Project Offices 2026: strategies and tactics

About the event

The III All-Russian Conference “Project Offices: Successful Strategies and Tactics” was scheduled for 22–23 October 2026 in Moscow at Lesnaya Safmar Hotel, 15 Lesnaya Street. The official programme covers PMO value, portfolio management, PMO transformation, artificial intelligence, risk and practical project-office methods. It lists keynote talks, parallel sessions, workshops and an exhibition of software for project planning and automation. These subjects connect the office’s management role with tools and portfolio decisions. This copy describes the published plan without claiming that sessions or outcomes took place.

A central programme question is how a PMO creates value and shows its influence on an organisation. The agenda names financial and operational arguments, the project office’s contribution to efficiency, its authority and its relationship with leadership. It also asks whether a PMO should remain a service function or influence business decisions and priorities. These themes connect project-office work with outcomes and governance, not only procedures and reporting.

Project portfolio management and the connection between strategy and portfolio form a separate stream. Topics include whether a top-down strategy is workable, the role of project thinking in business development, initiative prioritisation and the project office’s effect on operational efficiency. Together, these subjects present a PMO as one part of the mechanism linking leadership intent with projects, resources and delivery.

The technology stream addresses AI in project management, including the move from pilot to system, organisational change, data, roles and measures, and the practical value and risks of agents. A keynote topic distinguishes AI adoption from an ordinary IT project and asks where the technology helps project management and where it creates an illusion of control. This frames discussion around not only the tool but also conditions for use: process readiness, data, accountability and effect measurement.

The programme includes an interactive “anti-plenary” on PMO 2027: the audience votes in real time, results appear on screen and shape the discussion. Questions include what has truly changed in project-office work, how strategic PMO functions are evolving, how AI and cross-team initiatives affect the role, and which practices organisations should strengthen or stop. Unlike a panel limited to invited experts, this format brings the audience into the conversation. A shared priority map and forecasts were announced as an intended output, not reported as an achieved result.

Three parallel practical sessions are published for 22 October, 12:30–13:30. In Hall 1, Natalia Raevskaya, Avito’s risk-management lead, moderates the track on financial arguments for PMO value. In Hall 2, Vladimir Grigoriev, deputy CEO for economics and finance at «Газпром ЦПС», moderates “Top-Down Strategy: Is It Realistic?” In Hall 3, Dmitry Mazein, CEO of ADVANTA Group, moderates the roundtable on a PMO as a P&L centre and its effect on operational efficiency. These are published topic and moderator assignments, not reports of session outcomes.

Registration on 23 October is listed for 09:00–09:30. Maxim Dorofeev is scheduled in Halls 1 and 2 from 09:30 to 11:00 on understanding, formulaic responses and assessing expertise in the AI era. The following programme is divided among practical formats and rooms. Some PDF entries are labelled online, but those labels do not establish online audience access to the whole conference; its complete remote scope is not confirmed in the saved material.

Commercial and demonstration elements include an exhibition of software for planning and automating project activity. The current exhibition page names the IT ecosystem Lukomorye and ADVANTA Group as exhibitors; these are confirmed exhibitor roles, not a complete visitor or attendee-company list. Separately, ADVANTA Group is listed as strategic partner and ComNews Conferences as organiser. These distinctions separate exhibition, event support, conference organisation and delegate attendance.

Day two lists a “PMO versus Business” courtroom format from 11:00 to 12:00 in Halls 1 and 2, with Yury Shoydin and Pavel Poteev: three teams, a judge drawn from the audience and a verdict by audience vote. The “Once in the System” simulation with Dmitry Lazarev is scheduled in Hall 1 for 12:30–14:00, assigning participants senior-management, middle-management and frontline roles. From 17:00 to 18:00, Hall 1 lists the “Big Win” portfolio game with Ruslan Yusupov, in which teams select initiatives and allocate resources under changing conditions. Hall 2 has a simultaneous brainstorm on project force majeure. These are announced game and discussion formats, not verified participation outcomes.