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Programme & Project Planning Blueprint · Four layers

Turn event chaos into a clear programme and project structure.

The Major Event Program & Project Planning Blueprint helps organising committees turn thousands of disconnected tasks into one planning system that leadership can understand and teams can actually use.

Choose the level of support that fits your organisation.

Learn the Blueprint

Books, templates and practical workbooks your team can apply internally.

 Run the planning workshop

Build the programme structure with your leadership team in one working day.

 Build the framework together

I facilitate the complete programme and project planning process for your event.
See the four layers → Choose your level of support
The problem

Every major event becomes too complex to manage, unless the work has the right structure.

A major event is never just a list of tasks. It is a temporary organisation: hundreds of people, dozens of functional areas, thousands of activities, tens of thousands of decisions.

The challenge is not writing more tasks. The challenge is making sure every task belongs somewhere.

The Blueprint was created to solve exactly that problem.

Projects overlap Ownership becomes unclear Work disappears between departments Leadership loses visibility Meetings become status updates instead of decisions
The blueprint

A major event isn't managed through tasks. It's managed through structure.

The Blueprint breaks every major event into four connected levels.

Programmethe streams that deliver the strategy · owned at leadership level
Projectsconcrete work with a purpose, an owner and a deadline
Task groups / sub-projectswork packages grouped so nothing hides
Taskswhat gets done this week, by whom

Every task has a home.

Every project has a purpose.

Every programme has an owner.

Leadership can finally see the whole picture instead of thousands of individual actions. This four-layer system is the core of the method. It moves organising committees from scattered work to a structured planning framework.

Not generic project management

Built for major events, not for software licences.

Project management software is excellent at tracking work. It rarely tells you how to structure a major event. This Blueprint was created specifically for organising committees, and it answers the questions the tools leave open.

Instead of creating another task list, you create a planning system.

From complexity to clarity

One change makes reporting, governance, budgeting and decisions easier.

Before

Thousands of disconnected tasks. Several planning styles. Spreadsheets that only their author understands. No shared view of what is missing.

Clear programmes
Logical projects
Manageable work packages
Tasks with ownership

Every piece of work has a defined place in the planning structure. That is what makes the difference, not more software.

A planning language

More than a framework.

One of the biggest challenges in major events isn't that people work differently. It's that they describe work differently.

One department calls something a project.
Another calls it a workstream.
Someone else creates another spreadsheet.
Three teams plan the same thing with different assumptions.

The Blueprint gives the whole organisation one common planning language. Conversations get shorter. Responsibilities get clearer. Decisions get easier.

Ways to use it

Three ways to use the Blueprint.

The same method, three levels of support. Start where your team and your timeline are.

Level 1

Learn the Blueprint

Build the planning framework yourselves.

For organising committees that want to own the method internally. Your team learns the structure and applies it to the event, at your own pace.

What's included

  • The Major Event Program & Project Planning Blueprint
  • Workbooks
  • Practical examples from real events
  • Planning templates
  • Programme structure examples
  • Project planning exercises

This route suits you when

  • Your team has the time and the facilitation skills
  • You want a shared method before starting
  • You prefer to build the structure internally
  • You want something usable the same week
Explore the books →
Level 2

Programme & project planning workshop

This is where most organising committees should begin.

In one working day we build the backbone of your planning structure. Not the finished event plan, but a structure the organisation can build on for the next several years.

Together we will

  • Identify the main programmes
  • Define the major projects
  • Review ownership
  • Identify missing areas
  • Create the planning logic
  • Build the first version your team continues developing

Best for

  • Newly formed organising committees
  • Teams with plans but no shared structure
  • Events where departments plan in isolation
  • Leadership that has lost visibility of the whole
You also receive the workbooks, templates and practical tools needed to continue internally after the day.
Book the workshop →
Level 3

Build the planning framework together

A structure designed around your event.

Every event is different: the programmes, the venues, the governance, the stakeholders, the rights holder, the scale. That is why the final programme structure should never be sold off the shelf. I facilitate the planning process with your leadership team.

Together we build

  • The programme structure
  • Project hierarchy
  • Ownership model
  • Planning logic

Through to

  • Work packages
  • Programme map
  • Implementation approach
  • Handover to your team
The Blueprint stays the same. The final framework is built around your event.
Let's build it together →
Why this works

The Blueprint wasn't developed in a classroom. It grew from the same point every major event reaches.

The work becomes too big for individual spreadsheets. Too complex for disconnected task lists. Too important to leave to different planning styles.

The solution isn't more software

Tools track work; they don't decide what a programme is, what belongs in a project, or who owns which level. Those are structural decisions, and they come first.

Once the structure is right

Every planning tool becomes easier to use: Notion, Excel, a PMO system or the Bonacube App. The structure travels; the software is replaceable.

Tested against 40,000 tasks at championship level. It will hold 400 just as well.

Case · In use right now

Winter World Masters Games 2028: from a blank page to 363 projects with owners.

The Blueprint set the planning structure for the WWMG 2028 organising committee. Strategy first, then programmes, then projects. Built once in a master sheet, then run day to day in Notion.

5strategic goals
25critical success factors
46programmes
363projects

Every programme links upward to a critical success factor. Every project links to a programme and to one or more success factors. Milestones cut across the five areas (sports, participant experience and services, production, administration and leadership, sales and marketing) so the binding deadlines stay visible to everyone at once.

Structure: set once

  • Programmes and projects added, removed or renamed
  • Short descriptions and sub-projects
  • Strategy links to goals and success factors
  • Master budget split by programme

Operations: run daily

  • Status: not started → in progress → done
  • Owner and doer named on every project
  • Start and end dates, milestone tracking
  • MoSCoW priority, source and phase
  • Notes, decisions, contracts and meeting links

Views by area, programme, phase, owner, priority or sport, or simply "critical musts" and "in progress now". One structure, read the way each person needs to read it.

masters2028.com →
Who it's for

If you are responsible for turning strategy into organised work, this was built for you.

Organising committees Secretaries General CEOs Event directors PMOs Programme managers Functional area leaders Host cities International federations National federations
Start where your organisation is today

Give the work a structure before the work grows.

The earlier the programme structure exists, the less rework the organisation carries for the rest of the project.

Learn the method

Books, workbooks and templates your team can apply internally.

Explore resources
Build it with your team

One-day programme and project planning workshop, built around your event.

Book a workshop
Build it together

A complete planning framework designed around your event.

Start a conversation
Programme · Projects · Task groups · Tasks: one structure, from strategy to the work that delivers it.