February 25, 2010 Seminar

Sodexo - great outsourcing company that offers hard, soft, & food services to their clients - brought to campus 5 representatives. Howard Simmons, Chris Thomas, Trevor Fox, Ross Storey (pictured), and Spencer Goodrich came to our seminar and informed the students about Sodexo. They spoke about their corporate services & education services and how facilities plays a role therein. Spencer & Ross are two BYU FPM graduates within the last 5 years and they briefly shared their perspective as two recent hires and shared with students what to expect if hired by Sodexo. Sodexo shared with the student’s two videos to give the students an idea of what Sodexo is all about. The students learned that Sodexo is a global outsource company that does food services as well as facility services. The students were excited about their visit and enjoyed the seminar.

February 11, 2010 Seminar

Paul Ellis (left) & Casey Goodwin (right), from CBRE spoke at today’s seminar. They shared with the students how to show the client or owner that facilities bring value to the business. They also shared the importance or need to be technical but also communicate in the business language to upper management understand. They stressed the point that facilities managers must be expert in public relations.

Another of the topics dealt with maintaining proper preventative maintenance on critical equipment. This was great to reinforce the importance to the students because this is something the students are learning in their classes and it was good that professionals also do these things.

They gave the students great advise for when we get out into the industry regarding energy. They said to look into energy consumption technologies to help reduce costs and to find problem areas with the building. Also, that motion sensors, vending machine sensors, and extinguishing common area lights are great ways to save energy. Students were encouraged to seek for government, or other rebates or grants as part of the energy management program.

January 28, 2010 Seminar

K.C. Bills, from Amsource, spoke at seminar and gave the students a good look at the process from a builder/developers point of view. K.C. is a graduate from the program and wanted to help the students see what life could be like working for a developer. The facility management process is a little different for a developer than for an owner or renter. He went into detail with how the program requirements relate to the development industry. The students enjoyed the seminar and thought his comments were very important.

January 21, 2010 Seminar

Bryan Gillespie came to seminar this week and briefly spoke on the advantages of an International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) membership. He is the current Utah IFMA chapter president and talked about how to help the students become more involved. As a result, a good discussion resulted which may allow for a combined meeting between the Utah chapter of IFMA and the BYU student chapter. After that discussion, Bryan, talked about the things he wish he would have focused on while he was in the program. A few of his points were technical writing, interior design, and building systems. It was a great overall seminar and the students are looking forward to the possibility of meeting with the Utah chapter of IFMA later this year.

January 14, 2010 Seminar

Dr. Campbell, along with Beverly Harmon, came to seminar to help the students understand the importance of internships. They shared not only the importance of internships but also how to go about doing the entire process. Sister Harmon showed the students her website and how to use it for resumes, internships, etc. Halfway through the seminar, the students were split up into groups according to the students desired internship experience and were able to ask questions to the students who already have completed internships to those experiences. It proved to be a very successful experience for all students who attended.