This event will taking place at the prestigious Tesco headquarters in Welwyn Garden City

This year, our theme is “People Matter Most“, highlighting the paramount importance of human connections and collaboration in driving project success. At Synergy, we’re on a mission to explore how we can harness the dynamic power of project management to create meaningful impacts on individuals, teams, and communities.

We’ve lined up some extraordinary keynote speakers to ignite your passion and inspire your journey:

Priya Lakhani OBE:

Prepare to be dazzled by Priya Lakhani, an extraordinary entrepreneur, philanthropist, and advocate for education and social change! As the founder and CEO of Century Tech, Priya has pioneered groundbreaking AI-driven learning platforms, revolutionizing the landscape of education worldwide. Her dedication to leveraging technology for social good has earned her numerous accolades, including the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to education. Brace yourself for Priya’s electrifying insights into the intersection of AI and project management!

Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam MBE:

Hold onto your hats for Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, a true titan in the realm of public health and infectious diseases! 🌟 As the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, Prof Van-Tam has been a guiding beacon throughout the tumultuous waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing expert guidance and unwavering leadership. His illustrious career and expertise in crisis management make him a sought-after speaker on topics ranging from resilience to leadership and project management. Get ready to be awestruck by Prof Van-Tam’s invaluable insights!

And guess what? 🎤 The master of ceremonies for this incredible event will be the dynamic Sameena Ali-Khan! Sameena is an accomplished journalist and presenter with a passion for bringing stories to life. Her charismatic presence and boundless energy are sure to make the Synergy Conference an unforgettable experience for all.

Register here

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Agenda:

09:00am: Opening remarks – Sameena Ali-Khan

Sameena anchors national bulletins for ITV at weekends, and throughout the week on Central Tonight in the Midlands, covering a wide range of stories across daily news and documentaries. After studying physiology and chemistry, Sameena was drawn to journalism. She first started working on radio in Manchester, and first appeared on air on BBC Radio Lancashire. Sameena remained with the BBC, going back to Manchester before stints on the BBC Asian Network, BBC West Midlands, BBC London, and Radio 5 Live. On TV (aside from a debut appearance made whilst living in Nigeria on the country’s equivalent of Blue Peter) Sameena presented and reported for Northwest Today, Inside Out, and Midlands Today before moving to ITV. With a presenting style combining bright and approachable with authoritative, Sameena has won numerous awards during her broadcasting career, including three RTS Midlands Best Screen Personality Awards, for her work on ITV News Central.

09:30am: Lloyd Skinner AI Myth Busting

As the CEO of greyfly.ai for over 5 years, Lloyd J. Skinner MSc (Econs) has been investigating the use of AI in project management. greyfly.ai has developed a suite of Intelligent Project Predictions tools that use AI to provide executives insights to increase project success. He has c30 years’ experience in programme management and has led best in class, full life cycle, multi-year, multi £millions change and transformation projects. He is non-executive director at 3 other companies.

 

10:15am: Speaker to be anonounced

11:00am: Coffee break

11:30am: Susie Palmer-Trew How to win at change

Susie is mum to Harry, wife to Nicky and outdoor adventurer. She is also the Chief Change Brain, behind Everyday Change. Choosing to work with brilliant people and organisations to make change experiences and outcomes, better. A champion of the simple and a lover of the obvious, Susie challenges organisations to make the changes they need, in the best way they can. She spends most of her time working across sectors that are designed to do good. With organisations who are making changes for their people and futures.

 

12:15pm: Nick Fewings The Journey To High-Performance Teamwork

Nick has spent the last two decades plus, pursuing his passion for teamwork, by facilitating individual and team development programmes, worldwide, often with well-known brands. Nick is the creator of the Team DyNAmics Model, the only model in the world, that measures overall team effectiveness and effectiveness across 16 areas of teamwork, used by teams to help them achieve high-performance teamwork. In March 2022, he published Team Lead Succeed, recognised as a book of national interest, which has also become a best seller on Amazon and achieved No.1 on Kindle in Leadership & Management, and each month since publication, has been in the Top 20 for Professional Development. He is known on the speaker circuit as “Mr. Infotainment,” for his ability to provide valuable learning and information, in an interactive and entertaining way.

 

1:00pm: Lunch (provided)

2:00pm: Frank P. Saladis Founder, International Project Management Day

Frank P. Saladis, PMP, PMI Fellow is the Owner/Founder of Blue Marble Enterprizes Inc. and Project Imaginers. Frank is an accomplished leader and contributor in the discipline of project management. He is the author of 12 published books, the past editor of the All PM Newsletter (an IIL publication) and the author of over 180 published project management articles. Frank provides training and consulting services internationally and has educated and entertained countless audiences with a special blend of project management knowledge and tasteful humor. Mr. Saladis’s 40 year career includes 28.5 years with AT&T, 3 years with Cisco Systems, and many years in a parallel track as a Board member of PMI NYC Chapter, professional trainer, facilitator, mentor, and keynote speaker. Frank was PMI’s 2006 Person of the Year. He is a Project Management Professional, a graduate from the PMI Leadership Institute Master’s class, and has contributed significantly to the organizations growth and knowledge base for more than 33 years.

Frank’s presentation will address the importance of the professional project manager in today’s business environment and the need for the project manager to continually enhance existing skills, adapt to a changing environment, and become a “go to” person in the organization.  Emphasis is placed on understanding the business needs of an organization, clearly and visibly creating value from a client and supplier view point, and continually developing and managing personal brand.

3.00pm: Priya Lakhani OBE The HI vs The AI

Priya is the founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech, an award-winning education company that aids the implementation of AI and machine learning in classrooms.  Now operating in over sixty countries, CENTURY personalises learning for both students and educators, using AI to enhance student performance through offering real-time insights that aid their educational needs being met. Beyond entrepreneurship, Priya co-founded the Institute for Ethical AI and served as a Non-Executive Board Member at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and on the UK governments AI Council. Priya also worked with Sir Patrick Vallance and the Chancellor’s team on the Government’s review of AI regulation. As a recognised authority in AI and education, she has been honoured with prestigious business and entrepreneur awards, including an OBE, the Mayor’s Fund Award, World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, National Economic Innovator of the Year by the Spectator, and awarded an honorary doctorate by Coventry University’s engineering faculty.

3:45pm: Speaker to be announced

4:15pm: Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam MBE

Jonathan Van-Tam is a public health specialist with a clinical background in emergency medicine, anaesthesia, and infectious diseases. He is an expert on respiratory viruses and pandemics and is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Medicine, and Health Sciences, at the University of Nottingham. His career has also taken him to Public Health England, the World Health Organization. He is well known for his leadership role during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly his straight, no-nonsense, communication style from the podium at number ten Downing Street, and for the acquisition and rollout of vaccines and antiviral drugs in the UK. He returned to the University of Nottingham as its Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Medicine & Health Sciences. He has also taken on a part time role advising vaccine manufacturer Moderna. Jonathan received a knighthood from Her Majesty the Queen in her New Year’s Honours List, for services to public health. He has also been awarded the Royal Society’s Attenborough Award and Lecture for outstanding public engagement in science.

5:00pm: Closing remarks

5:30pm: Close