What does it take to run a global virtual conference with 1,000+ attendees, 75+ volunteers, live translation, and zero paywalls?In this behind-the-scenes episode, Fatimah Abbouchi (Founder & CEO of AMO) is joined by her co-founder of The PMO Leader community, Joe Pusz—better known as PMO Joe—to unpack how a grassroots movement became a global platform for PMO leadership, learning, and real delivery outcomes.Together, they explore how The PMO Leader went from a one-hour webinar to a 20-hour, fol...
What does it take to run a global virtual conference with 1,000+ attendees, 75+ volunteers, live translation, and zero paywalls?
In this behind-the-scenes episode, Fatimah Abbouchi (Founder & CEO of AMO) is joined by her co-founder of The PMO Leader community, Joe Pusz—better known as PMO Joe—to unpack how a grassroots movement became a global platform for PMO leadership, learning, and real delivery outcomes.
Together, they explore how The PMO Leader went from a one-hour webinar to a 20-hour, follow-the-sun event built entirely by volunteers—where project managers, executives, and first-time speakers all had a voice. From detailed runbooks to backup decks and real-time incident management, they share what worked, what nearly broke, and what it taught them about leadership at scale.
The conversation also dives into PMBOK 8, the shift from “governance-heavy” to value-first thinking, and why today’s PMO leaders need to integrate deeply with strategy, operations, and change. Joe shares insights from the PMI Global Summit, the current job market for project managers, and how sponsors are shifting from brand exposure to meaningful community investment.
This episode highlights what happens when community drives the agenda: bottom-up strategy, multilingual inclusion, practical tools like PMOpedia, and mentoring programs that now span 40+ countries. If you care about making PMOs more visible, valuable, and connected to real outcomes—this is the inside story.
In this episode, I cover:
3:13 PMI Summit Trends and PMOBOK 8
8:50 PMO’s Rising Role and Industry Shifts
15:20 Why The PMO Leader Was Created
22:30 Volunteers, Voice, and Rel Value
28:20 Building a Follow-The-Sun Conference
35:40 Sponsors, Reach, and ROI
42:05 Global Partnerships and Inclusion
49:10 Trust, Belonging, and Member Care
55:40 Live Ops: When Tech Fails
And more...
🎧 Tune in for lessons you can take straight back to your team.
Visit https://www.thepmoleader.com for more information or follow on LinkedIn here https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-pmo-leader.
If you’d like to get involved in shaping what comes next.
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