

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The last 30th and 31st of May I had the pleasure of participating in the conference organized by SOVNET’s Young Crew, dealing with the challenges and research in project management, and targeted and young researchers. A chance one must not let pass!

The conference had three very distinct parts. The first whole day consisted of a set of keynotes, on different challenges and viewpoints on Project Management, followed by a round table. Fortunately I had Ivan to translate for me the topics, since it was all in Russian. Thanks Ivan!

The organizers had kindly asked me to give a keynote speech during that first day, regarding the vision of IPMA’s Young Crew, and to communicate some of the activities that were taking place. By the way, it was the first time that I had a presentation with a translator. This was a new type of challenge for me, and I enjoyed every second of it! Since I didn’t want to give a boring talk, I gave the speech from the angle of people’s carreer path, in a similar way to the talk I gave last December in Querétaro (Mexico). It worked very well there, so why not build on that concept? The core of the talk is three anecdotal stories, that deliver three messages or that convey three different points in people’s carreer path. It seemed to work, because the feedback I got was very good! Thanks to those that let me know! And those of you that didn’t, if you’re reading… there’s a very nice comment section on the bottom!

The second part of the conference consisted of parallel streams of research presentations. This part was very interesting, albeit extremely challenging due to the language. Even with Ivan doing a great job in the translation, being able to grasp in real-time the sort of detail or sharpness that one needs, in order to properly judge the insight in research, turned out to be an extremely challenging task! Definitely, I need to add Russian to my to-learn list. I was most of the time in the streams dedicated to sustainability/stakeholders and creative/agile projects. What a surprise, right?

The third and final part consisted of an extremely participative workshop on culture, facilitated by my dear friend and admired Fahri Akdemir. The topic was culture – very suitable for a Spanish guy being in Russia, even if culture is not only that – and to my perception he managed to bring the whole group to amazing state of flow. People were having fun and gaining insight, through metaphor and play. Great job Fahri!

As usual in this sort of event, the conference and workshop led to a nice evening of great conversations and insights. One of those that you know where they start but not where they end. Work hard, play hard! Even since I’ve been exploring Moscow, visiting different places and talking to different people. But about my inter-cultural experience, more coming up soon!

2 thoughts on “From Russia with love

  1. Dear Daniel,

    Funny that I just saw this article but it was great to remember our time in Russia. Thank you very much for your kind words about my work.
    Looking forward to hitchhike with you in another country and propose driver 6 language to communicate :))

    Adios Amigo

    FA

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