Olympic chief calls for PPM ambassadors to keep legacy alive [Video and Podcast] (1)

Project professionals were urged to pick up the baton and take forward all the good things from the Olympic build project.

Speaking at the inaugural APM Learning Legacy event in London on Monday night, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chief executive Dennis Hone called on project and programme managers to become “ambassadors” for good PM in all walks of life.

The event – part of APM’s Learning Legacy event series held at the Charing Cross Hotel – saw four key players from the ‘big build’ programme come together to share the knowledge and lessons learned from the London 2012 construction project.

Jason Millett, programme director at CLM; Stuart Fraser, project director at Balfour Beatty and Dr Andrew Davies from Imperial College Business School joined Dennis to discuss the construction of the Park’s venues, which were completed in record time, last November, and delivered £1bn under budget.

“Project and programme management was absolutely vital to the success of the build - it was the glue that held everything together,” said Dennis. “I’d like people to become ambassadors for all the good things that have come out of the project and apply it to what they’re doing in terms of major projects.”

Although there was no one thing or ‘magic bullet’ that could guarantee success, he said the application of rigorous programme management across all aspects of the build was deemed vital.

Dennis singled-out the alignment of standards and practice as the main reason for its success, and praised the support of Delivery Partner CLM for engendering the Olympic spirit among the Park’s contractors and designers.

He added it was now very important that the lessons from the Games and the successful delivery of the project were not lost, stressing that the dissemination of knowledge, including organisational word-of-mouth, all had a part to play in creating a lasting legacy for the profession.

The APM, chosen as an official partner by the ODA, will be holding four more Learning Legacy events over the coming months with more lessons learned and best practice being shared from the construction of the Olympic Park. For more information visit the Learning Legacy webpage.

Watch videos of all four speakers

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