World Workplace Asia, July 25-27

Built environment professionals from around the world will meet in Singapore at the Raffles City Convention Centre July 25-27, 2012, for the International Facility Management Association’s second annual World Workplace Asia Conference & Expo.

World Workplace Asia 2012 – Singapore will offer attendees an international perspective on facility management and provide valuable resources to support them in meeting the demands of their facilities and organizations. Attendees will contribute to a dialogue on facility management trends in Asia while taking advantage of international networking opportunities and promoting greater awareness of facility management issues affecting today’s global economy.

The two-and-a-half-day event begins Wednesday, July 25, with a town hall discussion on the association’s strategic initiatives. The discussion will be led by Mike Moss, IFMA chief operating officer, who will be joined by Jon Seller, incoming first vice chair of the IFMA board of directors. The event will provide a forum for members to engage IFMA leadership on the association’s current and future direction. The town hall meeting will run concurrently with green site facility tours of some of Singapore’s most innovative properties.

Thursday, July 26, will mark the first full day of the conference, which will begin with a welcome address and panel discussion on Asia-Pacific facility management featuring representatives from IFMA and the Building Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore. BCA is an agency of the Singapore government that champions the development of an excellent built environment in Singapore. Other local government representatives and built environment experts will also take part in the discussion.

The World Workplace Asia 2012 – Singapore expo, featuring diverse facility-related products and services, will open the morning of July 26. Educational sessions will also be held throughout the day on topics including: building information modeling (BIM) and facility management; the future of corporate real estate; an overview of the office real estate market in the Asia-Pacific region; and the transition of companies in China from traditional property management to facility management business. Representatives from FM:Systems, Jones Lang LaSalle, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and others will present.

The final day of the conference, Friday, July 27, will open with the keynote presentation “Upside Down World: Leadership in the Emerging Markets” by speaker Steven Sonsino, author, business school professor, and founder and CEO of the Tomorrow Leaders Institute. Sonsino will explain how the global economy has shifted, putting China and the Asia-Pacific region front and center, and how the context of leadership in emerging markets is radically different from that of developed economies, making a new approach crucial.

Educational sessions on Friday will cover topics including: case studies on greening your workplace; high performance buildings and high performance facility management; how to make facility management partnerships work in the Asia-Pacific region; the six Ps of facility management: what every facility manager needs to know; and the strategic role of facility management in business performance. Representatives from Facility Engineering Associates, the National University of Singapore, Siemens, the University College of London, and others will present.

The World Workplace Asia 2012 – Singapore expo will remain open throughout the day Friday. The conference will conclude with a gala dinner that evening. IFMA will also offer a post-conference Certified Facility Manager® exam review course July 28-29.

“Successfully driving long-term sustainable value for employers and clients requires a strategic, holistic approach. If you are in the business of supporting the built environment, I invite you to learn, connect and advance at IFMA’s World Workplace Asia,” said Marc S. Liciardello, CFM, MBA, CM, vice president of corporate services at ARAMARK and incoming chair of the IFMA board of directors.

Presented in partnership with BCA and the Singapore Chapter of IFMA, World Workplace Asia 2012 – Singapore will welcome facility practitioners and solutions providers from all over the world, representing aspects of the work environment including: facility management, real estate, information technology, human resources, engineering, architecture, design, security, and other related industries.

Singapore is developing rapidly as a dynamic global city and international hub for facility management. It’s projected that by 2020, 2.2 billion people will live in Asian cities. Forward thinking infrastructure planning and facility management solutions are therefore critical to meeting the commercial, energy, and transportation needs the region’s growth requires.