What is the “International Project Management Championship” (short iPMC)?

iPMC is the final event of a three-stage project management competition. The participants go through a national qualification round and national final, the winning team of each country qualifies for iPMC. This year a total of 9 teams participated including Croatia, Finland, Russia, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Germany. After the German team triumphed in Belgrade in 2018, we were honoured to organize the 2019 edition. Since GPM is based in Nuremberg and celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2019, the Franconian metropolis was quickly chosen as the venue.

The iPMC Event

The iPMC project team of the GPM Young Crew (under the lead of Chiara Hänel) invested a lot of time and energy in the preparation and planning of the finals of the Project Management Competition that took place the first weekend of June 2019.

On Friday, May 31st the nine teams arrived in Nuremberg. The participants got to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere and got a first impression of the GPM premises. As an official opening, Prof. Dr Klausing (President of GPM) welcomed the teams and prepared them for the event. Afterwards, the participants discovered the historic city of Nuremberg, in order to try out local Franconian delicacies.

Saturday, the day of the competition, started early at the GPM premises. The city councillor and speaker for finance, personnel, IT and organization of the city of Nuremberg Harald Riedel, warmly welcomed the participants to Nuremberg and explained the importance of project work on the example of the town. Gholamreza Safakish, the member of the board of the umbrella association IPMA (International Project Management Association), greeted the participants and opened the International Project Management Championship 2019 officially. He was pleased about the presence of motivated and capable project management talents.

After a brief introduction to the topic, the participants were allowed to jump into the simulation.

For the first time in the history of iPMC, the nine teams were given an online simulation task by the British provider Prendo. During the simulation of the construction of a stadium, the project management skills of the participants were put to test. In addition to the often conflicting goals of construction progress, costs and completion date, challenges arose from public and private stakeholders, which became concrete in various phases of the project.

Apart from the simulation, there was a roundtable for the representatives of GPM, IPMA and their Young Crew representatives. Through the moderation of Reinhard Wagner, the future of project management and how to inspire young talents for voluntary work were discussed.

Due to the fact that almost all teams had travelled with a coach, an exciting program could be offered for this group as well. Andreas Grune conducted an interesting workshop on Design Thinking.

After the simulation in the afternoon, everyone went back to the hotel to prepare for the upcoming gala event during which the winning team is announced. For the evening event, the location “Dauphine Speed Event” in Hersbruck was chosen. Before the participants were served a 3-course dinner, there was the opportunity to marvel at the extensive collection of vintage cars at the venue. After the main course, the results of the simulation were announced. The team from Germany was able to secure first place ahead of Lithuania and Spain. After the trophy was handed over by Gholamreza Safakish, a DJ created an exuberant party atmosphere. At about 1.00 a.m. all guests went back to Nuremberg to explore the nightlife.

After breakfast on Sunday morning, the participants were guided to explore the city. In the afternoon the teams departed after an intense weekend rich of networking, learning and inspiring conversations.

What happens now?

After the event is before the event. Parts of the organisation team are working simultaneously on the team for the upcoming national final and are working flat out to prepare for the next event.

A big thank you goes to everyone who was involved in this event. In addition to the Orgateam (Composed of: Chiara Hänel (Sponsor and Lead), Fabian Urban (Lead), Patrick Schmeisser, Katharina Wolff, Marvin Vibora Münch, Niklas Gangnus, Janis Späth, Nadine Rischmeyer, Pavel Siebert), the GPM is to be particularly emphasized, which provided the premises for the event and two team meetings on the one hand, and also provided advice and support on many topics on the other hand.

 

upper row from the left: Marija Todorovic (iPMC sponsor international), Prof. Dr Klausing (GPM Präsident), Kathrin Häring, Simon Junklewitz, David Scherer, Moritz Hoheisel (Gewinnerteam Deutschland),  Gholamreza Safakish (Mitglied des IPMA-Vorstandes)

the lower row from the left: Fabian Urban (Leitung iPMC), Niklas Bein (Chairman IPMA Young Crew), Chiara Hänel (Leitung iPMC und Leitung GPM Young Crew), Patrick Schmeisser (Sponsor PMC Deutschland)

Written by:
Chiara Hanel, Project Manager for 5th IPMC