Facility management professionals from around the world will meet in Phoenix, AZ, to analyze the trends and new products impacting today’s built environment during the International Facility Management Association’s World Workplace 2011 Conference & Expo, October 26 to 28 at the Phoenix Convention Center. The event brings workplace professionals from the world’s top business and government organizations together with educators and exhibitors to focus on the future of the work environment. Now in its 32nd year, the conference will feature more than 60 educational sessions and new product demonstrations by manufacturers from across the globe.
IFMA Board of Directors Chair Kathy Roper, CFM, CFMJ, LEED AP, IFMA Fellow says, “Professionals from all built environment specialties will convene at World Workplace, and this year’s event in Phoenix will be even larger—offering targeted educational sessions, social events, and chances to share information and grow personally and professionally.”
Delivering the conference’s opening keynote address on Wednesday, October 26, will be Bjørn Lomborg, a noted business and environmental academic and author who currently serves as an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School. Lomborg has been named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine, one of the world’s 75 most influential people of the 21st Century by Esquire, and one of the 50 people who could save the planet by the UK Guardian. He has recently appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman,” CNN’s “In the Arena,” and in USA Today and The Washington Post.
Lomborg will lecture on his new book and DVD “Cool It – The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming,” in which he argues that many of the actions now being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, are based on emotion and may have little impact on the world’s temperature. He instead argues for confronting more immediate concerns such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and a clean water supply, which can be addressed at a fraction of the cost and save millions of lives within our lifetime.
Noted motivational speaker, entrepreneur and philanthropist Christopher Gardner will deliver the conference’s closing keynote presentation on Friday, October 28, with his speech “Start Where You Are,” an uplifting message in which attendees learn how to transform themselves through adversity and make positive changes in their lives. Gardner’s own life story was published in his autobiography “The Pursuit of Happyness,” which became a motion picture starring Will Smith in 2006.
World Workplace will also offer attendees a glimpse into the future of the workplace, as they get the first look at the new products and services debuting in 2012. The conference’s expo floor will feature more than 280 exhibitors—including companies such as AlliedBarton, IBM, KBR, Kimball Office, Lowe’s, Staples, Steelcase, Toshiba, and UGL—as well as governmental agencies including the U.S. State Department and General Services Administration. A number of local Phoenix-area exhibitors will also be on hand.
Another annual highlight of the World Workplace expo will be the newly named Sustainability Central, an exclusive section of the expo floor reserved for companies offering environmentally friendly products and services. More than 80 exhibitors will be featured in Sustainability Central this year, including companies such as ARAMARK, AT&T, CORT, Fluor, Johnson Controls, and Mars Drinks.
Complementing the expo will be World Workplace 2011 educational sessions. Organized into 11 topic areas, these sessions offer facility professionals the continuing education courses they need to keep their professional certifications current and meet the challenges posed by today’s workplace. Session topics include energy savings and management, financing organizational sustainability, telecommuting and flexible work programs, social media use in business, the federal government’s approach to sustainability, a guide to effective outsourcing, ways to maximize space utilization, and much more. Representatives from Booz Allen Hamilton, Brigham Young University, Fluor, the Georgia Institute of Technology, GSA, HOK, IBM, IKEA and Los Angeles County, among others, will present. World Workplace educational sessions will be held Thursday and Friday, October 27 to 28.
Conference attendees can add to their Phoenix experience by attending any of five different facility tours throughout the city. Among the facilities open for touring will be the Arizona Science Center, Chase Field, Historic City Hall, and U.S. Airways Center. Facility tours will be held before the conference begins, on Tuesday, October 25. Early registration for World Workplace 2011 is available through August 5.
