Presented by TTT – The Technology Team

Written by Venkata Patt, VP of Technology

Do you know that Technology gets outdated very frequently in this fast pace world? According to the recent statistics,

• 68% of consumers think the use of modern technology is critical to the success of a business.
• 57% of consumers agree that small businesses that use modern technology are more competitive in the marketplace.

So, the obvious question is: Why PMI Atlanta Chapter, the 3^rd largest in US, should NOT move ahead to get into the latest and greatest Technology to benefit our Chapter Members and Sponsors, right? That’s why TTT – The Technology Team has put the Think Tanker hat on since the beginning of the year. We understand the current pain points of the Chapter Members, Sponsors and Leadership team, including the Board, to bring a new resolution.Thanks to our Leadership Teams and the Board for providing their help and support in order to make a difference to our Chapter to benefit our Members at large. 

In May, DECA will host its International Career Development Conference in Atlanta, bringing approximately 16,000 high school students to the state. These high-achieving, business-minded students will be participating in DECA’s Competitive Events Program in which they will present projects to business professionals or engage in business simulations.  

DECA offers over 60 different competitive event categories for students to participate in. In order for the conferences to operate properly, over 1,000 volunteers from the Atlanta area are needed to judge and evaluate student presentations.  Visit http://www.deca.org/events/judge and complete the appropriate registration form. Sample video presentations and answers to frequently-asked questions can be found at the site as well.   

All volunteers will receive training, breakfast, lunch, free parking at the conference site, and a certificate of appreciation to help document community service hours.  

High School DECA International Career Development Conference
Date: Monday, May 5, 2014 and/or Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Location: Georgia World Congress Center Time
Commitment: (varies by event) 7:30 AM – 1:00 PM; 7:30 AM – 6:00 PM; 12:30 PM – 6:30 PM
# of Student Attendees: 16,000
# of Volunteer Judges Needed: 1,000

Register as a Judge at: http://www.deca.org/events/judge  

About DECA
DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe. With more than 200,000 members in 5,000 chapters across 50 states and nine countries, DECA is a powerful instructional program that brings the classroom to life. DECA enhances the classroom experience and empowers the teacher-advisor to make learning relevant with exciting, challenging learning programs that integrate into classroom instruction, apply learning, connect to business and promote competition.  

These programs include college and business partnerships, competitive events, educational conferences, publications and school-based enterprises. They provide the potential for travel, recognition and awards for learning classroom content – a tremendous motivator for student members. As a result, DECA members acquire important knowledge and skills needed to be college and career ready, challenging them to become academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible, experienced leaders.  

In its 65-year history, DECA has touched the lives of more than 10 million students, educators, school administrators and business professionals. DECA Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit student organization recognized by the United States Congress, the United States Department of Education and state and international departments of education. DECA Inc. receives no government funding.

By Sateria Tinsley, Communications Team

The March 10th Dinner Meeting kicked off with an extended Professional Growth session "Microsoft Comes to the Westin”.  David Huseonica of CloudAG and Laura Crawford of PM Resource a Group presented on MS Office 365 and MS Project Online. Both discussed cloud based solutions for Project Managers to be able to create and manage projects, track issues and risks for today's enterprise.

Back by popular demand - cash bar!  All attendees were treated to the cash bar returning. We are asked to make best usage of this service as there is a cost to the Chapter associated with its availability. Lack of usage caused it to disappear. In order to keep it available, it will need to be utilized.

New to the meeting this month was a 5-minute Table Power Networking Session. Each member in attendance was treated to a table networking session led by a PMI Atlanta member at each table. Instead of sitting at the table and meeting only your table mates to the left and right of you, we had the pleasurable experience of meeting everyone at the table with 30-second elevator speeches.

The attendees were thrilled to hear the Chapter is ranked 3rd in the nation and 4th globally with only a few members short of surpassing #2 New Jersey.  Doug Guice, VP Membership encouraged the group to bring in new members to assist the Chapter in rising in the rankings.

Caressa Bell, VP Operations, informed everyone that the post event surveys are different and we are listening.  Examples include: February networking was in a tight hallway, so we provided more space this month and the aforementioned cash bar.  The team reviews each response and are working to make changes according to the responses.

After these enthusiastic announcements, Larry Maccherone, Director of Analytics at Rally Software (who also sponsored this Dinner Meeting) presented “Quantifying The Impact of Agile”.

We invite you to join our Technology Forum on March 25, 2014, 5:00pm - 7:00pm at Hewlett-Packard in Alpharetta (Register Here!).  Our topic "“Content is King and Distribution is Queen; Playing the Right Cards in the Next Decade” will be presented by Neil Sharma:

Over the last decade, digital content has remained a critical element that has driven some amazing services. This trend is not going to change in the future. The next decade is about personal digital imprints, the analytics behind them, the myriad ways of collecting the data and then distributing focused responses to the content. Everyone is getting into the act, whether it is a pharmaceutical company, the government or the grocery store down the street. If consumers think that they have seen all the platforms for content delivery like tablets, devices, televisions and smart watches, then the next decade will clearly surpass the current distribution mediums.

The question to ask is if companies are playing in the right space and how they should capitalize on the right types of partnerships.

Neil Sharma has been in the Mobility space since the year 2000. Creating the original joint venture to deliver VCAST solutions with Verizon and Microsoft (first nationwide wireless video streaming solution), he has worked at some very innovative global corporations like Samsung (Vice President and General Manager) and NTT DoCoMo (Senior Vice President) on content, retail distribution and hardware. Because he has an unorthodox background (starting out as an educator and small business owner), Neil approaches topics with both cynicism and optimism to shed light on trends that will shape the future of technological innovations.