Reflective note to the year thinking back on the Women in Project Management conference and WiPM SIG 2022

Whilst I write this I am still in the celebratory mode, rounding up for the year and preparing to celebrate Christmas with my family and reflecting on my volunteering experience this year. One of the highlights is my participation in the Women in Project Management conference, just a few weeks after assuming the role of the APM WIPM SIG Chair for 2022-23. All the sessions I attended were inspiring and educational.

The sessions covered topics such as work life balance, managing your career journey, diversity in teams and transformational leadership just to mention few. The Women in Project Management conference was an event that truly created opportunities for networking, practical insights for professionals, and navigating project management career into leadership roles.

It was a real honour to moderate one of the sessions, Managing your career journey - the session covered stories from women in leadership, the panellists discussed their experiences and how they managed challenges and embraced opportunities through their career- what resonated for me during this discussion was that there is no linear approach to attaining leadership in the project management profession. There are so many avenues to becoming a project professional starting the journey and progressing depends on individual – APM facilitates this through resources, training and accreditation for members and non-members.

Valuable key points of the day for me were - great ideas gets you noticed, we are often scared to share our ideas, when we share ideas, it creates opportunities for us and our team.
Be visible and effective to attract a sponsor. Knowing your sponsor and maximising the relationship with your sponsor open doors for opportunities.

Work life balance. working smartly helps to be more productive – wellbeing, balancing home, and by setting the right boundaries for work and wellbeing.

Finally, as I have taken on the role as the APM WiPM Chair 2022-23 is a wonderful opportunity for me to give back to the professional community by supporting and advancing initiatives for women. In October we joined the campaign on awareness for Menopause.

I am looking forward to 2023 and various activities planned with APM WiPM Women in Project Management committee colleagues to support women in Project Management profession and continue to engage with our followers.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Caroline Ojo
APM Women in Project Management SIG Chair

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P.S. The next Women in Project Management conference will take place on Thursday 21 September 2023