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APM Midlands Network: The Future of AI and Project Management: How to Lead the First Wave of Agentic Project Management
Please note this session was originally "From ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ to ‘The Invisible Project Manager’ " presented by Peter Taylor, but due to unforeseen circumstances, Peter has had to step back. We are please to introduce new speaker Mark Durnin and this session.
The next era of project delivery won’t be defined by chasing status updates, fixing broken spreadsheet links, or surviving the daily friction of manual reporting. It will be executed by "Digital Employees"—swarms of autonomous AI agents capable of reasoning, adapting, and autonomously driving work forward.
However, we must adapt how we think about adopting new technology. We are trying to force revolutionary Agentic AI into brittle, legacy "If This, Then That" workflows. By clinging to the tech industry's flawed "Human-in-the-Loop" model, we are trapping ourselves as mere administrative bottlenecks, terrified of losing control over the very technology meant to liberate us.
To break free from this trap, our mindset has to fundamentally shift: we must stop managing the friction of the work, and start managing the framework that governs it.
This provocative, highly practical session breaks down exactly how the future of project management works and how we get there. We will look under the hood of Agentic AI to show you how a network of specialised micro-agents can be orchestrated to resolve bad data, manage risk, and execute deliverables autonomously.
What you will learn in this session:
- The "Human-in-the-Loop" Trap: Why being merely "consulted" by AI is dangerous, and how to completely rewire your RACI matrix for a "Human-in-Control" model.
- Anatomy of a Digital Employee: How a swarm of specialized micro-agents interact seamlessly inside platforms like MS Teams.
- The Orchestration Framework: How to maintain absolute authority over an autonomous system by implementing and approving a strict, four-pillar framework.
- The Pioneer's Advantage: How to position yourself right now to shed the robotic parts of your job, let AI manage the work, and step up as a true strategic leader of people.
The digital mailroom is closing. Are you ready to step up as an architect of the AI era?
Date: 22 October 2026 Time: 17:45 - 20:30 GMT
Venue: International Manufacturing Centre IMC – Auditorium 002, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
Organiser: APM Midlands Network and PMI Midlands Branch
CPD: 2.00
Ticket prices:
Student member: Free
Associate member: Free
Member: Free
Non-member: £20
Corporate Partner/Affiliate employee: £10
Agenda -
17:45 – Registration, refreshments and networking
18:30 – Introductions
18:45 – Presentation
20:15 – Q&A
20:30 – Close
We hope to reschedule Peter's original session "From ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ to ‘The Invisible Project Manager’" soon.
Speaker:
Mark Durnin, AI-founder
Mark Durnin is an enterprise project leader turned AI-founder, specializing in the transition from traditional project management to Agentic AI orchestration. Entering the profession in 2005, Mark spent over a decade identifying bottlenecks and translating complex corporate strategies into actionable roadmaps, eventually serving as a Senior Director at Willis Towers Watson managing global, cross-functional teams.
Recognizing the brittle limitations of legacy "If This, Then That" automation, Mark transitioned into the tech space as a founder building Micro-SaaS applications and AI agent swarms. Today, his work focuses on bridging the gap between rigid enterprise operations and dynamic, autonomous digital workforces. By advocating for "Goal-Driven Architecture" over traditional task management, Mark helps forward-thinking organisations—and the project managers who run them—unlearn the friction of the past to become true architects of the AI-driven future.

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