Program Management, Finally on Center Stage

The Program Managers Roundtable comes to Geneva on 17 September 2026

Ask most people in our profession to explain project management and you get a confident answer within seconds. Ask the same question about program management, and the answer gets vaguer fast, something about “bigger projects” or “more stakeholders.” That gap is exactly why we're running this session.

On 17 September, together with Patryk Nosalik and Bianca Alves, we're bringing five Program Management leaders from different sectors, different career trajectories, and different professional experiences for a facilitated Roundtable in Geneva.

I have some stake in that question myself. I made the move from project to program leadership in global health delivery, and it was never a straight line. Most recently, that meant stepping into a multimillion dollar health portfolio that had been underperforming, with low confidence in its own numbers, and rebuilding it from the ground up: restoring cross-functional governance, strengthening financial controls and forecasting. What that work taught me is that the jump from project to program management isn't a promotion in the usual sense, it isn't “more of the same, but bigger.” It's a move outward: from delivering a thing, to delivering a benefit; from owning scope, schedule, and budget, to holding together governance, stakeholders, and politics.

We thought that the best way to expand on this concept was through stories and that's exactly the format of this roundtable, and it's why we wanted five different practitioners in the room to talk about their experiences. Over the course of the evening, the panel will work through the difference between project and program management in (including their limitations, not only their benefits), with stakeholder management and leadership among them.

At the end of this discussion, we hope you walk away with valuable peer-led insights, fresh inspiration for senior Project Managers considering their next move, and direct answers to your top questions, alongside a spotlight on outstanding Program Management leaders from across our region and industries.

One note before you come: this is an interactive discussion, and the conversation will naturally follow the interests of the room, so some of these themes may get more attention than others. Come to listen, understand, ask questions, and share your own perspective, and shape where the conversation goes.

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PROGRAM MANAGERS ROUNDTABLE
17 September 2026 · Geneva · Hotel Royal · Link to register here.