FEATURE
want someone to have a slip, trip or fall on your premises, as we are an increasingly litigious society, clients need to protect themselves. We have a Duty of Care to our clients to ensure that they are legislatively compliant.
TFM
How did collaboration between OCS and
Paralympics come about? AM
We sat down as a management team to talk about what we
wanted to do to help our community; it’s my personal belief that you should start on your own doorstep before you go further afield. We wanted to do something that was local and that we could be a part of, and we were already providing PRM assistance, so this really made sense for us. We already had the user groups and the connections in place, so we sponsored the 2012 Olympics in London and again in Rio this year.
We’ve also sponsored the OCS Paralympic Awards, which will take place in December, to honour the achievements of the Irish Paralympic Team. The awards ceremony has made the whole process real, allowing our staff to get involved; rather than just paying lip service,
we’re raising awareness. Our aim is to increase knowledge and learning and change the culture, not just write a cheque; for us it was a perfect fit.
As a member of the BIFM committee in Ireland, last year we sponsored the FM awards here, and I suggested that we get a former Paralympians to come and speak to the audience. I felt that as a group we can be very cynical and jaded working in the FM environment, so I thought that having someone who had overcome adversity, would be inspiring for those in attendance. Dave Malone, who was a Paralympic swimmer and is now Paralympic Performance Director, opened proceedings for us there; he was amazing, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.
So looking to this year’s event we wanted to take the same opportunity to integrate Paralympics Ireland into the facilities world again.
TFM
The BIFM Ireland summit is taking place in Croke Park
this year – is there a sporting theme to the event?
AM
We had it in the Aviva last year, which is a rugby facility,
and Croke Park is a GAA facility (Gaelic Athletics Association), so we are equal opportunities even in the sports we choose – we wanted to shine a spotlight on a variety of facilities. We wanted somewhere that was accessible and user friendly; practice what you preach. Croke Park ticks all those boxes for us, they are a leading stadium in terms of how they approach facilities management. They use a lot of green energy and have a great CSR programme, so again the partnership really made sense for us. As a facilities management industry we should be leading the way. It’s up to BIFM to drive forward the industry and show others where they should aim to be; to make our industry as user-friendly, cost- effective and as green as possible, to have an industry that we are proud of and proud to work in.
Paralympics Ireland placed 28th in the Rio 2016 Medal Table, with four gold, four silver and three bronze
medals.The BIFM Ireland Summit takes place 25th November 2016 at Croke Park, Dublin.
www.bifm.org.uk
www.tomorrowsfm.com
TOMORROW’S FM | 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66