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.

Contact us: [email protected] 

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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Emma meets Steve Gilligan, a programme manager who’s playing a critical role in the world's first decommissioning of a nuclear fusion machine. He works at Culham Campus, just outside Oxford, home to the Joint European Taurus, or JET, a tokamak machine where some of the world’s most important nuclear fusion experiments have taken place.

But now JET’s days are over and Gilligan is tasked with taking apart and reusing and retrieving valuable resources from the tokamak. Using robots through remote handling is a key part of his focus. Steve shares what it’s like working on such an exciting and world-leading project, why humour is key when it comes to high-risk project management environments and why it’s always worth celebrating those project successes.

Get in touch: [email protected]     

Professor Adam Boddison in conversation with the Head of the Government Property Profession, Lynda Rawsthorne. Sitting within the Cabinet Office, Lynda is responsible for the strategy for the whole government estate, which covers everything from hospitals to courts and offices. She describes her role as engaging, encouraging and motivating the 7,000-plus professionals who make up the property profession in government.

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In the third and final part of our series on the National Trust, Emma is back at Dyrham Park near Bath to meet three project management apprentices who all started at the Trust in October 2022 and are nearing the end of their 18-month apprenticeship programme after sitting APM’s Project Management Qualification. So, what’s it like to be an apprentice in an organisation that puts project management at the heart of what it does? What have they learnt so far, what projects have they worked on and where might their future career take them?

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In episode 2 of our three-part series on the National Trust, an APM Corporate Partner, Emma finds out about the Trust’s urban programmes and its work in renewables. As well as visiting Stoneford Community Garden in Dagenham, East London, she meets Jo Dmitri, a Senior Programme Manager leading a team of nine project professionals as part of the strategy work the Trust is doing in London to connect green spaces. Finally, Emma speaks to Dee Nunn, who works on the charity’s renewable energy investment programme, which is focused on achieving net zero by 2030.

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In our three-part series on the National Trust, an APM Corporate Partner, we find out how the charity has brought project management close to its organisational heart. In episode 1, Emma goes behind the scenes at Dyrham Park, a 17th-century mansion near Bath, which recently underwent a multimillion-pound transformation project. She meets Mike Hudson, Head of Strategic Planning, Project and Programme Management at the National Trust, and Senior Project Manager Tim Cambourne, who takes her on a tour of the house. Find out more about APM’s Corporate Partnership Programme at www.apm.org.uk/corporate-partnership-programme 

Contact us: [email protected]