Launch Conference for the APM's Contracts & Procurement Guide
On 12th July 2017, the launch conference for the 'APM's Guide to Contracts and Procurement for project, programme and portfolio managers' was held in London. Jon was instrumental in its development and chaired and presented at the event.
Pictured are (from left to right) : James Buckley-Walker (who did most of the grunt work in organising the conference); Jon; Alastair Greenan (who led the chapter on 'Preparing the contract terms and requirement' as well as reviewing and making comments); Anne Dwyer (who provided numerous ideas and reviews as the drafts developed) and John Lake (co-editor & led the chapter on 'Manage and deliver the contract').
Jon authored the early drafts of the first half of the guide - partly because that is where his expertise is and partly because no-on else was initially on-board - before becoming editor for the later chapters. However, to get it 'over-the-line' John Lake took over the day-to-day editoring of chapters into a common format and liaising with the publishers, with Jon providing steers on this and editing the (other) editors work.
Jon commented "it seemed to be very well received on the day with people liking the 'how-to' practitioner focus of both what was presented and of the Guide. It's the only publication on the market which, to my knowledge, provides a road map for the procurement and management of projects and programmes as opposed to the more academic 'what' only reference type books from other organisations. As a result, sales on the day were good : in addition to the pre-ordered copies, sales of the guide pretty much matched the number of delegates attending, which says something positive."
Jason Curtis, a delegate on the day stated (on the equivalent LinkedIn post) "it's a very user friendly and easily digestible guide with plenty of 'how' in it. I will certainly be making practical use of it on my next project. I'd even be so bold as to suggest every project manager who is procuring goods / services / 'other' as part of their scope should read this guide first...."
Videos of the speakers were recorded and will be progressively loaded onto this website's video page as they are released by the Association for Project Management.
Copies of the guide can be obtained from here.