How to Make Summer 2018 Unforgettable for PMs

Let the coming summer be an outlet of energy for you and your team! This season we encourage you to channel your efforts into fun and entertainment to infuse a positive atmosphere into your work environment.

Drive Your Team Spirit High

Summertime is the perfect time to inspirit your employees and restore their focus. Just imagine how many activities you can plan to motivate your team to perform better, faster, and more efficiently. Our first tip is to break the monotony. Learn how to make your team happy with this project management solution.

Organize team building events either outdoors or in your office to:

improve communication skills (back-to-back drawing, salt and pepper, plane crash);
stimulate creative problem solving (marshmallow spaghetti tower, zombie escape, a shrinking vessel, spider web, frostbite); and
bond your team together (dare Jenga, conference call trivia, battle of the airbands, community service). Find 39 insanely fun team building activities for work here.

A common goal for team building is to promote more organic and effective bonding in the future. Besides, the beginning of summer is high time to go for a company picnic!

Get Inspired: PM Conferences to Visit in Summer 2018

Refresh your knowledge and get new insights about existing tools and existing trends in the domain of project management. This summer, visit project management conferences that will motivate you to lead better and introduce you to other professionals in the industry. Here’s a list of project management conferences that will take place this summer. You can still register and attend!

June 11–14, Orlando, Florida – Gartner Program & Portfolio Management Summit will address resource management, agile development, information logistics, and more. Gartner experts will demonstrate how to advance your program and portfolio management leadership.

June 20, Denver, Colorado – Women in Project Management Leadership will introduce you to the hot topic of diversity. You’ll learn about the role of diversity in creating high-performance teams, discover how to create stretch opportunities in the workplace, and participate in discussions on work/life balance.

June 13–14, Toronto – The Power, Influence & Politics in Project Management conference will show you how to maintain authority in project management and exert the right influence on your stakeholders. The seminar will set the tone for a discussion for every leader who manages projects, builds relationships, and negotiates.

July 12–13, London – Agile on the Beach promises you two days, four spaces, and three social evenings for informal communication with a lot of sand, fun, and Agile practices. The event will present workshops from 50 international Agile experts to enrich your knowledge of Agile software delivery, teamwork, and management.

June 25–26, Paris – ICCEPM 2018 is the twentieth International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management. The event will bring together scientists and researchers to present new academic advances in project management. ICCEPM 2018 will focus on research results and their potential application to the full project lifecycle. Topics discussed at the conference will include planning and scheduling a construction project, construction labor productivity, and strategic project management.

July 11–13, Madrid – ICPME 2018 is the 22nd International Congress on Project Management and Engineering. Its purpose is to broaden the knowledge of project management professionals in engineering through the international forum of discussion and debate.

Read on: Get project management inspiration from this list of videos and learn recent PM research tips from Gartner and Forrester experts.

Take a Vacation to Try Something New

Arrange a restorative vacation to free yourself from the stress induced by project management burdens.

A study carried out by the Department of Psychology at Portland State University recommends that you detach yourself mentally from work and nourish your emotional base with completely new experiences, abstaining from negative thinking while on holidays.

David Eagleman, a professor at Stanford University, is convinced that it’s possible to make your vacation last forever, bringing novelty to it – just visit new settings, engage in new activities, and taste new foods. This way, you’ll get new memories flooding into your head that will make your days off last longer. Visit the Lonely Planet website to choose your next travel destination – the best countries in Europe, the USA, and in Asia. You might also want to check 24 Best Places to Travel in Asia in 2018.