The complexity in the compliance requirements for buildings is increasing and becoming more challenging to keep up with. Yet the monitoring of compliance by those that create regulations is sadly lacking and some building constructors and operators continue to expose their users by cutting corners. This session explores how the facilities manager can mitigate against such practices - to what extent should they understand all the regulations, how much should they depend on their professional advisors and are Australian and International Standards the solution?

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Throughout their whole life cycle, buildings generate waste. In the construction phase packaging from building materials and equipment flows to landfill in copious quantities. During the operational phase, users in the building generate large quantities of recyclable and landfill waste and at demolition, the majority of the building is treated as waste. This session explores ways in which the industry can adapt its practices to reduce waste, particularly during the operational phase.

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As the facilities management profession is maturing in Australia, there is an increasing imperative to ensure that the profession is sustainable in the long term. The average age of FM professionals is still at the upper end of the scale, so there is a challenge in attracting younger and emerging generations. This session will consider some of the issues around how to create entry paths for young people, how to retain a younger workforce that seems to be exceptionally mobile and the role that education has to play in creating a more sustainable profession.

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With recent incidents impacting on public spaces, we are at risk of over-reacting by turning our cities and buildings into unsightly fortresses. If this happens, the terrorists and the one-off malicious individuals have the upper hand.But we are also exposed to security from within, with theft still a significant issue. So how do we avoid this? Is it possible to establish a level of security that protects our safety and security without excessively intruding into our daily lives? Is there a balance between overt and covert security that workers and society at large find acceptable.

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A discussion with the chair of the judges, Martin Leitch, on the genesis of this brand new awards scheme, the thinking behind them and their place in the future of the industry. Hosted by FM magazine managing editor Madeleine Swain.

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Australia, in recent times, has reportedly one of the highest rates - amongst major economies - of adoption of ‘co-working’ and agile-based practices in the work environment. This is easy to understand given the successful entrepreneurial origins of the Co-working phenomena and as institutions seek to reproduce the conditions that will improve profitability, encourage innovation amongst their workforce, engender collaborative work practices and tap into the creativity of their people. There are fantastic examples of exciting workplace designs and offerings, leading-edge thinking on space usage and materials, flexible working practices and innovative uses of technology, sound and colour to be seen and experienced across the built environment that demonstrate the surge towards changes in future work experience. There is now a groundswell of opinion and thinking that is addressing the human factors that are seen as critical to the success or otherwise of these amazing workplace initiatives. This session seeks to examine this groundswell in detail and will ask a panel of leading experts in agile practices, co-working, workplace design, human innovation and creativity to discuss the growing emphasis on, and impacts from, the human side of things upon future work and future workplaces, what these will look like and corresponding requirements to succeed.

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The transformation of our buildings sector has been long and varied. The green building agenda has had profound impact, which more recently has been augmented with a health and wellbeing agenda, activity-based working and agile workplace design and operation. And now, it is set to embark on its next transformation – thanks to the internet of things, data analytics, advanced manufacturing and the like. So the question emerges - is the property sector ready to become a platform for digital disruption?

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In the era of digital transformation facilities face a continual challenge, how to intelligently evolve, adopting technologies today that will enable their facility for tomorrow. And when you operate a UNESCO World Heritage-listed building, accommodating 8.2 million visitors per year while upgrading an end-of-life 20+ year old building controls system, the journey of intelligent evolution becomes more involved. Attend this session to journey inside the iconic Sydney Opera House for insight into a modernisation program that involved co-innovation, collaboration and future-forward technologies.

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For the environment, building owners and building occupiers, improved building energy efficiency presents a win-win-win solution. The many benefits of energy reduction include: reducing stress on the electricity network; supporting a least-cost pathway to decarbonisation; delivering cost savings; and improving building user comfort. This session will discuss how efficiencies in energy consumption can achieve these benefits in new and renovated buildings against the background of the anticipated improvements to the National Construction Code due to be incorporated in the 2019 Code update.

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The regularity of cyber attacks on organisations is on the increase, and it seems that as soon as existing security controls are made more secure, the hackers develop counter-measures to gain systems access. In the meantime, the attention of hackers is shifting from corporate networks to building management and control systems, since they are becoming more structured around new technologies and the Internet of Things. This makes critical building systems vulnerable to the same risks as corporate systems, with the potential for buildings to be totally shut down. This session examines the types of businesses most at risk, the key risk areas, and how these risks can be minimised.

