Dates: 24 September 2009
Times: 10:30 to 16:00
Venue: Allianz, Gherkin, London

The seventeenth meeting of CITI’s Centres of Excellence Club was held at Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality (Gherkin, London), the topic for the day was programme set up.

We started the day with coffee and networking in the beautiful restaurant atop the Gherkin, enjoying a 360 degree view of London.

Once back on ‘terra firma’ in Leadenhall Street, Thomas Docker, Chairman of CITI, completed the general introductions, before our host gave a whirl-wind tour of the Allianz Group and, in particular, the programme and project management organisation at Allianz Global Corporate & Speciality. We heard about their project management life cycle and copies of a guide to their the framework were given out to members.

Peter Collin, CITI Principal Consultant, then presented a best practice view of programme initiation, having distinguished programmes from projects and portfolios. A lively debate ensued followed by a short period of self-analysis using CITI’s programme classification questionnaire.

After lunch, Asher Rickayzen, Director of Enterprise Planning & Delivery at T-Mobile UK, shared some key lessons learned (or not learned) from his extensive programme management experience. Highlighting strategies and tactics that worked well for him when setting up programmes for success.

The rest of the meeting was a group workshop, exploring the areas posing most difficulty when formulating a programme brief and sharing what actions should be taken to address these.

Interactive discussions and group workshop exercises took place to explore the topic. Access to all presentations, workshop outputs and papers are available to CofEe Club members via the online forum.

To register your interest in attending future CofEe Club events please contact Amanda Muscat by email amuscat@citi.co.uk or by telephoning 01908 283600.