ARLINGTON, Tex. — This year’s ConnexFM Mid-Year Conference, which took place Oct. 27-29, featured the second edition of its Neighborhood Nexus program — a hands-on, collaborative competition focused on learning and networking.
ConnexFM is a membership organization for multi-site facilities managers and supplier professionals, and it hosts conferences and member events throughout the year. As part of the Neighborhood Nexus program at the Mid-Year Conference, attendees come together in teams to solve timely industry challenges and compete for the chance to present their solutions at the national conference.
Trade Show Executive connected with ConnexFM’s LeeAnn Norton, CEM-AP, Chief Operating Officer, and Brooke Cowart, Vice President of Content, to learn more about how the team is bringing a new twist to education at events and how incorporating networking has strengthened the overall value proposition of the conference.
Weaving Networking and Education Together
A few years ago, the ConnexFM team was asked to design something different for the event. The trade show component at the Mid-Year Conference wasn’t working anymore and the lecture format of education was tired and unappealing to attendees.
The team began thinking of ways to mix learning and networking, because networking was emerging as a top reason professionals were coming to the event, and the Neighborhood Nexus program was launched.
“Our members are big into networking — we also found that if we can keep everyone in general proximity, we tend to lose less attendees going back to their rooms or just leaving,” Norton said.
How the Neighborhood Nexus Competition Works
The program splits attendees into six groups focused on six different challenges in the industry. Each large group is then split into two smaller groups, which then compete within their topic.
The competition takes place in a ballroom, which is split into three sections that are semi-closed off from each other. This allows for higher levels of collaboration and communication across the groups.
“There is a major element of time involved,” Cowart said. “The attendees have just 45 minutes to get to their neighborhoods, hear their scenario and split into their challenge response teams to start working towards a resolution. Think of the escape room count down. Keeping them all in the same area allows for less movement, [and] less opportunity to lose attendees, and it stimulates competition as everyone can see each other in the neighborhoods working hard to win the prize.”
There is a group of judges that select the winner for each topic, and then the finalists go on to the main stage where they present their solution to all of the attendees. In this final round, everyone is able to vote for the winning team, which then goes on to present at the ConnexFM National Conference.
“Our members are always willing to share their knowledge, and our National Conference is a very prestigious event,” Norton said. “Knowing that the team will come back together and present at National keeps the team comradery going long past the event and the groups continuing to engage and communicate with each other.”
“We hold a Neighborhood Nexus Re-Wind workshop at our national conference that allows for the same collaboration, with a focus on the topic from the winning neighborhood and led by the winning neighborhood challenge response team,” Cowart said. “It’s a way to keep the event and education content living past the life of the event.”
Intentional Design to Foster Collaboration
The ConnexFM team uses registration information, including registration type, location, age range, gender and number of years in the industry, to determine the teams and groups for the program.
“We take the information to create very diverse groups, making sure we have a good number of buyers and suppliers in each group, as well as young professionals and legacy members,” said Norton.
Cowart shared that the ConnexFM team makes sure that individuals from the same companies are not within the same neighborhoods to ensure that the teammates attending are gaining knowledge on a variety of topics rather than attending the same sessions.
Once the groups are determined, the teams get together on site and begin solving their respective challenges, which were determined by a committee prior to the event.
“To try to maintain the education program and the relevance of the industry, we have a Thought Leadership committee that comes up with real life scenarios that happen in the facility management industry, like power outages, floods, hurricanes/tornadoes, riots, burglary, etc.,” Norton said. “We ask the groups [at the event] that are made up of both retailer facility managers and suppliers that support them how they would resolve the issues from start to finish and what the procedures are.”
“From the feedback I’ve heard, the attendees have really taken to the new collaborative format,” Cowart said. “They are meeting people they say they wouldn’t have met otherwise. Buyers and suppliers are working together to solve common challenges and are learning each other’s viewpoints and why they operate the way they do.”
Incorporating Fun into Learning
And while the program results in serious problem-solving and information-sharing that benefits the industry, attendees are mixing some elements of fun into their teams as well.
“They can use fictitious facilities and make it a little more entertaining,” Norton said. “For one of our healthcare/hospital scenarios, the team came up with a Gen Z hospital that focused on health issues for Gen Z’ers, like sore thumbs from typing text, hump backs from looking down at their phones, face-to-face meetings instead of hiding behind a computer, etc.”
Based on participation levels, attendees are highly engaged with the Neighborhood Nexus program. Participation was over 90% for the program in its second year, with larger groups that still were accommodating for those who do not engage much in roundtable settings.
Norton shared that she was surprised by the level of team spirit, comradery and competitiveness within the teams, and that while in year one most teams talked through their scenarios, this year the teams went all out on their presentations.
“The teams came to us as a combined group, brought the props from their room and were very entertaining. What happened though, by making it fun and interactive, each team commented on learning something they didn’t know, or a different way to handle the situation,” Norton said. “If every attendee walks out with at least one ‘ah-ha’ moment, and has made connections, we have succeeded in our goal.”
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