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Whether due to the failure of external services or internal infrastructure, power outages happen. And when they do, the consequences can be significant, particularly for high-risk facilities such as hospitals and airports. This session explores how power outages in these types of buildings are managed and therefore what we lessons we can learn from them to minimise the impact of a sudden cessation of power supply in other building types.

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This session will present a brief overview of the new international facilities management standard, followed by a discussion that will focus on its potential role in the Australian industry. The discussion will address questions such as: will the industry will embrace it or ignore it; will organisation make the effort to apply for accreditation; how will the accreditation process be structured; what lessons can we learn from other similar standards such as ISO55000? Ultimately is this likely to be the industry game changer that some consider it to be.

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With recent high profile building fires, protecting building users against fire is at the forefront of our minds. The manner in which the building is designed, the materials used and how they are put together represent the first line of defence against a devastating fire. However, this is only part of the response to protecting user safety - ensuring that all the building safety features (such as fire escape routes) are properly maintained and ensuring that all building users know what to do in an emergency are essential components of fire safety. This session examines various processes that the facilities manager can implement to reduce the risk of fire and increase user safety.

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With the enormous amount of energy and other resources that are required to construct and demolish buildings, is there not more of an opportunity for existing buildings to be repurposed for new uses? Clearly maximising the financial return on land values and improving building performance are two factors that drive most new build projects, but where are the opportunities in terms of locations and organisational and building types to make more use of old buildings and what are the architectural design challenges in repurposing 'unwanted' building stock?

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After more than ten years, with many start-ups, corporate and government office teams adopting various iterations of flexible, agile and/or activity based working accommodation solutions, there are diverse opinions about the success of these models and whether these are entrenched trends or rather just the latest fads in offices. Are these models of agile working providing the collaboration, productivity and innovation benefits as promised? In amongst the enthusiastic comments there are detractors convinced that although these models may work for some sectors and company sizes, it does not work for all.

So what in next in the realm of office accommodation, particularly as we move into the world of the internet-of-things, machine learning and artificial intelligence? Even at a community level there will be new transportation systems, driverless cars, new community norms that will all impact our social and business networks. At the physical office accommodation level, new business models, enabling technologies and changing expectations of talent pools, will likely impact our current approaches to working agile and corporate accommodation portfolios.

This session seeks to explore what may be happening in the commercial accommodation sector in 5 plus years’ time. Will there be a ground-swell against agile working, unassigned workplaces and shared open environments? Will many of the current agile workspaces, made up of a random selection of design elements, many faux and contrived, be scoffed at with a flight back to quality and authenticity? Most important, what is projected to be the best way to attract and retain talent, to engage and empower our corporate teams in 2025.

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Juggling HVAC efficiency with occupant comfort is a challenge in many buildings. Using control systems to improve HVAC performance can provide immediate benefits in terms of energy use and costs. However FM’s can be reluctant to meddle with controls due to the risk of increases in occupant complaints.

This panel discusses the opportunities, evidence, potential savings and pros/cons of low cost options to improve HVAC efficiency. It is possible to reduce HVAC energy consumption without adversely compromising the comfort of building occupants. Come and hear from industry experts and those who have done it talk through and find out how.

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Innovation has become a much popular term in service delivery tenders, with demand and supply sides guilty of not fully appreciating what the term means and not giving it the attention that it demands. As a result, responses to requirements for innovation tend to be very mediocre at best. This discussion will include topics such as: what the term 'innovation' really means; if there is a process approach to innovation, what is it; how can we measure innovation; and how can we rise to the challenge of giving innovation is rightful place in an industry demanding true ‘innovation’.

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Wellness in the workplace has become a very complex but important topic, particularly as the separation between work and personal time is becoming less defined. Worker wellness is heavily influenced by the physical and human characteristics of the workplace and by factors related to individual’s personal circumstances. This session will explore the relationship between worker and corporate values with specific reference to: how much influence an individual’s values have on their choice of workplace; how much individuals are willing to compromise their values in deference to corporate values and objectives. It will explore the impact of compromises on values and expectations on the wellness of the worker and at what level this becomes counter-productive. It will also attempt to identify factors outside the control of the workplace that impacts on worker wellness at work.

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With the start of the phase-out of synthetic refrigerants on 1 January this year, this session examines some of the issues around selecting and implementing natural alternatives. The discussion will consider topics such as government policy; alternative natural refrigerant options; examining the cost and energy viability of alternatives; and compliance monitoring. In summary, Australia is the latest country to follow the lead of Europe in making this transition, so what lessons can be learned from the European approach and the resulting solutions?

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