Witherdens Hall opens new workshop and meeting space

If you want a secluded place to work, rest or play then explore what Louise Chester had created at Witherdens Hall www.witherdenshall.co.uk in Wingham, Kent. It is an intimate space to hold awaydays with food locally produced and sourced. You can arrange your own event or draw on her network of skilled coaches, facilitators and business leaders to apply some Breakthrough Business Coaching and Consultancy; arrange some holistic pampering at The Retreat or simply take a walk through the surrounding countryside. It’s an inspirational place and has innovative events on offer if that’s what you’re after. It’s also great news for those of us based in and around Kent. A real gem I’m not sure we should be letting you know about in case we can’t book it when we want to!

Project Management - APM Conference

A productive place to run workshops is at key points through the project lifecycle: to bring the project team together to make qualitative decisions; achieve buy-in from the whole team to the way forward; and build commitment to achieving the project outcomes. For this reason we like to keep up to date with the latest in project management and recently attended the annual Association for Project Managers conference at The Brewery. www.thebrewery.co.uk

As I sat in the large Porter Tun room for the conference opening my heart sank as I saw that we had a one hour ‘Opening Speaker’ presentation and a huge screen that signalled powerpoint! I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Stephen Carver from Cranfield University www.cranfield.ac.uk was introduced to talk about Project Partnerships: Past Present and Future.
What followed was a master class in creative presentation and effective use of powerpoint! From the opening visuals of David Cameron and Nick Clegg symbolizing a new partnership the audience were engaged. There followed a whole narrative with visuals about the construction of the Pyramids and what type of project management was happening throughout. We were then treated to a short film clip from the Gladiator and subsequently tasked with a related activity to work on in table groups. And so it continued the whole presentation alive with visuals, quotes, stories, humour and activities and not an overcrowded, wordy slide to be seen! It was an excellent start to the conference. For more about the conference go to www.apm.org.uk