I enjoy attending conferences. I like the awesome speakers, the takeaways, and lessons, the great connections, the food, the environment—all of it. Every year, I invest in my personal or professional growth by attending at least one great conference. In fact, I went to two different conferences this summer in just a week period.

Where is more beautiful and entertaining than Orlando to attend a conference? Kids like Orlando for its Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, and many more great attractions. Florida has always been my daughter’s favorite travel destination. So, I couldn’t leave my family behind and go to Orlando alone! I brought my family with me to Orlando. While I enjoyed spending time at conferences, my kids were having fun with their dad in Orlando. A win-win situation, right?

Although I hardly saw my family during my one-week trip to Orlando, I enjoyed spending every minute of attending conferences. First, I attended a 3-day intensive “Ascend” conference, which was fantastic! I left the conference fired up about the opportunities and strategies that I can implement immediately in the business.

After three days of the intensive conference, although my body was exhausted and my mind was filled up with tons of action items, I was super excited for the AACE International Conference.

Over 745 attendees showed up to 2017 AACE International Conference.

Chances are, you weren’t one of them, which means you missed out three cool things about the conference:

1. Use of a Fabulous Event App

To take the most out of the AACE International Conference, a week before the event, I spent several hours planning for the conference. I read the abstracts of the papers, checked the technical sessions, and planned every single detail about attending which session at what time and where.

Well, as a Project Controller, I learned to apply Project Controls to my life as well. Every time I spend time planning, I save a lot of time in implementation. However, this time I felt all of those planning effort and hours that I spent was a waste of time!

The reason was that the organizers of AACE International conference came up with a brilliant idea that made planning and networking super easy and efficient!

The event organizers introduced an app to AACE International Conference attendees, called “Whova.” What a mind-blowing app for organizing big conferences!

I have attended many conferences, from a 7000 to 400 attendee conference. I have not seen such a smart use of the app in any of the conferences I have attended so far until today.

The app enabled me to do many amazing things including:

• Effective planning for conference attendance

I could see details of the event agenda, read paper abstracts as well as full papers, choose my favorite technical sessions, select the sessions that I am planning to attend each day, find the exact location of each event on the map, have a personalized agenda, and much more.

•  Efficient Networking

The app enabled me to see who is attending the conference. I could exchange information with attendees, send messages, and organize a time or place to meet.

What an efficient way to meet and network with people in a conference!

• Timely Communications

As soon as the event organizers were announcing something, I got a notification. So, I didn’t miss any important announcement about the event.

•  Sharing the moments

Attendees were encouraged to share photos from the conference. Every day in the conference, a winner of the photo contest was announced. What a nice way to share moments!

•  Exhibitors Information

All the event exhibitors were listed on the app. I could easily find each exhibitor booth and sign up for deals or offerings.

The event organizers used technology very efficiently in planning and execution of the conference. Such impeccable planning and execution is only possible with a great Project Control team. Big high five to the fabulous event organizers, Project Controls super starts.

2. Great Keynote Speeches

Besides the smart event app, another favorite part of the AACE International Conference for me was its keynote speakers.

I learned from the thrilling life lessons and fraud alerts of “Frank Abagnale,” a renowned cyber security and fraud prevention expert, bestselling author and subject of the award-winning movie “Catch Me If You Can.”

I was fascinated by the speech of “Justin Newton,” the executive in charge of project management, planning, and controls at Walt Disney Imagineering. I didn’t know the implications of planning, designing, and building Disney theme parks. I realized how complicated it is to plan, estimate, and assess the cost and schedule certainty of an imaginary theme park and make it to reality.

3. Networking and Meeting the Bests in the Industry

One of the primary goals of attending events or conferences is “networking” with like-minded professionals.

As I mentioned earlier, I attend many conferences for personal or professional development. However, what I found challenging in most conferences I attend is finding someone who speaks my language. Unfortunately, most people have no clue about “Project Controls.” Some view it as “Project Management, ” and others don’t know what you are talking about!

AACE International Conference is the one, and the only conference that I found is 100% match with my profession. It was such a great feeling to walk into a room full of Project Control professionals; people who understand your language, know who you are, and what you do!

You not only have the chance to meet like-minded professionals, but also the world’s brightest professionals in the industry.

I had the honor to meet and greet several Project Controls pioneers, experts, and contributors such as Dr. David Hulett, Chris Carson, and Michael Nosbisch.

Meeting the bests in the industry alone is worth the investment in the conference!

These were the top 3 cool things I enjoyed most from attending 2017 AACE International Conference. If you couldn’t attend the conference, you missed out these for sure.

I have to add the beautiful venue at Hyatt Regency Orlando as well as great exhibitors to the list as well.

You may ask me, but how about the “Technical Sessions”? Didn’t you enjoy attending and learning from the technical presentations?

I don’t like to say this, but my answer is NO!

There were plenty of technical tracks on different subjects to choose from. I could choose only 1 among 6-9 other sessions that were running concurrently.

Despite reading the paper abstracts and choosing the topics of my interest for attending technical sessions, I found most of the technical presentations that I attended (except a couple of sessions) were non-engaging and dry.

The content of the technical sessions was carefully selected. However, I believe no effort was made by AACE International to choose the best presenters with good communication skills. I found some presenters had a really hard time to make their point come across. They were given one hour to present their technical paper. However, they were not given instructions on how to effectively present their paper and engage with the audience. I felt as if for some it was their first time presenting in front of a big audience.

My recommendation for AACE International event organizers for future events is not only to test the technical competency of the presenter but also to evaluate the communication skills of the presenter. A simple method that can be done is requesting a video submission along with the technical paper abstract.

Now you may ask me, was it worth spending around $1000 for the event registration plus another $1500 for the hotel & flight?

I would say, YES, absolutely. The networking opportunities alone worth that much let alone the rest of cool stuff about the conference.

In another conference that I attended, I saw people easily invested $5000 and even $22,000 for a program. I was amazed at the number of people who invested $5000 in improving their speaking and communication skills. Many invested $22,000 for a mastermind program! I was puzzled at the perceived value of a single program that some people easily invested $22,000 for!

My point is attending AACE International conference is well worth every penny.

If you are a Project Control professional and have not yet attended an AACE meeting or conference, you are missing a lot.

Start by attending your local AACE meetings and see the impact of those meetings on your career growth.

If you like to experience one of the best conferences in Project Controls and meeting the industry experts, mark your calendar for the next annual AACE conference in San Diego/ USA from June 24-27, 2018.

I look forward to seeing you at the next conference.

About the Author, Shohreh Ghorbani

Shohreh is the founder and director of Project Control Academy, the leading provider of comprehensive online training programs in Project Controls. Shohreh has served tens of thousands of professionals and several international corporations build their technical Project Controls knowledge and shave off years of trial and error in learning the vital skills in controlling their projects.

Shohreh is a licensed project management professional (PMP) recognized by Project Management Institute (PMI) and holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering.

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