Conference Sessions

Music City Center makes it a priority to focus on environmental sustainability. Designed by Atlanta-based Thompson, Ventulett, and Stainback Associates and Nashville-based Tuck Hinton Architects and Moody-Nolan Architects, the 1.2 million square foot Music City Center was designed and constructed with sustainability in mind. Our facility is certified LEED Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council. Our high-performance building envelope is equipped with a 4-acre green roof, array of 845 solar panels and energy efficient technology.

The green roof is an impressive sustainable feature of the building. The Green Roof helps insulate the large Exhibit Halls beneath, helping to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool the building. It is made up of 14 different kinds of sedum plants and a waterproofing membrane. Sedum plants are drought and heat tolerant, which is necessary to withstand living on top of a building. These layers help reduce the urban heat island effect by lowering air temperatures and help improve storm water management by absorbing more water that would otherwise runoff into our local bodies of water, collecting pollutants along the way. In FY 2019, we collected over 3 million gallons of rainwater from our Green Roof, reducing our municipal water usage by 51%. Our bees also call the Green Roof home. We keep hives on the roof to support the bee population in Nashville and provide pollinators for the many green spaces downtown. The honey produced each year is used in our kitchen. Our partners from the Nashville Area Beekeepers Association help our Bee Team manage the hives year-round.

Energy efficiency and conservation are priorities at Music City Center. During the design and construction phase, optimized energy systems were attained using enhanced energy modeling. We have high performance HVAC systems and variable frequency drives to enhance motor, fan and pump performance. Building lighting systems are customizable and controlled by our state-of-the-art automated lighting program. Occupancy sensors and scheduling programs are utilized throughout the building to reduce overall energy consumption. Above the guitar shaped roof of the Grand Ballroom, an 845-panel solar array produces renewable energy for our building.

Blending a suburban campus in urban downtown Nashville, TN, the Gulch Hub cements Asurion’s new global offices in the Music City. This new tech campus for the tech care company serves as a physical connector between the Gulch, Capitol View and downtown Nashville neighborhoods with a 551,00-square-foot complex. Boasting an unheard-of 1.3 acres of outdoor and greenway space, these two interconnected buildings foster innovation and collaboration while celebrating the history of the community and railways that built the neighborhood. This campus encourages movement of its 2,000 employees throughout the building with opportunities for connection at every turn, including a shared podium and sky bridges on the fifth and seventh floors. The Gulch Hub not only focuses on creating a collaborative work environment for Asurion employees but also on enriching their quality of life. On-site offerings feature a wide variety of amenities, including a full-service fitness center, multi-station café, barista bar serving local roasts, interactive brand displays, live green wall, rooftop lounge and 80,000 square feet of exclusive outdoor green space.
Consolidating four offices into one campus at 1101 Church Street, this LEED “Gold” building translates Asurion’s core principles in its diverse design. Sited on the Gulch Greenway, a 12-foot-wide off-street multi-use trail connects the campus to the city’s extensive Greenway system. Asurion’s building creates opportunities to be even more bike and commuter-friendly with its monumental staircase conveying the 42’ elevation between Church Street and 11th Avenue.

Participants should be prepared to share valid identification (driver’s license, ID cards or passport information prior to the event.)
IFMA will email participants approximately 4 weeks prior to the facility tour requesting this information.
Please be prepared to show a valid identification (driver’s license, ID or passport) on-site and abide to current Covid protocols (may include temperature/other screening and masks…TBD)

Schneider Electric’s Nashville Hub is one of the world’s most automated, connected, healthy and energy efficient office buildings. Built in 2018 with the challenge of reducing the company’s local real estate footprint by half while also adding employees, the Nashville Hub has delivered on all its goals, including significant savings on all operational costs and energy consumption. Its LEED Gold certification is one proof point of the site’s efficiency and sustainability. 
The tour will highlight how the team created future-ready facility and workforce, while ensuring the confort, safety, and security of Schneider Electric employees and guests in the multi-tenant building. The tour will also include a tour of our Innovation Hub, Data Center Operations, Product Development/Cybersecurity Test Labs, Control Tower and more.
 

Participants should be prepared to share valid identification (driver’s license, ID cards or passport information prior to the event.)
IFMA will email participants approximately 4 weeks prior to the facility tour requesting this information.
Please be prepared to show a valid identification (driver’s license, ID or passport) on-site and abide to current Covid protocols (may include temperature/other screening and masks…TBD)

