It is very late, and I am somewhere over the North Atlantic bound for Brussels, Belgium, for the PMI European Government Forum. Tonight, I can't sleep because I am thinking of something that I need to share.  I am going to state the obvious. There is more to PMI than PM.

I know. It sounds redundant, dumb, and almost foolish. However, I think anyone who is involved with PMI, really involved, knows that it is about relationships and networking. You see, I just finished a 4 day motorcycle trip through some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever seen in my life. Nearly 2000 kilometers through the Rocky Mountains of the western United States and the high plains deserts of Colorado and New Mexico. I will never forget this ride.

However, the great thing about this trip was the people on the ride. I rode with two current PMI Board members, Mark Mathieson and Beth Partleton, current and former chapter presidents Patrik Bergstrom (Sweden), Nathalie Udo (San Francisco Bay Area), and Gordon Bartlett (Sydney Australia), and three other close friends. Even my wife Frances and daughter Teresa came along. We all have PMI in common, either directly or indirectly. But through PMI, we discovered that we have motorcycles and desire for the open road in common, and have built friendships around this simple interest. The motorcycles aren't important. It could have been cars, art work, sustainability, history. Rather it is the fact that there is more to PMI than just PM.

The recent congress in Denver was no exception to this rule. When the breaks came, and the day was over, it was obvious that people were connecting, building relationships, and strengthening their career connections, their personal lives with each other. The more than 4000 attendees came from over 50 countries to learn, network and build their careers.

I saw people I met all over the world in Denver. Hashim M El-Rifaai, Chairman and MD of the Oil Development Company of Kuwait; Nada Jamal Khonji, Manager-Project Management of Performance Management Office, Tamkeen Labour Fund, Kingdom of Bahrain; Shane O'Hara, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency; Chris Goethe, Director of Business Development, Velociteach; Ed Hoffman, Director of the NASA Academy of Project, Program, and Engineering Leadership.

Hey, it isn't just me either. Several of us at PMI recently received an email from Liliana Buchtik, PMP, former president of the Montevideo, Uruguay chapter, and former region mentor for the southern part of South America. She had just presented a paper on virtual teams at the Brazilian National Congress. She is a very dedicated and hard working professional who helped build the profession and PMI in the southern cone of South America, and I am sure that her paper must have been spot on. Funny, though, her email talked all about the people that were at the congress, the friends she saw, and the great time she had with her long time friends and colleagues.

I could go on and on and on. These are the people I met that are making a significant difference in our profession throughout the world; people I have met and learned from, that shaped my thinking and strategy for PMI. And yes, they helped shape me, as a person as well. Their stories about family, crisis, tragedy, and success have all shaped my thinking and view of the world. It is like looking at the world through a multi-national prism, and seeing it differently each time you meet someone.

Amazing, this thing called PMI.

More later.