During the 87th EuroFM General Members Meeting, held online on 10 December 2020, a new Board was elected. The new Board Members are:
Levent Alatli – Turkish Facility Management Association
Tuuli Jylhä – Delft University of Technology
Natalie Hofman – FMN
Carmel Lindkvist – Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Pieter le Roux – Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences
This is a unique board transition where all of the current board members will be replaced by new board members. Therefore the EuroFM members were asked to extend their trust into the new team during the meeting (they did so unanimously) and they will discuss together during the following month their thoughts and ambitions personally and for EuroFM. Based on these discussions the new board will present a new board structure to the members before 1 February 2021, this is also the date the current board steps down. During an online voting the members will be asked for their approval on the new board positions.
Congratulations to this very skilled and divers team and good luck with your upcoming tasks!
The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” starts this fall a new Master’s Program “Facility Management” with a class of over 20 students. The Master’s Program is in Bulgarian language and FEBA is partnering with the Bulgarian Facility Management Association (www.bgfma.bg) as well as with EuroFM.
The official opening of the academic year will be held on October 26, 2020, with the participation of Mr Goran Milanov, President of EuroFM, and Mr Ivan Velkov, Chairman of BGFMA. Other representatives of FM companies will also attend the official start of the academic year.
The program director is Assoc. Prof. Atanas Georgiev, who is also the current Dean at FEBA. His team has provided a specialization in Facility Management in other master’s programs in the past and now is ready to offer a standalone master’s program. FEBA has also organized short-term facility & property management courses, as well as a Facility Management Summer School (in 2019) for local experts and master’s students.
The Bulgarian FM master’s program builds on the bachelor’s degree in all specialties from all professional fields. It is structured in such a way as to offer high quality training at the master’s level. Its design ensures the coverage of a wide range of topics and approaches from the practice of facility management.
The program starts with two introductory courses in facility management and property management, which cover the basic knowledge and skills in the field. Some of the key courses are dedicated to accounting in facility management, project management for the work environment, as well as digital innovations in facility and property management. Elective courses related to asset management, sustainable development and energy consumption in buildings are also offered.
In addition to exams as a traditional approach to assessing student progress, the educational process also includes solving practical problems, incl. within structured assignments. The program ends with the development of a master’s thesis on a topic, jointly defined and implemented in cooperation with interested representatives from the sectors of facility management and property management. In this respect, the master’s thesis could also serve as a tool to facilitate the transition to the labor market.
Graduates of the program can find professional realization as specialists and managers in companies offering facility management and property management solutions and services, as well as in other enterprises and institutions, where they are responsible for internal real estate management processes and facility management processes. Graduates can also be realized as experts, managers and consultants in the public administration and the non-governmental sector, as lecturers and researcher, etc.
Digitalization/Technology will change the future of Real Estate and Facility Management, as we are witnessing it during this pandemic. It is necessary to understand “how” digitization will influence our work, but first we must identify the “what”, to apply digital technologies in each case.
This link takes you to a survey on the technologies that will influence Real Estate and Facility Management the most in the coming years. In less than 4 minutes you will identify which ones to consider and to give your opinion as a user, service supplier or researcher of any level or sector.
This survey is part of an EU-funded project of four EuroFM member universities and institutes from Finland, Germany and Spain, called FMgoesDIGI. The project analyses the extension of digital technologies and their maturity on a global scale. The objective is to develop recommendations of what to include in Real Estate and Facility Management learning/academic programs in order to enable future professionals to cope with the challenges of the digital transformation in Real Estate and Facility Management and to strengthen European competitiveness in this field.
Together with other European Real Estate and Facilty Management associations, EuroFM is supporting the dissemination of the survey and we kindly ask you for your support by taking part in this survey.
Download the individual papers of the companion proceedings of the European Facility Management International Conference 2020 on this page.
The idea for this companion proceedings was kicked-off by the recognition of Prof. Mark Mobach and his team when they were awarded in November 2019 the ‘Delta Prize’, a leading practice-oriented research prize handed by Ingrid van Engelshoven, Minister of Education, Culture and Science, in their home country, The Netherlands.
This companion proceedings consists of 16 short papers divided into 4 themes: – Insight to Campus Design – Healthcare Facilities – A Patient View – Aspects on Healthy Working and Living – Facility Design in the Context of Society All papers are structured in the format of extended abstracts.