Vanderbilt’s method of generating power on campus has transformed throughout the years. Between 1888 and the mid-1920s, Vanderbilt relied on the Mechanical Engineering Hall’s boiler. Its steam provided heat and its generator produced electricity for all of campus. A new power plant was constructed between 1925 and 1927, this time operating off coal-fired boilers. Coal-fired boilers continued to be the campus’ main source for generating power until 1988 when the first natural gas boiler was introduced, converting Vanderbilt’s power plant to a dual-fueled cogeneration power plant. The cogeneration process was highly efficient, using backpressure and condensing turbines to ensure maximum performance. In 2000, Vanderbilt began to expand and diversify its power generation, installing natural gas turbines, electrical generators, heat recovery steam generators, and even a small amount of solar panels.
In 2013, the Vanderbilt Board of Trust approved a large capital investment to convert the cogeneration power plant from using coal and natural gas to using exclusively natural gas. Vanderbilt officially became coal free on November 19, 2014.
The current plant configuration consists of three Natural Gas Fired Gas turbines, three Heat Recovery Steam Generators, and two High Efficiency Natural Gas/Fuel Oil fired package Boilers.
Participants should be prepared to current Covid protocols (may include temperature/other screening and masks…TBD)

Over the years, building owners and facility managers have been on a quest to create intelligent buildings. Just as consumers have added more smart technologies and systems within their homes, building owners and facility managers have added intelligent systems, building apps, and more. From building automation systems and lighting to security and elevators, everything is on a network, and everything has sensors. Many of these smart systems were designed to enhance building operations and the experience for occupants. Unfortunately, hackers are increasingly focused on buildings as targets and are breaching building technologies, networks, and systems. Are the systems in your building secure? Is your chief information officer aware of how many systems are being utilized for building operations? How would you respond to a building outage caused by a ransom-demanding cyber attacker?

Presentation objectives:

• It is not whether you have an intelligent building or do not have an intelligent building. If you’ve installed any contemporary smart building systems from BAS and lighting to security and elevators, you have made your building more intelligent but also more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Does your facility’s operating plan include cyber governance, threat detection, vulnerability and penetration testing, and incident response planning?
• Why do hackers target building systems?
• Attendees leaving this discussion will understand best practices related to identifying and maintaining cyber-secure intelligent building systems as well as how to develop a comprehensive roadmap of actions necessary to mitigate cyber threats.

Review the methodology of the competency-based exam, practice applying critical thinking skills and discuss the rationales used in practice exam questions. You’ll review the overall methodology of the CFM Exam and practice applying FM knowledge and critical thinking skills in a competency-based exam through practice exam questions. Added value: Classroom courses allow you to ask essential questions and discuss real-world examples.

Information about CFM can be accessed at https://www.ifma.org/credentials/certified-facility-manager-cfm/

Review the methodology of the competency-based exam, practice applying critical thinking skills and discuss the rationales used in practice exam questions. You’ll review the overall methodology of the CFM Exam and practice applying FM knowledge and critical thinking skills in a competency-based exam through practice exam questions. Added value: Classroom courses allow you to ask essential questions and discuss real-world examples.

Information about CFM can be accessed at https://www.ifma.org/credentials/certified-facility-manager-cfm/

Facilities represent a large part of any organization's assets – whether small or large, incorporated or unincorporated, public or private, profit or not-4-profit, domestic or international. There are many significant costs, risks and opportunities associated with owning and leasing facilities. Facility Managers need to understand the principles and practices of real estate and how these contribute to achieving the core business strategies of the demand organization.
With this one-day, instructor-led course, you will review the interface between real estate decisions, facility management functions and the ability of the demand organization to achieve its goals. Facility managers will learn how to develop and implement a real estate strategy that includes methods to access, acquire, manage and dispose of physical assets.
Added value: Classroom courses allow you to ask essential questions and discuss real-world examples before completing your course with self-study.

As business leaders step up the corporate response to the sustainability agenda, facility managers are increasingly being asked to deliver support service that is broader and deeper than ever before. Sustainable development, as a concept, forces organizations to shift their focus from short term to long term. Facility management is a vital function, a service that supports the people who deliver the core business and is essential to the demand organization’s aspirations for corporate social responsibility.
With this one-day instructor-led review course, participants will be able to discuss the following concepts as they relate to sustainability and FM:

• Energy management
• Water management
• Materials and consumable management
• Waste management
• Workplace and site management

Learn the essential finance and business practices and how to integrate those into your function as an FM. Understand how to engage finance, legal, procurement, risk managers and others to maximize decisions for your organization.

Learn the essential finance and business practices and how to integrate those into your function as an FM. Understand how to engage finance, legal, procurement, risk managers and others to maximize decisions for your organization.

Learn how to assess and inspect facility needs. Manage, oversee and monitor O&M of buildings, systems and equipment. Understand the processes for developing occupant service specifications and more.

Learn how to assess and inspect facility needs. Manage, oversee and monitor O&M of buildings, systems and equipment. Understand the processes for developing occupant service specifications and more.

Effective strategies require facility managers to be able to integrate people, place and process. They must be able to align the facility portfolio and functionality with its organization’s missions and available resources.

Effective strategies require facility managers to be able to integrate people, place and process. They must be able to align the facility portfolio and functionality with its organization’s missions and available resources.

Plan, initiate and execute projects. Understand the entire project life cycle and how to monitor and control project performance. Learn about the facility managers role in projects and how to evaluate outcomes.

Plan, initiate and execute projects. Understand the entire project life cycle and how to monitor and control project performance. Learn about the facility managers role in projects and how to evaluate outcomes.