PMFORUM Breaking News
Breaking News in the Project Management World
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Track Topics announced for APM's 2008 Project Management Conference in London
Reported by Miles Shepherd in the UK
The Association for Project Management (APM) has announced preliminary track topics for their 2008 Project Management Conference, scheduled for 29-30 October 2008. The 2008 conference will be held at the historic Brewery Conference Centre in London.
According to the APM Project Management Conference Panel, the following five major topic areas have been selected for the conference:
Success through projects - Building on the 2007 conference theme, the business of projects, which set out to define how projects can deliver benefit and competitive advantage to organizations of all kinds, the 2008 conference will look at turning understanding into action. This conference will deal with many of the key factors that make a project a success, from choosing your project, delivering it successfully, and managing complex projects beyond their scope, at both a stakeholder and global level.
Right projects, right people! - From the outset the benefit a project offers should be well defined and no project should be completed that isn’t delivering value. Selecting the right projects, managing the portfolio and stopping projects are neglected components of project success. The project manager’s natural instinct to ‘get things done’, the keenness of the organization to see the end product, and the organisations struggle to understand what continues ‘value’ mean that portfolios expand, morph and bloat to uncontrollable levels consuming money, time and resources. This topic areas will build on last year’s theme of the skills gap, which identified that delivering the right people was one side of the project success equation and choosing the right projects was the other. This subject will investigate all elements of managing a project portfolio.
Stakeholders and sponsors - There are many p’s in the project management world; including projects, programmes, portfolios and professionalism, but none have a greater impact on the success of projects than politics and more politics. No project, in the public or private sector, is isolated from the outside world. The successful alignment of the project team, its sponsors and its wider stakeholders is central to project success. Building on the 2007 theme of Governance, which looked at how projects interact in a broader organizational context, this subject area will investigate how to manage projects whilst maintaining contact with the outside world and the role that sponsorship plays in achieving this.
Managing in a complex world - Projects are ordered, planned, scheduled and delivered. The world is complex, chaotic, imprecise and changing. Projects are unrehearsed, and the world continually evolves. Building on the 2007 theme of mega projects – which identified that the complexity rather than size of the project presents specific issues, this subject area will investigate how complexity – both of the project and its environment - can be managed. As projects become increasingly pan-sector, they grow increasingly complex. Physical boundaries of a construction and engineering project do not exist in other environments where creativity is unbounded.
Local projects, global consequence - As the old adage goes, ‘if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem’. If your project isn’t delivering benefits its delivering problems. Building on the 2007 theme of sustainability, which investigated how the global sustainability movement was impacting on project management, this subject area will broaden the issue even further to investigate how a project can and will impact on a global level. A broad range of subjects can be considered, from how environmental factors impact on the project, to the role that ethics play in managing projects.
According to Terry Cooke-Davies, conference chair (pictured), “We are looking for project leaders with good stories to tell or views to express related to these general subject areas. As so effectively occurred last year, we can expect some interesting presentations, but even more captivating discussions. This will be another opportunity to engage the project management community across the country on some issues of national importance.”
“Of course, we will welcome participants and views from outside the UK too,” he added. “We expect the APM conference to produce results that benefit the profession globally. International executives, project managers and leaders are welcome and encouraged to participate.
Full details about the conference can be found at www.apm.org.uk/conference.asp. For further information about speaking, attending or exhibiting at the event, contact conference@apm.org.uk.
The Association for Project Management (APM) is the UK’s national body for professional project management. With over 16,500 individual and 490 corporate members throughout the UK and abroad, APM is one of the largest organisations of its kind in Europe. The organisation develops and promotes project management across all sectors of industry and beyond.
APM's published mission is: "To develop and promote the professional disciplines of project and programme management for the public benefit." APM is the UK member of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). With headquarters in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, APM has twelve regional branches throughout the UK and one in Hong Kong. Additional information can be found at www.apm.org.uk.
The Association for Project Management (APM) has announced preliminary track topics for their 2008 Project Management Conference, scheduled for 29-30 October 2008. The 2008 conference will be held at the historic Brewery Conference Centre in London.
Success through projects - Building on the 2007 conference theme, the business of projects, which set out to define how projects can deliver benefit and competitive advantage to organizations of all kinds, the 2008 conference will look at turning understanding into action. This conference will deal with many of the key factors that make a project a success, from choosing your project, delivering it successfully, and managing complex projects beyond their scope, at both a stakeholder and global level.
Right projects, right people! - From the outset the benefit a project offers should be well defined and no project should be completed that isn’t delivering value. Selecting the right projects, managing the portfolio and stopping projects are neglected components of project success. The project manager’s natural instinct to ‘get things done’, the keenness of the organization to see the end product, and the organisations struggle to understand what continues ‘value’ mean that portfolios expand, morph and bloat to uncontrollable levels consuming money, time and resources. This topic areas will build on last year’s theme of the skills gap, which identified that delivering the right people was one side of the project success equation and choosing the right projects was the other. This subject will investigate all elements of managing a project portfolio.
Local projects, global consequence - As the old adage goes, ‘if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem’. If your project isn’t delivering benefits its delivering problems. Building on the 2007 theme of sustainability, which investigated how the global sustainability movement was impacting on project management, this subject area will broaden the issue even further to investigate how a project can and will impact on a global level. A broad range of subjects can be considered, from how environmental factors impact on the project, to the role that ethics play in managing projects.
“Of course, we will welcome participants and views from outside the UK too,” he added. “We expect the APM conference to produce results that benefit the profession globally. International executives, project managers and leaders are welcome and encouraged to participate.
Full details about the conference can be found at www.apm.org.uk/conference.asp. For further information about speaking, attending or exhibiting at the event, contact conference@apm.org.uk.
APM's published mission is: "To develop and promote the professional disciplines of project and programme management for the public benefit." APM is the UK member of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). With headquarters in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, APM has twelve regional branches throughout the UK and one in Hong Kong. Additional information can be found at www.apm.org.uk.
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