Powerpuff Project Managers represented Finland in iPMC 2023

PMC starts every year first with a national qualification round and continues with national finals. Finland hosted its National Finals in May 2023 in partnership with Lessonlab and Kumura. Finnish Finals had six extremely competent teams competing for the right to represent Finland in the International event in Valencia. The winning team was Powerpuff Project Managers, with highly skilled teammates Katalina Kivinen, Marinka Essel and Huong Doan. The team travelled to Valencia with their Coach, the President of Young Crew Finland, Elsa Paasilinna.

Warming up for competition 

The iPMC is all about networking internationally.

When arriving in Valencia, we had some time to enjoy the sun, tapas, wine, and the local culture. The locals said the weather was "okayish", but for everyone living in central or northern Europe, the weather was more like "awesome". 

At the first day of the event, we heard warm welcoming speeches from the organizers at Spanish IPMA Member Association AEIPRO and the Spanish Young Crew AIEPRO Joven. We also enjoyed drinks, tapas, and free time to get to know each other. The speech by Jesus Martinez Almela, the Chairman of IPMA Council of Delegates, was very inspiring. He reminded us to have fun and enjoy the multicultural experience, since meeting other project professionals and learning from each other is the most important value in this event. He wanted to empower us, the young PM professionals, to be active and take over in IPMA, to make the association stronger for new challenges in the future. He also wanted to remind us that everyone attending was already a winner, since participants were winners of their National Finals and here representing their countries, which is a huge honor.  

Ready, Set, GO! 

The second day of the event was the official competition day. The competition was divided into two parts: a project simulation game provided by STS, and teams' presentations. The competition was extremely exciting! Teams were working intensively. The simulation game considered not just the budget, quality, and schedule, but also personnel motivation. The core of the project manager's competencies is made up by people management skills, so the human factor is important to count in and practice in project games as well. The game also included stressful events and decision points throughout and demanded performance under time pressure - as most projects do!  

The teams' presentations outlined, which strategic choices they made during the game and lessons learned from the experience. It was very interesting to learn from all the teams' insights based on varying experiences in the project game. 

Race for the podium 

The Finnish team made an instant bond with the German team.

In the evening the event came to a close with a gala dinner, where the highest performing teams were revealed. This year Netherlands landed on third place, and Poland on second place. The winner of iPMC23 was Italy! Italy performed extremely well in both parts of the competition, so the win was well deserved. This also means we will meet in Italy for iPMC24! The evening continued with celebrating the winners and enjoying each other’s company. Afterwards, tired but happy team Finland started their journey back home.  

We want to extend our gratitude to the organizers AEIPRO and IPMA Young Crew and thank the Valencia Polytechnic University for hosting us. We also want to warmly congratulate the winners from Italy. 

Big thanks to our super team, The Powerpuff Project Managers: Huong Doan, Marinka Essel and Katalina Kivinen! 

Writer: 

PMC Country Manager and Coach 23 

Young Crew Finland President 

Elsa Paasilinna