CHALLENGE:

When Linda Bassett, marketing communications manager at Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Technology Solutions Group, was tapped to create a Seminar in a Box that would be used at road shows and other customer events conducted by HP divisions throughout Europe, she realized HP needed a marketing communications manager to oversee and coordinate the complex undertaking. After all, the project included input from multiple managers in multiple countries. In addition to managing time zones and languages, the consultant must have tact, diplomacy and the ability to work with diverse personalities and business styles.

“Seminar in a Box was used to help with sales of our Integrity line, leadership in the virtualization and consolidation areas, as well as storage, software and services,” Linda said. “We needed someone who could oversee the project’s use of animation, customer videos, graphics and scripted presentations, in a way that would appeal to and be of interest to CIOs, IT directors and technical managers.”

SOLUTION:

Based on her past experience with Lawren Communications, one of Linda’s colleagues highly recommended Celia Lawren for the assignment.

“I would say it was a very difficult project to manage because so many people were involved from both Worldwide and our European region. Celia has many strengths; one of them is managing teams efficiently,” Linda said.

“Although she was new to TSG, new to virtualization technology and new to the project, she was able to listen to diverse points of view, kept conversations on-course, and ensured the project was achieved on time and on budget. She was able to speak articulately about HP solutions,” continued Linda. “Her people skills, management skills, her ability to pick up on techno speak and acronyms, as well as her terrific attitude under very tough conditions, helped make this project such a success. Celia provided very good input – she definitely went above and beyond the role of a project manager.”

In fact, HP TSG was so pleased with the results that the organization expanded the use of Seminar in a Box beyond its original plans, translating it into multiple languages and extending the solution into Asia, the Middle East and North America.

Today, HP TSG is using the Seminar in a Box as a template for the rollout of a related offering: Solution in a Box, said Linda.

"This project was one of the most - if not the most - successful project for TSG Marcom in 2005," she added. "I recommend Celia to a lot of people because of my experience with her. I would love to work with her again."