PMI Announces John Kao as Keynote Speaker for PMI Global Congress 2010--EMEA

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa., and MILAN, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading professional membership organization for project managers, announced best-selling author John Kao, Ph.D. as the keynote speaker for PMI® Global Congress 2010--EMEA. PMI's Global Congress allows experts and professionals at all levels to network, discuss trends in project, program and portfolio management, and achieve professional development and will take place from 10-12 May 2010 at the Milano Convention Centre in Milan, Italy.

John Kao is an authority on the intersecting subjects of corporate innovation and transformation, design, and the future of business. Dubbed a "serial innovator" and "Mr. Creativity" by The Economist, he has made a career out of helping organizations go from "getting" the importance of innovation to "getting innovation done."  His best-selling book, Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters and How We Can Get It Back, carefully analyzes the global dynamics of innovation and in particular how many countries are racing for the innovation high ground, such as Singapore, Denmark, Dubai, China, and Brazil.  

Kao has worked with a wide range of Fortune 500 companies, startups, and government agencies around practical issues of strategic innovation and organizational transformation.   Most recently, he launched the Institute for Large Scale Innovation (ILSI,) a non-governmental organization created to mobilize and coordinate innovation around the world and to address macro-level challenges by bringing fresh perspectives to the field of innovations.  ILSI defines large-scale innovation in terms of regional, national, and global systems.

"The issue behind the many challenges we face – in such areas as education, health care, security, and access to opportunity – is our global capacity to innovate," says Kao.  "The decisions we make about reinvigorating that capacity will shape our future for decades to come.  Project managers are a key to helping organizations define their desired future states, designing innovation strategies, and supporting the efforts of innovation teams and senior leadership to execute that strategy."

Kao's presentation will focus on the new geography of innovation capabilities, which are opening fresh business models and opportunities for established companies, entrepreneurs, and governments.  Project management is critical to making this innovation practical and translating it into concrete, strategic value in a global marketplace.

"Dr. Kao's message of innovation is both timely and necessary for today's businesses and organizations," said Gregory Balestrero, president and chief executive officer of PMI. "Innovation should be a national priority, if not a global one.  It is the cornerstone of economic growth and the need for project managers to drive new ideas, create new products and services and enable organizational results is especially crucial throughout the European continent."

About Project Management Institute (PMI)

The world's leading professional membership organization for project managers, PMI shares knowledge with nearly 500,000 members and credential holders in over 185 countries. Since 1969, PMI has impacted more than one million practitioners, businesses, governments, students and training organizations. Today, PMI's products and services range from world-class standards for project, program and portfolio management to five professional credentials, including the gold standard Project Management Professional (PMP)®. PMI's exclusive Global Corporate Council and European Corporate Networking Group engage large multinationals and government organizations in endorsing the value of project management. The only project management association with an established academic research program, PMI has invested more than US$14 million in support of dozens of research projects since 1997. Learn more at PMI.org.

SOURCE Project Management Institute