Speakers' corner

Air your views through the ‘Speakers’ Corner’ pages of fmME Breakfast Club, serving the facilities management industry. This month FM professionals give their feedback on the formation of the Middle East Facilities Management Association

Louisa Theobald, group exhibitions director, FM Expo

The formation of MEFMA heralds the coming of age for facilities management in the region. It is gratifying to finally see the importance now being placed on FM as an essential part of building lifecycle, and MEFMA will be crucial in strategically managing future FM growth.

The Middle East has its own unique issues when it comes to FM, and while global associations are intrinsic to keeping up-to-date with the latest trends, technologies, legislation and regulation, MEFMA will provide a regional entity which will, hopefully, set benchmarks and best practices as well as providing education, networking opportunities and generally bring the industry together with one common goal. That Rera is backing the association is key in leveraging high level decision making and ensures that FM is at the centre of this process.

The FM Expo combined with the Property and Facilities Management Conference is the single largest forum for the industry in the region. We hope to work closely with MEFMA to continue to provide an essential marketing platform for the industry and bring the new association into the spotlight through the event’s reach. Essentially, FM Expo 2010 will be the living embodiment of what MEFMA is striving to achieve.

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Peter Crogan, CEO, BCS Strata Management Services

The formation of MEFMA will encourage collaboration between facilities management professionals to ensure that quality training, industry best practices and timely industry updates are accessible to all MEFMA members.

We expect MEFMA to formalise and standardise many of the meetings, seminars and workshops that FM professionals are already attending, and provide an appropriate platform for industry participant training, the publication of professional advice on behalf of FMs as a whole, and encourage industry best practices.

Quality FMs and owner association managers are key to ensuring end-users receive the best possible services available. The formation of MEFMA can only further improve the quality of FMs throughout the Middle East and, like Rera and Dubai Government, we at BCS LLC warmly welcome the formation of this association and look forward to its industry participation in the future.

Andrew McTiernan, co-host, Property Sunday, Dubai Eye Radio

The Middle East Facilities Management Association is an important professional representative body of a multi-disciplined industry which has assumed an ascendant role in the region. The rising influence of FM companies on service levels, post handover expertise and asset sustainability is immense - extending from public transport infrastructure and civil aviation, to residential communities as well as commercial and hospitality clusters. In much the same way as Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has set standards, best practice and created an affiliation of professionally qualified companies and resources within the construction and building sectors, there is a requirement for an equivalent role in the local FM industry.

From a personal perspective industry communication, the definition of formal best practice and its integration with regulation based on a platform of expert FM firms, should all be channelled through MEFMA along with the academic links that determine the next generation of FM practitioners. As massive urban plans evolve into permanent humanised structures which require upkeep and preservation, it is MEFMA’s remit to ensure that as an industry this happens to best effect.