About FuturePMO
Join us for a PMO conference like no other
FuturePMO isn’t just about learning – it’s a unique, fun, and inspiring experience for 300 PMO and project professionals from around the world. Hosted by Wellingtone, this one-day conference features expert speakers from across industries, all focused on helping you challenge your PMO and project management practices with forward thinking insights.
What makes FuturePMO truly special? Each year, we wrap the event in an exciting theme. Past adventures have included lightsabres, Aston Martins, F1 cars, and even some dinosaurs. In 2026, we’re going to remove all the ghosts in your gantts with a Ghostbusters-inspired experience that celebrates the incredible achievements of PMOs and project management practitioners everywhere. Get ready to learn, share, and grow – because at FuturePMO, the future isn’t afraid of no ghosts.
Learn, share, and grow
Meet FuturePMO speakers
Andrea Toja Trillo
Jacobs
Andrea Toja Trillo
Jacobs
Andrea brings experience supporting nationally significant infrastructure programmes in complex multi-stakeholder and regulatory environments. She specialises in translating complex requirements into clear, strategic outputs for senior stakeholders, helping organisations strengthen assurance readiness, improve governance outcomes, and build sponsor confidence. Recognised for her collaborative approach and reliability, Andrea builds strong working relationships and fosters open communication across teams and clients to support effective decision-making and high-quality delivery.
Presenting: Who You Gonna Call? AI, Lessons Learned and the Search for Organisational Wisdom
When teams face a difficult decision, who do they call? Too often the answer is the person who happens to remember a similar problem, rather than the collective knowledge of the organisation.
This session explores how AI is becoming the bridge between organisational memory and day-to-day delivery. Using examples from major infrastructure programmes, it demonstrates how lessons learned, assurance findings, and project knowledge can be connected through AI to help teams find relevant experience exactly when they need it.
Attendees will learn how leading organisations are moving from knowledge repositories to knowledge assistants, improving learning adoption, reducing repeated mistakes, and making decades of experience available to everyone—not just the people who know where to look.
Alison Baptiste CBE CEng FICE
Director Public and Security Services
National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA)
Alison Baptiste CBE CEng FICE
Director Public and Security Services
National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA)
Alison is a Director in the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority in the Treasury which is the government centre of expertise for project delivery. She drives standards, improvements and pace in government’s biggest and riskiest projects bringing. Her portfolio covers infrastructure and service delivery in Defence, Digital, Health, Education, Welfare, Home Office, Justice and Tax.She also leads the cross-government forum on Transformation programmes. Prior to this Alison led operational delivery in the Environment Agency and received a CBE forher leadership responding to nationwide flooding. Alison also holds non-executive roles in the engineering profession and leisureindustry and passionate about driving positive outcomes for people.Fireside Chat:
Our annual fireside chat, this year will provide the inside track on the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA).Alison Baptiste is the Director of Function, Insight, and Profession and will share of NISTA’s key areas of work including changes introduced to our profession such as the new Data Standard.Audience questions will be answered on the day to give you a chance to find out more about your area of interest.
Mandy Hickson
Former RAF Tornado Pilot & Leadership Keynote Speaker
Mandy Hickson
Former RAF Tornado Pilot & Leadership Keynote Speaker
Mandy Hickson is a former Royal Air Force fast jet pilot who was the first woman to fly the Tornado GR4 on the front line. Over a 25 year military career, she completed 45 missions over Iraq, served as a Combat Survival and Rescue Officer, and navigated the challenges of operating in a high-pressure, male-dominated environment—all while raising a young family.
Her journey into the RAF was anything but conventional. After failing the pilot aptitude tests twice, Mandy joined as an air traffic controller—but refused to give up on her dream. Her persistence and real-world flying experience ultimately earned her a place on the RAF’s pilot training programme, proving that determination can defy expectation.Mandy has continued to support the RAF through the Volunteer Reserve, flying with the Air Cadets to pass on her passion for aviation. She has been a school governor, a trustee of both the RAF Charitable Trust and the Victory Services Club, and has held several ambassadorial roles—including Aviation Ambassador for the Department for Transport and Ambassador for Girlguiding. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Always drawn to challenge and adventure, Mandy has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and trekked to Everest Base Camp, continuing to push her limits on the ground as well as in the air.
