The Intelligent Change Forum (ICF) is one of the parts of Pelicam that we’re most proud of.

What started out as a good excuse to meet up with colleagues and contacts steadily grew and developed.
We’ve now been running our quarterly ICF meetings for more than 10 years and 2022 saw us bring it back into the real world after a forced period of digitisation during the pandemic.

Good project management always includes a retrospective, so we’re going to write some articles this year in an “ICF Rewind” series - looking back at the talks and takeaways from various sessions in years gone by.
How much of the thinking from 2013 will be relevant in 2023? We look forward to finding out.

The IPF origin story

Picture the scene; it’s 2012, Game of Thrones has just premiered, London is gearing up for the Olympics and HMV is still very much a valued highstreet stalwart. More importantly, in 2012, the UK was coming out of the biggest recession in recent memory, there was a huge amount of uncertainty and discontent within sectors that had for many decades been the backbone of our economy; finance, insurance, utilities and retail. Yes the recession was subsiding, but the need for change within almost every business was achingly clear.

At Pelicam we found ourselves fortuitously positioned; ready to help our clients undertake huge transformation projects successfully. We had access-all-area passes to some of the most ambitious, expensive, challenging change projects that were ongoing across the country. The Intelligent Projects Forum was forged in that atmosphere; clients who had enjoyed years and years of steady growth suddenly having to rethink and recreate themselves. We wanted to create a space to bring these people together to share their challenges, their ideas, their successes and failures with peers from across different industries.

Or, depending on who you speak to, we wanted to legitimise our appetite for good food and good wine. Both stories are valid.

A mirror to the world

Looking back on more than 10 years’ worth of sessions is fascinating. The topics and discussions reflect what was happening in the wider world at that time. In the early days there was much interest in moving to “agile” - a methodology that the more nimble organisations swore by and that the bigger companies were suddenly interested in. There was a big shift towards cultural considerations mid-decade; at the same time that #MeToo became part of the public consciousness, organisations were reflecting on their own culture, diversity and approach. Things became quite meta towards the end of the decade, as the change industry became self aware and perhaps even self conscious. And of course the inevitable pandemic inspired discussions on how to effectively lead your team remotely, or how to overcome the resource challenge.

IPF sessions have always been collaboratively created. We listen to what our network are interested in and talking about, combine it with something that we’ve been working on or thinking about, and then marry it up with a speaker who has something interesting to say on that topic. It’s thanks to that co-sourcing that the sessions have effortlessly reflected what’s hot at any given moment.

The recipe for success

While the topics we’ve covered in the last 10 years have varied widely, the spirit and format of the sessions has stayed true to our original intentions. We’ve refined and tweaked the formula over the years, and will continue to do so moving forward, but think our recipe is one that always delivers insightful, stimulating and interesting discussion. There are equal measures of expertise, insight and experience, mixed with a healthy amount of debate, discussion and anecdotes. Above all there’s a great level of mutual respect, as well as the trust that nothing that’s shared in the sessions leaves the room. We think that’s what makes IPF a successful initiative and we very much hope it continues to grow and develop for another decade to come.

We already have four fantastic sessions pencilled in for 2023. If you’ve not yet been to one of our sessions, or if you haven’t been for a little while do get in touch and we would love to see you there soon. IPF’s are usually booked up a couple of sessions ahead (one of the downsides of keeping it intimate) - but we’re always keen to bring new people into the loop. Equally, if there’s a topic you would like to discuss, or listen to other people discuss, let us know and we can work it into the schedule for 2023. Keep an eye out for our upcoming “IPF Rewind” articles throughout the year, we think they’ll prove interesting reading.