26 - 29 June 2005, New Orleans, LA, USA

Join AACE International in New Orleans, LA and expand your professional skills at the 49th Annual Meeting – June 26-29, 2005. AACE 2004 will challenge you to better manage, plan, schedule, and implement technology on your projects for more effective and efficient business operations.

New Orleans is a little bit of Europe & the Caribbean in the American South, where the history is as colorful as the local architecture & the food is the stuff of legend. Plan now to bring your family to explore all that this city has to offer.

Take a ride on a street car, visit the world-renowned D-Day Museum, tour the historic Garden District, take a stroll through the French Quarter and Jackson Square, enjoy cajun or creole cuisine, experience the sites and sounds of the birthplace of jazz -- it’s all waiting for you in New Orleans.

AACE's Annual Meeting Technical Program is a great way to add to your perspective and to provide ideas of how others are handling modern cost management projects using the latest techniques. A unique collection of new technical presentations about real world projects and problem solving will be presented by over 100 authors. Multiple meeting room tracks give participants many concurrent options to choose from which show leading edge technology in action. Participants will be able to download papers once they register that will enable you to design the best program for your needs.

The Technical Program tracks will also feature a "Skills & Knowledge" track which is great for those who are new to the profession. These mini seminars will survey the scope of modern cost engineering and are also very useful for those who specialize in only one area, and who want to refresh their skills in other areas. Plus there will be a track on the latest software being used called the "Software Showcase" that will give users the chance to see what's new from key industry suppliers. The remaining tracks will feature papers on all aspects of cost estimating, project controls, planning and scheduling, project management, decision and risk management, cost engineering, global projects and many other topics relevant to today's professional.

The Annual Meeting Continuing Education Seminars are an excellent way to enhance your professional knowledge and growth.

As you are well aware, in today's recovering economic times, training budgets have been slashed and people's work commitments are such that non-billable time is hard to justify. One may simply think that 'There is no way to sell such an expenditure at this time!' AACE International’s Jim Zack (Vice President-Technical/Education/Certification) believes the opposite is the case. Zack implores you to consider his following points:

• Professional cost engineering training has been removed from budgets so long that the new generation of cost professionals needs to be taught the cost and schedule management skills necessary to become a key asset to their organization. AACE has a comprehensive package of professional seminars with instructors who have on average have more than 25 years of hands-on experience and expertise;
• AACE's seminar program is an exceptionally cost effective resource for companies needing employees with a fresh perspective and expertise across a broad range of cost engineering subjects;
• There is always room in a company's budget for training when it returns value. The key is to get management buy-in to the need for professional training within the normal budgeting cycle. This makes the training request an integral part of the budget and is not seen as a last minute, special request requiring budget shifts and special permission;
• Continual training brings big rewards to employers and employees. A well trained professional does their job better, is more productive and knows best how to manage cost and schedule to the advantage projects and their company. Likewise, employees have better feelings for themselves and their company. AACE's cost engineering training promotes a well run organization with quality employee; and
• Finally, ask yourself the following: 'What if we train them and they leave?' The correct question is: 'What if we don't and they stay!!!!'

AACE’s Annual Meeting Continuing Education Seminars cover a wide-range of topics for all levels of cost and management professionals. The seminar schedule includes the following:

W1 Certification Review Course & Examination

Improve your performance on the CCC/CCE examination by taking this course. Prior to your arrival, you should be fairly well prepared to sit for the examination. If you are taking this course, you should have read and worked some problems in Skills & Knowledge of Cost Engineering, 5th edition and Certification Study Guide, 2nd edition, to become relatively comfortable with their contents. You should also review college algebra (logarithms and exponents), business or engineering statistics, and engineering economy or finance. Each day’s 5.5-hour presentation covers subjects that are tested on the 2-hour CCC/CCE exam part given later that day. This allows you to focus on those particular subjects, be tested on your skills and knowledge of those limited subjects, and then move successively to other topics on later days. As soon as your registration is received and approved, you will be sent a copy of Skills & Knowledge of Cost Engineering, 5th edition and Certification Exam Study Guide, 2nd edition. If you already own either or both of these publications, let Headquarters know and the cost of the publications will be deducted from the registration fee. Instructor: Dr. Randy R. Rapp, PE CCE. 24 PDHs or 2.4 CEUs

W2 Planning & Scheduling Review

This course will help you review the principles and concepts of planning and scheduling in order to help you prepare for the Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP) certification examination. Since the PSP was initiated in June 2004, we have frequently been asked questions relating to the level of experience and knowledge the PSP measures. While the PSP is designed to demonstrate that one is qualified to plan and schedule a project or endeavor using the equivalent of 8 years experience. It is not meant to be a measure of one’s ability to use a particular software tool, but rather the concepts of planning and scheduling that software helps by automating. Nor is the PSP designed to measure one’s ability to meet a particular company or organization’s standard practices. This course will not teach you the PSP examination, but the course will help you to prepare for it. Instructors: Donald F. McDonald, Jr. PE CCE PSP; Michael R. Nosbisch, CCC PSP. 14 PDHs or 1.4 CEUs