Presenting: Choose Your Flightpath
In her presentation Mandy will explore the importance of goal setting, teamwork, resilience, and leadership under pressure, using real-life service experience to illustrate key lessons. She shows how planning, trust, delegation, and honest self-analysis help individuals and teams perform effectively, learn from mistakes, and build a culture of open feedback. Her session will conclude with a personal message about believing in yourself and others, and the value of paying it forward.
Simon Parsons
Principal Project Management Consultant
Wellingtone
Simon Parsons
Principal Project Management Consultant
Wellingtone
Simon Parsons is an experienced consultant, trainer, and coach with a proven record of delivering impactful business change. With over 25 years of military service, including his ongoing role as a Reservist Officer, Simon brings discipline, resilience, and strategic insight to his work. Specialising in project and change management, leadership development, and training delivery, Simon has supported clients across both the public and private sector. He thrives in multi-stakeholder environments, building strong relationships quickly and delivering high-quality outcomes.
Presenting: The Hidden Talent Pipeline: How the Armed Forces Community Can Drive Project Success in Your Organisation
Service leavers and the wider Armed Forces community bring a powerful and often underutilised set of capabilities to project delivery; Mission focus, adaptability, leadership and the ability to perform in complex, high-pressure environments are just some of the qualities you can expect. Yet many organisations overlook this talent pipeline.In this practical, insight-driven session, Simon Parsons will translate military experience into the language of modern project management, showing how these strengths directly enhance PMO capability, project delivery confidence and organisational outcomes. Delegates will gain a clear understanding of where Armed Forces talent adds value across the project lifecycle and why it aligns so strongly with today’s delivery challenges.
Duncan Lean
Head of Shared Services for Government PMO
Cabinet Office
Duncan Lean
Head of Shared Services for Government PMO
Cabinet Office
Duncan is the Head of the Shared Services for Government PMO, within the Cabinet Office, UK Government. Coming from a strategy development background in Higher Education, and after leading a major (back office) transformation project in a local authority, he now finds himself helping to coordinate the largest ever back office transformation project in the UK Civil Service. He is driven by a combination of curiosity, an enduring commitment to transparency, a love of data and technology and having less fear of pushing boundaries than normal.
Presenting: Data Driven Portfolio Management
The Shared Services for Government (SSfG) strategy represents the largest corporate services transformation programme that the UK government has ever undertaken. It will replace over 280 separate IT systems with 5 all encompassing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The programme costs over £800m and is expected to return over £4bn in benefits. In order to chart the strategy’s progress, the SSfG team, within the Cabinet Office, have developed a data driven automated approach to portfolio management that not only seeks to reduce the reporting burden but objectively determines insights on the strategy’s progress.This session will chart our journey, the lessons we have learnt, and discuss whether it can offer a blueprint for future portfolio management in Government
Oliver Jones
Amey
Oliver Jones
Amey
Oli Jones is the Principal Project Manager for Group IT at Amey, a global infrastructure consultancy and operations partner. His team delivers complex, multi-level stakeholder change across technology and operations, translating technical requirements into clear business outcomes & improvements. Starting his career in the Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office in a Change Management role, he champions a “people first” approach to technical change and adoption.His recent highlights include managing the deployment of Amey’s IT Strategy for International expansion, a Customer Relationship Management transformation across Consulting, Highways, and FM divisions, and the recovery and delivery of a troubled IT project for a major rail contract within three months.Outside work, Oli is a keen lacrosse player and the Team Manager for Wales Men’s Box Lacrosse team – taking them to Prague this summer for the European Championships. He lives in Liverpool.Presenting: The Mystery Machine – Finding the Clues to Unmask the Monster of Technological Change
Information Technology has never moved so quickly from an idea to user’s fingertips. But with speed comes drag, and users and businesses can find it challenging to fully exploit the benefits available.In this session, we will explore the human factors at play, the spooky technology superstitions reinforcing them, and how Amey has tackled IT & business change in the era of AI.
