Page 24 - TIME Newsletter 2018 in Review

IT DIVISION NOMINATED

FOR WORLD CLASS AWARD

It started in June 2018, when a notice appeared on the Project Management
Institute’s (PMI) website advertising awards for project management. There
were a total of eight awards offered for individuals, teams and organizations.
A rare feature was that the awards came with handsome cash prizes!

The awards sponsor was His Highness Sheik Hamdan bin Mohammad bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, The Crown Prince of Dubai. He would personally present
trophies at the 2018 Dubai International Project Management Forum (DIPMF).
The theme of the 2018 DIPMF was innovation. It would not be enough to
impress judges with the merits of a nominated project; it was essential to
detail the innovations incorporated. With prizes ranging from 40,000 to
100,000 USD, it was certain there would be great interest in applying. In
fact, there were 828 entries from six continents. North America accounted
for 14%. Could the SDPBC Information Technology Division compete on the
world stage?

Entrants had to submit narrative responses to several questions. In addition,
nominations had to be founded on making choices for Innovative Category
and Innovative Method. This is where inspiration struck. For Innovative
Category IT was a perfect fit in Strategic Alignment. What could be better
than using the IT Intern Program to demonstrate IT’s alignment with the
District mission to educate students! It was harder to cull out a defensible
and winning argument for Innovative Method. But, there was one choice that
held promise: Innovative Process. We would describe how IT staff as a
team transform from our regular duties to become educators/mentors to
our interns.

The application took shape and was submitted. A long wait transpired until
in late November an email arrived notifying us we were in the running for
a $40,000 prize in the category Innovative Process-Academic. Excitement
peaked but only in a limited circle, because the awards sponsor did not
want the identity of finalists released before the ceremony. Many perks
accompanied our high status (less than 3% of submissions were short listed).
The Forum registration fee, transportation and lodging all were generously
paid for by the conference hosts. To win you had to have a representative at
the Forum in Dubai. CIO and Project Sponsor Deepak Agarwal was going to
represent the Division, but it turned out to be an impossible week for him to
get away. Subsequently, IT Project Manager Dr. George Solli was sent.

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