Review of the BIFM 10th Anniversary Conference 25-27 March 2003
Review of the BIFM 10th Anniversary Conference 25-27 March 2003
The theme of this year's British Institute of Facilities Management conference was "A new strategy – to develop and apply best practice". It attracted a large number of practitioners, consultants and researchers in the field and gave them an opportunity to reflect in the tranquil surroundings of Cambridge University. Rather than feeling like a fevered networking event, this year's conference really did have the feel of reflection. Being ten years on from the formation of the BIFM, the profession is no longer a fledgling profession. Nor is it a venue for the hungry exploration of new markets, which characterised many of the facilities management conferences of the 1990s. Facilities managers were clearly appreciating the opportunity to step out of their fire fighting roles: even to the extent that mobile phones were not surgically attached to people's ears during the coffee breaks.
The event itself was started by Peter Cordy, Chairman of BIFM Research,Information and Knowledge Committee for the BIFM. He outlined the intention of the BIFM to:
develop networks to share information, knowledge and benchmark performance;
demonstrate "leading edge" performance;
learn from others;
develop partnerships across the public and private sectors, with government and other agencies; and
develop strategic alliances with selected "key" players.
The guest speaker for Day One was William Woolard, a well-known BBC presenter for Tomorrow's World and Top Gear. His slightly anxious start in which he apologised for the absence of audio visuals (owing to his late invitation to replace Adam Hart-Davis) was soon overcome as he began to engage the audience in the history of the skyscraper. For some of the audience the subject matter may have been fairly familiar, but the speaker's enthusiasm for the subject was disarming. Indeed, his voice inevitably evoked all those memories of the space-race era which he and Raymond Baxter are so inextricably linked to, for those of us brought up on British television.
During the day Ian Harris, CEO of the BIFM, announced the publication of Re-thinking FM, which was formulated as the counterpart to the well known publication Rethinking Construction. He also explained the design and participants in the Re-thinking FM research project which involved 500 questionnaires that were sent to FMs and employers. The purpose of this questionnaire study was to identify the FM contribution today and in five years' time. In turn, this would allow a gap analysis and identification of the necessary action points. At the end of the presentation an audience member questioned why "Re-thinking FM"should have used as its counterpart, the UK construction industry. Ian Harris justified this approach suggesting that there were significant commonalities between the two industries.
The conference also coincided with the launch of the new "Academic membership" grade which will enable many individuals in the UK research and educational sector to become involved in the BIFM.
All in all the conference was a buoyant and thoughtful one: my only suggestion for improvement would be that the workshops are more carefully structured. Running a workshop is a difficult undertaking and needs careful briefing.
Edward Finch Editor