Bradley Dewick
Head of Client Services
Wellingtone
Bradley Dewick
Head of Client Services
Wellingtone
Bradley is a Head of Client Services at Wellingtone, supporting organisations in getting the most from Microsoft’s project management solutions. He works closely with clients across a range of sectors to help them improve visibility, governance, and collaboration through Microsoft Planner, the Power Platform, and Wellingtone Accelerator+. With a background in IT and project delivery, Bradley combines technical understanding with a strong focus on client relationships to ensure every implementation drives measurable value.
Presenting: The Future of Enterprise PPM in Microsoft 365
As PMOs mature, lightweight planning tools, spreadsheets and disconnected systems can limit visibility, governance and control. This session explores how enterprise portfolio management is evolving within the Microsoft ecosystem and how organisations can strengthen resource management, reporting and enterprise scheduling capabilities. Attendees will gain practical insights into the future of enterprise portfolio management and the capabilities modern PMOs need to succeed within Microsoft 365.
Graeme Coultish
Strategic Change Manager
NATS
Graeme Coultish
Strategic Change Manager
NATS
Graeme Coultish works where change really succeeds or stalls: in the human system around delivery. At NATS, he provides strategic leadership on benefits and business change across major programmes, and coaches leaders and teams in P3/PMO environments to improve readiness, alignment and execution in a regulated, high stakeholder context.
Coach qualified, he helps teams spot the “hidden threads” that shape performance—unspoken expectations, communication habits, and how challenge is handled—then turns those insights into practical shifts in behaviour. Known for clarity and pace, Graeme helps leadership teams build psychological safety, strengthen professional challenge, and move from governance activity to outcome delivery.
Co-presenting with Mansoor Ahmad: I Ain’t Afraid of No Team Dysfunction: Detecting When People, Purpose & Patterns Fall Out of Alignment
You’ve got the plan. You’ve got the governance. But something still isn’t working. The signals are there, missed commitments, awkward silences, energy that comes and goes, yet they’re hard to pin down. This session explores what happens when delivery challenges escape the tools we’re used to relying on. Through a real-world story, we’ll surface the hidden dynamics that shape team performance and invite you to rethink where PMO fits when the problem isn’t the plan.
Mansoor Ahmad
Programme & Project Benefits Realisation Manager
NATS
Mansoor Ahmad
Programme & Project Benefits Realisation Manager
NATS
Mansoor Ahmad works at the point where PMO and delivery performance is won or lost: human and team dynamics. A benefits realisation and change consultant with a background in occupational psychology, his work blends behavioural insight with pragmatic delivery practice—helping leaders and teams build clarity through decision rights, meeting cadence, and simple team rituals that improve follow through and cross functional accountability. He is particularly interested in the “hidden threads” that shape collaboration: unspoken norms, relationship dynamics and behavioural patterns that quietly determine whether teams thrive or fracture.
Co-presenting with Graeme Coultish: I Ain’t Afraid of No Team Dysfunction: Detecting When People, Purpose & Patterns Fall Out of Alignment
You’ve got the plan. You’ve got the governance. But something still isn’t working. The signals are there, missed commitments, awkward silences, energy that comes and goes, yet they’re hard to pin down. This session explores what happens when delivery challenges escape the tools we’re used to relying on. Through a real-world story, we’ll surface the hidden dynamics that shape team performance and invite you to rethink where PMO fits when the problem isn’t the plan.
Samantha Talbott
Group Programme Manager
New England Seafood
Samantha Talbott
Group Programme Manager
New England Seafood
With a background in Food Science, I started my career in new product development before moving into project management and continuous improvement. I’m passionate about navigating change, strengthening culture, and building processes that help teams succeed, and I’m especially proud to work in the seafood industry with its sustainable, nutritious, source of protein. As Group Programme Manager, I’ve spent the past two years establishing a PMO to bring consistency, unlock delivery, and support transformative business growth.
