Project Management Summits

Summit 2026 - November 5th, Virtual

The 2026 PM Summit was hosted by WSU and the theme of this year's summit was Governing for Impact.  

The presenters for the 2026 summit follow.

• Robin Pappas, IT Governance Program Manager, UC Berkeley (starting at 0:02:00 in the recording below)

  • Our keynote speaker is Robin Pappas from UC Berkeley.  Robin is the IT Governance Program Manager at UC Berkeley’s Technology Programs & Governance unit also known as (TPG), leading strategic alignment, process oversight, and resource prioritization for the university’s information technology initiatives.  Her work supports the TPG unit’s mission of aligning critical IT initiatives with the university’s strategic direction and executing through effective portfolio management.

    She is recognized as a versatile leader in IT governance, with expertise in organizational transformation, stakeholder engagement, and strategic IT planning.  Additionally, she is an experienced systems-level strategic consultant with a passion for collaborating and facilitating organizational transformation.

• Aaron Hamilton, Director OneStop Student Services,  Wichita State University (starting at 1:15:00 in the recording below)

  • Aaron Hamilton, Director, OneStop Student Services at Wichita State University.  Aaron has been working in higher education for 27 years. Aaron has served in various roles in undergraduate admissions in both recruitment and operation areas and currently serves as the Director of OneStop Student Services and Building Coordinator for the Shocker Success Center at Wichita State University. OneStop Student Services serves as the first point-of-contact for students and addresses student questions about admissions, financial aid, student accounts, records and registration, and more. OneStop also advises all first-year students. The Shocker Success Center houses 18 student-serving departments providing one, centralized location for tutoring, OneStop services, and so much more.

    Aaron lives by the motto “Student-centered, data-informed” as he works to improve retention rates while serving on the Student Success and Persistence team and President’s Inclusiveness Council at Wichita State. His latest endeavors are to balance AI technology with human-centered service.

• Sara Spinks, Project Management Director, KBOR - Kansas IT Office Update (starting at 2:15:00 in the recording below)
  • Sara Spinks is the Director of the Kansas Information Technology Office also referred to as (KITO), where she leads efforts to strengthen IT strategy, governance, and service delivery across the State of Kansas. With more than 30 years of service to the state, including 14 years with KITO, Sara brings deep experience, steady leadership, and a strong commitment to public service. Throughout her career, she has worked to improve collaboration, modernize operations, and support effective technology solutions that help Kansas agencies serve the public better.
• 2026 Virtual PM Summit Video (Once the video begins, you can use the 'Chapters' option in the upper right corner to jump to the desired presentation.)

(If you have any trouble accessing the recording, please try the Alternative Link)

• Powerpoint Decks
  • 2026 Summit - Robin Pappas
  • 2026 Summit - Aaron Hamilton
  • 2026 Summit - Sara Spinks

 

Summit 2024 - November 7th, Virtual.

The Summit of 2024 was hosted by KU, Pittsburg State, and a Kansas State Agency. The theme of 2024's summit was how to apply AI to project management. You can view KU PM Summit training videos lower on this page. If you are looking for Summit 2025, we didn't have one.  Sorry.

Summit 2023 was again held virtually, in order to reach a growing audience. The theme of 2023 was Kansas Trends in Project Management. Staying on top of the newest changes in project management will help you get ahead on your next project.

Presenters:

• Nate Scherman and Ed Puckett are project managers for K-State. They co-hosted the 2023 summit by setting the pace, tone, and rules for the event.
• Sarah Rock and Rebecca Lahann are representatives from the University of Kansas Health. They spoke about challenging the paradigm around traditional project communications, in order to set the tone for effect change management. Afterwards they held a workshop to apply a basic toolkit for developing and delivering effective change communications to a sample project.
• Sara Spinks from the Kansas Information Technology Office (KITO). She held a discussion about the changes to Kansas statutory requirements for IT project management approval and reporting. Kansas has moved from a cost threshold to a business rick assessment to determine IT project reportibility.
• Anita Barrett is a project manager from Wichita State. Her presentation was about the Project Management Office's continued efforts to find better ways to add value to their organization. Some of these efforts include training and coaching project managers, and establishing effective and efficient processes that match a project's size, complexity, impact to end users, and risk.

The recording of the 2023 summit, as well as all keynotes and workshop, can be found on the K-State's page. 

The 2022 summit was hosted virtually again this year. This year's theme was security and cybercrime around projects. Don't let the hackers take advantage of your team or your team's work products. All sessions were recorded and are available for your viewing below!

Presenters:

• Samuel Alva, Region 7 Cybersecurity Advisor for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Keynote Speaker.  The goal is to implement Defense-in-Depth during the build new, upgrade and retiring of assets. Understanding the lifecycle process will allow you to apply the appropriate defense in depth measures which include people, procedures and technology into your project management process and procedures. The lifecycle process will allow resilience to be developed at all phases of the project. 

Defense in Depth in the Lifecycle Process

 

• Jeff Maxon, State of Kansas KISO,

  Security and privacy are becoming ever more important to the business units and their projects.  Many of the projects we undertake are for key systems that the business rely on for their daily operations and engagements with citizens, students, or customers.   If we don’t address security, privacy and compliance requirements in the early stages of the project, they can quickly change in scope and costs. This session will discuss ways to incorporate security and privacy early to ensure secure projects that stay within scope and costs.

Secure Projects Start at the Beginning

• CISO Pannel
  • Mark Rodee (WSU); Jeremy Pennington (KU Medical Center); Chris Snyder (NIAR); and Chad Currier (KSU)

CISO Pannel Questions and Answers

As noted on the Flyer, if you hold a PMP or CAPM certification, you can claim up to 3 PDUs for attending the conference. Instructions for claiming your PDUs are linked below.  Please email PMO@wichita.edu if there are any questions or to provide feedback. You can earn up to 3 PDUs for watching the videos and reviewing the PDFs at any time.

The PM Summit 2021 was hosted virtually by the University of Kansas. The Summit was recorded and all 6 sessions are available for your viewing below!

Presenters:

• Jim Wadella (Core Catalysts), "The Keys to Successful Project Management, Portfolio Management and Governance"
• Anita  Barrett and Warren Glore (Wichita State University), "Project Portfolio Governance Metrics"
• Angela Chauncey and Adam Petera (Kansas State University), "Evolving IT Governance"
• Sara Spinks and Daniela Butler (KITO), "Portfolio Management: ServiceNow ITBM Implementation"
• Jeffrey Toaddy (Miami University), "The Art and Science of Project Governance"
• KBRO CIO/ CIO Panel, "The Importance of Governance"

Wichita State University hosted the PM Summit 2020, this time virtually.  It’s been a hard year! Let’s reward ourselves with some great training from the best- PMO Joe!  Let’s network and learn from each other!

Stace Acup, Director of PMO, is helping Johnson County Community College redesign their IT Project Management Office.  In this presentation he explains where they were, why they are changing and how they are moving into a New Model.

Joe Pusz, President of THE PMO SQUAD, Purpose Driven PMO, known as “PMO Joe", explained the why and how of Resource Management and how it is interwoven into all that an organization should be doing for managing their investment portfolio of projects.  Joe shared actual data from the industry and real case stories on the importance of RM.  Had thirty minute for breakout rooms to discuss and make notes for moving forward.

Sara Spinks, Director of KITO, introduces and explains upcoming changes on evaluating RISK on all IT projects for the state of Kansas.

Thank you for attending the 2020 PMO Summit hosted virtually by Wichita State University on 11/13/2020. From the feedback we have received, we believe the PMO Summit was a big success. We would still love to hear any other feedback that you may have.