AITP Atlanta started our 2017 dinner meeting series with a compelling discussion on how to best leverage Product Management for success, led my industry veteran,
Greg Adams. In addition to sharing his personal journey from Engineering to Product Development, Greg gave a general overview of the space, as well as the drivers on what motivates product management professionals. As someone who's involved in various technology roles, product management was a bit of a mystery to me. True to form with AITP's meetings, I yet again walked away more informed than when I arrived!
Greg followed up with more detail on product management, discussing how the role fits into various methodologies like Agile and Waterfall (more focused on Agile.) After the overview, he discussed his career in more detail, and what led to his switch from the engineering space to product management.
In addition to our professional members, we also had a good group of folks attend from our student chapters, which we like to encourage. Greg - picking up on this - went into a bit more detail on more traditional routes that people take to get into this arena. In his experience he found that people who have moved up through the customer service ranks did incredibly well, as they had a tendency to understand the customer's drivers, wants and needs, holistically. Development professionals also do well in the transition, but shared that the desire and ability to interact with people is the key component for success.
After Greg's very enlightening talk, we had a few awards to present. Each year, AITP Atlanta selects a Member of Year, as well as a Board Member of the year. As a non-profit organization, our members, and board of directors volunteer their time to put these amazing events together. Without them, we would not exist! These awards are presented to those who go above and beyond in their effort to support and grow the organization.
I'm pleased to share that
Tony Orlando of
eHire was awarded the Member of the year award!! Tony just recently joined the AITP family in 2016, and has been a breath of fresh air, filling in the gaps, and jumping in anywhere that needed help. Congratulations Tony! We're thrilled to have you as part of the family!
Georgette Prater, whose tireless efforts and leadership have helped build our chapter into what it is today. A VERY well deserved Board Member of the year goes to her! In addition to being our current Atlanta Chapter President, she's also the Sr. Manager of Sales Products and Systems Transformations for
YP Digital Marketing Solutions. Congratulations again Georgette!
We hope to see you at at our next dinner meeting series being held Thursday, February 16th at the Crowne Plaza Ravinia. We'll be welcoming
Samuel Franklin, VP of Data Science at
360i. He'll be leading the discussion on Data Science, specific to Digital Marketing. Further information on the event is on AITP Atlanta's home page - www.aitpatlanta.org - and is currently open for registration!
Come and join the discussion, learn something new, and take part in the unique community that is AITP!!
Steven W. Wright
Last month AITP Atlanta hosted our 10th Annual CIO round table dinner. I wanted to share some of the history behind our round table dinner and the insights I learned the CIO panel discussion. Ten years ago when we were exploring ideas of creating additional value for our AITP Atlanta members as the membership chair I presented our board of directors an idea of hosting a CIO at each round table. This provided every AITP member an opportunity to meet, interact, and have dinner with a C-level executive. Having dinner with a CIO is something not all of us get the opportunity or privilege to have very often or at all. Everyone at the first CIO dinner experienced the immediate value of connecting with the CIOs in a genuine and sincere way. This event quickly become our largest chapter meeting of the year and drove our membership upwards. The following year the AITP Atlanta Board of Directors approved the CIO round table proceeds to be directed to the newly created our Julian P. Wade, Jr. Student Scholarship fund which was created to honor our past AITP Atlanta president and now currently the National AITP President, Julian Wade. This year marks Julian's 35th year of dedication and contribution to our association.
