In this stage interview, Lee R. Lambert and Essowe Abalo will explore together how project success has evolved from the age of major engineering achievements to today’s world of artificial intelligence and rapid technological change. Drawing on more than 60 years of experience in project management, he will show why success can no longer be measured only by scope, time and cost. Instead, project professionals need to focus on value, impact, adaptability, stakeholder alignment and strong leadership. 

The session connects to PMI’s M.O.R.E. perspective and invites participants to rethink what successful project delivery means in the modern world. 

AI and Lifelong Learning: Thriving in the Era of Intelligent Transformation In a world where artificial intelligence is reshaping industries and redefining how we work, the ability to learn continuously has never been more critical. This keynote explores the intersection of AI and lifelong learning—how emerging technologies are transforming education, professional development, and the skills we need to stay relevant. Join us for an inspiring conversation on embracing curiosity, adapting to change, and building a mindset that turns disruption into opportunity. Discover practical strategies for leveraging AI to accelerate learning and unlock your potential in a rapidly evolving landscape.  

Learning Objectives:  

• At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to:  
• Recognize how artificial intelligence is transforming learning, skill development, and career pathways;  
• Identify the capabilities professionals must continuously build to remain relevant in an AI-driven economy; and  
• Apply practical strategies for leveraging AI as a learning partner to accelerate personal growth, foster adaptability, and turn ongoing disruption into opportunity through a lifelong learning mindset.   

PMOs can become busy very quickly: reports to produce, governance to run, templates to maintain, meetings to facilitate, tools to administer and project teams to support. But being busy is not the same as being valuable.

Whether you are building a PMO from scratch or evolving an established one, a more useful starting point is to ask: who needs the PMO, what do they need from it, and what difference should it make?

Drawing on the principles of the PMI Project Management Offices: A Practice Guide, this session explores how to design and evolve PMO services around organisational context, stakeholder needs and value - rather than around a standard list of what a PMO is supposed to do.

We will challenge the temptation to equate more processes, more governance or more reporting with greater maturity, and look instead at how PMOs can make deliberate choices about where they focus their effort and how they demonstrate their contribution.

Project managers have always been expected to deliver results without full control over the people, decisions and circumstances that determine success. But the world around our projects is changing. Growing complexity, geopolitical fragmentation, shifting business expectations and technologies we don’t control are challenging the very foundations of our profession.

And then there’s AI. A board member recently asked me whether one manager could run an entire project excellence center staffed by digital employees. Not long ago, that would have sounded absurd. Today, at least one organization is seriously exploring it. And these new team members could be built elsewhere, governed by someone else’s rules, and changed overnight.

As machines take on more planning, reporting and coordination, what will organizations still need project managers for? Power skills matter, but will they be enough?

How do you lead something you’re accountable for, but don’t actually control?

Drawing on PMI research, real-world project experience and the less comfortable side of technological transformation, we’ll explore what project leadership might become and how PMI is helping the profession prepare.

I won’t promise that every project management job is safe. But we should be asking what makes our profession worth paying for.

There is no shortage of books and theories on Change and Stakeholder Management, and project managers apply a wide range of strategies. Yet, many projects still fail to deliver their intended outcomes. Could one of the reasons be that we don’t sufficiently uncover what truly influences people’s reactions to change?

People don’t necessarily resist change — they resist what doesn’t make sense to them, what they don’t believe in, or what they feel they have to lose.

In this short seminar, Leszek will explore four fundamental, people-focused factors that influence the willingness to change. Participants will learn how to uncover some often-overlooked factors and address them to turn planned change into successful outcomes.

The goal is to find solutions that enable people to embrace change while meeting the objectives of the organization or project — without forcing either side to compromise.

Projects rarely fail because the solution was not delivered. More often, they fail because people do not adopt the change in the way the project expected. The system goes live, but the organisation continues to work in old patterns. 

This interactive workshop introduces project managers to practical change management perspectives that can strengthen project delivery without adding unnecessary complexity or heavy methodology.

Participants will work with a realistic transformation scenario that gradually evolves throughout the session with new information, stakeholder reactions, and emerging risks. Through a series of facilitated exercises and reflections, they will explore how to better understand stakeholder impact, identify human-factor risks, anticipate resistance, and translate project changes into meaningful communication and action. 

Step into the role of a project team tasked with building the first transcontinental railroad across the United States. In this interactive simulation, participants will experience the full project lifecycle — from convincing stakeholders and setting up team roles to managing risks, changes, crises, time pressure and budget constraints. 

