Professional Community
There are dozens of opportunities for a professional to stay engaged in the community
to:
- Give back to the next generation
- Further your own development
- Build your network of relationships
It is up to you.
I have taken ownership of my professional development and believe every serious
manager should as well. And remember, one great way to develop is to find
opportunities to network with peers as well as to mentor future generations.
Executive
Alliance produces executive summits for leaders from around the United States.
They put together regional and national summits and roundtables with some of the
great leaders. For example, the Data Center Leaders Summit
allows networking with peer execs. In 2011 I was honored to be one of 9 hosts and hosted a roundtable discussion on Data Governance.
Tech
Birmingham is a Birmingham, Alabama technical community of professionals.
This group hosts local summits, training events and mixers by coordinating sponsors
like UAB. Many of the events are available thanks to a generous community of sponsors and volunteers
who give hours of their time to host and coordinate these events. In 2011 I was
able to spend a day at TechUniversity facilitating the Project track of sessions.
Each session in the track featured experts in planning, communicating, and career
development.
PMI - Local chapters PMI is a great organization for engaging and
this international organization has local chapters all around the world. As a member
of the Birmingham chapter the opportunities to network as well
as continue training through monthly meetings are excellent.