Presenting: From L Plates to Strategic Drivers: Answering the Call for Change at NESI
“Enhancing lives through fish” is New England Seafoods’ purpose, guiding how the business creates meaningful impact for both planet and people. But delivering this purpose requires more than intent; it demands clarity, alignment and the capability to navigate constant change.Just two years ago, a PMO didn’t exist. The organisation felt a bit… haunted; one “big” project at a time, priorities shifting constantly and inconsistent ways of working with limited control.In this session, Samantha Talbott, PMO Lead, shares the journey from “L plates” to becoming confident, high-performing drivers of change. Using a driving analogy, the team established a clear identity and a trusted role within the business. Sam will demonstrate how they broke down silos, brought rogue projects under control and introduced the structure and discipline needed to deliver with confidence.Today, the PMO isn’t reacting to change, it’s driving it. Steering strategy, navigating complexity and delivering tangible business value in support of the NESI purpose.Join this session to learn how a PMO can truly drive impact and ask yourself: is your PMO keeping up with change, or leading it?
Tony Dragonetti
PMO Manager
South Western Railway
Tony Dragonetti
PMO Manager
South Western Railway
Tony Dragonetti has 13 years of experience in the railway industry, 7 of which were the project field. Achieved APM PMQ in 2018, and currently working towards Chartership. During my time at SWR I have had the opportunity to work on many types of projects including, rolling, civils, signalling, track, and telecoms. I have been leading the PMO 3years now, supporting the delivery of the SWR project portfolio.
Presenting: Facing Imposter Syndrome in Projects
Whether you are young, old, new to projects, or an experienced professional, we have/will all experienced imposter syndrome. The talk will include my own experience of imposter syndrome, how to identify it, and how I have overcome it. The talk is designed to help people understand what it is, understand how to address it, and leave with more confidence to operate in the ever-changing world of projects.
Quentin Wilkins
Business Development Manager
Company X Consulting Ltd
Quentin Wilkins
Business Development Manager
Company X Consulting Ltd
Quentin joined Consulting in 2024 after a successful 30-year career in the Army, working in roles that cover a wide spectrum within the MOD ranging from education and training, the development of doctrine and concepts through to roles in financial scrutiny and approvals within capability delivery programmes. He joined originally as a Principal Consultant working in programme management before moving into his current role within the C-Suite following the restructuring of CXC. His specific role is to create and enable new opportunities by developing statement of work capabilities for CXC.
Co-presenting with Grant Cochran: From Service to Strategy – How veterans can (super) power your PMOs
This session will help you to explore why your organisation should very seriously consider employing more veterans- Veterans are a high-value, underutilised talent pool in the UK
- They bring proven leadership, resilience, teamwork, and adaptability
- They often integrate faster, stay longer, and improve team performance
- This is not a diversity initiative; this is an effective workforce strategy
Grant Cochran
Business Development Manager
Company X Consulting Ltd
Grant Cochran
Business Development Manager
Company X Consulting Ltd
Grant Cochran joined Consulting in October 2017 having completed a full 22-year career in the Army followed by time as an Independent Consultant and then a permanent employee of a Multinational Defence Company working Defence and Government projects. On joining CXC, Grant initially undertook a role as a Principal Consultant in a MOD Client role as Live Services Operations Manager and also acted as the Company Account Manager responsible for managing and supporting the Company Consultants throughout their career. As a part of the recent restructuring of the company, he is now the Business Development manager T&M within the C-Suite.
Co-presenting with Quentin Wilkins: From Service to Strategy – How veterans can (super) power your PMOs
This session will help you to explore why your organisation should very seriously consider employing more veterans- Veterans are a high-value, underutilised talent pool in the UK
- They bring proven leadership, resilience, teamwork, and adaptability
- They often integrate faster, stay longer, and improve team performance
- This is not a diversity initiative; this is an effective workforce strategy
Louise Allcock
IT PMO Manager
Nuclear Restoration Services
Louise Allcock
IT PMO Manager
Nuclear Restoration Services
A PMO leader with broad ranging experience in the implementation of foundational PMO structures and practices into global companies within nuclear, aerospace, finance and IT & Telecoms, demonstrating the value this delivers at the most senior levels within her organisations and throughout each function. With experience in both Waterfall and Agile practices we are working through how these methodologies can be tailored for the specific challenges that PMO faces within organisations.
