Early Wednesday morning, June 16, 2022, before the start of the last day of NeoCon, BIFMA members gathered in the presentation studio on the second floor of theMART for the industry association’s annual meeting. Held every year as NeoCon winds down, the meeting is an opportunity for exhibitors and other members to get out of their showrooms, do a little industry networking and then settle in for a report on the state of their industry association.
BIFMA Board President, Jeff Lorenger, Chairman, President and CEO of HNI Corporation called the meeting to order and greeted the members in attendance. After brief remarks Mr. Lorenger turned the podium over to Deirdre Jimenez, President and CEO of BIFMA who gave a spirited report on the state of BIFMA after a couple of really unusual pandemic and semi-post pandemic years.
Ms. Jimenez took over as the leader of BIFMA at the beginning of 2020, just in time for all the disruption. Despite the limitations on travel and face-to-face meetings due to COVID restrictions, she and the BIFMA staff have accomplished a tremendous amount; starting with building that staff. Accordingly, one of Ms. Jimenez’ first announcements was the introduction of new team members, Steve Kooy – Director, Health and Sustainability, Andi Barajas – Marketing and Communications Manager, and Noah Bredeweg – Information and Administration Coordinator.
Then in a rapid-fire presentation she cited many of the accomplishments of BIFMA since the last annual meeting. It’s worth noting that the accomplishments of BIFMA are the result of a great deal of work by volunteers, from member companies as contributors and as members of standing and ad hoc committees of the organization. The committees, which normally meet as needed, were largely reduced to virtual get-togethers, but still managed to make significant changes and improvements to the programs that are the vital output of the association.
Making the BIFMA Statistics Program more comprehensive and yet more streamline has been a key objective, since this program is considered very important to the marketing efforts of member companies.
Its technical standards comprise what BIFMA has long been best known for around the world. Often developed and adapted with other well-known technical bureaus such as ANSI and ISO, the BIFMA Standards cover dozens of furniture types from occasional-use seating to the now ubiquitous privacy pods, establishing a set of test protocols companies and their customers can use to certify the functionality and durability of the industry’s products. And even though compliance is not a legal requirement, passing BIFMA testing is a key tollgate for most product development in the commercial furniture sphere around the world.
Ms. Jimenez reported on significant work by the committees and subcommittees to improve, update, and communicate changes to parts of existing standards and to develop wholly new ones such as the aforementioned privacy pods.
Newer than the technical standards, but of growing recognition and importance is the BIFMA e3 Sustainability Standard, branded LEVEL® by BIFMA. The great thing about this standard is that greenwash has been designed out of it and it encourages continuous improvement in the companies that head down the path; it’s not just a one-and-done program.
LEVEL® is a multi-attribute sustainability standard that addresses how a product is sustainable from multiple perspectives – meaning it takes into account the social and environmental impact of a company’s facilities, its production processes, the materials selected for use in its products, energy usage, water usage, etc. The standard was created to deliver an open and holistic means of evaluating and communicating the environmental and social impacts of furniture products in the built environment.
In her address, Ms. Jimenez stressed work that has been done in outreach efforts to spread the word of the high quality of LEVEL® to users and the design community and to make information on interpretation readily available to its constituents.
Indeed, the body of work accomplished by the BIFMA staff and the dedicated volunteers from across the industry since the last membership meeting is very impressive.
Coming as it does at the end of NeoCon, it has long been a tradition at the “BIFMA Breakfast” to invite an executive from theMART to address members in the annual meeting. For the last several years that role has been capably filled by Byron Morton, VP of leasing. This year his talk had added significance given the uncertainty some members are feeling about the future of NeoCon given the departure of several of the industry’s biggest companies from theMART.
Despite that angst, most of the BIFMA members I spoke to both at the meeting and throughout NeoCon felt that NeoCon 2022 was a welcome success. Building on that sentiment, Mr. Morton said, “NeoCon 2022 reaffirmed the importance of an industry show and the importance of being in theMART.”
He then pointed out several things designed to underscore theMART’s commitment to the industry and to maintaining showroom floors as showroom floors. “We are about to start a massive capital improvement program to provide world class amenities to our tenants and their guests. We are launching new branding and marketing efforts emphasizing theMART’s place as the most important and comprehensive permanent design destination in North America. And we are working with our media partners, industry association partners, and showroom tenants to design and stage events at the MART year-round.”
It has also become a tradition to invite an expert guest speaker to the meeting to speak on a topic of general interest to members. This year that job was given to Brian Ramsey of Making Way Services, a business consultancy. His topic was “Change Happens, Understanding and Leading Organizational Change.”
His presentation was interesting and a straightforward explication of organizational change, and he gave some excellent tips on how to recognize the need for and evaluate the risk of organizational change. Unfortunately for Mr. Ramsey, his delivery was marred by glitches in the audio-visual accompaniment.
BIFMA Board President, Jeff Lorenger closed the meeting with an announcement of the next BIFMA Leadership 360˚ Conference titled, “Future First,” at the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island, Florida, January 23–25, 2023. It will be a celebration of BIFMA’s
50th anniversary. Registration is open now.