Leading Facilities Management event in the region takes aim at addressing emerging challenges through business intelligence and technological innovation
The 9th Edition of the three-day annual Middle East Facilities Management Association (MEFMA) CONFEX Dubai 2019, held during the second week of March, brought together a high-profile gathering of leading players in the industry across the GCC.
Themed ‘Business Intelligence & Technology-Driven Facilities Management’, the inauguration was led by Jamal Lootah, MEFMA President; Major General Engineer Khalid Qabbani, General Director of Military Works, Ministry of Defence, Saudi Arabia; Hend Obaid Al Marri, CEO, Dubai Real Estate Institute; Atiq Juma Nassib, Senior Vice President, Commercial Services, Dubai Chamber; and Ali Alsuwaidi, MEFMA Vice President.
This year’s event, which focused on new innovative methods that addressed the emerging challenges in the sector and explored the latest technological innovation that enhanced FM services, received wide support from many leading companies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
In his welcoming speech, Jamal Lootah explained that MEFMA Confex has become a leading and strategic platform aimed at raising awareness about best practices utilized in employing technological innovation as a mean to drive in growth and sustainability of the regional FM sector, in line with the current ambitious development projects.
FM industry worth US$ 37bn in the Middle East
He also reaffirmed MEFMA’s commitment to provide the necessary means to keep abreast of technological developments to support the competitiveness and efficiency of the FM sector in the region, which is currently valued at about US$ 37 billion.
“This year’s edition of MEFMA CONFEX 2019 witnessed the hosting of a new series of FM Counselling Sessions— a new feature that we are doing for the first time to help enhance collaboration between the government and private companies while also creating direct channels to exchange critical thinking and experiences in a step to drive in growth, development and sustainability for the FM sector,” added Lootah.
The first day of the event featured the latest FM initiatives in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which included the keynote presentation by Dr. Thamer Bin Abdullah Al Regeeb, Director General, General Administration of Projects & Facilities Affairs of the Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Al Regeeb discussed the ‘Facilities Management Development Road Map at the Ministry of Interior’, while Nabil Al-Nuaim, Executive Director, Saudi Aramco Community Services, highlighted the value of digital transformation on the growth of the sector in the GCC during his presentation on ‘Digital Transformation and Business Integration, a World of Opportunities for GCC Facility Management Industry’.
Counselling-the new initiative
A ‘Counselling Session’ was also held for the first time on key topics such as CAFM systems implementation, command and control setup for buildings, contract management and handover, digital transformation of FM operations, energy audit, fire and life safety strategy, FM best practices, and FM company setup.
Among the reports issued was ‘AI in FM: The Potential of Artificial Intelligence in the GCC FM Industry’ that assessed the impact of AI and related technologies on the industry over the next five years, particularly on applications such as predictive maintenance, energy efficiency and autonomous service delivery.
The report further shed light on three key technologies based on ‘deep learning’ algorithms which enable machines to learn from experience. The second study, titled ‘Asset Maintenance Management with Internet of Things (IoT) in Commercial Management’, found that IoT can address the gap between assets and performance in commercial buildings which has been causing the failure of traditional maintenance strategies.