Presenting: Beyond Compliance: Turning Data into Decisions to drive value through PMO
I’ll share how our IT PMO has evolved from building “Mission Control” to a real value-add “Decision Control” function.I will talk through the path from the ITPMO being spreadsheet led to a mature, digitally enabled team.Spoiler: it’s not a linear path, and we are heading towards our desired state, with an outcome which is a digitally enabled PMO that supports stronger decision-making, governance, and delivery confidence using PFTW+ as its core. Stakeholder engagement is a key part of this journey, and I will discuss how they have been engaged to generate real insights, by starting with the end in mind.On this journey, we will show how we now have clearer service-based delivery, structured demand intake, enhanced assurance, stronger financial controls, and increased use of automation and dashboards.I will also talk about our expansion into 2 of the 4 dark arts of PMO Resource and portfolio management to build a complete delivery view.Join me now as I show how we moved beyond implementation to real value, sharing lessons learned, what worked, and how incremental change can help PMOs become true strategic partners
Lucy Oldham-Smith
PMO Manager
Cafcass
Lucy Oldham-Smith
PMO Manager
Cafcass
Lucy Oldham-Smith is PMO Manager at Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service). With over a decade of experience building and maturing PMOs across public and private sectors, Lucy has shaped governance frameworks and standards that connect change initiatives to strategic ambition. She is passionate about building communities as well as embedding best practice and providing learning opportunities. Lucy holds PRINCE2®, MSP®, MoP® and P3O® certifications.
Presenting: Out of the Shadows: Building a Strategic PMO that is Visible, Trusted and Drives Real Impact
Many PMOs still operate in the shadows, misunderstood, overlooked, or seen as the process police. This session with Lucy Oldham-Smith from Cafcass will explore how to build a strategic PMO that is visible, trusted, and central to delivery. Lucy will share practical approaches to governance, capability, and how building a strong community makes all the difference.
Bethany Timson
PMO Lead
South Norfolk and Broadland District Council
Bethany Timson
PMO Lead
South Norfolk and Broadland District Council
Bethany is the PMO Lead at South Norfolk and Broadland District Council. She is passionate about turning complexity into clarity. Creating the PMO, Bethany designed practical frameworks, templates, benefits approaches, and built community of practice that lift capability. Bethany is big on people, plain English, and smart tools (including AI) to make governance helpful, not heavy.
Presenting: Breaking the Solo PMO Myth
This presentation shares my experience as a solo PMO Lead, building a PMO in an organisation where it wasn’t established, widely understood, and at times felt like a myth. When I started, there was no clear view of projects, inconsistent processes, outdated documentation, and no real community or internal PM resource.I’ll walk through the journey from that starting point to where we are now: introducing governance and templates, improving visibility through project, programme and portfolio tracking, strengthening reporting, and building capability through coaching, mentoring and a growing PM community.I’ll also reflect on the challenges of doing this as a solo PMO: building trust, creating momentum and gaining buy-in, alongside the key lessons learned around leadership support, communication and continuous improvement.
Simon Henry
Head of Quality, Governance & Assurance
East West Railway
Simon Henry
Head of Quality, Governance & Assurance
East West Railway
Simon is a Chartered Quality Professional and Fellow of the Institute of Consulting. He wrote an MBA research project in 2020 on how knowledge is managed at Network Rail and received a distinction and ‘student of the year’ award for the impact of his research. He joined East West Rail in 2021, and as Head of Quality, Governance & Assurance has demystified some of the challenges of managing knowledge in major projects and uses quality principles to bake learning into ways of working rather than generating lessons learnt reports which are hidden away to gather dust.
Marisa Silva
Senior Project Management Consultant
Wellingtone
Marisa Silva
Senior Project Management Consultant
Wellingtone
Marisa Silva, the Lucky PM, is an experienced PMO and PPM advisor, educator, and international speaker with a track record of building capabilities in organisations undergoing transformational change. A passionate advocate of the value of PMOs and project management, she was Programs Director at Project Managers Without Borders, Head of External Affairs at IPMA Young Crew Portugal, Secretary of the APM PMO SIG, and is co-author of ground-breaking courses such as the PMO Practitioner, PMO Leader and Assurance Practitioner courses. Marisa is a Senior Consultant at Wellingtone, a founding member of the PMO Global Alliance Advisory Board and author of “Bedtime Stories for Project Managers”.
