The countdown to PMI Switzerland’s PM Conference 2026 has begun and we are excited to give you a closer look at what awaits you on 29 October 2026 at SIX ConventionPoint, Zurich.

Bringing together approximately 200 project professionals, executives, innovators and decision-makers, PM Conference 2026 will be a full day of inspiration, knowledge sharing and networking. From iconic Swiss projects and technological innovation to AI and the evolving role of project leaders, the conference will explore how organizations are navigating an increasingly complex project environment.

Under the theme “Swiss Iconic Projects and Innovations – The Future of Project Leadership”, we will bring together leading voices from across Switzerland and beyond to share experiences, practical insights and perspectives on the future of project leadership.

And this year’s speaker lineup is one you will not want to miss.

Meet Our Speakers
We are delighted to welcome an exceptional lineup of speakers from some of Switzerland’s most recognized organizations, bringing together diverse perspectives from technology, engineering, finance, telecommunications, consumer goods, sport and international organizations.

• Eleonore Cassandra Poli — CSEM
• Dominique Chopard — Emch + Berger
• Roberto Nores & Sandeep Garg — Holcim
• Heng Hong Chan — International Olympic Committee
• Livia Altmann — Keynote Guest Speaker, Human Intelligence 2.0 GmbH
• Pat Lucey — Keynote Guest Speaker, PMI
• Olaf Steinkamp — CERN Member
• Stephan Hillert — Millennials4boards
• Christian Piepper — Nestlé
• Daniel Berger — SIX Group
• Evelyne Uhler & Sebastiaan Weekers — SIX Group
• Alessandro de Giulii & Luca Gambini — Sunrise
• Anja Naegeli — Swiss Re
• Daniel Simonet — UBS
  And this is only the beginning. More speakers will be announced soon.

Our Proud Venue Sponsor
We are delighted to welcome SIX Group as the Venue Sponsor of the PM Conference 2026.

As a leading player in Switzerland’s financial ecosystem, SIX Group provides the venue for this year’s conference at SIX ConventionPoint in Zurich, helping us bring the project management community together for a day of learning, exchange and connection.

We sincerely thank SIX Group for its generous support and the SIX Project Management Community for their commitment and collaboration in making this partnership possible.

Why Join Us and What Can You Expect?
PM Conference 2026 is designed to be more than a day of presentations. It is an opportunity to learn, connect and exchange ideas with professionals facing many of the same challenges you are.

At the conference, you will have the opportunity to:

• Learn from leaders behind major Swiss projects and transformations
• Explore the practical application of AI in project management and project delivery
• Discover how innovation is changing the way projects are led
• Gain practical insights that you can apply immediately within your projects and organization
• Exchange experiences and ideas with project professionals from different industries
• Build meaningful connections during the conference lunch and networking opportunities
• Earn 10 PDUs towards maintaining your PMI certification

A Full Day to Learn, Connect and Be Inspired
From the first session of the morning through to the Networking Apéro, the conference is designed to create space not only for learning, but also for meaningful conversations and new connections. Enjoy lunch with fellow participants, exchange experiences during the day and join us for an informal apéro to continue the discussions beyond the conference sessions.

The Programme Is Coming Soon
The final conference programme is currently being prepared and will be available on the PMI Switzerland website soon. We will share the full programme and further speaker announcements in our next newsletter. So, stay tuned!

Ready to be part of the conversation?
With an exceptional speaker lineup, practical insights, opportunities to connect across industries and 10 PDUs, PM Conference 2026 is an opportunity to step away from the day-to-day, gain new perspectives and explore what the future of project leadership could look like.

Join us on 29 October 2026 at SIX ConventionPoint in Zurich and be part of the conversation.

Conference Tickets
PMI Members: CHF 495
Non-Members: CHF 595
Special Offer: Students aged 25 or under can receive 50% off their conference ticket.

Registration is open until 27 October 2026.
Secure your place today. Register Here for PM Conference 2026

We look forward to welcoming you to Zurich on 29 October for a day where iconic projects, innovation and the future of project leadership come together.

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.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

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

A conversation with Grégoire Willommet before the PMI Switzerland event in Geneva, on a game-changing framework built to close the gap between project delivery and real adoption

Organisations are always introducing new tools, processes and ways of working. However, many change projects still face the same problem: the solution is delivered, but people do not fully adopt it in their daily work.

On 5 November 2026, PMI Switzerland will welcome Grégoire Willommet to Geneva for an event about this challenge.

Grégoire will present ACAEM, a change management framework that he created to help leaders and project teams plan, guide and measure change in a practical way.

This will mark the first time ACAEM has been presented at a PMI event anywhere in the world.

Before the event, we spoke with him about the framework, resistance to change, communication and the role of project managers.

A practical approach to change

ACAEM stands for:

Analyse – Connect – Align – Engage – Measure

These five words describe the main actions of the framework. Rather than only explaining what successful change should look like, ACAEM focuses on what leaders and teams need to do in practice. The actions are not fixed steps, and teams may need to return to them several times during a project.

