By Lori Milhaven, Executive Vice President, IIL
October 22, 2026
A sponsor goes quiet. An effective team member stops speaking up. A rollout that looked perfect in the kickoff meeting falls apart the moment it hits the floor.
Sound familiar?
Some say I grew up at IIL. After 35+ years, they might be right. I’ve been a team member, a team lead, a sponsor, and a leader of many project teams. I’ve watched methodologies rise and fade. I’ve watched tools get smarter, faster, better. Now AI is staking its claim everywhere. And still, I believe failed projects fail for one reason. People.
That is the heart of IPM Day 2026: The Human of It All. I have spent the past few months getting to know our twelve presenters, interviewing several of them along the way. Every one of them changed how I think. I suspect they will do the same for you.
Start With You
Most project leaders I know take better care of their projects than they take care of themselves. We will jump on a 2 a.m. server outage without blinking, then skip lunch for six weeks straight. These four sessions flip that.
Shannon has sat in the C-suite as a CHRO and was identified for CEO succession, so she has seen up close what separates a good leader from a great one. Her answer is not another certification. It is who you are: your values, your presence, your courage to know yourself. Her five-point CHAIR framework turns that into something you can practice. I love this session because it says aloud what we all know and rarely admit to ourselves.
Anyone who has trained for a marathon knows you do not finish by sprinting every mile. Natalie brings that same truth to project leadership. After 25 years leading complex projects, she teaches four disciplines: protected focus, intentional energy, realistic capacity, and professional boundaries. If you have ever said, “I will rest when this project is done,” this one is for you. Spoiler: there is always another project.
Here is a question that stopped me. Why are we so good at hitting deadlines at work and so bad at hitting them in our own lives? My gym membership would like a word. Sebastian turns corporate OKRs into Personal OKRs (POKR) for your health, family, finances, and career. And yes, he shows you how to bring it right back into the office.
In a world where AI can answer anything, wisdom is the rarest thing in the room. Tresia is a 30-year technology leader, an author, and a proud US Air Force veteran. She asks where wisdom really comes from and how we pass it on to the people coming up behind us. That question matters more every single day.
Earn the Room
In my experience, Project managers carry more accountability than anyone in the organization, with far less formal authority. I have watched great PMs deal with this for decades. These three sessions give you a better way.
When things stall, most of us push harder, escalate, or send the dreaded “just circling back” email. James says stop. Influence is not a technique you apply. It is a relationship you earn. His five disciplines (Consciousness, Choice, Courage, Communication, and Commitment) are built for the stakeholders and teams who do not report to you. You leave with one thing to do tomorrow. I love that.
Bobbi puts it plainly: not process, not tools, trust. Using the Trust Equation and real lessons from enterprise transformation, she shows how missing trust quietly turns into rework, second-guessing, and slow decisions. Trust is not a soft skill. It is a performance accelerator. I could not agree more. And it turns out there is an actual formula for it. Who knew math could be this emotional?
Sponsors want speed. Users want features. Finance wants it cheaper. Operations want nothing to change. Welcome to the circus. You are the ringmaster, and nobody gave you the hat, the whip, or the budget. Samuel is one of our own IIL trainers, and he brings humor plus real tools for surfacing conflicts early and turning your toughest stakeholders into allies.
Build the Team
Talent is not the same thing as teamwork. These three presenters show you how to close the gap.
When I sat down with Raju, we landed on something I have not stopped thinking about put five brilliant people on a team and you do not get a high-performing team. You got five brilliant people, each certain the other four misunderstood the plan. With 32 years in learning and development, Raju shows how experiential learning exposes the misalignment nobody knew existed, before it costs you the project.
I also had the chance to talk with Nicole ahead of IPM Day, and her energy is contagious. Her message: leadership is tested when everything shifts at once. Stay steady, stay transparent, and celebrate every win along the way, because people need recognition most when things are hardest.
Graziella has 19 years in the pharmaceutical industry and a challenge every new manager needs to hear: become the leader you once needed. Your job is no longer doing the work. (Yes, that means you must stop fixing their slides at midnight.) It is multiplying what your whole team can do.
