Event Name:  PMI Midlands Lunch-n-Learn Event
Event Subtitle: Starting a PMO
Event Day and Dates: Monday, September 21, 2015
Event Time (Start/End): 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Location Info (Name, Street, City, State, Zip): Midland Technical College -  North East Campus,  151 Powell Rd ., Columbia, SC  2903
Workshop Topic: Creating a Project Management Office
PDU Credits:  1

Are you looking to start a PMO?  Do you have a PMO and want to grow it?  Come and listen to one agency’s journey in creating and growing a PMO.

Workshop Objective(s):

Guest Speaker  -  David Helps, Vice President of Education for the South Carolina PMI Midlands Chapter will provide an overview of how to create a Project Management Office (PMO).  He will discuss how and why his agency decided to start the PMO, the steps taken to create the PMO, the ups and downs of running a PMO and the Lessons Learned so far and continual growth of the PMO. 

Workshop Speaker Bio

David R. Helps Jr., PMP
David Helps is the Vice President of Education for the South Carolina PMI Midlands Chapter.
He has over 18 years of IT experience in the State Government sector.  He is currently serving as a Project Manager in the Project Management Office at the S.C. Department of Education where he is assisting with the further growth and expansion of the PMO and has overseen several projects in infrastructure modernization and program area workflow management.
Prior to S.C. Department of Education, he was an I.T. Business Analyst/Project Manager for the S.C. Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, and I.T. Manager for the Department of Political Science at University of South Carolina, and an Applications Analyst for the University Technology Services at University of South Carolina.
He began his career as a Mainframe Programmer and shortly moved to Web application development at University of South Carolina.  While at the University of South Carolina, he tuned his skills on requirements gathering and design.  His career then took him to the S.C. Department of Disabilities and Special Needs as a Business Analyst, where he was able to work on his Project Management skills.  Now, at the S.C. Department of Education, he is working to build up a PMO and expand the use of Project Management in multiple areas of the agency.

He is a graduate of the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina.  He holds a PMP certification with the Project Management Institute which he earned in 2010.