PMI Announces John Kao as Keynote Speaker for PMI Global Congress 2010–EMEA

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pennsylvania, and MILAN, February 8 - Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading professional
membership organization for project managers, announced best-selling author
John Kao, Ph.D. as the keynote speaker for PMI(R) Global Congress 2010–EMEA.
PMI's Global Congress allows experts and professionals at all levels to
network, discuss trends in project, program and portfolio management, and
achieve professional development and will take place from 10-12 May 2010 at
the Milano Convention Centre in Milan, Italy.

John Kao is an authority on the intersecting subjects of corporate
innovation and transformation, design, and the future of business. Dubbed a
"serial innovator" and "Mr. Creativity" by The Economist, he has made a
career out of helping organizations go from "getting" the importance of
innovation to "getting innovation done." His best-selling book, Innovation
Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters and How We
Can Get It Back, carefully analyzes the global dynamics of innovation and in
particular how many countries are racing for the innovation high ground, such
as Singapore, Denmark, Dubai, China, and Brazil.

Kao has worked with a wide range of Fortune 500 companies, startups, and
government agencies around practical issues of strategic innovation and
organizational transformation. Most recently, he launched the Institute for
Large Scale Innovation (ILSI,) a non-governmental organization created to
mobilize and coordinate innovation around the world and to address
macro-level challenges by bringing fresh perspectives to the field of
innovations. ILSI defines large-scale innovation in terms of regional,
national, and global systems.

"The issue behind the many challenges we face - in such areas as
education, health care, security, and access to opportunity - is our global
capacity to innovate," says Kao. "The decisions we make about reinvigorating
that capacity will shape our future for decades to come. Project managers are
a key to helping organizations define their desired future states, designing
innovation strategies, and supporting the efforts of innovation teams and
senior leadership to execute that strategy."

Kao's presentation will focus on the new geography of innovation
capabilities, which are opening fresh business models and opportunities for
established companies, entrepreneurs, and governments. Project management is
critical to making this innovation practical and translating it into
concrete, strategic value in a global marketplace.

"Dr. Kao's message of innovation is both timely and necessary for today's
businesses and organizations," said Gregory Balestrero, president and chief
executive officer of PMI. "Innovation should be a national priority, if not a
global one. It is the cornerstone of economic growth and the need for project
managers to drive new ideas, create new products and services and enable
organizational results is especially crucial throughout the European
continent."

About Project Management Institute (PMI)

The world's leading professional membership organization for project
managers, PMI shares knowledge with nearly 500,000 members and credential
holders in over 185 countries. Since 1969, PMI has impacted more than one
million practitioners, businesses, governments, students and training
organizations. Today, PMI's products and services range from world-class
standards for project, program and portfolio management to five professional
credentials, including the gold standard Project Management Professional
(PMP)(R). PMI's exclusive Global Corporate Council and European Corporate
Networking Group engage large multinationals and government organizations in
endorsing the value of project management. The only project management
association with an established academic research program, PMI has invested
more than US$14 million in support of dozens of research projects since 1997.
Learn more at PMI.org.

Glenn R. Boyet, +1-610-356-4600 x1112, Glenn.Boyet at pmi.org, or Megan Kelly, Public Relations, +1-610-356-4600 ext 7030, megan.kelly at pmi.org, both of Project Management Institute