I have known several successful project managers during my time in the AV industry. They are leaders who are attentive, organized, and onsite. I have also known some project managers who consistently have challenging projects because they only stayed behind their desks on their computers. They made the calls, cut the purchase orders, scheduled the labor, then sat back and expected their projects to go well.
(Spoiler alert: The projects did not go well.)
Let me give you a small example. Say a project manager sends a set of drawings to an electrician and tells the electrician, “We need a 2-inch conduit to go from Point A to Point B.” Now say the electrician has 1-inch conduit on the truck and says to himself, “Well, I will use two 1-inch conduits and check that off.” This means that when the time comes to install your dedicated AV cable it won’t fit through the pipe. That means the job is delayed and the client is less than happy. A simple walk-through to verify that the infrastructure is correct according to the drawings and before the walls are closed would have prohibited this nightmare.
To me, a successful project manager will be on the project site at every critical milestone and maintain constant communication with the internal and external project team so no detail is missed and your project is completed according to schedule.