As a project manager, it is hard to find a conference that not only allows you to listen to best experts but an opportunity to attend practical workshops as well. Deliver Conference 2017, held at Manchester, UK, gives project managers that opportunity. We will take a deeper look at what went down at Deliver Conference 2017 in this article.

Day 1: Workshops (25 January, 2017)

The first day of the conference, that is 25 January, 2017, was dedicated to workshops. Participants were allowed to register for their preferred session from 9:00 am to 9:30 am. The first workshop “Not everything is a nail: Choosing the right tools for the job” by Shahina Patel started on 9:30 am and helped project managers to pick the right tools according to their needs. It ended at 12:30 pm.

Another workshop “We need to talk” by Peta Kennett Wilson was also underway at the same time. She shared her experience with the audience on how to deal with different project stakeholders throughout the project. Just after the lunch break, another workshop with the title “Agile Inception Techniques: A job well begun is a job half-done” was in place and focused on importance of agile inception techniques and provided the best toolkit for starting the project.

The first day ended with an interactive workshop on “Perfect your leadership and communication styles” by Susane Madsen. It helped participants in discovering their leadership style. She highlighted two leadership styles: visionary style and coaching style and allowed participants to practice them.

Day 2: Conference (26 January, 2017)

Day 2 began with a foreword from the DeliverConf Chair. The real kickoff came from the speaker Lawrence Kitson when he spoke about “The Perfect Kick-off”. The speaker highlighted key points to start a project correctly so that the project managers can get off to a good start to their projects. “Expectations, Presumptions, Pressure: Being a new Project Manager” by Rebecca Troth shared her journey as budding project manager and gave some important lessons to young project managers.

Before the lunch, there were a couple of really impressive presentations that impressed everyone. First off, it was the Sarah Clarke with “People are the most complex problem you will never solve”. Then it was Sally Robinson with the topic “Once a project manager, always a project manager” who made the event special.

After the conference, a short panel Q&A session was organized for answering participant questions. Soon after, Suze Haworth took the stage and spoke like a charm on the topic “Banish the ballpark-How not to suck at estimation”. Her experience was reflected from her words as she helped project managers in dealing with the client demands.

Soon after the afternoon break, Mark Shannon, Team Lead, Telegraph UK, shared “How the Telegraph is reaching outcomes important to customers”. Although, not directly related to project management, his talk gave many important lessons to project managers. The last speaker Carson Pierce, spoke on “Why you are a terrible PM : Cognitive biases in project management”. His fresh perspective and unique topic made the presentation even more interesting.

Rounding Up The Conference

As soon as the last session was over, closing remarks rounded up the conference. Participants and speakers were invited for an after party to end the conference on a light note. It was a great opportunity for project managers to mingle and enjoy their time in chilly Manchester weather.