Building a Winning Strategic Plan for Your Impossible Project

Building a Winning Strategic Plan for
Your Impossible Project seminar

"Creative... encouraging exchanges. David is a great speaker, making concepts more comprehensible."

- Beatrice Pollard, Forum of Federations

LATEST EVENTS	LOCATION	HOST/REGISTRATION	FEE
Wed Oct 29, 2008	Ottawa, ON	David Berman Communications	CDN$495*
Thu Oct 11, 2007	Ottawa, ON	David Berman Communications	CDN$495*
Tue March 6, 2007	Ottawa, ON	David Berman Communications	CDN$495*
Thu October 19, 2006	Ottawa, ON	David Berman Communications	CDN$495*
Thu August 18, 2005	Ottawa, ON	David Berman Communications	CDN$495*
Sun June 20, 2005	SAS Radisson Hotel, Manama, Bahrain	Creative Nights Conference (International Advertising Association)	BHD 95

*Discount packages for non-profits, and travel subsidies available. Additional discounts available for groups over three people. If you refer at least four registrants to one of our seminars, we'll give you a complimentary registration to a seminar of your choice. Call (613) 728-6777 for details.

All prices, offerings, and dates subject to change without notice.

To register for a seminar given by our own organization, register online or call (613) 728-6777..

Event Schedule (all events)

Seminar Description

Learn the successful and straightforward methodology that has helped hundreds of organizations get the results from their communications projects that help fulfill their missions. Participants gain hands-on experience as they learn the principles of applying strategic techniques in marrying project implementation to organizational objectives. Attend this seminar to learn a step-by-step system that will apply a strategic approach to planning any communications project. David's celebrated approach addresses strategic issues and builds buy-in from everyone along the way, resulting in solutions that don't just work right: they get the right things done.

You will become more valuable to your organization by equipping yourself with a strategic tool. The result will reduce organizational risk and personal stress, avoid hurdles, and optimize measurable results. With a strong strategic framework, you'll get the results you deserve.

The Problem

Any project, no matter how well executed, can fall short of delivering highly useful results. Late, over-budget project completions are usually due to poor project management. Most often, this is because the most important step in the project has been skipped: the development of a clear, written strategic charter that everyone has bought into.

Many projects underwhelm, not because of a lack of good intentions or commitment, but due to a lack of disciplined forethought. This results too often in a sad combination of wasted resources and stressed interpersonal relationships.

What Makes This Seminar Unique

This seminar starts where every project should: not with graphic design sketches, sharp writing or whiz-bang technologies, but rather with investing the time (which always comes back to you) to choose what you want to achieve, how you can get there, and how you'll know when you've succeeded.

Our seminar leader, David Berman, is an internationally known expert speaker, and has owned and operated several successful firms. He is considered an expert in strategy, and has provided senior communications and branding consultancy to many of Canada's largest federal departments and agencies.

Through a step-by-step approach, you will learn how to use proven techniques to establish control, avoid hurdles, fully exploit opportunities, and build culture that will maintain a better way of fulfilling your goals . . . all in language that will demystify the strategic communications process.

What You'll Learn

You will be instructed in a straightforward and thorough approach to developing a complete project strategy to help fulfill your organization's objectives. Specifically, you will learn:

Where strategy fits in the overall process
The benefits of a strategic approach
How to build time into your schedule for strategy and convince others to allow for it
How to develop a strategy document
How to make sure your strategy document is complete
How to identify goals, and turn them into measurable objectives
How to gain buy-in and approval for your strategy
How to assess the strategic environment
How to gain buy-in and approval for the strategy from stakeholders
How to classify and quantify the limitations you must work within
How to avoid common hurdles before you reach them

Benefits to You

By taking this seminar, you will seize the opportunity to evolve your role into the most important one for any project: the person who makes sure that the project delivers what your organization truly covets, while avoiding financial and political risk. You'll reduce your stress level too! If you can gain a handle on these skills, you will be sought after for future projects, wherever you work.

Benefits to Your Organization

Better results by doing things well and getting them right the first time
More effective use of time and other resources
Previous unrealistic goals become within your reach
Supports more resilient, sustainable and durable approach to knowledge management
Stronger team, with higher morale, eager and rested for the next challenge
Evolution of workgroup culture to a more accountable framework

Seminar Goals

At the end of this seminar, you will know how to:

Recognize excellent strategy
Participate effectively in strategy meetings
Develop a strategy document (possibly with coaching, depending on your level of prior learning)
Identify the stakeholders and resources involved in a strategic challenge
Work with stakeholders to choose goals and identify measurable objectives
Better assess how feasible specific goals and timelines are
Manage change more effectively
Continuously improve your process

Who Should Attend

This seminar is targeted to all project officers, project managers, brand managers, marketing officers, designers, production coordinators, strategists, and financial controllers responsible for delivering on corporate, program, branch, or departmental mandates:

People who are responsible for the success of programs or product lines
People who coordinate communications initiatives
People who direct creative projects
People who manage the finances

What You Get

When David Berman Communications hosts this seminar*, each participant receives:

a complimentary, comprehensive manual (also available separately for $89 with optional 1-on-1 distance coaching)
complimentary meals, snacks and beverages throughout
a thirty-minute personal coaching tele-session within a month of the seminar
the option to attend this seminar again in the future, as a refresher at no additional cost
a money-back guarantee: if, after coaching and refresher, you don't think you've got your money's worth, we'll refund your entire registration fee

(*If you are attending one of our seminars hosted by another organization, confirm with them which of these items apply.)

About the Expert Speaker

David Berman is the principal of David Berman Communications in Ottawa. He has over 20 years of experience in graphic design and strategic communications. David brings both graphic design and information technology expertise to his work. He has been involved in the strategy or project management of numerous web projects, including strategy for the World Bank, Canada Revenue Agency, Health Canada, the National Research Council, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Industry Canada, Statistics Canada, and Treasury Board as well as many other government, private sector and non-profit organizations. He has worked extensively in the adaptation of printed materials for electronic distribution, including Web design and plain writing and design. He is also the architect of project management software applications.

David is an internationally-celebrated speaker, having taken engagements in over 10 countries. In recent years he has also recommitted his career toward sharing his knowledge and unique talent as a designer and strategist through professional development seminars for creative organizations. David is a National Professional Member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) and the International Federation for Professional Speakers. He is the Ethics Chair of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, and was named a Fellow (the highest professional honour for graphic designers in Canada) in 1999. David has been featured in the Financial Post, Marketing, and Applied Arts magazines.

Prerequisites: No experience necessary

Language: English or French

Duration: 1-day overview seminar or 2-day in-depth seminar

Take This Seminar On-Site: This seminar is also available customized and on-site for your organization. Please contact us for details.

Speaker introduction for this event (PDF, 50K) )