PMI Regional Presidents' Meeting held in Sri Lanka

The Project Management Institute (PMI) Regional Presidents' Meeting was held at Hotel Dolphin Club and Spa at Waikkal, Negombo. This is the first time Sri Lanka was chosen as a venue for such higher-level planning and update sessions. Usually such meetings are held in India, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong or Japan. This has positively promoted as a good venue for such higher-level events. As a neutral location, all Western Asian and other Asian nationals can travel to Sri Lanka without any travel restrictions and most visitors can obtain visa on arrival for such international events as Sri Lanka promotes such professional tourists also.

Many reasons to select Sri Lanka as the location for this meeting were explained. Initially, this meeting was to be held in Tokyo, Japan, but after the tsunami disaster, it was to be postponed due to safety factors. The PMI Sri Lanka Chapter President Hugo Wisidagama promoted Sri Lanka and as an alternate venue to hold the meeting and all decision makers agreed to have the meeting in Sri Lanka.

PMI USA approved the venue and gave the green light to have the meeting in Sri Lanka. The progress of the PMI Colombo Chapter's progress and the country being directed towards PM practices made them decide to have the PMI Regional Presidents' Meeting in Sri Lanka.

As a tourism promotion effort, the PMI Sri Lanka Chapter encouraged to have the meeting at a beach resort rather than having it in a city hotel. Having no risk factor and no opposition from any country to hold a meeting of this kind in Sri Lanka is a good sign for the country.

PMI globally recognized that the PMI Colombo Chapter is working with the government, and the industry and private sectors to develop the management practices through education and participation in various activities, not just training the Project Managers for certification. Since the PMI Colombo Chapter has brought credibility to Sri Lanka for the PM professionals to host such a high level planning meeting with the PMI Leadership Institute knowledge sharing session that brought invaluable experience to all participants being held in a different country, Chapter President Hugo Wisidagama said "This will lead to the next Regional Conference also being held in Sri Lanka in 2012."

All Western Asian Chapter Presidents and Directors attended this planning and knowledge sharing session, which is generally held bi-annually. The opportunity also promoted Sri Lanka to showcase some mega Sri Lankan success stories to the regional leaders such as Ports development, BP ICT - ICTA projects and the tourism industry infrastructure successfully showcasing the country's readiness to be the regional hub for many business services.

This meeting opened a window of opportunity to promote Sri Lanka as a venue for such future events attracting 'professional tourists' to the country. PMI Colombo Chapter President Wisidagama said the feedback of the visitors would be provided to the relevant authorities.