What is the Executive Summit?

APRIL 17 – 18, 2024 | ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA

An intensive 24-hour session that engages the industry’s leading thinkers in explorative discussions on:

How technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) reshape decision-making processes and operational efficiency.
Understanding the strategic impacts of these technologies within the facility management landscape.
Inspired by world-leading subject matter experts who challenge industry groupthink and spark new conversations.

The Summit’s goals are to:

Share insights, opportunities and challenges concerning cybersecurity and the FM industry.
Provide recommendations as to how facility managers should prepare.
Provide input as to what IFMA can do to help foster industry-wide transformation.

Figure 1: Executive Summit Format

A Co-Creative Approach

The core activity of the Executive Summit is the intensive Knowledge Café, an innovative knowledge creation methodology designed by the World Café Foundation, built on the assumption:

People already have within them the wisdom and creativity to confront even the most difficult challenges;
That the answers we need are available to us;
That we are wiser together than we are alone.1

Knowledge Café methodology:

Individual café tables, each with a specific theme (Figure 2)
Small groups carousel in 5-10 minute intervals around each table
As each group transitions, the table content gets richer
Conducted using tablecloth and marker pens to make notes, post-it notes and a flip-chart easel
The final table destination for each group will be the theme they present

Figure 2: Knowledge Café themes

1 The World Café Foundation, A Quick Reference Guide for Hosting World Café, 2015, available at: www.theworldcafe.com

International Facility Management Association (IFMA) supports over 24,000 members in 136 countries. Since 1980, IFMA has worked to advance the FM profession through education, events, credentialing, research, networking and knowledge-sharing.