The 6th Concept Symposium on Project Governance took place on September 25th-26th, 2014 at Losby Gods just outside Oslo, Norway. Again, by invitation, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and the Concept Research Program welcomed decision makers, researchers and professionals in government, academia, international organizations, and industry.

Download the Concept Symposium 2014 flyer 

Concept Symposium Programme 2014

The symposium is devoted to project governance, in other words on investments and their outcome and long term effects, rather than on projects and their implementation and management. The host for the symposium is the Norwegian Ministry of Finance. It is organized by the Concept Research Program, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. 

Three main themes were highlighted this year

• Firstly, how to expound the opportunities inherent in a foreseen investment case, given the setting, needs and priorities, technological choice, institutional restrictions, environmental conditions, etc. A prerequisite for the best choice of concept to be identified is that the opportunity space is explored thoroughly at an early stage, and kept open and unrestricted as long as possible.

• Secondly, the resulting decisions was an issue. Rational thought may often be overruled by political reasoning in a democratic society. This is not only acceptable, it is a fundamental feature of democracy. Nonetheless, we wish to ensure adequate advice in order to facilitate informed decision making in the public sector. Practices and lessons learned were discussed.

• Thirdly, the effects of public investments were highlighted, including how to appraise them ex ante and evaluate them ex post. Under the current Norwegian QA regime, major public projects will now be consecutively evaluated in order to draw lessons and improve front-end management of new investment projects.

Program Committee 2014:

• Christophe Bredillet, Professor, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

• Tom Christensen, Professor, University of Oslo, Norway

• Stephen Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, ICCPM, Australia

• Brian Hobbs, Professor, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada

• Mary McKinlay, Trustee and Director, International Project Management Association

• Jørn Rattsø, Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology 

• Jonas Söderlund, Professor, BI Norwegian Business School

• Gro Holst Volden, Concept Research Director, Norway

• Carl Christian Røstad, Concept Symposium Director, Norway

• Knut Samset, Professor and Director of the Concept Program, Norway

Feedback from 2012

"I would like to thank you very much, the Ministry of Finance, your team and yourself for the fantastic Concept Symposium last week: great presentations (the level is really good and the topics are extremely interesting), great place, great facilities and food, and even more importantly great people!"

"Thanks again for this great meeting, which I enjoyed a lot, and was very well organized!" 

"This was probably the best symposium of them all. Very good content and a pleasant atmosphere"

"This was an extremely interesting conference"