U1 Range Estimating

Range Estimating picks up where traditional estimating leaves off. This intensive one-day seminar is designed for engineers and managers who regularly face decisions involving multiple and diverse quantitative uncertainties such as those found in budget/conceptual/detailed cost and profit estimating, contingency analysis, competitive bidding, project control, and annual profit planning and who are users of Decision Sciences Corporation’s Range Estimating Program for personal computers (REP/PC). This seminar is a solid introduction to the theory and practical application of the Range Estimating methodology. In addition to learning the language of Range Estimating, you will learn where and when to use it, how to capitalize on its advantages, and how to correctly apply it over a broad spectrum of decision making problems. Instructor: Michael W. Curran. 14 PDHs or 1.4 CEUs

S1 Managing Scheduling Acceleration

Are you faced with schedule acceleration – every contractor’s worst nightmare? Schedule acceleration costs money, lots of it, depletes cash reserves, disrupts normal operations, attracts a disproportionate amount of attention, causes individual stress, and destroys any semblance of a team approach. In some instances it forces companies into bankruptcy. Different management approaches, other than normal ones, are needed. What information may be available is scattered and fragmented. A systems view is not adopted. This void is addressed in part by this course. Instructor: Dr. H. Randolph Thomas. 8 PDHs or .8 CEUs

S2 Process Technology for Cost Engineering

Eighty percent of the cost of a process facility is committed by design decisions by process engineers, made in the conceptual phase. Large savings can - and will - be achieved when cost engineers are involved in process design at the earliest opportunity. It is of vital importance, however, that these cost engineers have a basic understanding of process technology, and develop a feeling for the motives and limitations of process engineers. This is a two-day course designed to teach the basic concepts and the language of process technology. Instructor: Dr. Martin S. A. Vrijland. 14 PDHs or 1.4 CEUs

S3 Complete Skills of Estimating, Cost Control and Scheduling

This new, important course, listing the top 20 cost control skills, has been developed and it allows you to measure their skills against this "base". This course provides an international body of knowledge for you to become more effective and successful as senior project cost professionals, possessing the latest skills & knowledge in the global workplace. The focus is on essential and advanced application skills that directly relate to all phases of a project, at both owner and contractor levels. When properly utilized, these skills and techniques can directly lead to cost savings or, at the very least, to risk mitigation, schedule stability and cost containment. Instructor: James A. Bent, ECCC. 14 PDHs or 1.4 CEUs

S4 Project Planning Techniques

Instructor: Dr. Parviz F. Rad, PE CCE

T1 Construction Claims 101

This two-day course is designed to take you through the basics of construction claims. You will learn the ten types of claims routinely available to a contractor in a typical North American contract. You will be taught the elements of proof needed for entitlement and cost recovery. You will also be provided a checklist of items necessary to document entitlement, causation and damages for each type of claim. The course also covers damages, analysis and resolution techniques and ends with a case study of an actual claim for a brief analysis by the participants. The course is designed to leave you with a good understanding of the need to manage project change and you should be better prepared to deal with claims situations when they arise. Instructor: James G. Zack, Jr. 16 PDHs or 1.6 CEUs

T2 Estimating A to Z (for the Process Industries)

Are you an estimating novice? Do you fully understand the differences between the contractor vs. owner points of view and issues? Do you ever need help in understanding the estimating problems of mega-projects? If you said yes to any of these questions, this is the course for you! This course is designed to provide comprehensive coverage of the fundamentals of estimating for the process industries, this seminar will cover many subtle and advanced estimating concepts as well. An emphasis will also be placed on examining the conceptual estimating methodologies that can assist in preparing accurate estimates at early design stages of a process industry project. Instructor: Larry R. Dysert, CCC. 16 PDHs or 1.6 CEUs

T3 Implementing Value Improvement Strategies…”The Easy Way”

The course will provide an introduction to the value improvement process, provide instruction on performing value improvement studies, and training for conducting own studies. While learning the value improvement job plan you will apply the knowledge to a “Live VE Lite” project. It is recommended that you bring your laptop with Excel, Word, Visio and PowerPoint, small project with cost estimate. You will perform the value improvements on your own project and take results back to your company for continued value improvement reference and applications. Instructor: Del L. Younker, CCC. 16 PDHs or 1.6 CEUs

T4 Creative Approaches for Estimating, Tracking & Projecting Project Cost

This course will help bring your into the real world of project management cost estimating/tracking. You will participate in creating realistic cost estimates for project management through course exercises. Other exercises will deal with using the cost plan for managing the project. Concepts and automated tools will be reviewed and a learning assessment exam will be given. Instructor: Lee R. Lambert. 14 PDHs or 1.4 CEUs

