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Held on the eve of the World Workplace 2008 Conference & Expo, Fall Symposium is a collection of nine competency courses that will help built environment professionals expand their knowledge in critical areas of facility management.

New to the Fall Symposium lineup this year will be "Making the FM Case for Sustainability" and the "Emergency Preparedness Workshop." They will join other competency courses fundamental to Certified Facility Manager and Facility Management Professional credential candidates, including sessions on real estate; finance; operations and maintenance; planning and project management; and leadership and management.

Fall Symposium will also offer CFM candidates a two-day review course, Oct. 13-14, and FMP candidates a four-day introduction to the business of facility management -- the first course in the FMP curriculum -- Oct. 11-14. All courses offer Continuing Education Units to apply toward professional designations beyond those offered by IFMA.

IFMA's new "Making the FM Case for Sustainability" course is designed to assist facility professionals in the planning and implementation of their sustainability programs. Participants will learn how to develop strategies for leading sustainable change; incorporate sustainability goals into the procurement of FM products and services; and identify appropriate metrics for measuring results. Kit Tuveson, CFM, IFMA Fellow and president of Tuveson & Associates in Calif., a facility management consultancy company, will lead the presentation.

"Facility managers who are facing the prospect of establishing a sustainability program are looking to find the tools and exercises needed to create a plan of action to confidently achieve their objectives," said Tuveson. "This new course is designed to complement the traditional core competencies of the profession and help facility managers understand their leadership role, assess their organization's level of sustainability readiness and create a personal action plan for moving forward."

Fall Symposium's "Emergency Preparedness Workshop," which debuted in 2001, is one of the association's most sought-after courses. Recently updated and expanded, the workshop will assist professionals in assessing their facility's potential internal and external risk factors and developing a disaster preparedness and recovery plan. Eduardo Valdes, president of World Class Solutions Group, a consulting company specializing in workplace safety, will lead the workshop.

For more information about IFMA's Fall Symposium, or to register for the event, click here or contact Education Marketing Coordinator Melissa Reyes at melissa.reyes@ifma.org.

IFMA is the world's largest and most widely recognized international association for professional facility managers, supporting more than 19,000 members in 60 countries. The association's members, represented in 125 chapters and 15 councils worldwide, manage more than 37 billion square feet of property and annually purchase more than US$100 billion in products and services. Formed in 1980, IFMA certifies facility managers, conducts research, provides educational programs, recognizes facility management certificate programs and produces World Workplace, the world's largest facility management conference and exposition.