Developing project managers

An event to inspire the development of specialist leadership skills among project management professionals has been held at the University.

The annual Project Management Alumni event took place on 16 January 2015. The event brought together alumni of the ‘Open for Business’ project management courses, encouraging them to maintain links with the University and each other and to share their experience of working in the field.

The session included a talk by Dr Maneesh Kumar, Cardiff Business School, who introduced the key concepts of Six Sigma and explained how this method can be successfully applied to project management scenarios in order to improve project outcomes.

He was joined by guest speaker Rhian Hamer of the Ministry of Justice, who introduced the continuous improvement method - Lean - and shared her experiences of applying Lean techniques to projects. The event culminated in lively discussion and questions followed by informal networking over refreshments.

Taliesin Maynard, Head of Waste Infrastructure Programmes for the Welsh Government, said: "This was an excellent quality event; a great benefit for Project Management Alumni at Cardiff."

Clare Sinclair from Cardiff University added: "We were delighted to be able to hold the event in the new Postgraduate Teaching Centre at the Business School. During the event there was a real buzz in the room with interaction during the session being high. Feedback from the event was very positive with the two hour breakfast format being praised as working well for busy project managers."

Membership of the Project Management Alumni is free to delegates of the University’s Open for Business project management courses. Events provide a rare opportunity for those working in the field of project management to invest in their own professional development, to network and to share best practice. Members also benefit from newsletters about other relevant events happening across the University and are offered discounts on upcoming courses.