Speaking & Media
Keynotes, workshops and media appearances on project management, economics, data science and sustainability.
Invite me to speak
Who you are booking
I am co-author of How to Measure Anything in Project Management (Wiley, 2025). At Aarhus University I research how to choose the right projects and make the best use of public resources, including how to measure and value nature. I have advised clients in more than 25 countries.
Bios, photos and talk details in the press kit →- English and Danish
- Keynote, workshop, panel, podcast
- Keynotes 30 to 60 minutes plus Q&A, workshops up to a full day
- Travels internationally
- Virtual sessions possible
- Fees discussed on enquiry
Talk Topics
I tailor each presentation to the audience and format. Below are some of my most requested topics.
Why Projects Fail, and How to Fix Them
Projects differ widely in how they perform against their estimates. Some kinds finish close to plan on average, while others overrun by wide margins. The talk looks at why estimates miss, from the planning fallacy, the habit of planning from the best case, to the way a competitive approval process can favour projects whose costs were underestimated. It then sets out what the record of thousands of completed projects and a survey of more than 200 project managers show about which methods improve estimates and outcomes. Statistical forecasting from project data, experts trained to give well-calibrated ranges and thorough planning before the investment decision come out ahead. Risk matrices, which score each risk on a coarse grid of likelihood and impact, and unaided expert judgement come out behind.
Enquire about this talk →How to Measure Anything in Project Management
The talk presents key themes from the book, which defines measurement as a reduction of uncertainty based on observation. It explains why many of the measurement techniques used in projects fail to reduce uncertainty and how to measure what matters to the decision instead.
Enquire about this talk →AI for Project Oversight
The talk describes Hong Kong's Project Supervision System, in which machine-learning models trained on completed projects predict cost overruns across hundreds of capital projects. Drawing on work with the UK Planning Inspectorate, it also shows how large language models, the AI systems that read and write text, can speed up public consultations.
Enquire about this talk →Net-Zero Projects & the Cost of Carbon
The talk asks how to keep capital discipline, meaning rigour in preparing, appraising and selecting projects before money is committed, while energy systems are decarbonised. It draws on a study I co-authored of how clean-energy projects have performed against their budgets. It also covers carbon pricing and the integrated assessment models that combine economic and climate models to value emissions, together with the choices of discount rate and equity weights that drive their results. The discount rate sets how much future costs and benefits count today. Equity weights give more weight to losses borne by poorer people.
Enquire about this talk →Tipping Points & Tail Risk for Long-Lived Assets
Buildings and infrastructure are planned to serve for 50 to 120 years. Over that span, operating costs, financing, insurance and the climate often put more of their value at risk than the construction budget does. The talk explains why appraisal based on expected values, which weight each outcome by its probability, understates rare and severe losses. It sets out what climate tipping points in the North Atlantic, thresholds beyond which part of the climate system shifts abruptly and may not recover, would mean for assets in Denmark and north-west Europe. It ends with how an actuarial approach, which sets a risk tolerance first and tests backwards from the scenarios an organisation cannot bear, fits into a client's business case.
Enquire about this talk →Biodiversity & Ecosystem Valuation
The talk covers how to value environmental impacts and bring biodiversity into cost-benefit analysis, which compares a project's costs and benefits in money terms. The methods include contingent valuation, which asks people what they would pay for an environmental change, choice experiments, which infer values from the choices people make between options that differ in environmental quality and cost, and natural capital accounting, which records natural assets alongside the national accounts. The talk also draws on my current research, which uses house prices to estimate what people pay for the ecological quality of nearby nature.
Enquire about this talk →Upcoming Events
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Oct 2026
Projektforum 2026
Talk: "How to Measure Anything in Project Management". New research and practical tools for measuring what matters in projects, including benefits, risks and harder-to-quantify factors such as societal value, social welfare, biodiversity and innovation. Dansk Projektledelse / Dansk IT. Nyborg, Denmark.
View programme -
Oct 2026
Megaprojekter og store bygge- og anlægsprojekter – læring og erfaringer
Talk: "How to Measure Anything in Project Management". Conference for the Danish construction sector on lessons from megaprojects. Bygherreforeningen (Danish Association of Construction Clients). Dansk Arkitektur Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.
More info -
Nov 2026
The Oxford Megaproject Summit 2026
I speak alongside Douglas Hubbard and Vip Vyas at this invitation-only summit for senior leaders of major capital programmes. The sessions review the evidence on megaproject performance and the methods shown to improve it, followed by a joint workshop. St Hugh's College, Oxford, United Kingdom.
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Dec 2026
CIB W55 Webinar on the Economics of Sustainable Construction
Working title: "The Economics of Sustainable Construction: Rethinking Business Models and Value Creation". The webinar opens a planned series on construction economics for a sustainable and resilient built environment, organised by CIB W55, the Construction Industry Economics commission of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction. Henrik Lindved Bang, Director of Bygherreforeningen (Danish Association of Construction Clients), presents findings from the green paper on economic sustainability in construction that the association is preparing with support from Realdania. I am contributing two chapters to the green paper and give a 20-minute talk on the role of risk methodology in investment decisions, followed by a panel with audience questions. Online.