Making Change Stick
You can deliver on time, on budget, and still fail if nobody uses what you build. These two sessions take on the most human problem in any portfolio.
This one makes me smile every time! A toddler can need up to seven tries before accepting a new food. So why do we expect adults to embrace change after one email and one training session? Erica’s broccoli principle, grounded in ADKAR and CCMP standards, shows that adoption comes from repetition and structure. As a mom of four, I can tell you she is right. I can also tell you some stakeholders throw their broccoli on the floor too.
AI can write your change plan in seconds. It cannot read fear in a room, or the face Finance makes when you say “phase two.” Jorgelina, another member of our IIL family, shows how the best PMs let AI handle the logistics of change so they can focus on the psychology of it. My favorite question from her session: not “did they adopt the tool?” but “do they feel capable and safe using it?”
Why Is the Human of It All a Great Learning Track?
Here is my take. Anyone can generate a plan now. Not everyone can get a skeptical sponsor to commit, a tired team to rally, or a resistant department to use what you delivered. That is the differentiator. And it is not going away.
Here is what you get:
- Frameworks, not pep talks. CHAIR, the Trust Equation, the five Cs of influence, POKR, the Broccoli principle, a hybrid change framework. Tools you can use Monday morning.
- Practitioners, not theorists. These speakers lead PMOs, transformations, and teams in healthcare, pharma, higher education, technology, and consumer goods.
- The whole human system. You, your stakeholders, your team, and the organization living with the change.
- The perfect partner to the AI Impacts track. Watch a session on what AI can do, then watch Jorgelina or Tresia on what it cannot. That contrast is the lesson.
Real experts. Real challenges. Real help.
IPM Day 2026 goes live on Thursday, November 5, with five live keynotes and 30+ on-demand presentations available for 90 days. You can earn 26+ PDUs and SEUs, and every registration includes two free on-demand courses, including Becoming an Effective Servant Leader with Jorgelina Bross-Puglisi. It is the perfect next step after this track.
I hope to see you there. Bring your toughest stakeholder story. Leave with a better way to handle it.
Frequently Asked Questions
International Project Management Day (IPM Day) 2026 is IIL's 22nd annual global virtual conference for project professionals. The theme is Purpose, Progress, and Power. It features five live keynotes, 30+ on-demand presentations, and three learning tracks: Projects in Motion, AI Impacts, and The Human of It All.
The Human of It All is the IPM Day 2026 track dedicated to the human side of project management. Its twelve sessions cover self-leadership and burnout, influence without authority, trust, stakeholder management, team performance, resilient leadership, and organizational change management.
Speakers in the Human of It All presentation track include:
- Shannon Leppky
- Natalie Berkiw-Scenna
- Sebastian Voss
- Dr. Tresia Eaves
- James Trela
- Bobbi Harte
- Samuel Parri
- Raju Madhavan
- Nicole Petite, Graziella Borg
- Erica Mohre
- Jorgelina Bross-Puglisi
Project and program managers, PMO leaders, new people managers, change management practitioners, and anyone who leads work through other people without full formal authority.
No. While we encourage you to join us live on November 5, attendance is optional. All presentations will be available on demand for 90 days.
Attendees can earn 26+ PDUs and SEUs across the full event.
The regular price is $89. Group pricing and enterprise licenses are available, and IIL offers special pricing for veterans, students, and professionals experiencing hardship such as a recent layoff.
Every registration includes two free on-demand courses: Innovation and Design: Thinking Beyond the Obvious with Dr. Elissa Farrow (3 PDUs) and Becoming an Effective Servant Leader with Jorgelina Bross-Puglisi (6 PDUs).
Lori Milhaven
Executive Vice President at International Institute for Learning (IIL)
Our deepest purpose is to enable growth and success of individuals, teams and organizations with long-lasting, high quality learning in a technology-driven world. Lori is honored to have been with IIL over 30 years, and to make it her mission to focus on continuous improvement, client driven success and to go above and beyond to meet expectations.
