Teams celebrate becoming APM Project Management Challenge finalists

Teams from Association for Project Management (APM) Regional Networks have been celebrating the news of their nomination in the APM Project Management Challenge. Team Synergy from Babcock and Devonport Plymouth (South Wales and West of England Regional Network) and PM Dream Team from Mott MacDonald (Thames Valley Regional Network) have been reacting to their selection for the award.

The APM Project Management Challenge is an annual competition which has been running for over a decade, where teams from each of the APM Regional Networks have the opportunity to conceptualise, plan, and deliver a project, from start to finish. This year, the APM Project Management Challenge will be featured as a category at the APM Project Management Awards, taking place on 18 November at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London.

The teams that were shortlisted at a regional level alongside PM Dream Team and Team Synergy were Nexus from Nexus Rail (North East), North Coast Net Zero from Nuclear Restoration Services (Scotland), Team of Tomorrow from BAE Systems (Wessex), and Summit from Jacobs (Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire). While these six teams won at a regional level, only two were selected to be finalists for the Project Management Challenge.

PM Dream Team were nominated for providing support materials and raising awareness about mental and physical resilience within Mott MacDonald. Collaborating with their Wellbeing team, PM Dream Team organised a hybrid workshop focused on developing mental and physical resilience featuring expert speakers. Additionally, they created a Resilience Handbook, available on Mott MacDonald’s intranet, which offers tips to enhance and maintain mental resilience.

Mercedes Mazzucchelli from PM Dream Team said: "A lot of teamwork and effort has gone into this competition, and being finalists is such a great honour! However, the biggest achievement has been to be able to deliver positive change in our organisation and contribute to improving people’s resilience. Sometimes in your early career, opportunities to create change are really few, and the APM Challenge has enabled us to make a difference."

Team Synergy were nominated for their work with Ash Rescue Centre, a Dartmouth based charity, where they provided a permanent and holistic retirement home for horses, donkeys, and other animals, whilst at the same time creating and sustaining habitats that encourage wildlife, birds, and native plant species. Ash Rescue had no way of monitoring or tracking sponsorships, and hence the team delivered a customer relationship management system which links to their website and payment system. The charity has already reaped multiple benefits from the implementation of the new software and have seen an astounding increase in sponsors since project handover.

Members of Team Synergy said: "As a team we worked closely with Jenny (our Charity Sponsor), collaboratively identifying the right solution to her problem. We got to see the benefits the CRM system was bringing and where the money would start to be reinvested back into the charity. Seeing the impact that we had as a team was incredibly rewarding, and it is a joy to be recognised for this, by being a finalist for the APM Awards. We are delighted to be part of such an incredible event and are looking forward to celebrating everyone’s successes.

"Our project was to develop a data management system for Ash Rescue (a local animal charity). The team, made up of various individuals with differing roles from around the business, worked extremely well throughout the six months together. We are very proud to be recognised as a finalist for the APM awards, ensuring that our great work and benefits delivered to the charity can be recognised on a wider scale."

Congratulations and good luck to our finalists. The winners will be announced at the APM Project Management Awards ceremony on 18 November. Other finalists in the APM Project Management Awards can be found here.