T5 Business Success Through Excellence in Project Management and TCM

Industry benchmarking has shown that the difference in cost and schedule between best and worst projects can be as much as 30% and the total cost of ownership over the life of the asset can be astronomical. In today’s competitive business environment, this can mean a difference between a profitable company versus the one that becomes a takeover target. This course will address the management of limited and scarce capital resources for consistent Pacesetter Project Performance. Value Improving and Best Practices which help to optimize cost, schedule, performance and safety aspects of any project will also be presented. Practical workshops and interactive discussions are vital elements of the course. Participants will be assigned to teams and will work on real life case studies. Instructor: Dr. Nick J. Lavingia, PE. 16 PDHs or 1.6 CEUs

T6 Planning & Scheduling Basic to Advanced

This course is a thorough presentation of the principles used in planning and scheduling, which results in effective management of projects in order to remain competitive and successful in today’s economy. The first portion of the course is intended as a refresher course if you do not engage in these practices full-time or as an introduction if you have little or no background in the subject. The second portion of the course moves from schedule development into schedule usage as a management tool. This session presents intensive training of intermediate and advanced schedule techniques including earned value, schedule and cost performance indices for managing projects, the differences between status, progress, and performance measurement, calculations, and reporting will be explained. You will also be exposed to cost and time relationships for evaluations of crashing or stretching work plans and the use of schedules in a multiple project environment. Instructors: Anthony J. Werderitsch, PE CCE; James E. Krebs, PE CCE. 15 PDHs or 1.5 CEUs

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13-16 November 2005, New Delhi, India

IPMA invites you to come to India this November. The opportunity is twofold: the 19th IPMA World Congress scheduled between 13-16 November 2005 and the chance to visit incredible !ndia – at her festive best in November. For the first time in the last 40 years, this flagship IPMA event will be held outside Europe in a location that entrances the world as a tourist paradise , and simultaneously offers a dynamic business opportunity besides being a splendid venue for international conferences and conventions.

The congress has received unprecedented support from all quarters including 7 key central government ministries, 8 international partners including ICEC and 38 Indian industry associations.

Featuring a special invited address by Prof Ervin Laszlo - one of the foremost exponents of systems philosophy, besides 6 keynote presentations by top-notch speakers from all over the world and 60 paper presentations from over 40 countries.

We invite you to be part of this unique congress and join us in Delhi for the four days that promise the right mix of business and pleasure. A power-packed technical session. Four major streams with 25 sections

• Stream 1: PM for Economic Transformation:
  • Infrastructure (Power & Construction;
  • Telecommunication;
  • Transportation (Road, Railways, Aviation & Shipping);
  • Energy (Oil, Gas & Coal);
  • Chemical and Petrochemicals; and
  • Poverty Alleviation.
• Stream 2: Best Practices in PM/ Lessons Learned:
• Manufacturing;
• Research;
• Pharmaceutical & Health Care;
• Biotechnology;
• IT & ITES;
• Banking & Insurance; and
• Quantity Surveying & Cost Engineering.
• Stream 3: New Frontiers in Project Management:
• Managing global project teams;
• Competency measurements;
• Certification & Qualification;
• Project & program management balance score card;
• Organisation project management maturity; and
• Project mindset.
• Stream 4: Project Management in Government:
• Federal/central bodies;
• State/provincial bodies;
• NGOs;
• International financial institutions;
• International development agencies; and
• Global Institutions.

For more information contact the 19th IPMA World Congress Secretariat:

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NORDNET 2005 Symposium

26 – 28 October 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark

NORDNET 2005 will take place at “Mehldals Smede” near the harbour and the new opera of Copenhagen. The theme of the symposium will be the new “National Competence Baseline for Scandinavia”.

• Four plenary sessions with key note speakers;
• Twelve half-day workshops with coordinated speeches;
• Two open streams of sessions with paper presentations; and
• Eight project presentations in companies.

The main language is Scandinavian (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). Two plenary sessions and one paper session stream are planned to be in English.

The preliminary titles/themes of the four half-day modules of the English lanaguage stream are:

1. Lead project management through planning and evaluating the management effort and organising the management phases such as preparation, start-up and close-down;
2. Perform project management which include both the overall definition of frames for the project and the ongoing management of the project execution;
3. Manage corporate project processes including handling the project oriented management functions such as PMO, the project portfolio and programs; and
4. Perform appropriate leadership behaviour which integrate the project process, promote the project performance and stimulate the co-operation between participants and parties.

There will be a golf competition at Pebble Beach Golf Club, which all are welcome to particpate, during the morning of Saturday 25 June 2005. Cost" US$25 including lunch.

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