March 18, 2010 Seminar

Nate Thompson returned to campus to speak to the FPM students about his experiences when he worked at the Canyons in Park City, UT. The Canyons are Utah’s largest ski & snowboard Resort, 3700 acres of ski and snowboard terrain. Canyons consist of 5 hotels and 3 mountain lodges. Nate started working at the Silverado Lodges. He was responsible for training 4 employees and some other technicians. He also talked about warranty work and his experiences with warranty issues. He shared with students that it’s important to take time to analyze problems and not to jump to conclusions too quickly. Nate said that if you take some time to think about problems (which he called opportunities) the spirit will have time to work and give you suggestions or ideas to solve those opportunities. He left the students with 5 important life lessons which are the following:
1. Always put Heavenly Father first.
2. 6 Month rule (give everything you can in first 6 months with a company and good things will happen)
3. Communication is essential to success
4. Continue your education
5. Always remember who you represent (meaning the Savior, BYU, family, etc.)

March 11, 2010 Seminar

Today we had some of our own students in the Facilities Healthcare Engineering class share with the major the hospital designs they are doing for the class. We heard from and saw models from Dave Duffin, Grayson Adams, Tallon Sessions, Brand Hill, Robert Salmon, JD Sheppard, and Davey Guerrero(pictured above. The presentation shown is that of JD Sheppard). These students are preparing for the PDC ASHE conference in San Diego California. Those of us staying wish them well!

March 4, 2010 Seminar

It was great to have, former student, Nathan Christensen back to BYU for a seminar. He and Kristen Poulin shared about their experiences with the Integrated Defense Systems department of Raytheon. They briefly talked about their Sustainability and LEED initiatives. Nate also mentioned that proficiency in computer programs is invaluable. The more we as students know, the better and more valuable we will be in the work environment.

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.