• Workshop Topic: 

Project Planning Without Authority – Successes, and Lessons Learned, from managing a project with 100% unpaid and untrained volunteers to deliver the Midlands Homeschool Convention for South Carolina.

  • Workshop Overview and Objective(s):

Project Managers often have little tangible authority, especially in a matrix environment, to control resources for extended periods of time.  This makes project planning and communication more difficult because your resources can, and often do, disappear with or without notice.  We will examine what went well, and what could have gone better, in the first ever launch of a state-wide Home School convention built entirely from scratch.  See how we went from no budget and no paid staff to a $60,000, 3-day, event that hosted over 90+ exhibitors, 80+ speakers/workshops, in the Columbia Convention Center.

 

We will focus on how to build a project plan with little, to zero, real authority over your resources by covering the following objectives:

  • Identifying Stakeholders
  • Early Communication Expectations
  • Volunteer Time Commitments – Change, Change, and more Change
  • WBS – Volunteer Style
  • Resource Planning
  • Social Media as a Team Communication Tool

Speaker Biography:

Tony Bryant is an active member of the South Carolina PMI Midlands Chapter.

He has successfully managed over 200 million dollars in large scale Information Technology (IT) projects for premier multi-billion dollar companies over the last 15+ years of his professional career.

For the last 8 years, he has been with BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, where he is currently working in the TRICARE Project Management Office as a Senior Project Manager.  His experience includes Infrastructure Systems, Insurance and Claims Applications, Human Resource Management Systems, and Workflow Management Systems.

Prior to his current role, he managed IT field support functions throughout the State of Tennessee and managed the implementation of IT projects throughout the Central Region of the United States for PricewaterhouseCoopers.  He also consulted as an Assistant District Project Manager for the POS ONE implementation of over 650 Post Offices in Colorado and Wyoming for the United States Postal Service.

In the public community outside of work, he serves as the Founder and President of Alliance Homeschool Accountability Association overseeing all aspects of a 1,500+ member network of Home Schools throughout every county in South Carolina.  He also founded, and oversees, the annual Midlands Homeschool Convention which is hosted in the heart of Columbia, SC and serves thousands of people from the Southeast Region of the United States.

He currently holds a Master of Science degree in Information Systems, with a concentration in Enterprise Resource Management.  He is also PMP® certified, and holds a current C2 security clearance with the U.S Department of Defense