To anyone acquainted with Brett Harned, it is readily apparent that he is devoted to advancing the discipline of digital project management. By trade, he is a digital project manager with over 15 years experience in the field, currently functioning as the principal consultant at DPM Consulting. Brett specializes in working with teams to build processes and communication tactics that work not only for their projects, but for their teams and clients. He excels at strategizing, building, and managing digital projects of all shapes and sizes, with a focus on solving issues that are important to organizations who want to produce quality digital projects on schedule, and under budget.
For Brett, a career as a Digital Project Manager was not a hard and fast choice; it was something he stumbled into. It was a case of the man’s gift making way for him. After graduating from St Joseph’s University with an English/Fine Arts degree, Brett’s first job was that of a Generalist. He wrote, produced and directed video in addition to functioning as a combination Website/Content Manager. When he hired on at Razorfish, his ability to lead, direct and motivate came to the fore and led to his entrée into the world of project management. It was at Happy Cog, however, that his thought process and responsibilities had him leaning toward Digital Project Management.
While at Happy Cog, he began attending creative conferences and found that there were no presentations or sessions targeting people in his field to encourage and elevate their skills. So after several disappointing experiences, Brett felt strongly that a forum aimed at bringing project managers from the region together to network, share war stories, support and mentor each other needed to be established.
This conviction led to Brett founding DPM Philly in September 2011. Unwittingly, DPM Philly set the stage for Brett’s role as champion and builder of the DPM Community to emerge. In 2012, the DPM Philly concept was parlayed into the national arena by the inaugural Digital PM Summit. The Digital PM Summit now attracts over 300 Digital Project Managers from across the United States and Europe. In addition, later this year, Brett and Sam Barnes will launch PathfinderDPM, a new training program for digital project managers.
By virtue of his composure, his approach to identifying and diffusing problems, Brett is able to engender confidence amongst stakeholders, and create accessibility to thought leadership and the project management process. As a function of his desire to dispel the many misconceptions of, and gain respect for the DPM field, Brett facilitates awareness and professional development via blogs, extensive travel to speak and conduct workshops. Brett’s first book Project Management for Humans, will be published by Rosenfeld Media in 2017.
As successful as Brett Harned is professionally, he indicates, that his greatest achievement overall is his family. He plainly states that his wife and two happy, healthy daughters ground him. Brett can often be found exploring the City of Brotherly Love with his family and their French bulldog.
Other Information
On October 26 Brett will conduct an all-day Workshop on Digital Project Management for Revolve Conference at Sterling Hall.
Revolve Conference embraces, promotes and seeks to foster the interdependence between the Design, Business, and Marketing disciplines. The event features the gathering of disruptive thought leaders, talented speakers and trailblazers from around the country to share road-tested insights over three days.
Attendees can customize their personal agenda by choosing hands-on workshops on October 26, or keynotes and breakout sessions on October 27 & 28 with an aim to improve their craft, collaborate with industry peers, and learn cutting edge trends and best practices in a relatively short time.