More info
Selected Past Events
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Sep
Concept Symposium
"Measuring What Matters"
Drawing on How to Measure Anything in Project Management, I argued for treating measurement as a reduction in uncertainty and for judging project management methods by the evidence on outcomes. I also showed why measurement pays most where the value of information, the expected gain from knowing a quantity better before deciding, is highest. The talk included an example from my current research on the price of biodiversity. The symposium was hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and organised by the Concept Research Programme at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Oslo, Norway. See the findings →
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Aug
Danish Environmental Economics Conference
"The Price of Biodiversity: Hedonic Evidence from Danish Housing Markets"
In the biodiversity session organised by the Danish Economic Councils (De Økonomiske Råd), I presented my current research on what Danish homebuyers pay for the ecological quality of nearby nature, drawing on around 850,000 sales, with a second analysis that follows the same homes through repeated sales. Kurhotel Skodsborg, Denmark. See the findings →
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Jun
Folkemødet
"Megaprojekter i Danmark – hvor gode er vi egentlig?" (megaprojects in Denmark: how good are we really?)
I presented an analysis of how Danish megaprojects perform compared with those in other EU countries and joined the panel debate with directors from By & Havn, Metroselskabet and Region Sjælland. The session was hosted by Implement Consulting Group at Denmark's annual democracy festival. Allinge, Denmark. View programme
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Jun
Ledelseskonferencen
"Evidensbaseret ledelse: Sådan måler du det, der betyder noget" (evidence-based management: how to measure what matters)
Public-sector leadership conference. Odense, Denmark. View programme
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Apr
Fremtidens samarbejde i store bygge- og anlægsprojekter
"Hvorfor går store projekter galt?" (why do large projects fail?)
Seminar on large construction and civil engineering projects, co-hosted by Plesner and COWI. Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Mar
Den bæredygtige businesscase og perspektiver på finansiering og risiko
"Datadrevet afsæt for risikoanalyse og usikkerhed ved projekter" (a data-driven basis for project risk and uncertainty)
Bygherreforeningen (Danish Association of Construction Clients) workshop on financing and risk. Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Nov
Project Controls Expo
"How to Measure Anything in Project Management"
London, United Kingdom.
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Nov
Meet the Authors
"How to Measure Anything in Project Management"
Major Projects Association. Watch recording
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Sep
Megaproject Conference
"Økonomien i de store projekter – hvad ved vi?" (the economics of large projects: what do we know?)
Bygherreforeningen (Danish Association of Construction Clients). Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Sep
GCIEP AI Learning Session
"AI for project controls"
Panel on AI in sustainable cities and infrastructure. Green Cities, Infrastructure and Energy Programme (UK FCDO). Online.
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Aug
Danish Environmental Economics Conference
"Maintaining capital discipline in the rush to net-zero energy systems"
Copenhagen, Denmark. See the findings →
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Jun
AACE International Conference
"Why Cost Overruns Persist: Rethinking Project Forecasting Through a Holistic Lens"
Cost engineering and project controls.
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Nov
Project Controls Expo
"How to Measure Anything in Project Management: An Early Look at a New Book"
London, United Kingdom.
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Nov
Machine Learning Week Europe
"Guarding Public Works Projects with an Early Warning System for the Hong Kong Development Bureau"
Munich, Germany. See the findings →
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Nov
Ledelseskonferencen
"Oxford Global Projects om mestring af projekter: Nå i mål til tiden og indenfor budgettet?" (on delivering projects on time and on budget)
Public-sector leadership conference, 500 attendees. Odense, Denmark.
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Oct
PyData
"Accelerating Public Consultations with Large Language Models: A Case Study from the UK Planning Inspectorate"
Berlin, Germany.
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Sep
British Academy of Management Conference
"Project performance under public and private ownership"
Brighton, United Kingdom.
Featured In
Project Flux
Media & Press
TV appearances, newspaper features and podcast interviews.
go wrong.
Forsvindende få store projekter bliver en succes
Profile: why large projects fail and how data-driven methods can improve outcomes · Apr 2026
Read article →No improvement.
Professionaliseret projektstyring har ikke gjort os bedre
Interview on why decades of professionalisation in project management show no measurable improvement in project outcomes · Apr 2026
Read article →
Ekspert spår enorme prisstigniger på stadion
Analysis of cost overruns across 88 stadium projects · Dec 2024
Watch segment →
Forsker har analyseret 88 stadionprojekter
Feature on my analysis of cost overruns in 88 stadium projects · Nov 2024
Read article →Invite me to speak
I speak at conferences, workshops, corporate events, panels and podcasts. Tell me about your event and I will get back to you, usually within a few days.