APM Podcast

To celebrate our 100th episode, Emma meets Ros Atkins, the BBC’s News Analysis Editor, who has presented and reported on some of the biggest stories around the world for 20 years. He’s also the creator of the critically acclaimed Ros Atkins On… video series, where he explains complex stories in a truly masterful way.

His new book, The Art of Explanation, is out now in paperback. In it, and in this interview, Ros shares how to get the often difficult art of explaining right. We don’t just mean explaining the ins and outs of a project to your team or stakeholders, but how to communicate everything that matters to you with both clarity and confidence so that you can do what you set out to achieve.

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Emma travels to Westcott, Buckinghamshire, to meet the team at Nammo Space, who work on propulsion systems for space rocket engines and thrusters. Their cutting-edge products are used on international space programmes, whether they’re satellites or missions to the moon or Mars. The business is growing rapidly, with around 100 people, and 12 project professionals. Read more in the autumn 2024 edition of Project journal.

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Emma meets Emma Caroll-Walsh, Director of Customer Programmes at Aqua Consultants and Deputy Chair of APM’s Built Environment Interest Network, who is also an outgoing APM Board Trustee.

She shares her top tips on how to be an effective project influencer and why it really matters to hone your influencing skills – plus what it's like to step up to being a Board Trustee and the valuable professional and career experience it brings.

2024 APM Trustee elections: find out more at https://www.apm.org.uk/news/2024-apm-trustee-elections-nominations-now-open/

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Emma meets Jimmy Nguyen, APM’s Project Professional of the Year 2023 and Associate Director at Turner & Townsend. Jimmy worked on the Bromford and Castle Vale flood risk management scheme for the Environment Agency. He was praised by APM’s awards judges for successfully dealing with stakeholder pressure, garnering support from the local MP and forming a high-performing team to deliver the project for the overall benefit of the local community. Listen on for his top project and career tips.

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We take a deep dive into the future of the project profession, with a compilation of some of our favourite insights from the 2024 APM Conference.

Held in Coventry in June, the theme for this year’s APM Conference was ‘Navigating Tomorrow: Future Skills for Project Professionals’. The event invited project leaders and experts on future trends to unpack the rapidly changing landscape that projects are being delivered in.

AI and data literacy were among the hot topics – including both the opportunities and threats of new technology for project managers’ employment prospects. The conference also considered whether there is a skills gap in the profession, and the must-have competencies to future-proof your career.

To register your interest in the 2025 conference, visit www.apm.org.uk/apm-conference/register-of-interest-2025/ 

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Emma meets Algy Ayson, Head of Project Delivery Centre of Excellence and Profession at UK Parliament, who works on projects and programmes across both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Emma spoke to him in June, just a few weeks ahead of the UK general election. Algy gives some great advice on how to create culturally competent project teams where diverse perspectives are welcomed and used to the advantage of projects. He is a project professional who puts people and relationships between stakeholders top when it comes to successful project delivery.

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Professor Adam Boddison in conversation Sir Nigel Thrift, Chair of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, or CoRWM.

CoRWM’s role, as Sir Nigel describes it, is to give independent scientific and technical advice to UK Government on all aspects of the management of radioactive waste.

Sir Nigel is one of the world’s leading human geographers and previously served as Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick and as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Oxford.

Hear him chat with Adam about dealing with a football stadium’s worth of radioactive waste, the environmental impact of mega-cities and how to enable better long-term thinking in government departments.

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APM CEO Professor Adam Boddison invites outgoing APM President Sue Kershaw and her successor Yvonne Thompson CBE to hand over the baton.

Sue shares her reflections on the biggest project management trends over her time in the hotseat, from managing greater project complexity and going from megaprojects to gigaprojects, to being able to deliver on promises and the need for greater connectivity.

Yvonne takes the opportunity to set out her ambitious priorities, including focusing on diversity and inclusion, sustainability and AI.

How do we prepare today for success tomorrow, she asks.

Listen on to find out more. Get in touch: [email protected]

Emma meets Thimon de Jong, founder of WHETSTON / strategic foresight, a think tank specialising in future human behaviour and societal change and the implications for leadership and business strategy. The pair discuss where society and all of us are headed in the near future, and what project managers and leaders need to think about when it comes to the people they're managing, the projects they're running and your own mental wellbeing amid the ‘polycrisis’.

Thimon is a keynote speaker at the APM Conference on 5–6 June 2024. More information here.

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What is the true value of the project profession to the UK economy and society? That is the question that APM seeks to answer in its new research report, The Golden Thread. Expanding on research first published in 2019, the new report provides updated data on the contribution of the project profession in the context of the global disruptions of the past five years.

In this podcast we share an edited recording of the launch event for the Golden Thread report.

Download the report at https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/research/the-golden-thread/ 

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