IFMA – Cleaning in the U.S.A.
International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) Show, Dallas, TX
This was a new show for me. Not much different than the Building Owners and Managers (BOMA) Show, except that attendees were primarily building engineers, facilities managers, architects and interior designers. Approximately 6000 people attended the three-day show, which included 250 booths and some 60 seminars in 6 different subject matter tracks. IFMA has 17,000 members worldwide.
The overriding focus of this year’s event was sustainability, environmentally preferred purchasing and green buildings. I was surprised by the number of attendees in the seminars related to these subjects. From what I can see, it appears sustainability issues will play a major role in the way we plan, construct, maintain and utilize buildings in the future. Several of the seminars at the conference dealt with how to get a building certified as “green” under the auspices of the U.S. Green Building Council’s “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED) program. For more information on this subject visit: www.usgbc.org
Carpet Fiber from Corn
One of the most interesting finds that I came across at the IFMA show was a sample of carpet made out of corn. The carpet fiber is being produced by Cargill Dow and Ingeo Fibers and is know as PLA fiber. Crossley Carpets in Nova Scotia, Canada produced the sample I got. They say it’s not quite ready for commercial prime time use yet, but it gives you an idea where the research is headed. The fiber is known as a bio-based polymer product and is made 100% from corn, no petroleum products here. This would be the first man made sustainable carpet fiber to hit the market. For more info visit: www.ingeofibers.com
The Economy
The government, economists, Wall Street and bankers are all telling us that the economy is strong and growing again. Personally I don’t believe it. I just can’t see how the government’s artificial stimuli of tax cuts and interest rate reductions will bring about long term profits or a robust economy. Proof of this is the growing, staggering and record U.S. Government debt of over $400 billion and the continual loss of jobs and high unemployment.
I don’t like to sound negative, at the same time; I don’t see anything on the horizon that in my mind will bring about true growth and prosperity for the U.S economy. The only good news that I can see is that the current administration will do everything it can to hold off a recession until after the next presidential election. After that, my prediction is that we will see unprecedented tough times for another two or three years and then a stable economy with slight growth for the next 10 to 15 years.
Carpet Cleaners Win Big at Connections 2003 Show in Las Vegas
Six regional carpet cleaning associations cooperated to sponsor the Connections 2003 Trade Show and Educational Exposition in Las Vegas, NV during the first week of September. It was refreshing and encouraging seeing 1700 plus attendees show up for all or part of the three-day event. It has been a long time since anyone has seen large rooms filled with attendees eagerly waiting to hear speaker presentations. It just goes to show you that when a good program is properly promoted people will attend.
Connections 2004 is planned for Las Vegas, NV in early October of next year. Hopefully having the event every year won’t be too much of a good thing. If Connections 2005 is planned, I would encourage the organizers to work with the ISSA/INTERCLEAN group, which will hold it’s October 2005 show in Las Vegas. Combining these shows, at least occasionally, would go a long way towards breaking down barriers and making these shows truly industry wide events.
Conflict of Interest, Convenience, Self-Serving or a Good Idea?
The IICRC held it’s semi-annual board and certification council meetings and it’s bi-annual Instructors Symposium in Las Vegas at the same time as the Connections 2003 event. This created a few problems as a number of the instructors who are required to attend the symposium, were actually down the hall attending or conducting seminars instead of in the class where they were supposed to be, while others stayed for the entire two-day event.
On one hand it seems like a good idea to save on travel and increase attendance by holding the events within a few days of each other. On the other hand it seems somewhat self-serving for IICRC board members and committee chairs to have IICRC registrants end up paying their air fare and hotel costs when they are also attending, speaking at and selling their wares as part of the Connections event.
IICRC Board Meeting, Certification Council and Instructors Symposium
These events were well attended (well at least most of them) and quite a bit got done even though there were other distractions.
It was interesting to note that the certification council meeting got a bit out of hand when a group of instructors put a motion on the floor to form an Executive Committee of the Council to advise the Board and IICRC management on issues of concern and importance to the instructors and registrants. After several motions, amendments and lunch, a watered down motion was passed to form a 5-member instructors group to offer input to the board.
Personally I think the board and management are both out of touch with registrants and instructors and anything that can be done to open up lines of communications between these groups is a positive step in the right direction. What I don’t understand is why IICRC management and the Board of Directors are so resistant to receiving input and making changes that will improve services to registrants and resolve instructor concerns and issues. What ever happened to the noble idea of customer input and continuous improvement?
The IICRC did approve the release and publication of the S520 Mold Standard, which has been in the works for several years. S520 is one of the most comprehensive and logical papers ever published related to the issue of mold remediation in residential and commercial buildings. It will fill a void that has existed since mold became a hot topic for home and building owners, insurance companies and restoration professionals. For information contact: www.iicrc.org
INTERCLEAN/ISSA 2003
The ISSA recently held it’s annual convention and trade show in Chicago, IL. Although I didn’t get any official numbers regarding how many people were there, the crowds look much lighter, the booths were small and it appeared to be a scaled down version of previous shows. My guesstimate would be in the 10,000 to 12,000 range vs 16,000 last year. In an effort to bring more attendees to the show, the ISSA opened up two days of this year’s three-day event to end-users (what are now referred to as ISP and FSP).
On a bright note, I found the show well worth attending and the number of new items and innovations that I found on the show floor impressed me. As Keith Marcoe, President of NISSCO, a multi-billion dollar JanSan Group with 250 Distributor members commented, “the annual Show presents a great venue for networking, relationship building with supplier principles, and an early opportunity to see new products. Of course, the ISSA isn’t just about the show and continues to provide value to the distributor community year round and is a good resource for a broad array of information, education and tools that can help the JanSan distributor. At NISSCO we regularly take advantage of these resources to improve our business.” In 2004 the Interclean/ISSA is scheduled for New Orleans, LA in November and in 2005 in October in Las Vegas, NV.
The ISSA is now proposing to open its membership to end users such as in-house cleaning operations managers and building service contractors. Like opening the show to end-users a few years ago, this is a controversial issue and may take a lot of convincing to get distributor members to agree to the concept. At the same time, if the ISSA doesn’t do something quickly, there may come a day when there is no ISSA/INTERCLEAN show or ISSA. If it weren’t for end users at this year’s show, there would have been several thousand less buyers walking the aisles.
From what I can see, distributors are stuck in a rut and out of touch with their customers and the market place. It’s my opinion and prediction that if they don’t reinvent themselves over the next 3 to 5 years to be in-line with customer needs and today’s competitors, distributors as we know them will go the way of the corner grocery store and the blacksmith shop. For information on next year’s show, contact: www.issa.com
CMI EXPO’s
Hat’s off to Cleaning Management Institute, Proctor & Gamble, ProTeam, Kiavac and others for sponsoring the CMI Custodial Training Institutes in seven cities during 2003. Even more important is the fact that plans are already underway to expand the program in 2004 to eight cities.
This is the first major effort in over 25 years to bring non-commercial technical education to the doorsteps of end users throughout the country. Course offerings include IICRC certification in hard floor care, carpet cleaning, and water damage. The expo’s also include roughly 20 other non certification seminars regarding subjects of interest to business owners and technicians as well as cleaning workers, supervisors and managers of in-house custodial and housekeeping departments.
If you haven’t attended one of the expo’s so far this year, don’t pass up the opportunity to participate in Atlanta, GA on November 6 to 8, Dallas, TX November 13 to 16, and Seattle, WA December 3 to 6. To register or for more information visit: www.cmexpo.com