The workshop offers a hands-on opportunity to explore what makes project delivery successful in practice: clear communication, effective teamwork, smart decision-making and the ability to adapt when circumstances change. Through an intensive project experience and final lessons learned session, participants will gain practical insights they can immediately apply to their own projects. 

Can you work together to prevent an imminent collapse, or will you be overwhelmed by your own processes? 

Most companies know they have great experts. The real challenge begins when people need to pull together across departments. Our Lean Lego simulation places you in the roles of a simulated factory that, after the first round, finds itself in a deep negative cash flow. Orders are piling up, quality is suffering, and time is working against you. 

What can you expect? 

A hands-on experience: You will take part in a game where individual heroics are not enough, and where every decision immediately changes the outcome, either for the better or significantly for the worse. 

Revealing the bottlenecks: You will identify specific types of process and team waste, together with the barriers we often unknowingly create that stand in the way of collaboration. 

Aha moments: You will discover that planning and quality are not separate departments, but the responsibility of every team member, and that common sense can sometimes fail us in a complex environment. 

Transfer to practice: You will not take away Lego bricks, but a shared language and practical tools for fast and effective process change that you can use the very next day in your project and in your company. 

This workshop is for everyone who wants to stop pushing and controlling people, and instead start supporting their autonomy, ownership, and motivation to keep improving. 

Can you work together to prevent an imminent collapse, or will you be overwhelmed by your own processes? 

Most companies know they have great experts. The real challenge begins when people need to pull together across departments. Our Lean Lego simulation places you in the roles of a simulated factory that, after the first round, finds itself in a deep negative cash flow. Orders are piling up, quality is suffering, and time is working against you. 

What can you expect? 

A hands-on experience: You will take part in a game where individual heroics are not enough, and where every decision immediately changes the outcome, either for the better or significantly for the worse. 

Revealing the bottlenecks: You will identify specific types of process and team waste, together with the barriers we often unknowingly create that stand in the way of collaboration. 

Aha moments: You will discover that planning and quality are not separate departments, but the responsibility of every team member, and that common sense can sometimes fail us in a complex environment. 

Transfer to practice: You will not take away Lego bricks, but a shared language and practical tools for fast and effective process change that you can use the very next day in your project and in your company. 

This workshop is for everyone who wants to stop pushing and controlling people, and instead start supporting their autonomy, ownership, and motivation to keep improving. 

As project complexity grows and delivery expectations continue to rise, traditional PM/PMO staffing approaches are becoming insufficient. AI and AI agents are transforming how project work is performed - enabling PMs and PMOs to expand capacity, manage complexity, reduce administrative burden, and focus more on value delivery. 

This interactive workshop explores how organizations can redesign PM/PMO resourcing models for the AI era through practical benchmarks, AI-enabled capacity models, and modern PMO metrics. 

Participants will explore key questions such as: 

• How many projects can PMs manage with AI support? 

• How does AI change optimal team structures and staffing needs? 

• How can PMOs can improve productivity, reduce burnout, and manage increasing complexity? 

Through practical exercises and group discussions, participants will apply capacity formulas, compare traditional and AI-enabled operating models, and identify actionable approaches for building sustainable PM/PMO organizations in the age of AI. 

The WS is recommended to C-Level, PMO Heads, Portfolio & Program Managers, PMO Professionals as well as everyone interested in Project Management at Scale, above and beyond Project Delivery. 

As project complexity grows and delivery expectations continue to rise, traditional PM/PMO staffing approaches are becoming insufficient. AI and AI agents are transforming how project work is performed - enabling PMs and PMOs to expand capacity, manage complexity, reduce administrative burden, and focus more on value delivery. 

This interactive workshop explores how organizations can redesign PM/PMO resourcing models for the AI era through practical benchmarks, AI-enabled capacity models, and modern PMO metrics. 

Participants will explore key questions such as: 

• How many projects can PMs manage with AI support? 

• How does AI change optimal team structures and staffing needs? 

• How can PMOs can improve productivity, reduce burnout, and manage increasing complexity? 

Through practical exercises and group discussions, participants will apply capacity formulas, compare traditional and AI-enabled operating models, and identify actionable approaches for building sustainable PM/PMO organizations in the age of AI. 

The WS is recommended to C-Level, PMO Heads, Portfolio & Program Managers, PMO Professionals as well as everyone interested in Project Management at Scale, above and beyond Project Delivery.