Upcoming Events

WMPMI's monthly chapter meeting is a two-PDU event featuring two presentation sessions linked by networking time and dinner.   

Event Agenda:

• Doors open at 5:15 PM ET
• The program begins at 5:30 PM ET and ends promptly at 8:00 PM.
  • 5:30  - Introductory Remarks by WMPMI President  
  • 5:35-6:30 - Session 1 Presentation by Keith Mitchell
  • 6:00-6:30 - Networking / Dinner / Announcements
  • 6:30-8:00 - Session 2 Presentation by Vinod Surapaneni
• The Zoom information will be in your registration confirmation email

Location: The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, 250 Monroe Ave NW #150, Grand Rapids, MI 49503

PDU: 2.0

Session 1 

SOAR in the Classroom 

No Blueprint: Leading Projects That Haven’t Been Done Before

In this session, Keith Mitchell will share how he draws on an unconventional career spanning Hollywood, entrepreneurship, technology, and higher education to explore what it takes to turn ambitious ideas into reality.

From his experience as a Hollywood screenwriter and producer to launching NUHO, the world’s first online film festival, founding PlayBooked, a technology platform that helped college athletes monetize their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Keith will share how his Hollywood experience is guiding him in launching SOAR™ by Cornerstone University, a groundbreaking smartphone-based higher education platform. Keith will share lessons learned from building projects where no blueprints existed. 

About the Speaker: 

Keith Mitchell is a creative force fueled by innovation, disruption, and motivation. He thrives at the intersection of storytelling, entrepreneurship, and leadership. With several produced films under his belt, Keith built characters that resonate on screen and launched startups across entertainment, technology, and sports, all with one goal in mind: making a lasting impact. Whether crafting stories or building ventures, Keith is driven to spark change, create measurable outcomes, and empower both people and products to reach their full potential.

As a servant-hearted leader, he is passionate about inspiring others—especially those ready to make a meaningful difference in the world. Keith believes every bold achievement starts with the first step, and he lives by Mark Twain’s words: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” For me, creativity is not just about thinking outside the box—it’s about building a whole new one.

Session 2

Project Management Courtroom: Who Killed the Project? 

Projects rarely fail because of one person or one bad decision. More often, failure emerges from a combination of unclear ownership, delayed decisions, weak governance, stakeholder conflict, poor communication, and risks that are known but not effectively addressed.

In The Project Management Courtroom: Who Killed the Project?, attendees will participate in an interactive case involving a fictional enterprise transformation that has gone off track. The project is behind schedule, over budget, business readiness is weak, unresolved defects remain, and the planned go-live has failed.

Participants will hear the perspectives of several key parties, including the Project Manager, Executive Sponsor, Business Stakeholders, Implementation Vendor, and PMO. Each party will present its case and explain why responsibility lies elsewhere.

The audience will then serve as the jury, discussing the evidence in small groups and assigning accountability across the different stakeholders. Additional evidence will be introduced during the session, challenging participants to reconsider their original conclusions.

The discussion will then shift from blame to prevention: What governance mechanisms, escalation practices, decision rights, communication approaches, and leadership behaviors could have changed the outcome?

This session is designed to be highly interactive, practical, and discussion-driven. Participants will leave with a stronger understanding of shared accountability, project governance, and how project leaders can create greater clarity before issues become failures.

About the Speaker: Vinod Surapaneni, PMP

Vinod Surapaneni is a project and program management leader with over 25 years of experience delivering complex enterprise initiatives and large-scale transformations. His experience spans program delivery, PMO leadership, ERP transformations, governance, organizational change, and executive stakeholder management. Throughout his career, Vinod has led teams through challenging project environments where decisions, risks, competing priorities, and stakeholder dynamics often determine success as much as methodology. He holds PfMP, PgMP, PMP, PMI-ACP, and Prosci certifications. Vinod is also the founder of OP Consulting Group, a consulting firm that provides ERP Program Execution, PMO Advisory, and Workforce Solutions, and is a Planview partner.