Globalization is the basis for development of the FM industry.
This was the main conclusion made during the 11th International Conference „Facility Management – Implementation in Bulgaria“, that was held on the 20th and 21st of October in Sofia, Bulgaria organized by the Bulgarian Facilities magazine, with the support of the Bulgarian Facility management association.
The main themes of this year’s conference were Digitalization, Technical FM solutions and Globalization.
Keynote speaker of the conference was Mr. Elvin Guri, entrepreneur and investor, participated in many projects with a focus in finance, education and social entrepreneurship. He spoke about the investment climate in the facility management services market. Mr. Guri is the CEO of Empower Capital, which together with another investment fund – KJK Capital, invests in the consolidation of the two of the biggest companies in the facility management industry – Viki Comfort 2004 and Facility Optimum Bulgaria.
Mr. Guri said that the industry must unite to enable higher quality to serve our customers, to lobby, to develop its standards. This is of great importance for the FM industry in the context of globalization.
The conference began with a discussion about the development of facility management in the South East European region. Participants in this discussion were prof. Ron van der Weerd, past chairman of the European FM association, George Daniolos from the Hellenic Facility Management Association, Goran Milanov, chairman of the Bulgarian FM Association, prof. Kunibert Lennerts from Karlsruhe Technical University, Elvin Guri and Anton Guintchev from Ten Brinke Asset Management.
Mrs. Denitza Ilieva, executive director of BGFMA, presented the main mission of the association – to represent, protect and promote the professional facility management in Bulgaria. Ms Ilieva told about the achievements the association is proud of – registering the position Facility Manager in the National Classification of Occupation in Bulgaria, as well as its participation in various European projects, the most successful of them is Wi-Fi Academy for Facility Management.
Three Bulgarian companies – CenterMine, FTS Bulgaria and Contro presented their software solutions for the FM market. Kiril Iliev and Emil Atanasov from Geo Facilities presented their point of view about the high tech building components with their benefits and risks.
The second day of the conference offered interesting presentations and discussions on Technical FM solutions and Globalization.
Norbert Bierbaum-Hillejan, a former executive director of Allianz Services in Germany, presented his way of dealing with costs and greater administration, showing the participants how in just a few years he had managed to reorganize the company and make it profitable.
Gergina Stefanova from the German company Getec AG presented the German experience in the energy and how property owners can profit by establishing an energy company between them and energy contractor in Germany.
The presentation of the largest holding facility management services in Bulgaria – Mundus Services, of the 11th annual conference FM was through the prism of the leading theme – globalization. Significant attention was paid to the newly established Alliance – 21st FM, who is created by several companies, including Mundus Services, and companies from Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece and Bulgaria.
The conference was closed by Prof. Ron van der Weerd, who said that according to him, the facility management business in Bulgaria can now be assigned to the emerged FM markets in Europe. In his opinion, Sofia is ready to meet European FM conference in 2018, when Bulgaria will be presiding over the European Union.
On the website of the Conference you can find all the presentations of the speakers: 11th International FM Conference
Links to the photo gallery of the Conference: 11th FM Conference, Day 1 and 11th FM Conference, Day 2