News

2010 BIFM Conference is a success

26-04-10 14:48 BIFM

Over 250 people gathered at London's Riverbank Plaza hotel on 13-14 April for presentations, debates and discussions on "FM in a Changing World" - the theme of BIFM's Annual Conference, back in London after several years away from the capital.

Will Hutton, vice chair of the Work Foundation, set the scene giving the Hugh Channon Memorial Lecture. Hutton presented a pretty chilling assessment of the UK's economic position, describing the growth of banks as unsustainable and most lending as unproductive. "Britain is the private debt capital of the world," he said.

He explained how the world had been changed over the centuries by so-called general purpose technologies (GPTs) such as the three-masted sailing ship, printing and the steam engine. The 20th century has seen nine GPTs, including the internal combustion engine; electricity; the airplane; the computer and biotechnology. Hutton suggested there will be more to come this century, including developments in nanotechnology, energy, advanced materials and virtual reality.

He argued that Britain needs to build an "innovation ecosystem" to exploit these advances and positioned FM as part of the knowledge economy. In response to a question from the floor about climate change, Hutton said that it was human nature to keep growing, so solutions which constrained growth were unlikely to succeed. New GPTs will solve these issues in the long term but we have to manage the problem in the interim.

BIFM has signed up to the populist 10:10 campaign to cut carbon emissions, so it was only right that the campaigners were given a platform at the conference. Eugenie Harvey and Duncan Clark said FMs could really make a difference and encouraged them to sign up.

The popular conference fringe featured a session in the "new" Pecha Kucha debating style (pronounced "pe-chak-cha", 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide) on intelligent clients, moderated by David Millar, chair of the BIFM's International SIG.

Some of the arguments might have been a little tongue in cheek, including Nick O'Donnell's suggestion of a Ryanair-style approach to FM, but the pace and style of the session seemed to bring out the essential arguments. The motion, "there is no place for the intelligent client in the post-recession world" was eventually defeated 33 to 3!

Oona King, head of diversity at Channel 4, made a passionate case for looking at all aspects of diversity, not just race - gender, nationality, age, physical & mental ability, culture, religion. As she pointed out, at some time we will all be on the receiving end of discrimination for one reason or another.

Delegates had a tough job choosing from the wide ranging parallel programme, including sessions on the development of FM (a comparison with the career re-invention of Madonna); sustainable FM; financial control; government strategy in Eastern Europe; reducing energy consumption; social factors and their impact on FM.

Back on the main stage, Philip Ross of the Cordless Group, gave a typically persuasive performance as he took the audience through the innovations in technology that will probably affect us all eventually.

These innovations include the rise of software as a service; faster wireless connectivity with much greater capacity and ubiquitous display of your presence across systems.

"There is the potential for FMs to grab the 'connected building' before IT does," he argued. FMs could be enablers and buildings will have to offer guest connectivity to all the clients, suppliers and colleagues now using our workspaces.

The conference wound up with an inspirational presentation by Sir Chris Bonington. The acclaimed climber gave an enthralling account of the 1985 Norwegian Everest Expedition which finally saw him reach the summit of the world's highest peak.

Blending humour with drama, he drew parallels with the world of work and business, providing lessons on team selection, leadership and motivation.

The BIFM Annual Conference was sponsored by the Commercial Moving Group of the British Association of Removers; Resource Central; Baxter Storey and Miller & Young.