Smartsheet ENGAGE 2022

What a treat it was to spend time with people in person again at Smartsheet’s 2022 ENGAGE customer conference! Several of our Global PMO Partner (GPMO) team members were able to attend the conference together. Next year, we are looking forward to our whole GPMO team attending, learning and growing!

DAY 1 was focused on the Smartsheet Channel Partner network with a full-day Partner Summit. It was so great to meet so many of the other partners we’ve met virtually over the last two years as we engaged with partnering together or passing along business to each other. We were so impressed with how many global Smartsheet partners traveled to Seattle from the UK and Germany. It was a great day to glean more insights into the upcoming product roadmap to prepare partners to deliver new features and functionality to our mutual clients. We also got to learn more about what’s next as the channel partner program elevates to the next level. Thanks to the Channel Partner team for hosting such a great partner-focused event for us!

DAY 2 started with a vroom, vroom … literally … Smartsheet is a McLaren Formula 1 Racing sponsor so we were excited to see the racecar in the booth area, but even more exciting was Smartsheet’s CEO, Mark Mader, and McLaren Racing’s CEO, Zak Brown, highlighting the dynamic partnership of not only Smartsheet’s sponsorship, but also how McLaren uses Smartsheet to drive their own results.

Check out the ENGAGE 2022 Opening Keynote & Customer Panel – (YouTube starting at minute 11:05)

As we navigated all things prepared for our Smartsheet conference engagement for the remaining events with breakouts, main sessions, breaking bread together with new acquaintances that could one day become a GPMO client to expand and grow their Smartsheet solution needs and wrap things up on DAY 4, we spent a lot of time having a “back in the day” moment and thinking about Michelle’s own 12 year journey with Smartsheet as a client twice, as an internal consultant, then leading Salesforce’s HR PMO powered by Smartsheet which led her to the point of establishing Global PMO Partners.

Michelle’s key takeaways:

• Having been the first consultant internally at Smartsheet to beta test the Smartsheet Control Center at its inception and handled the initial implementations and training to now delivering as a partner Project Management Optimization & Control Center implementations at scale, I had a nostalgic moment listening and learning from clients who have benefited greatly with not just Control Center, but the continuous evolution of the power of Control Center. Truly Control Center helps PMOs and Project Managers scale, be more efficient and to be that “digital project admin” to free up time to do the jobs PMs and PMO leaders were hired to do!
• Within the last year or so, Control Center has increased its integration capability with Smartsheet’s  Resource Management platform which has been a powerful combination. The big announcement at ENGAGE for the next-gen Control Center capability is now leveraging the power of Control Center and Work Apps to now be able to create Portfolio Work Apps!

We think the most special moment during the whole week was being blessed to have four of our GPMO clients attending ENGAGE and one even speaking at one of the breakout sessions (thanks, Evan!). This team of clients is driving powerful things at scale within their organizations, whether that is creating and/or expanding their IT/Enterprise PMOs or driving Operational Efficiency & Collaboration for their Learning & Development services to their luxury auto brand clients. One of those magical moments happened when one client was texting me after a breakout session to introduce me to two Smartsheet clients that were in need of taking their Smartsheet journey to the next level … you know you’ve created a special GPMO Delivery Team when your client is selling your services for you at ENGAGE (thank you, Sara!) and to other clients in need! We adopted one of these potential new clients to join us for the GPMO client dinner at Yard House. And speaking of Yard House, while it was loud and great food, it was more spectacular to see our GPMO clients get connected, creating their own future Smartsheet community, exchanging phone numbers and hugs as we all walked back to our hotels together as a unique little family unit knowing that we’ve all created something special for ourselves, our organizations and our own career journey.

Thank you, Erica Graf (Blucora), Evan Smith (Pro-Active Performance), Kelly Kline (Rapidscale) and Sara Jerrad (Xanterra) for being on this wild GPMO/Smartsheet ride with us!

Life is not meant to be lived alone and that includes creating and running a consulting business. We are so grateful to the whole Global PMO Partners team who love serving our clients and transforming the way they manage things from Project Management/PMOs to Retail Real Estate & Construction and so many things in between. We look forward to showcasing our GPMO Consulting Team soon on the website, social media, and newsletters. Stay tuned!

Erica Graf (Blucora) Sara Jerrad (Xanterra), Michelle Watkins (Global PMO Partners), Kelly Kline (Rapidscale), Evan Smith (Pro-Active Performance)