He’s knowledgeable, engaging, provocative, and he’s very funny.

Brian Thwaits is a dynamic and immensely entertaining ‘brain trainer’, a learning and communication whiz with a wealth of experience in both the public and private sectors. He first demonstrated his flair for performance as an award-winning educator and is now an acclaimed professional speaker who engages both the hearts and minds of his audiences — so they leave his presentations with sides splitting from laughter and minds bursting with ideas.

Brian has been featured in various media and is the author of The Big Learn: Smart Ways to Use Your Brain. Thousands of people in countless audiences have experienced his unique and thought-provoking take on how we use our heads, and his extensive client list is rapidly expanding as his reputation continues to grow.

Brian’s sessions cleverly combine the latest information from the disciplines of brain research, learning theory and the communication field to suggest innovative and practical approaches to issues we face daily in the workplace and in our personal lives.

For more information on Brian, please view the following website: www.speakers.ca/thwaits_brian.html

Professional Development Session Descriptions

9:00 to 10:30 am – Special Session

Vice-Presidents’ Panel Discussion

Moderated by Jeff Lamb, Assistant Vice-President, Facilities Management, Dalhousie University
Discussion with Ken Burt, VP, Finance and Administration, Dalhousie University, Gabrielle Morrison, VP, Administration, Saint Mary’s University, and Brian Jessop, VP, Administration, Mount Saint Vincent University
This important opening session will highlight the connection between AAPPA and university Vice-Presidents who often may not have the opportunity to work together directly; identify how AAPPA members contribute to the successes of universities; and create excitement about their future potential.

11:00 am to 12:30 pm – Professional Development Session #1

1. Change Management : A Structured Approach for Increasing the Return on Investment from Major Initiatives.

Presented By Kirk Sievert, B.Comm, CMA
This presentation provides a review of the benefits and business case for applying change management to organizational projects and major business initiatives.

Based on best practices research with more then 2,000 organizations, Prosci, developers of the ADKAR model, have developed a suite of tools for managing the people side of change. Designed to smooth the implementation and acceptance of change these tools help organizations to prepare for, manage and reinforce changes; thus ensuring the realization of the benefits they were intended to deliver. The talk will also examine some of the keys to success in managing change and what best practices has revealed about the organizational roles critical to that success.

2. Workplace Safety and Organizational Culture: The Survey Result

Presented By Shelley Price-Finn, B.Comm, MBA
This presentation provides a review of the literature and analysis of survey responses from 354 participants from higher education Facilities Management officers from U.S. and Canadian institutions. The research is concerned with organizational culture, safety climate and workplace safety. The literature review expressly outlines the lack of consensus in defining and modeling culture, as well as, the considerable number of complex characteristics of organizational culture and safety culture. Using the competing values framework (CVF) of organizational change, the complexity around diagnosing and changing an existing culture to a desired culture is explored. The survey is designed to investigate the organizational and safety climate commonalities across higher education institutions, as well as, the human resource management and safety practices that support safety culture and climate.

In terms of the major findings, the safety practices that are frequently employed are health and safety policies, data bases for accident statistics and employment of a safety professional, where the least frequently used practices are formal safety improvement plans and tracking near miss accidents. Human resource management (HRM) and safety practice were strongly correlated with safety climate. Furthermore, HRM practices index was highly correlated with the adhocracy culture while the safety practices measure was most strongly correlated with the clan culture. The findings also suggest that Facilities Management departments support a balanced culture where the differentiation between market, clan and hierarchy is fairly small.

3. Stewardship

Presented By Torquil Duncan, MBA, P. Eng
Anyone involved with operating, maintaining or utilizing a building has a level of stewardship for which they are responsible for. The expectations that are the result of the stewardship definition vary greatly and tend to be far greater than initially realized. Understanding the responsibilities and the expectations are important, especially in an era of budget constraint and challenging economic times. In addition the majority of our infrastructure that supports our businesses and activities are aged and when new infrastructure is developed, the development is typically completed with a mindful eye on costs which can drive the material selection and overall durability.

The buildings that surround us house the myriad of activities that we rely on for life. From hospitals, to homes the buildings themselves do not provide the activity, but allow the activity to happen. As a result the first aspect to stewardship is often maintaining a building such that the activities that are housed are not impeded by the supporting infrastructure. It is almost like the buildings are to be invisible. Stewardship go beyond that, it can involve aesthetics, business objectives, branding, down time etc.

Mr. Duncan intends to discuss the broader definition of stewardship and how it relates to operating and maintaining buildings. He will discuss the challenges associated with budget constraints, and how to effectively provide a long term strategy to align with your business needs. The discussion will lead to the impact of reactive versus proactive building maintenance and how to start the transformation from one to the other.  Life cycle analysis and priority setting will be discussed with the objective of leaving the audience with some easily implemented tools for effective asset management.

 

1:30 to 3:00 pm – Professional Development Session #2

1. Facilities Management Staff Training

Presented By Lori Lamrock & Donna Hurley
How to make the most of your opportunities to keep your staff up to date with the changing technologies, regulatory requirements and updated systems with little or no budget.