New papers will be posted daily until 1 October. On this date all papers will be presented during the 4th EuroFM Stay Connected Session. More information can be found here.
How our needs shape the future of the built environment
The Portuguese Facility Management Association will host its 14th Annual Conference in 2020.
We look at presentations as a way to spark innovation, foster dialogue and drive collaboration as we meet some of our greatest challenges.
This year, we have shifted to a totally online experience which will allow us for a more diverse and populated program, as room space is no longer an issue.
As we have been doing every year, we are proud to connect Portuguese speakers and specialists with a rich presence of colleagues from around the world, especially from other European countries and Brazil, which means that we allow for three languages on stage: Portuguese, Spanish and English.
On 25 June, the European Facility Management Network hosted the third and final session of its ‘Stay Connected’ series. After the Research Symposium and the Student Festival, this time it was the turn of the business community represented in the organization to hold their Online FM Summit. The series was introduced after the association had to postpone its renowned annual EFMIC Conference, scheduled for the beginning of June in Barcelona till the end of October. Altogether, the three online sessions (spread over four 2-hour Zoom meetings throughout the month of June) attracted 115 researchers, students, young professionals, practitioners, and ambassadors of EuroFM.
During the concluding EuroFM Online FM Business Summit, the organization celebrated its 30th anniversary and for this reason, current President Goran Milanov (Vidako, Bulgaria) and founding President Keith Alexander (UK) reflected on the rich history, challenges and opportunities for the FM profession and the role that its European umbrella has to play in connecting the three areas of expertise: Research, Education and Practice of FM.
“Organisations don’t want facilities, they want a productive workforce”
The online Business Summit also addressed current trends and developments in areas like technology, sustainability, and innovation. Opening keynote Yvette Watson, co-founder of PHI Factory, presented 5 innovations defining the future of FM. Andrew Mason, Chair of SAFMA and EuroFM Ambassador for South Africa, leaped into the future to present an ‘FM Futurespective’ of the workplace. “Organisations don’t want facilities, they want a productive workforce” as he explained the new mantra of FM.
In between keynotes, the network provided the platform to the three finalists of the Student Competition featuring in the previous week’s Student Festival. Whereas an independent jury of professors and teachers had selected the three finalists, now it was the turn of the participants to cast their vote after the finalists had introduced their video. Winners became Kristin Euchner, Randi Kleist, Diana Vidal, and Sakithya Shanmugaratnam from DHBW Stuttgart. All videos including those of the three finalists can be viewed on EuroFM’s YouTube Channel.
“Fun, inspiration, knowledge and networking” The team was congratulated by one of their competing finalists Robin Ganninger from the University of Applied Sciences in Münster, who added: “We were more than happy to be a part of this year`s European Facility Management Network student competition! I had the pleasure of participating in this competition for the second time and I really appreciate that EuroFM has once again organized a fun and inspirational event. It is always a great opportunity to share knowledge and get in contact with people all over the world.”
“A promising mix”
In between these plenary sessions, EuroFM ambassadors, including overall session moderator Levent Alatli (founder and former president of TRFMA and EuroFM ambassador for Turkey) hosted three concurrent breakout sessions each focusing on a different aspect of the FM future. Topics that were debated were ‘Sustainability and FM’, ‘Staying connected in the digital area’, and ‘Going back to the office after Covid19’.
EuroFM Business Chair Renske van der Heide (TOPdesk, Netherlands) looks back with satisfaction: “It was great fun being part of the organizing committee. Although the business community is sometimes underrepresented in the EuroFM community, this series has shown that there is great benefit in combining business expertise with scientific knowledge and the fresh ideas of students and young professionals. It’s a really inspiring and promising mix.”
Staying connected online Reviewing the whole series, EuroFM President Goran Milanov concludes: “The ‘Stay Connected’ series was a big success. When we first started discussions about the concept of these sessions during the early days of the lockdowns, we thought of replicating parts of the programme on the actual days of the conference. In hindsight I am glad that we split the programme into different sessions, enabling us to be more concise but still dig deeper into the areas of interest of our three core audiences, researchers, students, and business people. Also, the fact that we were able to learn about the different functionalities that online meeting technology has to offer like for instance the breakout sessions, voting, and fun elements such as a ‘pub quiz’, has provided us with a wealth of knowledge and experience for the future.”
