FULL AGENDA · DECEMBER 8–10, 2026

Beyond the AEC PM Bootcamp: Managing Large & Complex Projects

Six live sessions. Everything you need to jump to the next career level.

Each live online session is 2 hours and built around real-world techniques for managing large, complex, and multi-disciplinary AEC projects, and includes the hands-on case study workshops you'll work through with your project team.

Modules 1 and 2
December 8, 2026 · 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET

Moving From PM to Senior PM, Then from Senior PM to Principal

Managing a large or complex project starts with a shift in identity, not just skill set. Learn to reframe how you see your role, from owning a single project to owning a portfolio, so you can see exactly where you sit among the PIC, Discipline Leads, APMs, and project control staff around you.

You learn
  • The 4 critical attributes all successful Senior PMs must have
  • How to select a career path that builds on your strengths
  • Multiple ways you can become a principal in your firm
  • Benchmarking your projects' financial performance against the overall A/E industry
  • Benchmarking your clients' satisfaction against the overall A/E industry
  • Moving from project ownership to portfolio ownership
  • Differentiation of PIC, PM, Discipline Lead, APM, and project controls roles

Financial Management for Senior PMs

This module walks you through a typical project's lifecycle and demonstrates its connections to the firm's financial goals. Participants then learn how they can improve financial performance through better pricing, contracting and project management.

You learn
  • How your project's financial performance impacts the firm's P&L Statement and Cash Flow
  • The importance of pricing on profitability – and how Senior PMs can increase pricing on your projects
  • How to convince clients to move away from cost-based pricing toward value-based pricing
  • Why even profitable projects generate negative cash flow
  • How Senior PMs can work with the firm's Accounting Department to dramatically speed up cash flow
  • How to handle slow-paying clients
Modules 3 and 4
December 8, 2026 · 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET

Risk Management for Senior PMs

This module teaches you how to (1) manage your clients' risks more effectively and (2) manage your firm's risks effectively. Through a series of real-world workshops…

You learn
  • The strong correlation between client satisfaction and how well you help them manage their project risks
  • Using AI to help identify and manage client risks
  • An easy way to use Monte Carlo analysis to establish an appropriate construction contingency for your clients' projects
  • Which projects (and clients) have the highest risks to your firm
  • How to avoid clients and projects whose risks outweigh their potential rewards
  • Why 70% of claims have a major non-technical component
  • How to avoid killer contract terms
  • What to do when the client wants you to start work before you have a signed contract

Business Development for Senior PMs

This module hands you a practical playbook for turning client relationships you already own into new pursuits, and for knowing which opportunities are actually worth chasing. And, once you decide to pursue a competitive project, you'll learn a foolproof way to win it.

You learn
  • Finding new clients via a low-stress "pull-thru strategy"
  • Why many firms have adopted a formal go/no go process – and why most of them don't work
  • 6 quick go no/go questions that will lead you down the right path
  • Getting more work from existing clients through up-selling and cross-selling
  • Why you can't manage major competitive proposals the way you do with smaller proposals
  • Winning major competitive pursuits using the IFBP strategy
  • Improving your interviewing skills
Modules 5 and 6
December 9, 2026 · 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET

Negotiating Better Contracts

This module gives you the negotiating skills to lock in fair scope, fee, payment terms, and legal terms before you find yourself managing around a bad deal.

You learn
  • 5 types of negotiators – how to recognize which type you're up against and adjust your negotiating strategy accordingly
  • The difference between a "deal negotiation" and a "relationship negotiation"
  • How to get to win-win – and what to do if that's not achievable
  • When and how to negotiate teaming agreements
  • Negotiating payment terms that will speed cash flow
  • Negotiating acceptable legal terms

Managing Complex Projects

Complex projects punish PMs who plan them the way they'd plan a simple one. This module walks through a Project Management Plan (PMP) framework purpose-built for scale. You'll get a comprehensive PMP template that helps you manage risks, resourcing, schedule, and budget from Day One.

You learn
  • Why you should begin preparing your PMP during the pre-proposal phase, then refine it in your proposal, refine it again before you start the project, and continue refining it as the project progresses
  • Identifying the client's Critical Success Factors and how they tend to change as the project progresses
  • Dealing with conflicts between the client's Critical Success Factors and those of your firm
  • Developing a Risk Management Plan that covers your client's risks as well as those of your firm
  • How to "fence in" your scope to eliminate ambiguities
  • Preparing a "tiered" Work Breakdown Structure and link it with your Organizational Breakdown Structure and your Accounting Breakdown Structure
  • Establishing a project schedule based on the most efficient sequences among the various disciplines on your project
  • The 4 most common scheduling problems and how to avoid them
  • Assuring that you have the right resources to finish on schedule
  • How to keep the "body snatchers" from stealing the time of your best project team members
  • Establishing a realistic Project Financial Plan
  • Establishing a QC plan that works for complex projects
  • Selecting the right subconsultants – and managing difficult subs
  • Planning ahead for scope creep and other project changes
  • Getting buy-in from your project team and your Principal-in-Charge
  • Which parts of your PMP you should share with your client
Modules 7 and 8
December 9, 2026 · 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET

