Monthly Webinars 2026
Join us on July 30, 2026 at 11:00 AM on Zoom for our July Monthly Webinar.
Why Project Estimates Miss the Mark—and How to Make Them Better
Accurate project resource estimates are critical—and yet many of us struggle to get them right. Why is that?
For our July 2026 Project Management Professionals Community of Practice, we’ll explore this challenge together by starting with a short, 5 minute video from Bill Dow that takes a candid look at why estimates so often fall short in today’s fast paced project environments. In the video, Bill highlights several realities many of us experience every day.
During our session, we’ll build on these ideas discussed in the video and focus on practical approaches project managers can use immediately. This will be an interactive discussion where participants can:
- Reflect on which estimating challenges resonate most in their own projects
- Share what has (and hasn’t) worked in their organizations
- Walk away with concrete techniques to improve estimating conversations with their teams
If you’ve ever wondered why “reasonable” estimates don’t hold up—or how to make them more reliable—this session is for you. Feel free to watch the video
ahead of time to start documenting how you create more accurate resource estimates in your PM work that you can share with the group.
Please use the links below to add the July webinar to your schedule and not miss out.
Please make sure to join our SUNY PM listserv to get updates on the webinar and other topics that are of interest to our SUNY Project Management Community of Practice.
June 2026
Agility in Higher Education – What is possible?
Presenter: Raji Prabhakaran , University at Albany
Higher education institutions operate in an environment of constant change, growing complexity, and increasing expectations. This presentation explores how organizations can build the capacity to adapt, collaborate, and deliver meaningful outcomes while navigating uncertainty. Through reflections on leadership, culture, strategic alignment, and organizational learning, participants will examine the conditions that enable sustainable progress and resilience. The session offers perspectives on fostering engagement, strengthening cross-functional partnerships, and creating an environment where people and teams can thrive amid change.
April 2026
From Chaos to Clarity: Implementing Effective Project Management Processes for Distributed Instructional Design Teams
Presenter: Jacob Feldman, SUNY Empire
Distributed instructional design teams often struggle with fragmented workflows and unclear communication. This presentation outlines a scalable approach to managing high-volume course development and revision projects at SUNY Empire State University through structured processes, centralized project intake, and a single source of truth.
The session highlights how relational databases, standardized workflows, and intentional use of asynchronous communication improve transparency, coordination, and efficiency. Attendees will see how dashboards, shared views, and automations support collaboration and streamline project tracking across roles. This approach demonstrates how thoughtful system design and communication practices can reduce complexity and enable distributed teams to work more effectively at scale.
February 2026
AI Tools for Project Management: Top 10 Ways to Boost Results
This month’s session focused on PMI’s guidance for using AI to enhance project management, based on key takeaways from a 7‑minute PMI video. Participants explored 10 practical insights and discussed how these ideas can be applied—or are already being applied—in day‑to‑day project work.
Participants were encouraged to watch the video in advance and share notes and ideas in a collaborative Word document. That document was shared following the session so everyone can reference the collective insights and begin implementing the ideas that are most useful to their work.
January 2026
In January, participants gathered for a collaborative, book club–style discussion of David Allen’s The Art of Getting Things Done, sharing insights on productivity, stress reduction, and practical applications for project management. The session fostered open discussion and peer learning around how the book’s principles can be applied to real‑world workflows and team dynamics. To support candid conversation, only the introductory portion of the webinar was recorded; the remainder of the session was intentionally not recorded to respect participant privacy.
October 2025
Leveraging Microsoft Planner & Teams Across SUNY
Join us for an engaging roundtable discussion featuring project management professionals from four SUNY campuses as they share practical strategies for using Microsoft Planner and Teams to manage projects more effectively.
This session spotlighted real-life examples, creative workflows, and lessons learned—highlighting how these tools are being used to streamline collaboration, organize tasks, and keep projects on track across the SUNY system. Whether it’s a clever Planner setup or a Teams channel that’s improved communication, you’ll walk away with actionable ideas you can apply in your own work.
The roundtable format included time for Q&A.
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