Wow! How do you really describe New Orleans to someone who has never been there? Where do you even begin? Will mere words really do it justice?

It looks like no other place I know of in the whole United States. The French Quarter (also known as Vieux Carré: lit. ”Old Squares”) or just the Quarter, is block after block after block of townhouses, restaurants, patios, museums, and art galleries, with a bizarre mixture of people constantly on the move all hours of the day and night, all in the very center of this beautiful, culturally rich old city!

Restaurants and bars really had no closing hours that I could discern, the food was spicy, and the music pulsated from every street corner. New Orleans is a vibrant, living, culturally diverse city, with a very distinctive history. Not only that, but the locals talk funny, yet there’s no discernible southern accent. It certainly was a unique experience!

If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend this year’s IFMA World Workplace, then you truly missed out on an incredible week filled with various opportunities for learning, networking, and professional development.

If the development and quality of the built environment is your professional concern, then World Workplace really is the place for you! Facility management professionals, consultants, designers, engineers, students, educators, and suppliers of every kind are invited to the largest global gathering of facility professionals, and to enter the ongoing discussion on the tremendous challenges and incredible opportunities currently facing the work place in which we all live, work, and in the case of World Workplace… PLAY! ;-)

Leaders, educators and representatives from the world’s top businesses and government organizations shared their experiences and insights into the challenges and problems we all face every day, helping all that were in attendance to achieve the tactical and strategic goals of their companies and personal careers. All the educational programming and career-enhancing activities of the conference were focused on topics relevant to not only facility management, but FM related fields such as HR, government, designers, developers, engineers, property and building managers, IT professionals, real estate, and the list goes on and on!

World Workplace is all about broadening your perspective of the total facility profession. It’s all about sharing experiences and best practices with a supportive community of professionals. It’s all about taking ownership of the facilities you manage and adding value to your position. World Workplace is all about you, and it is brought to you by the leading authority on facility management: IFMA

You absolutely MUST make plans to attend next year’s conference at the Dallas Convention Center, October 15-17, 2008. It will be THE YOUNIVERSAL FACILITY MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE!

Hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
David Wagner, CFM, CFMJ
Indy Chapter President