Presenting: The PMO Noise Crisis: Why Modern Portfolios Are Drowning in Data
As organisations accelerate digital transformation and adopt AI-enabled tools, PMOs are generating more data, dashboards, reports, and insights than ever before. Yet despite unprecedented visibility, many portfolios are becoming slower, noisier, and harder to navigate.In this session, Marisa Silva explores the growing “noise crisis” affecting modern PMOs: reporting overload, dashboard fatigue, governance bloat, endless notifications, AI-generated updates, and the increasing challenge of distinguishing signal from noise. Through humour, storytelling, and real-world delivery examples, attendees will discover why more information does not always lead to better decisions – and how future PMOs must evolve from report factories into true decision-enabling functions. The real question is: is your PMO creating clarity… or just more noise?
Stephen Carver
Senior Lecturer & Consultant
Cranfield University School of Management
Stephen Carver
Senior Lecturer & Consultant
Cranfield University School of Management
Stephen is rated as one of the top 3 lecturers at one of Europe’s top MBA Business Schools, Cranfield. He has a reputation for taking complex management concepts such as Project, Programme Change and Crisis Management and being able to distil them down into highly informative and fast-moving lectures – often using “storytelling” techniques. His attitude is, “If you haven’t done it – you shouldn’t be teaching it!”
Unusually for an academic, he has actually spent most of his working life in real business and still runs his own highly successful Project Management Company.
Stephen is an unusual blend of Academic, Businessman and Teller of Tales. He has taught worldwide and appeared on National Radio and TV.
Emma Arnaz-Pemberton
Director of Consulting Services
Wellingtone
Emma Arnaz-Pemberton
Director of Consulting Services
Wellingtone
Emma is the Director of Consulting Services at Wellingtone. She is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), lead of their PMO Interest Network, a member of the IPMA Standards Committee, an Axelos P3M3 Assessor, and an NLP Master Practitioner practicing life and professional coaching with a Diploma in Modern Applied Psychology.Emma is a PMO, PPM specialist with extensive experience in the change management industry with a particular focus on collaboration, reminding us that we should be human first and change champions second.
Vince Hines
Managing Director
Wellingtone
Vince Hines
Managing Director
Wellingtone
Vince Hines is the Managing Director of Wellingtone; he is an expert Project Management Consultant, having worked with clients across the UK, US and Europe. He retains several professional qualifications, including MAPM. He has extensive real-world experience in developing client project management maturity through consulting and training engagements, helping them improve their use of formal project management tools and techniques. He has delivered customised training courses to thousands of delegates.
Who is attending?
Why should you attend the FuturePMO conference?
FuturePMO is a conference like no other. Forget dull agendas and predictable sessions, it’s a dynamic, inspiring experience designed to surprise, energise, and empower. With inspiring speakers, hands-on workshops, and a flexible format, you can shape the day around what matters most to you. You’ll leave feeling motivated, with fresh insights, practical tools, and the confidence to evolve your PMO and project management practice.
Whether you’re just starting out or shaping strategy, FuturePMO is your space to grow. It’s a one-day PMO conference designed to spark ideas, challenge thinking, and connect you with a community that gets it. You’ll leave inspired, equipped, and ready to take your next step – wherever you are on your PMO journey.
Conference Testimonials
FuturePMO was a fantastic conference for sharing opinions, beliefs, experiences and knowledge between both speakers and participants. Will definitely be returning next year with colleagues.
FuturePMO was a fantastic conference for sharing opinions, beliefs, experiences and knowledge between both speakers and participants. Will definitely be returning next year with colleagues.
FuturePMO continues to be the best conference I have attended, the event offers a great opportunity to learn, get tips, get inspired and network.
A PMO conference with a difference
FuturePMO is no average day out of the office. We want to enhance your day by packing it full of surprises that you won’t be expecting. With our highly motivational speakers and interactive workshops, you can tailor your day to focus where you need to, the format of the day will leave you feeling educated and inspired to make a change to your PMO for the better.
