By Katherine Bethany – President, SAVE International
Last month I mentioned that I was preparing to leave to visit SAVE International’s largest chapter, the Gulf Chapter, and attend the Saudi Council of Engineering’s “International Engineering Conference and Exhibition” and give one of the keynote addresses. Well, this month as I write this article I am still in recovery mode from the trip. As many of you understand, traveling to/from far off destinations is not very fun when you come down with a head cold. But even with that frustration I still am in awe of the conference. It was a great event and congratulations once again to our Gulf Chapter on an outstanding event that promoted, advocated and educated about the Value Methodology.
One of the benefits of attending this conference was that I was able to connect with the Project Management Institute’s Chair of the Board of Directors, Mark Dickson (he was giving a Keynote as well), and also with Larry Dysert, VP of the Technical Board of AACE International. I am hoping these one-on-one connections will lead to more interaction and sharing of knowledge between our organizations.
In addition to the professional connections and networking opportunities, I was amazed to find that I had a small following of young female college students during the conference. They were in awe that one of their gender was invited to be a keynote speaker at an Engineering Conference in Saudi Arabia. I applaud the Saudis for asking these young women to attend the conference and to begin to dream that they too can become engineers if they choose.
The Program Committee is working very hard getting ready for the 2018 Value Summit in Austin, Texas. Please be sure to mark your calendars so that you avoid any conflicts with the dates (June 9-12, 2018). We are working hard to provide pre-and post-summit workshops/training, so please try to keep the dates before and after the 11th open as well.
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