APM Wessex Branch Universities Project Challenge 2010/11 - Finals Night

APM Wessex Branch Universities Project Challenge 2010/11 - Finals Night Wessex Branch Vice Chairman Isaac Abraham advises that this was a fun packed evening of presentations and awards with the added bonus of learning how to build a house in less than 4 hours.

Ready for battle to be crowned Universities Project Challenge winner were our two finalist teams, Atmosphere from Bournemouth and Just the Two of Us from Portsmouth who joined a good sized audience at The Rose Bowl near Southampton.

Atmosphere led the presentations with their chosen project, Sustainable Transport, sponsored by Liverpool Victoria, followed by Just the two of Us who delivered a fundraising project for the Elisa Educational Trust and Gap Chile.

Each presentation of up to 15 minutes ended with a 5-minute question and answer session opened up initially to the Project Board and then the wider audience with challenging questions to which the teams responded robustly.

Both teams delivered persuasive, well presented presentations detailing their journey and outcome of their projects, amongst others the lessons learned, risk management and the benefits realised.

Following a short break for the buffet, and to allow the project board to retire to deliberate and chose the winning team, everyone re-convened to witness 2 of our committed members, Joe McNeil and Melvin Young, being presented with their RPP certificates by APM Vice President Miles Shepherd. The presentation was preceded by a short DVD on RPP by Andrew Bragg, APM Chief Executive and John Zachar FAPM who has led the RPP pilot process.

This transitioned nicely into a participative session as Russel Jamieson facilitated a discussion on a DVD entitled The Power of projects presented by Dr. Christopher Worsley, CEO of CITI, around the world record breaking attempt to build a house in less than 4 hours. This was both informative and enjoyable driving the audience to focus and in essence build a higher state of awareness to the key attributes necessary to deliver a successful project. The house was eventually completed in 2 hours 28 minutes!!!

The evening ended with Atmosphere from Bournemouth University being crowned narrow winners. Miles Sheppard presented the successful team with the Universities Project Challenge Cup and individual awards.

Congratulations to Atmosphere as worthy winners and to Just the Two of Us for a very closely fought contest.

During this academic year for the 2011/12 Challenge we hope to have additional representation from Southampton, Southampton Solent and Winchester Universities.

A copy of Atmosphere's presentation can be seen by clicking the link below.