As a common initiative both from IPMA together with its member associations in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland the first Diversity in Project Management Conference took place from April 10 to 11 2017 in s-´Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.

The conference was a great success for all participants. The diversity of the themes around the topic diversity surprised even those who have a work experience in this field. Particularly in projects people have always been cooperating together in an interdisciplinary way. Therefore the topic diversity fits very well in the project management context. We as project managers have a lot of experience in dealing with many different professions in projects. But that experience does not apply for the other aspects of diversity: starting with the integration of women in organisational structures and HR criteria that were typically created by men, to the integration of different national cultures in an international project team, to better understand with the customer and stakeholder requirements and communicate with them, to a conscious selection and integration of career changers to increase the diversity of know-how and experience in project teams, to cooperation of younger and elderly people in high performance teams or the better integration of the introverted in project teams that are typically dominated by the extroverted.

The further ingrediences of success of this conference consisted in the interesting location of a former cow auction hall, the professional organisation, and the festive gala evening in a water castle from the 16^th century where the project management awards of IPMA Netherlands were handed over in different categories. For the first time the new IPMA award in “Diversity in Project Management“ was awarded where IPMA honours project managers and project organisations for their outstanding contribution in implementing diversity in project management by demonstrating excellence in diversity and inclusion in project management. This year´s winner of the diversity award is  General Electric Steam Power Systems (GE SPS) in Switzerland for their long-term and sustainable engagement in diversity management as part of their corporate culture following the motto: “Having a culture where all voices matter makes GE a smarter company”.

GE´s definition of diversity contains both geographic and gender diversity, but also the diversity of experience, a further diversity aspect that the jury appreciates particularly for project teams. This aspect of diversity includes different professional experiences, age, but also openness for lateral entrant employees and shows a further important aspect of their corporate diversity management, opening the organisation for different thoughts and problem solving technics.

After this year´s focal point in gender diversity the next coming diversity in project management conferences shall cover the further aspects of diversity as age and experience, nationality and integration of migrants in projects, supported by good practice examples and scientific background information.

Because, and after this conference all participants are convinced about: “Diverse project teams deliver better projects for a better world.”