Scenes From The ProjectPortfolio Summit 2008

'Project'-ing Growth

Project and portfolio management can play a critical role in business process management and improvement initiatives, said Gartner analyst William Rosser in a keynote at Everything Channel's ProjectPortfolio Summit 2008 at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Fla.

Eye On Project Management

Traffic was steady at Hewlett-Packard's booth, where employees demonstrated HP PPM Center Portfolio Management software. Being close to the show floor bar probably didn't hurt.

Surf's Up!

Serena Software's booth was built around a beach motif where they gave away beach towels and attendees could try out a virtual surfing system.

Lining Up

Attendees crowded into Compuware's booth to see its ChangePoint PPM software. Lapel pins shaped like guitars with blinking LEDs handed out by the company were the show's most popular tchotchkes.

Belly Up To The Bar

Borrowing the "Genius Bar" idea from Apple's retail stores, CA offered show-goers a "Power Bar" in its booth to demonstrate its Clarity PPM software. But the vendor's quiz show game in the booth, where prizes included TomTom GPS systems, was rowdier.

Project Management On-Demand

Sales engineer Elizabeth Laramore gives showgoers a demonstration of Daptiv's on-demand project management and collaboration software.

700 Club

Microsoft Project is perhaps the market's most ubiquitous project management software. The company has some 700 channel partners that work with the vendor's project and portfolio management applications -- Microsoft's sixth largest business.

Survival Mode

Planview's booth theme was that companies need its IT performance and product portfolio management applications to survive in today's business environment, hence the "survival" desert camouflage outfits worn by Planview employees Paul Bengston and Erica Lanyon.

Down In The Bayou

The Gaylord Palms Resort features an indoor bayou, complete with a swamp and live alligators. They were not invited to Everything Channel's ProjectPortfolio Summit 2008.

Later

Never mind dogs, best to let sleeping alligators lie...