DEFCON Acadiana: Are We There Yet? Why Everyone Wants to Skip the Map
About this Event
Everyone loves execution. Very few people love planning.
We want to build, secure, code, deploy, innovate, and solve problems. Planning can feel like a speed bump standing between us and the work we actually want to do.
Unfortunately, skipping the map is often where the real problems begin.
Join DEFCON Acadiana for Are We There Yet? Why Everyone Wants to Skip the Map, an interactive and practical session led by Tanya Boyd, Director of Creative Collaboration with Project Success Academy.
Through relatable stories, audience discussion, real-world examples, and a healthy dose of humor, Tanya will explore why intelligent and capable teams frequently rush or avoid planning—and how that decision can lead to unclear expectations, overlooked risks, scope confusion, unnecessary rework, and preventable chaos.
This is not a session about creating massive project plans, adding bureaucracy, or slowing down execution.
It is about doing just enough planning to help teams move faster, communicate clearly, identify risks, and improve outcomes.
Tanya will also demonstrate how modern AI tools can support planning activities by helping teams identify stakeholders, challenge assumptions, uncover risks, clarify success criteria, and create practical planning artifacts in minutes.
Tanya Boyd is a dynamic project manager, educator, creative strategist, and professional speaker with more than 20 years of experience across disaster recovery, healthcare, information technology, marketing, and government.
She combines imagination, strategy, communication, and storytelling to create engaging learning experiences and practical solutions that drive measurable results.
Tanya develops and delivers training focused on project leadership, workplace productivity, communication, creativity, team development, and the practical use of artificial intelligence. She has presented high-energy learning experiences to more than 50 PMI chapters, companies, professional organizations, and audiences at the PMI Global Summit.
Her philosophy is simple: curiosity and communication unlock better solutions.
What You Will Learn
• Why capable teams often skip planning
• How human behavior affects decision-making and execution
• Questions teams should ask before beginning the work
• How to identify assumptions, risks, stakeholders, and success criteria
• Ways to reduce scope confusion, missed expectations, and rework
• Practical planning techniques that do not create unnecessary bureaucracy
• How AI tools can accelerate and strengthen the planning process
• Lessons drawn from real-life professional and personal examples
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
