AI and Data Analytics Interest Network Conference

26 February 2026 | Holiday Inn London - Bloomsbury, WC1N 1HT, London

AI in Action: Tools to adapt and automate

Join us in London on 26 February 2026 for the inaugural APM AI and Data Interest Network Conference, AI in Action.

This eagerly anticipated conference is recommended to all levels of project professional and will focus on practical capability-building in AI and data analysis.

Through hands-on exercises, real examples and guided application, we will explore how AI is reshaping planning, delivery and decision-making and how to embed these approaches in your own work and organisation. Expect practical tools and advice, collaboration and progress you can put into practice immediately. View the conference programme and speakers.

We'd like to express our thanks to our sponsors for their support.

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Data Literacy Artificial Intelligence

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Date: 26 February 2026

Time: 08:30-17:30 GMT

Venue: Holiday Inn London - Bloomsbury, London, WC1N 1HT

Member: £128
Non-member: £190
Corporate Partner/Affiliate employee: £140
Student member: £33

Prices exclude VAT

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Who Should Attend?

Early Career Project Professionals

If you are building your foundation in the profession, this is a chance to develop confidence with data and AI in a supportive, practical environment. We will learn together, with space to ask questions, try things out and build skills step by step.

Experienced Project Leaders, Managers and Change Practitioners

If you are responsible for guiding delivery or shaping organisational outcomes, this is an opportunity to explore how AI is being used to enhance project performance and forecasting. You will gain both strategic insight and practical approaches you can adapt to your own context.

Professionals committed to growth

Whatever your current level of familiarity with AI and data, you are welcome. This is a learning space designed for curiosity, reflection and progression. The focus is on building confidence and capability in a way that feels meaningful to you and supportive of your work.

Conference programme (subject to change)

🕐 08:00-09:15 Registration and networking
🕐 09:15-09:30 Welcome address 🞇 Mark Barnett, Head of Project Management, Weston College
🕐 09:30-10:15 Opening keynote 🞇 Mark Enzer OBE FREng, Strategic Advisor, Mott MacDonald
🕐 10:15-10:45 Are you ready for the Government Programme and Project Data Standard? 🞇 Nina Ciuffardi, Programme Manager, Government Project Delivery, National Infrastructure & Service Transformation Authority 🞇 Ben Salisbury, Lead Business Analyst, National Infrastructure & Service Transformation Authority
🕐 10:45-11:15 Refreshment break
🕐 11:15-12:00
Stream 1 Panel Session: Will AI take my job? 🞇 Irene Maposa, Senior IT Project Manager 🞇 Helen Argent, Senior Consultant, PA Consulting AI is changing the rules of work fast. So the real question isn’t whether your job is at risk. It’s whether you’re ready to evolve. This session brings together a hiring manager, a recruiter, and project professionals for an honest conversation about what AI really means for your career. You’ll hear what employers want now, how hiring is shifting, and why human skills still matter more than ever. We’ll cut through the noise, ditch the fear, and we'll focus on opportunity: how to work smarter with AI, build future-proof skills, and stay in control of your career. No hype. No scare stories. Just clarity, confidence, and practical insight for the next generation of work.
Stream 2 AI in action Adapting, Automating, and Advancing Project Delivery is about moving from awareness to capability and stepping forward with the skills, confidence and judgement required to lead in a rapidly evolving profession. Adopting AI in project management - prompt engineering.
🕐 12:00-12:45
Stream 1 Reimagining PMO services through intelligent automation 🞇 Martin Paver, CEO/Founder, Projecting Success This session examines how PMO services can be reimagined through intelligent automation and AI-enabled tooling. Drawing on real-world use cases and hackathon examples, it showcases how modern PMOs can shift from administrative oversight to strategic insight, driving better outcomes and organisational agility.
Stream 2 Leading change in the age of AI 🞇 Donna Unitt, Lead, APM Enabling Change Interest Network 🞇 Mark Vincent, Director, Applied Change Ltd AI isn’t just another tech upgrade it’s reshaping how we work and how we lead change. This fast-paced session dives into what truly sets AI disruption apart and how today’s leaders can ride the wave instead of being swept away by it. We’ll explore how AI is redefining roles, reimagining workflows, and flipping business models on their head, and why the old playbook for change simply won’t cut it anymore. Expect bold ideas, real-world examples, and practical takeaways for shifting mindsets, empowering teams, and transforming uncertainty into opportunity.
🕐 12:45-13:45 Lunch
🕐 13:45-14:30
Stream 1 Beyond the Hype: The 5 Data Skills Every Modern Project Leader Needs 🞇 Gareth Parkes, Head of Data & Analytics, Sir Robert McAlpine We are told AI will change everything, but tools are only as good as the people using them. In an era of 'near real-time' data, why are so many projects still steered by guesswork and anecdote? Gareth Parkes moves beyond the hype to introduce the APM Data Literacy Skills Framework - a practical toolkit for the modern project professional. In this interactive session, you will benchmark your own skills in real-time and witness the power of data-driven insight as we analyse the collective capability of the room. Learn how to bridge the capability gap, move from information management to data-driven decisions, and lead the data revolution.
Stream 2 Data driven change - using analytics to drive adoption 🞇 Muriel Barre, Founder and Director, Nexgen Innovation Consulting Ltd 🞇 Donna Unitt, Lead, APM Enabling Change Interest Network Successful change today is powered by insight. In this session we’ll explore how data and analytics can reveal who’s adopting, who’s struggling, and who is resisting and what interventions will have the biggest impact. You’ll discover how to turn dashboards into decisions, support your people, and take adoption from gut feel guesswork to predictable success.
🕐 14:30-15:15
Stream 1 Closing the gap - A practical framework for implementing Data Analytics in the project environment 🞇 Robert Vale, Senior Director, Gleeds LLP 🞇 Yoshi Soornack, Associate Director, AI & Data, Gleeds LLP This session reveals why most implementations fail and how we succeeded by navigating the goldilocks zone between oversimplification (shelfware that gets ignored) and overcomplication (governance committees that never ship). We'll share the hard-won lessons from scaling AI across a complex, multi-disciplinary construction consultancy—from cost management and project planning to risk assessment and commercial strategy. Read more about this session.
Stream 2 Own the interface or lose the project: Taking control of human-AI collaboration 🞇 Donnie MacNicol, Director, Team Animation Ltd 🞇 Peter Allen, Director, Prosilience Ltd Are you using AI to accelerate your projects or is AI quietly reshaping how you think, decide, and lead? Based on pre-event survey insights from your fellow project managers, Peter and Donnie will reveal the hidden patterns in how PMs are actually using AI, where judgement is drifting, and what's at stake for you, your projects, and your organisation. You'll leave with three critical questions to ask before your next AI-assisted decision and practical strategies to stay in control of what matters most.
🕐 15:15-15:45 Refreshment break
🕐 15:45-16:30 Governance: Responsible AI. A Project Flux Live panel session Moderators: 🞇 James Garner, Head of AI and Data, Gleeds LLP 🞇 Yoshi Soornack, Associate Director, AI & Data, Gleeds LLP Panel: 🞇 Promise Akwaowo, Process Automation Analyst, Royal Mail Group 🞇 Dr Gloria Oliomogbe, Senior Lecturer, Coventry University 🞇 Isabela Parisio, Postdoctoral Research Associate, King's College London, Responsible AI UK 🞇 Guy Beaumont, Director, Digital Lead, Turner and Townsend An exploration of how organisations can balance AI-driven automation with human judgment and accountability. This topic focuses on responsible AI governance, ensuring transparency, trust, and ethical decision-making while using automation to enhance rather than replace human intelligence in project and programme delivery.
🕐 16:30-16:45 Closing remarks 🞇 Irene Maposa, Senior IT Project Manager
🕐 16:45-17:15 Open networking