ACAEM was formalised in 2024, but it is not a 2024 idea: it is the structured synthesis of more than fifteen years of transformation work in the field. Grégoire does not present it as a replacement for the well-known methods that have existed for years. Its difference lies in its strong focus on practical work, delivery and measured adoption. 

As he explained during our conversation, "Most frameworks tell you what good change looks like. ACAEM tells you what to do on Monday morning."

The framework is based on practical experience and includes tools that project teams and business leaders can use without extensive training.

For project managers, this is important. A project may deliver a new system or process on time and within budget, but this does not mean that people will use it successfully.

Change should not belong to only one team

In Grégoire’s view, change management should not be the responsibility of only one department.

Today, organisations face continuous and often conflicting changes. This has become the new normal. A central change management team cannot manage all of them.

Change specialists can support the business, provide advice and offer practical tools for adopting new processes, systems or structures. 

Guiding people through change should be a responsibility shared by leaders, project managers and business teams, not just a specialist group. When this mindset becomes widespread, the organisation is genuinely transforming. This goes further: it means helping an organisation find its own way through change and become better prepared for what comes next.

Resistance can be useful

Resistance is often seen as a problem, but it can also provide useful information.

People may resist because they do not trust the change, do not understand the benefits or believe that important problems have not been considered.

During our interview, he shared an example from the introduction of a Project Management Office in a factory.

Some important stakeholders did not want their projects to be part of the new governance process. Instead of forcing them to join, the PMO started with the teams that were ready.

These projects received more visibility and better access to senior leaders. When the benefits became clear, some of the people who had resisted the PMO later wanted their projects to be included.

Their resistance was not simply negative behaviour. It showed concerns about trust, control and transparency.

Listening to these concerns can help the team understand what may be missing from the change plan. Trust grows when leaders are clear, reliable and do what they promise. In this case, the biggest resistors became the biggest proponents of the change.

Communication is not enough

Another common mistake is to think that change management is mainly about communication.

Communication is important, but emails, presentations and newsletters do not automatically lead to adoption. Communication without preparation can miss the purpose and context.

Before communicating, teams need to understand the situation, speak with the right people and make sure that leaders agree on the purpose and direction of the change.

Grégoire compared this work to preparing a meal in a kitchen. People may only see the final result, but a lot of work happens before it is ready. The same is true of ACAEM.

Without this preparation, communication may not answer the questions that people really have:

● Why are we making this change?
● What does it mean for my team?
● Are the leaders in agreement?
● How will we know whether the change is working?

Look for misalignment before resistance

When a change is moving forward on paper but not in reality, resistance may be the most visible problem.

But the first warning sign may appear earlier, when the project team and the sponsors are not fully aligned.

When the people leading the change do not share the same understanding, messages become unclear, decisions take longer and people start to lose confidence.

People may then start to resist because the change was not well planned or clearly explained.

Project managers should therefore measure more than time, cost and scope. They should also pay attention to sponsor alignment, stakeholder reactions and how well people are adapting to the new ways of working. To help teams reflect on these points, ACAEM offers a free online Success Score Card. The tool helps teams quickly identify where a transformation is at risk and where more attention is needed, before resistance becomes visible. The free online Success Score Card is available at www.acaem-change.com.

Meet the speaker

Grégoire Willommet is the founder of GWRC Advisory and the creator of ACAEM©. An Enterprise Transformation and Change Director with more than fifteen years of international experience in complex, regulated environments, he previously founded and led the Change Management & Transformation Office of an international Swiss-based company and holds a Prosci ADKAR Model Mastery certification.

He also teaches in Executive Education programmes at HEC Lausanne, where he contributes to courses on change management, leadership and  transformation.

During the event, he will explain how ACAEM can help project professionals and leaders make change more practical, clear and measurable.

His main message is simple: change management should not only describe change. It should help people make it happen.

We look forward to exploring this practical approach to change management with the PMI Switzerland community in Geneva.

Event: Don’t Describe Change: Structure, Execute & Measure Transformation with ACAEM
Date: 5 November 2026
Location: Geneva
Speaker: Grégoire Willommet

Link to event: Don’t describe change: structure, execute & measure transformation with ACAEM

At PMI, our volunteers are the cornerstone of all our initiatives. This ethos is reflected not only in our newsletter, website, and events but also in our chapter's strategy and leadership. As we approach the 2027-2028 election term, we are actively seeking committed PMI Switzerland Chapter members who:

• Embody PMI Values: Live and breathe the principles that guide our organization.
• Innovate: Bring practical ideas to elevate our chapter to new heights.
• Take Initiative: Exhibit a hands-on attitude to co-lead various committees, workstreams, and initiatives.
• Handle Complexity: Manage complex programs and demanding stakeholders with ease.
• Stand for Election: Are willing to run in the upcoming PMI Swiss chapter elections.
• Commit to Volunteering: Can dedicate themselves to a 2-year volunteer role, specifically for positions such as:
  
  • Board of Directors
  • Election Committee Member
  • Finance Auditor
  • Engage and Collaborate: Are ready for action, teamwork, and fun!