“As a non-profit organization with limited resources, the virtual association has a lot to offer in terms of learning and knowledge sharing and we intend to explore this avenue further after the summer holidays. I thank the members of the Board and especially Tuuli Jylhä, Olga van Diermen and Renske van der Heide who coordinated the programme of the three sessions, as well as our new association management partners at Lejeune who helped us a great deal in making this possible.”
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After the Research Symposium (3&4 June) and the Student Festival (18 June), the 3rd section of EuroFM’s community – The Online FM Business Summit – had the honor to stage two eminent keynote speakers
During the session, the association celebrated its 30th anniversary with a discussion between current President Goran Milanov and one of the founding fathers, Keith Alexander. ‘Going Back to the Future’ is not only the theme of their debate but can also apply to the three finalists of the Student Competition who presented their videos.
Sustainable Innovation
The online Business Summit addressed current trends and developments in areas like technology, sustainability, and innovation. Yvette Watson is a co-founder of PHI Factory and helps organizations accelerate towards a circular economy and will present 5 innovations defining the future of FM.
Increasingly, companies are being asked to be more transparent and accountable when it comes to the environment, society, and the wellbeing of their employees. Most of the time the facility manager is asked to take a leading role in the transition towards a sustainable future. After all, it is their daily job to make buildings and the working environment more sustainable, use them more effectively, and reduce waste. In FM, we are actively looking for ways to consistently collect meaningful and reliable non-financial data to meet this challenge. Technical innovation and digital solutions will help us to accelerate.
‘Futurespective’
The other keynote speaker of this session was Andrew Mason, who leaped into the future to present an ‘FM Futurespective’ of the workplace. Andrew is the Chairman of the South African Facilities Management Association (SAFMA) and a member of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management. He is also the current South African Ambassador for Euro FM.
“We know change is coming, but how will FM take advantage of this? The COVID-19 pandemic is a disrupter that promises to bring with it a tectonic shift in our paradigms regarding Property, Workplace, FM, and much more. We are on the cusp of what will be a dramatic change which will require traditional strategies and values to change in the way we support our people, our companies, and our clients.
Change means risk but it also presents opportunities and we do not want to look back on this time in the future to see that we missed another chance to raise the profile of FM. Mr. Mason’s presentation will take a look back at our past where FM has not always done well adapting to change and where we have missed opportunities. We will also step into the future to take a retrospective view to visualise how we can take FM forward.”
On June 18th, the European Facility Management Network (EuroFM) organized its first edition of the Student Festival as part of the EuroFM ‘Stay Connected’ sessions. Instead of meeting the students in real life during our annual EFMIC conference (originally planned for Barcelona this year), we organized a virtual festival to celebrate our youngest FM professionals
The Student Festival is part of a series of three sessions and featured the 2020 EuroFM Student Competition. Eight bright students from universities of applied sciences in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Turkey presented a 3-minute video of their vision on the current FM field and market. Based on their internship, thesis, or a school project. Around 55 attendees witnessed the students pitch their videos in a clear and enthusiastic way. The variety of topics covered the workplace environment, the role of FM in educational surroundings, EuroFM Ambassadors, and how to connect them, FM and technology, outsourcing, and the challenges for FM on airports. Check them out on our new EuroFMYouTube channel!
The quality of the videos was high, and it made it difficult for the jury to decide on the 3 best presentations. The jury assessed the videos on their content, creativity and added value for FM and decided on the 3 following finalists:Robin Ganninger and his group from Münster University of Applied Sciences,Sakithya Shanmugaratnam and her group from DHBW Stuttgart and Esmeé Bechthold from Breda University of Applied Sciences. These 3 presentations will be part of our next ‘Stay Connected’ session on June 25th where we will ask the audience to vote for the winner of the 2020 EuroFM Student Competition.
The Student Festival started with a great presentation by Rodney Dass, a young FM professional at IFS Dublin, Ireland. He explained why the FM field should include young FM professionals into their business by stipulating their advantages as Generation Z. The program also included speed date sessions with EuroFM Ambassadors from Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, and Russia, as well as the FM Student Pub Quiz. Overall, it was an inspiring and fun event, where we indeed celebrated the input of our youngest members!