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What you will gain

Using no-code/low-code platforms to modernise delivery

Work with no-code and low-code automation approaches to streamline workflows and support more adaptive, responsive project environments.

Predictive analytics for smarter forecasting

Understand how predictive models can improve schedule, resource and benefits forecasting and how to apply them with clarity and confidence.

Reimagining PMO services through intelligent automation

Examine real examples of PMOs that have modernised their service models by integrating AI while maintaining governance, agility and meaningful human connection.

Balancing automation with human expertise

Learn how to ensure AI strengthens rather than replaces the critical thinking, judgement and collaboration that sit at the core of effective project leadership.

Enhancing benefits realisation, risk management and knowledge sharing

Use AI-driven insights to improve real-time benefits tracking, risk identification, and organisational learning while building cultures that value data-informed decision-making.

Clarity on the APM Data Literacy Framework

Gain a clear understanding of the competency levels and how to use the framework to assess, build and evidence capability across teams and organisations.

AI in Action: Adapting, Automating, and Advancing Project Delivery is about moving from awareness to capability and stepping forward with the skills, confidence and judgement required to lead in a rapidly evolving profession.

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Sponsor

Oxford Professional Education Group

Oxford College of Management delivers exceptional training to help project managers navigate the changing world of work. With some of the best results in the industry, our experienced practitioners and first-class online learning platform, ensure you gain the skills and knowledge needed to succeed at every stage of your career.

We offer the full suite of APM qualifications – from the PFQ and PMQ and now also provide tailored APM ChPP (Chartered Project Professional) packages to support professionals working towards chartered status. With over 15,000 professionals trained and extensive study support packages, Oxford College of Management is a proven partner in helping professionals achieve career goals.

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Sponsor

Provek

Provek is a specialist in project management training and has been an APM Accredited Provider since 2001. We offer a comprehensive range of courses, from PFQ through to specialist support for ChPP, alongside a suite of one day topic based courses that can be combined to create tailored programmes.
Our new AI Driven Project Manager Masterclass is a one day course designed specifically to help project managers harness AI effectively.

In addition, our PMA Skills Assessment provides organisations with clear insight into current team capabilities and skills gaps, enabling training solutions to be precisely targeted and highly effective.

We take pride in the quality of our training and support and our trainers are all experienced project managers, reflecting high customer satisfactions scores and industry leading pass rates.

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Sponsor

Power Framework

Power Framework empowers organisations to thrive with innovative solutions in the Microsoft Cloud. Its flagship applications – Power Framework PPM and Power Framework RISK – bring all project, portfolio, and risk data together in a secure platform customers already own.

With advanced governance, powerful reporting, and embedded AI assistance, they deliver clearer insight, faster decisions, and greater efficiency. Seamless integration with the Microsoft ecosystem drives rapid adoption, maximises return on investment, and removes the cost and complexity of standalone tools – helping organisations achieve their goals with confidence.
To find out more, visit our stand.

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Exhibitor

APM

Make sure to stop by the APM stand throughout the day for live demos of our brand new learning platform modules, delivered by our Digital Learning Manager, Sarah Layzell. It’s a great chance to see what’s coming next and explore the tools designed to support your professional development. And while you’re there, don’t forget to pick up some APM goodies.

APM AI and Data Analytics Interest Network

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Analytics Interest Network is a community for industry practitioners and academic professionals who are looking to support the sector and establish good practices of AI and data analytical skills in the delivery of projects across all industry sectors.

Our goal is to support the ongoing transformation in project management practices brought about by AI and data analytics.

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