The International Facility Management Association (IFMA) in conjunction with CBRE Group, Inc. has produced a white paper identifying key trends and opportunities within the facility management (FM) industry. The full report, titled "Facility Management Trend Report: Emerging Opportunities for Industry Leaders," gives a data-supplemented account of a two-day workshop held at IFMA’s 2013 World Workplace Conference and Expo, Oct. 2-4, 2013 in Philadelphia.

The workshop included more than 20 facility management practitioners, real estate leaders, service partners, academics, consultants and members of IFMA who explored facility management trends in leadership, sustainability and technology.

“As facility management professionals come together to create and define their discipline, a clear, unified picture of the industry is emerging,” said IFMA president and CEO Tony Keane. “Recently, FM has grown in prominence as the opportunity to identify shared solutions to shared problems has elevated the profession. Organizations like IFMA and CBRE support the network that is crafting the developing standardization. This timely white paper provides invaluable insight into FM opportunities that will shape the industry for decades to come.”

FM professionals utilize multiple disciplines to ensure functionality of the built environment by integrating people, place and process. Around the world, the industry continues to advance to new levels of importance as the built environment grows more sophisticated.

The white paper offers insight into trends and opportunities across three subject matters:

Leading the Conversation: Showcasing FM relevancy and impact in areas such as business continuity, corporate social responsibility initiatives and employee wellbeing.
Speaking the Right Language: Relaying FM opportunities and challenges in ways that resonate with the C-suite.
Building the Future of FM: Identifying talent, building integrated systems that connect data from disparate resources and cultivating agility to meet continuously changing business and culture.

The full report can be purchased online at http://www.ifma.org/marketplace/store; The cost is US $120 for IFMA members and $180 for non-members. The executive summary is available via http://www.ifma.org/know-base/fm-knowledge-base; free for IFMA members and $0.99 for non-members.