I can’t believe it is that time of the year again where we are preparing to attend IFMA’s World Workplace! This year it is taking place October 7th-9th at The Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. With our growing customer base and having networked with facility professionals over the past several years, I really look forward to attending IFMA’s conferences and continuing to learn about the best practices and industry trends from the leading FM experts throughout the world. I also hope you are looking forward to attending the conference to learn how to effectively manage your facilities at IFMA’s World Workplace.

We have seven members of the FM:Systems team who will be attending the conference and have a busy few days planned while we are there. Our CEO and Founder, Michael Schley, and Director of Marketing, Brian Haines, have presentations and we are also eager to announce the launch of the FM Academic Registry.

Preparing for Post Occupancy BIM

Brian Haines, FM:Systems Director of Marketing, will be presenting, “Preparing for Post Occupancy BIM” on Wednesday, October 7 from 2:45PM-3:15PM in Solutions Arena 2. We hope you will be able to attend this presentation to hear what Brian has to say about the immense opportunity that exists for building owners to develop BIM guidelines, workflows, and methods of integrating models into a full BIM lifecycle.

BIM for Real Estate and FM

Our CEO and Founder, Michael Schley, will be presenting with Erik Jaspers, CTO at Planon, on “BIM for Real Estate & FM: Moving from Theory to Practice” on Thursday, October 8th from 3:00PM-4:00PM in session 3.12. This presentation will discuss some important aspects of FM practice, including writing the BIM deliverable standard, understanding legal and contractual issues, addressing staff skills, and developing a true mindset of building life cycle management.

Three FM Technology Trends

Michael Schley is also part of something new IFMA is doing this year, “’FRED’ Talks on Facility, Real Estate & Design– Inspired by TED Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading” from 1-2PM on Thursday, October 8th in Solutions Arena 3. Over the course of an hour, there will be 7, 7 minute short, yet powerful talks. Michael Schley will be presenting from 1:10-1:17PM on “Three Technology Trends that are Transforming Facility Management.” This presentation will discuss how Cloud Computing, Mobile Computing, and BIM are dramatically changing facility management and will give you tips on what you can do to be better prepared.

FM Academic Registry

There are thirty-one Facility Management Accredited Degree Programs (ADP) in the world and many more educational programs that teach some aspect of Facility Management. In order to help generate awareness about these programs, the IFMA Foundation has created the FM Academic Registry, an online registry of all known educational programs that teach Facility Management. The purpose of the registry is to increase awareness of IFMA and the IFMA Foundation as the source for all FM education information. FM:Systems is a proud sponsor of the FM Academic Registry and generously donated money to the IFMA Foundation to launch the site and provide support for the first year. We are also overseeing the project as the project manager attending committee meetings, providing content for the site, and helping to manage the site now and once it is live.

We are excited to announce we will be launching the registry at World Workplace and are looking forward to helping Facility Management programs from around the world generate awareness and seek prospective students.

Stop by and see us at booth 617!

We are eager to network with facility and real estate professionals from all around the world, connect with our customers and business partners, as well as learn about the latest and greatest in our industry. Over the past year we have added a lot of new and exciting capabilities into FM:Interact, our Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS), and we are really looking forward to showcasing these features and demonstrating how they can help organizations improve the management of their space in today’s dynamic facilities environments.

Expo hours are Wednesday 11:30AM-4:30PM and Thursday 10:30AM-3:00PM so make sure you stop by our booth, booth 617, to learn about our tools that can help you save time, increase productivity, and reduce occupancy costs throughout your organization. If you would like to schedule a time to come by for a one-on-one appointment please email me at ljackson@fmsystems.com and let us know, we would be happy to set aside some time to meet with you and answer any questions you may have.

I look forward to seeing you at IFMA’s World Workplace in just a few short weeks!