Word by Elizabeth Stinton, a participantAs a participant of the 2018 IET Leadership Programme, I was keenly anticipating the second workshop. In this workshop, we were to discover what project and mentor we were to be assigned to. As one of the few non-engineers in the programme, I had my fingers crossed for the mentor and data scientist, Ashleigh Ballantyne (the only non-engineer mentor).
The day began at 9:30 am when my twin, another participant of the Leadership Programme, and I arrived at the Engineering Pavilion at Curtin University. There we socialised with other participants and had a quick chat with the president of the Curtin IET on Campus, Victor Olet, who coincidently was about to have a meeting. Then, at about 10:00 am, we were brought up to the workshop on the second level and invited to have morning tea as Rob Moore, the workshop leader and Principal Consultant at Readify, began his presentation. This presentation was particularly interesting with its detailed and industry-oriented insight into the fundamentals of time and project management. In this presentation, Rob outlined a non-traditional approach to project management, emphasising the need to regularly reflect and re-evaluate the current project plan to suit changing circumstances and to continuously improve. However, the most intriguing part of Rob’s talk was his explanation of how he applied the project management concepts he had described to us to his own current project, DDD Perth. It was my first glimpse into large-scale project management as DDD Perth is the largest software conference in WA.
Further on in the workshop, we had a short presentation by Geoff Glazier, a project manager in the electrical engineering industry. Although not directly pertinent to my field, it was an enlightening insight into the dynamics between competing for large companies in the electrical industry. Geoff passionately described it as an ‘exciting time’ in the electrical industry.
Towards the end of the workshop, we were finally split into our project groups with our mentors, with each team consisting of participants with differing Myers-Briggs Type Indicators. This meant, of course, I was separated from my twin; however, it was nice to be in the group assigned to the mentor that I had my fingers crossed for, Ashleigh. The project my team was allocated was the IET Quiz Night, a relatively new Leadership Programme project. The project aims to create an environment in which students, young professionals and industry representatives can network and collaborate. I am excited to work on this project, although a tad nervous – our mentor stated this had been the most difficult project in last year’s programme.
After the workshop, we were offered a selection of pizza, chips and garlic bread, which my twin and I enjoyed thoroughly.
Overall, the workshop engagingly provided me and others practical strategies in project management that were immediately applicable. For example, I can immediately apply these strategies to event projects I am involved in with Curtin IET on Campus to work more efficiently and communicate more effectively. The workshop has increased my confidence in undertaking projects, especially large ones.