Colm O’Kelly

Talk Summary

Colm O’Kelly confesses that when he became Lottery Project Manager for the Blaise Castle restoration project in 2000, he knew little about formal project management.  His established talents as a Landscape Architect with experience covering both public and private sectors, made him the ideal candidate for the role, but neither he nor Bristol City Council appreciated at that point the depth of system and process knowledge that would be needed to steer a project of this size and complexity.

Tyntesfield Wraxall, North Somerset - Spectacular Victorian country house and grounds

In this pre-dinner talk, Colm offers an entertaining view of the gap between the perceptions of project management within this specialist sector and the harsh realities he has experienced day to day. Drawing on his experiences both at Blaise and now at Tyntesfield, Colm paints a picture of excellent intentions being undermined by a culture as yet ill-fitted to the stringency that good project management demands.  A story  that will undoubtedly sound familiar to many!