2. Best Practices for Maintenance Transformers

Presented By Brian Penny, P.Eng
This presentation will cover the “best practices for maintaining electrical switchgear and transformers” with discussion topics, including why to maintain equipment, different approaches to electrical maintenance: time based, condition based, and reliability centered maintenance ( RCM), importance of keeping good records, setting up a program and following it, written procedures,    using in-house personnel or contactors, training of in-house personnel, maintenance of transformers and switchgear, thermovision inspections, HV/ MV cables, and spare equipment

3. Project Management

Presented By Verity Turpin, BPR, MEC
Competing priorities is a reality for all of us in the workplace. Managing the daily requirements of our jobs, as well as moving strategic initiatives and projects forward, can be a daunting undertaking. Being able to effectively take an idea or directive from conception to reality is a valuable skill. The probability of success increases with a champion – someone with the priority of reaching the goal on time and on budget. This session will offer suggestions on how to leverage fundemental project management skills in collaboration with authentic leaderships to deliver superior results.

Professional Development Session Presenters

Kirk Sievert , B.Comm, CMA
Kirk Sievert advises organizations throughout North America on building a competency in change management, thereby enabling them to maximize the benefits of their initiatives, sooner.

Mr. Sievert holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree, is a Certified Management Accountant and one of only four Certified Executive Instructors of Prosci Change Management methodology in Canada.

Kirk has more than twenty-five years of progressive business experience working with governments, businesses and large non-profit organizations. The last seven years have been spent in international business research, consulting and speaking, with Fortune 500 companies and government organizations in the area of leadership and change management. The previous twenty years included a variety of management and executive roles in the financial services and oil & gas industries

Shelley Price-Finn, B.Comm, MBA
Shelley is a strategic minded change manager with a Master in Business Administration degree concentrating in Human Resources and Safety Management and Organizational Culture.  Safety culture and climate development were the focus of her major research project as part of the MBA program.  The research comprised of a literature review and a survey of 354 Facilities Officers in Institutions of Higher Education.  Shelley has been working as the Manager, Custodial and Administration at Saint Mary’s University since November 2000.  Her passion for a safe work environment has broadened to a safe and healthy global environment – she is now also responsible for the implementation of sustainability related initiatives on campus.

Torquil Duncan, MBA, P. Eng
Torquil Duncan, MBA, P. Eng. is the President of Capital Management Engineering Limited, a sustainable asset and infrastructure consulting firm providing solutions to clients throughout North America. Mr. Duncan has a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia and a Master of Business Administration from Saint Mary’s University.

Following the completion of his engineering degree Mr. Duncan worked with Strait Crossing on the fixed link connecting New Brunswick to PEI, and following that project worked overseas in Poland as a Project Director for a large infrastructure project. Upon returning to Nova Scotia, Mr. Duncan has focused on asset management providing a broad range of service associated with real property.  In 2007 Mr. Duncan established Capital Management Engineering Limited with its head office in Halifax. The company has grown and has satellite offices in Oakville ON, and Fredericton, NB.

Mr. Duncan has been actively involved in many infrastructure planning and capital plan assessments. He has been responsible for a detailed P3 Schools Capital Plan in Nova Scotia, and was instrumental in the initial project development of the Ontario Ministry of Education, Schools Capital Plan in 2002. More recently he has directed the completion of the Veterans’ Affairs Site Assessment and Plan. This portfolio included 586 buildings spread across the eastern seaboard of the United States and involved site assessment, data gathering and cataloging of specific assets and attributes in support of life cycle analysis and energy auditing. The project objective included providing investment grade infrastructure investment recommendations in keeping with sustainable initiatives similar to LEED initiatives and long term strategies of the VA, Federal Government (US), and other individual stakeholders.

In addition to Mr. Duncan’s project history, he has been a return lecturer on assessments, benchmarking and capital planning at the PM Expo / Canadian Real Estate Forum four times in the last ten years. The PM Expo is Canada’s largest Property Management forum taking in twenty thousand participants and providing leading edge technology and seminars for the participants.

Lori Lamrock
Lori Lamrock is the Administrative Officer in the Department of Facilities Management at Dalhousie University. She is responsible for developing and implementing on-going plans and programs for staff training and professional development.  She has many years of experience at Dalhousie and has pursued formal education at Mount Saint Vincent University as well as courses in Adult Education and Facilitation Skills.

Donna Hurley
Donna Hurley is the Custodial and Operations Manager in the Department of Facilities Management at Mount Allison University. She is responsible for the direction, planning and administrative coordination of all Custodial services for the University and for guidance and support for the provision of services for the entire Facilities Management department, such as training and staffing. Donna is new to Mount Allison University and has 10+ years of management experience in the IT industry (BCompSc) while working for her previous employer, Bell Aliant.

Brian Penny, P.Eng
Brian Penny graduated from TUNS in 1981 with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. He worked in the oil and gas industry for several years before joining Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI) as a Maintenance Engineer in the Transmission Technical Department in 1988. For the past 22 years, Brian’s main responsibilities have included the maintenance, commissioning, testing and repair of high voltage substation equipment.

Verity Turpin, BPR, MEC
Verity is passionate about a lot of things. Getting the right things done on time and on budget is one of them. Studying project management in theory and practice has been an important part of Verity’s career success to-date. Verity has a bachelor of Public Relations from Mount Saint VIncent University, 1993 and also a Master of Electronic Commerce from Dalhousie University, 2008. Verity’s experience in the area of project management began early in her career with managing local, national and international events as Event Manager at the World Trade and Convention Centre (WTCC) in Halifax.  In addition, Verity has completed numerous courses studying PMI theory and techniques. Verity takes every opportunity to manage large-scale events and projects for both her employer and the local community.

Conference Schedule

Please note that locations are subject to change. Rooms will be confirmed during Registration on November 18