Abstract:The IEEE Central Texas Consultant’s Network and IEEE Technology Management Council Austin chapter are excited to announce a workshop titled “How to Become a Successful Consultant”.

The target audience is NOT JUST Engineers or Engineering Managers!

Any consultant–established or new–who wants to be more successful and to network with other consultants will benefit. Individuals considering joining the consulting field will also benefit greatly from this workshop.
Agenda:1:30 – 1:55 Registration and Networking
2:00 – 2:05 Introduction – Kai Wong/Doug Russell
2:05 – 2:45 Consultant 2.0 – Pat Goodwin
2:50 – 3:30 Networking to Find Your Leads – Tommy Chiodo
3:30 – 3:45 Break
3:50 – 4:30 Qualifying and Prioritizing Your Leads – Bob Davis
4:35 – 5:15 The Art of Consulting – Darrel Raynor
5:20 – 6:00 Panel: Pat Goodwin, Darrel Raynor, Carol Sheehan, Leslie Martinich.
Location:Freescale Semiconductor, 7700 W. Parmer, Austin TX, Building A, Main Auditorium; map (PDF).
Cost and Registration:The cost of this workshop with advance registration is only $20 for current and future IEEE members and $25 for others; $35 at the door.
Biography of Speakers and Panelists:Tommy Chiodo has been a career counselor/consultant for 13 years and prior to that spent 13 years in sales in the high-tech industry. The combination of those two careers has provided him with a unique perspective on the most difficult sell of all: the selling of one’s self. Tommy’s area of specialty as a career counselor is the art of networking where he takes a psychological approach to marketing one’s self through the development of personal and professional networks that is effective for both job seekers and consultants.

Bob Davis is principal of simple.sales.strategy based in Austin, Texas. Davis specializes in helping small businesses structure and create a simple and sustainable plan for action to increase revenue and margin. In his practice he brings 27 years of sales experience, executive sales management and street proven strategies that drive results. Davis has guided sales teams with a simple measurable process that creates sustainable results, supporting them with creation of letters, scripts, emails, accountability and practical strategies to move prospects to customers, existing accounts to growth and marginal accounts to improved profitability. Prior to launching his consulting practice, Bob has held VP, National VP positions for Consolidated Graphics, Cenveo and successful independent manufacturing firms.

Pat E. Goodwin, CPC has over 20 years experience as a manager/leader, trainer, facilitator and consultant.  Her company, Pat Goodwin Associates (< https://Associates.com >) specializes in coaching individuals as they explore career options, identifying ideal work preferences and preparing for next steps. She has solid expertise in writing resumes, coaching clients when “Preparing for the Interview”, and networking in the community. She has facilitated many, many workshops on the various topics related tocareer transition. Pat has a BA in Management from Concordia University in Austin, Texas and is a Certified Personnel Consultant. Most recently, Pat served as the Managing Consultant for Drake Beam & Morin’s Austin office.  She is the former owner of Austin Career Consultants, Inc and former partner of Career Consultants Temporaries. She has been active in the business community for a number of years having served on various boards.

Darrel A. Raynor, PMP, MBA is a senior technology executive, consultant, and turnaround specialist with over twenty years leadership experience streamlining operations,systems, people, and projects. He increases margin and profit, anddecreases organization friction internally and externally withcustomers, vendors, and partners. His positions include Managing Director of Data Analysis & Results, Inc. (< https://www.DataAnalysis.com >), Interim COO / CIO / VP Operations, Director of Project Management Program at St. Edward’s University Professional Education Center, Founder of Austin PMO Roundtable (with the ATC), and Director of The HeliOS Project (< https://www.heliosinitiative.org >).

Leslie Martinich, Principal Consultant at Competitive Focus, provides education and consulting services in engineering leadership, engineering ethics and innovation management. With more than 25 years of experience as a software professional, she has led teams at IBM, Compaq, Novell, Vignette and several startup companies.  She serves asthe lead faculty member at the Engineering Leadership Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

Carol Sheehan has over two decades of experience in software development and managementand is currently a Principal Consultant for Borland Software. After spending the first half of her career writing code and managing weapons systems and linear accelerator software, she moved into the consulting world to help customers take a value-focused and pragmatic approach to improving how they manage and develop software. She has experience in applying many industry standard models and standards but advocates forbusiness value and common sense to be the key improvement drivers. Customers she has advised include a range of large government, telecommunication, financial, and automotive corporations all the way to small product development shops. While her expertise covers the full lifecycle spectrum from requirements to test/release management, she is most passionate about the areas of organizational change management and portfolio, program and project management and has a special interest in building and managing PMOs.