Activities and events

APM North West Research Symposium 2018

On 4 December 2018, more than 80 delegates came together in Manchester to attend the Association for Project Management’s (APM) North West Research Symposium to explore how the project management profession might help improve UK productivity.This builds on the APM-funded systematic review of the evidence of how project management contributes to productivity (see https://www.apm.org.uk/media/25242/pm-productivity.pdf).

This two-part symposium consisted of a doctoral workshop during the day and round-table and panel discussions in the evening. The day event provided an opportunity for doctoral students from all over the north of England and beyond, including the Netherlands and India, to present their research and obtain feedback. The students also participated in a workshop on framing their research for impact on practice by asking the ‘so what’ questions from their research findings.

The evening session was joined by professionals from the north-west of England. Practitioners had the opportunity to interrogate the researchers while identifying ways of stimulating meaningful collaboration between academia and industry. For more information about the outcomes of this event, please contact Dr. Obuks Ejohwomu, email obuks.ejohwomu@manchester.ac.uk.

Icida 2018

Dr. Obuks Ejohwomu was Chair and Editor of the 7th International Conference on Infrastructure Development in Africa with the theme “Infrastructure Complexity: What are we fixing?”  The three-day conference took place in Lagos State Polytechnic in Ikorodu in Lagos State from 28-30 March 2018. 

This attracted more than 500 academic researchers, industry practitioners and policy-makers from different parts of the world exchange ideas on addressing the challenge of complexity in infrastructure development in Africa.  Key institutions involved include LASPOTECH, the University of Johannesburg and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.  

The Future of Project Management Community of Practice Event

The Management of Projects Research Group hosted a Community of Practice Event on ‘The Future of Project Management Practice and Education’ at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Manchester on Monday 18 June 2018. 

The purpose was to bring together industry practitioners from the region, including alumni and current students on the Professional Development Programme, to share experiences and knowledge about project management profession moving forward.  Rob Leslie-Carter, Director of Arup, gave the keynote presentation based on the study he led for the Association for Project Management on the future of the project management profession.  He outlined seven trends, which included greater diversity, globalisation and the future of working in small virtual teams nested across mega-firms, increasing digital transformation, growing social consciousness built into corporate cultures, on-demand gig economy, intensifying knowledge sharing and open innovation, and automation. 

A panel comprising Visiting Professor Terry Williams (University of Hull), Dr. Christine Unterhitzenberger (Liverpool John Moores University, and the APM Research Advisory Group) and Simon Carpenter (Royal Mail) provided their reflections and provocations following the talk.  The event also saw three roundtable discussions revolving around the value of project management methodologies, project leadership development, and managing organisational change.

Please keep an eye on this page for news of upcoming events, conferences and courses or go to the MACE events page.