PMI-LA Blogs

Saturday evening at the Long Beach Marriott didn't feel like a room where you simply listened to speakers and went home.

People met over food, settled in around round tables, and talked face-to-face before the program began. The speakers were close to the audience, and as the evening continued, the questions moved from the front of the room back into the tables.

That made for the right setting for The Shift: From Expert to Explorer, an evening about what happens when the experience that got you here doesn't necessarily tell you what to do next.

Five Careers. Five Different Moments of Change.

   

Stephen Guine shared how a technically successful project taught him that technology couldn't replace a leader's judgment or responsibility.

Tanacha Gaines challenged the room to think about the people behind faster technology: when AI allows teams to do more, who protects them from expectations that grow just as quickly?

Kevin Noertker took us to Maui, where a hybrid-electric aircraft was ready before the charging infrastructure needed to support it. The workaround kept the project moving, but ultimately revealed that the route forward needed to change.

Idris Manley brought the conversation directly to the future of project management: if AI can analyze plans, risks, and execution, how can PMs use it to move beyond deliverables and contribute more directly to business outcomes?

And Tim Boyd found leadership lessons somewhere unexpected: Aragorn, Elizabeth Bennet, Don Quixote, and Santiago. His talk ultimately became personal, connecting leadership to the examples we leave for the people coming after us.

Then the Room Got Involved.

 

One idea compared navigating uncertainty to carrying a compass instead of a map. Know your direction, move, learn, and adjust.

Someone in the audience pushed the idea further:

How do you give yourself room to learn when people expect you to have the answer?

Another asked how project managers can think strategically when they don't sit at the executive level.

The conversation moved through AI, career growth, influence, uncertainty, and the pressure to deliver faster. One of the simplest lessons of the evening was also one of the hardest for experienced professionals to say:

“I don't know.”

Followed by:

“I need help.”

Experience still matters. But so does knowing when to ask another question.

The Conversations Continued Beyond the Program.

   

The evening wasn't only about what happened at the front of the room. Attendees connected over food, moved between tables, continued conversations after the talks, and took part in a networking scavenger hunt designed to get people meeting and talking with others around the room.

Between the audience questions, group photos, new introductions, and conversations with people across different industries and stages of their careers, there were plenty of reasons to get out of your seat and meet someone new.

For those who joined us, we hope these photos bring back someone you met, something you wrote down, or a conversation you want to continue.

And if you missed this one, there will be another seat at the table.