Dear Colleagues,
As many of you would know, we held our annual TEFMA23CONFERENCE in Sydney last month. By all accounts, it was a resounding success and I have only heard very positive feedback. The Conference was held at the ICC in Darling Harbour and attracted nearly 500 delegates. As mentioned in my last newsletter, this was TEFMA’s first dedicated FM/Property conference. All sessions that I attended were of the highest quality and can I thank all the presenters for highlighting important issues facing the sector. Can I also extend my thanks to the Organising Committee and our TAS Events team – well done on organising such a successful Conference.
We closed our Conference by celebrating our Clever Campus Awards night at Luna Park, which was a sell-out. I would like to congratulate the following very deserving Scholarship and Award winners:
- Maurie Pawsey Scholarship - Jade Germantis (University of Melbourne) and Jodie Harris (LaTrobe University)
- TEFMA & AUDE 2024 Summer School Scholarship - Steve Darragh, University of Wollongong
- TEFMA Travel/Research Scholarship - Gary Davenport, University of Auckland
- GJK Conference Scholarship - Nathan Shepherd, James Cook University
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Institution of the Year Award - Southern Cross University
- Emerging Professional Award - Nick Delany, University of Southern Queensland
- AECOM Australia Innovation Award – Matt Morris, University of Canterbury
- Practitioner of the Year Award - Dana Alexander, James Cook University
- GJK Diversity Award - Craig Youd, University of Wollongong
- Capital Insight Project Management Award - Geoff Cottee and Grant Gordon, Southern Cross University
I would also like to give special thanks to our sponsors, exhibitors and keynote speakers. Without your involvement, the Conference would not have been as successful, and it would have been challenging to bring an event of this size and quality to our membership. TEFMA truly appreciates your support and hope it continues into 2024 where we look forward to reengaging with you in September in Auckland.
Of course, with any major event such as the TEFMA Conference, there are learnings and as a Board and Secretariat, we will be reviewing what went well and what can be improved. If there is anything you would like to raise with us following the Conference, please contact us at info@tefma.com.
TEFMA has recently held two wellbeing Webinars, in conjunction with our Charity Partner (Suicide Call Back Service) – ‘Talking about suicide’ and ‘The labels of mental ill health’. Both webinars were well attended and the presentations can be found in the Community Portal on the TEFMA website. As I mentioned in the September newsletter, the Education Services Committee has developed an Events Calendar, which can be found here.
Unfortunately, the TEFMA Emergency Planning Workshop scheduled for 23 - 24 November 2023 in Auckland has to be cancelled however, we have rolled this topic into the 19 – 21 February 2024 Soft Services Workshop at LaTrobe University in Melbourne. Details of the workshop will appear on the TEFMA website by the end of this month. The Local Organising Committee have developed a very exciting workshop and I encourage you to review the programme and see if you can make it to LaTrobe in February next year.
Things to look out for!
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I am pleased to advise that the 3rd Edition of the TEFMA Benchmarks Insights publication will be released in the coming weeks, and I encourage you to share this with your teams, and also with senior management at your institutions. It provides high level trends across five keys areas, contains case studies and also has a look at the trends with our strategic partners in the US and UK. The Publication will be uploaded to the TEFMA Community Portal once released.
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TEFMA is pleased to promote a recent publication, funded by the Australian Research Council, on the history of Australian university campus development. The publication is extensive and covers most university campuses, with insights from academic and professional staff; and industry, on how campuses have evolved over the last 100 years. The publication is available for purchase here.
- TEFMA is updating its website, and aiming to have this completed before the end of 2023. The current website is some 7 years old, so timely for an update!
We also remind all members to take the time to jump online and view the TEFMA Community portal with the aim to foster a culture of collaboration through sharing and engaging with the resources available in the library. The information is intended to generate discussion, build relationships with peers and learn from one another.