In 2010, the World’s most visible sports event will take place in South Africa, Africa’s economic powerhouse. It should be needless to say, but this is a major project and program management effort for many parts of the whole country.

Billions will be spent to establish or improve a total of ten stadiums spread across the country, and build roads, and general infrastructure. Besides that, media, communication, and security aspects need to be coordinated, along with ticketing, transportation of visitors and fans, and much more.

And of course, this is the ultimate exercise in backward scheduling: On June 11, 2010, the World Cup will begin!

I only read general information about the status of these endeavors, but it is heartening to see that country on the way proving it can deliver. This week the first new stadium opened its doors, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth. Messi, Kaka, Ronaldo, Klose and Ribery will be ready, and so will be South Africa.

However, when I did some research about the project management related ERP market in South Africa I was surprised. It seemed that the global economic situation hit the country profoundly. The PMI will not have a conference this year, and for a couple of years there had not been a conference of SAP users.
Moreover, some web sites of project management and industry organizations seem to be out of date. The general impression I got was that the dynamics seen in practice is not reflected in the institutions. Maybe that is a good thing, to focus on getting the real job done properly instead of focusing on administrative work and meetings.

However, education and networking is important to get new impressions and ideas. It also can help to be able to sometimes step back and look at things from a distance and from a different perspective. I do therefore hope that we will be able to make a small contributions to give that to project management professionals, during the event we are planning in Johannesburg in September.

The date will be set shortly. And then it means backward scheduling for us…