Keynote Speakers – PM Symposium

16th Annual UT Dallas Project Management Symposium Keynote Speakers

Larry Solomon

Larry Solomon

Former Senior Vice President and Executive at several companies
Teaches Change Management for the Executive MBA Program at UT Dallas

Mobilizing teams to execute change with excellence
We all know that most change initiatives fail to deliver their goals, largely due to ‘people issues’, rather than the change strategies themselves Over 40 years, working in organizations around the World, I have learned many lessons on the do’s and don’t’s of effective change management to share.

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Kandyce Ormes-Ripley

Kandyce Ormes-Ripley, EdD, LSSBB

Associate Vice President of Data Analysis & Strategy
Buckner International

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Project Management for the Greater Good: Lessons Learned from the Non-profit World
We all know that the foundation of a good project is a well-executed plan: a plan that starts on time, follows the critical path exactly, ends on time, and is completed within budget. But what happens when your straight-line process becomes a squiggly line of stops, starts, readjustments, and start-overs? Nonprofits must navigate through uncertainties and external factors outside of the project sphere of control such as funding, volunteer labor, government policies, and the dynamic needs of clients. Hear lessons learned from navigating through uncertainties of the nonprofit world and how leaders across all business sectors can be nimble and still get things done.

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Benjamin Smithee

Benjamin Smithee

CEO, The Smithee Group

Leader Shift – How to develop teams of leaders instead of leaders of teams
Leadership and Culture are the greatest predictors of an organization’s success. But, in a world of digital, scale, and growth – people are the most unpredictable and least uniform facet of business and projects. So, how can we create success and long-term sustainability for organizations that drive change in the marketplace?
Ben and his team at TSG have helped businesses such as McDonalds, EA Games, eBay, Cox Auto, Popeyes, Signet Jewelers and 100’s of others create some of the most powerful brands in the world. Along the way, they realized the same principles that helped businesses build successful brands could be utilized to shift the way businesses develop transformational leadership, resulting in teams of leaders instead of simply leaders of teams.

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Lucas Smith

Lucas Smith

Director of Agile & Program Service and Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) at Toyota Connected North American

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Simon Roberts

Simon Roberts

Managing Engineer at Toyota Connected North America

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Navigating the AI Revolution in Project Management


Join us for a cutting-edge exploration of how Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models (LLMs) are reshaping the landscape of industries and transforming the dynamics of project management. In this session, we will delve into the compelling journey of AI integration within teams, highlighting the opportunities this technology brings to the table, as well as the challenges it poses.

Key Takeaways:

  • Insights into how teams building their own LLM models manage unpredictable development timelines, with a focus on balancing dates, investment costs, and model performance.
  • Strategies for organizations incorporating LLMs/GenAI into their products, emphasizing the advantages of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions and the crucial role of model training and testing.
  • A look into the profound efficiencies AI introduces into existing workflows, from turbocharging marketing strategies to enhancing development tools, while carefully considering the risks of data exposure and compliance violations.

Symposium Partners

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