Managing Alternative Delivery Projects

Design-build, CMAR, IPD, and P3 each shift where your authority, risk, and obligations sit. PMs who treat them like traditional design-bid-build get burned. You learn how each delivery model actually works, so you can negotiate and manage your side of the deal with confidence.

You learn
  • Different types of Alternative Delivery (Design-build, progressive design-build, CMAR, IPD, P3)
  • Potential risks and rewards in each – to the Owner and to your firm
  • The "sucker" offer from contractors that many designers fall for
  • Negotiating with contractor partners on alternative-delivery contracts
  • Why your firm's risks are much greater under alternative delivery projects – and how to manage these risks effectively
  • Owner relationship dynamics on alternative-delivery contracts
  • Including the GC's superintendents as part of the design team

Managing On-Call Contracts (MSAs, IDIQs, etc.)

On-call contracts reward PMs who can turn a stream of task orders into a coherent program, and punish those who treat each order as its own island. We unpack how to mine these agreements for more work and manage them as a true program, not just a pile of separate projects.

You learn
  • Mining MSAs and IDIQs to win more task orders
  • From Project Management Plans (PMPs) to Program Management Plans (PgMPs)
  • Common Programmatic Critical Success Factors (CSFs) vs. Project-specific CSFs
  • Program risks vs. project risks
  • Prototype Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and risk register
  • Multi-project owner relationships
  • Resource forecasting across multiple complex projects
Modules 9 and 10
December 10, 2026 · 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET

Leading Your Project Team

Build your leadership skills so you can handle difficult team members, difficult clients and difficult situations.

You learn
  • Why you don't need charisma to be a great leader
  • Using emotional intelligence to deal with difficult team members
  • 3 different leadership styles – which ones are best for which situations
  • The special skills needed to effectively manage remote team members
  • Why money isn't a motivator for most of your team members – and what you can do to really motivate them
  • Using Assistant PMs and PM Assistants to leverage your available time
  • Using your newest team member, AI, to help you manage your projects

Managing Difficult Clients and Difficult Situations

Learn how to map relationships, identify who really holds authority, and deliver hard news without damaging the relationship.

You learn
  • Delivering bad news
  • What to do when your client puts your project on hold
  • Using emotional intelligence to relate better with your clients
  • Dealing with micromanager clients
  • Dealing with unresponsive clients
  • Dealing with invoice-obsessed clients
  • Dealing with indecisive clients
  • Dealing with scope-creeper clients
Modules 11-13
December 10, 2026 · 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET

Controlling Budgets & Schedules

Next, you learn how to turn negative variances into positive variances and deliver your projects on schedule.

You learn
  • Why many PMs misread the true status of their projects
  • How to tell early on when your project is starting to get off track
  • An easy way to estimate Earned Value
  • Knowing which tasks are ahead of schedule and which are behind
  • Reading the clues of your Earned Value Analyses
  • Using Earned Value Analysis to input Estimate-to-Complete data into your firm's ERP system
  • How to wrap up projects efficiently
  • How to keep your Principal-in-Charge informed about your projects

Project Rescue

Even the best-run complex projects and programs sometimes get into trouble. This module gives you a clear playbook for pulling a struggling project or an entire program back on track, and preventing the same problem from recurring on your future projects.

You learn
  • Why you should look at project recovery as an opportunity
  • Why recovery on large projects is fundamentally different from small projects
  • Case Study: Why the Sydney Opera House went 13 times over the original budget and 10 years behind the original schedule
  • How to do a 5-Why Root Cause Analysis
  • The green-light, red-light method of brainstorming with your team
  • A step-by-step process for project rescue

Implementing What You Learn

None of this matters if it stays in your notes after the program ends. This closing module turns everything you've learned into two concrete plans, one for you and one for your firm, so the skills you learn actually change how you and your team operate on Monday morning.

You learn
  • Your personal implementation plan
  • Your firmwide implementation plan
  • More ways to improve your project management skills.
Reserve your seat

Three days. Six live sessions. Real projects, worked through with peers.

Space is intentionally limited, so every session stays interactive. We bring a case study project similar to ones you work on every day, so you leave with a completed Project Management Plan outline and a 90-day action plan.