IgniteFM!

Wait, you say there are degrees in FM?

Yes, indeed! There are colleges and universities around the world offering two- and four-year and graduate degrees in facility management, and these programs are growing. For about 25 years, the IFMA Foundation has been promoting and supporting college education in FM. The foundation created the Accredited Degree Program to ensure that these programs educate students in the broad range of knowledge that the facility manager of tomorrow will need. The foundation’s scholarship program assists FM students financially and helps introduce students to the IFMA family including future colleagues, mentors and employers. The IFMA Foundation’s Global Workforce Initiative, GWI, is expanding FM education to community colleges and high schools.

Inspired by hackathons

The inspiration for IgniteFM! came from hackathon events that have become popular in computer programming. At hackathons, competing teams of programmers work together to create a fully functioning application in a very short amount of time.

The inaugural IgniteFM! competition was held at World Workplace 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. In our FM version, the competition organizers added an additional challenge: Students were assigned to teams with students from other schools whom they had never met. Their first task was to get to know each other and determine how they were going to work together.

The competition organizers wrote a problem statement that entailed a hypothetical company dealing with preparation, response and follow-up to a major hurricane. Although Charlotte was spared during the 2018 hurricane season, this is a real-life situation all too often in the southeast United States during the August-October peak hurricane season.

Student teams were given three hours to solve the problem. By the end of the three-hour period, teams had to submit their presentations to the organizers in Microsoft PowerPoint files. (For students attending World Workplace and other IFMA events, there is tremendous value in the educational and social events, and the organizers did not want student teams being tempted to work all night perfecting their presentations.)

Student teams presented their solutions to the judging panel the next day. Each team had 10 minutes to explain their solution to the problem in a way that was clear, concise and interesting. Teams were judged on critical thinking, the quality of their verbal and visual presentations, and on their knowledge of IFMA’s 11 core competencies. Although it wasn’t a requirement, each team organized their presentations so that every team member delivered part of their respective presentations.

And the winner is…

At the Charlotte competition, the winning group was the Blue Team, comprised of students from Hanze University in the Netherlands, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M University and Temple University in Philadelphia. The international representation was indicative of the diversity of the competing students. The Blue Team received a US$2,000 prize, which was presented on the main stage at the closing luncheon of World Workplace. This high-profile recognition was an effective way of connecting IFMA membership with today’s bright FM students.

The future of IgniteFM!

The inaugural IgniteFM! event was a tremendous success. Subsequent competitions were held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at World Workplace Europe and Facility Fusion in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Plans are underway for a competition at World Workplace 2019 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

Although the basic structure of the IgniteFM! competition is set, the competition organizers will continue to experiment with different types of problems and different formats to keep the event fresh and interesting.

So far this year, IgniteFM! succeeded in capturing the imagination of both students and working professionals. It raised the awareness of FM education among IFMA members, and provided a way for FM students to create valuable connections and friendships with their peers at other universities. Finally, and most importantly, it introduced today’s FM community to the facility managers of tomorrow.