IPMA Launches First Nation-to-Nation Forum

IPMA's Nation-to-Nation Forum, or IN2F, was launched at the 21st IPMA World Congress in Cracow, Poland on June 17, 2007. It was co-chaired by Adesh Jain - current chair of IPMA and Ed Naughton, recently retired IPMA vice president.

Adesh Jain and Ed Naughton initiated the IPMA Nation-to-Nation Forum with the approval of the IPMA board in July 2006. It provides the opportunity for governments, industry and academia to come together as a formal network to exchange knowledge, worthwhile experiences and practices in the spirit of mutual learning. The Forum is an outgrowth of the Global Project Management Forums that occurred from 1995 through 2005.

This Forum wishes to create more wisdom sharing that can be passed along to the next generation of project managers. There is an urgent need to bring forward this knowledge and these success stories so that we all learn and begin developing the future 'thought leaders' in the disciple of project management.

Rear Admiral Simon Henley from Great Britain presented the keynote speech on how project management is the key to national competitiveness. Rear Admiral Henley provided international examples of how the project management discipline was instrumental in the success of some very complex projects. Despite a well developed competency set by many associations, Rear Admiral Henley indicated that national critical projects still fail. He went on to indicate that project work is becoming ever more complex and interdependent and called for more research on project complexity drivers and what new skill sets are needed to better manage in complex environments.

As the world marketplace continues to move toward global teams delivering goods and services "business by projects is a reality." It is imperative for national associations to begin sharing knowledge and best practices at an increasing rate.

Whether as individuals, representatives of organizations, government institutions, industry or academe or as part of the Member Associations (MA) of IPMA, IN2F is intended to provide a great opportunity to exchange knowledge and share experience within a spirit of mutual learning, trust, respect, understanding and friendship.