The cleaning industry will gather in Las Vegas for its largest in-person event since 2019 as ISSA Show North America returns to the newly unveiled West Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, November 15-18.
More than 1,000 people are expected to come together for this premier education and networking event that will feature over 60 educational sessions in eight curated tracks, eight workshops, and three spotlight speakers.
In addition to in-person education, attendees can interact with more than 500 exhibitors from 20 countries in the 250,000-square-foot exhibit space. Thousands of products from over 17 categories—from cleaning agents to paper products to floor care equipment—will be featured on the exhibit hall floor for three days, beginning November 16.
The show floor will also be home to six specialty pavilions, two on-floor education theaters—Solve for X and Specialty Cleaning—and the Innovation Showcase & Theater featuring products in the running for this year’s ISSA Innovation of the Year Award.
“Coming together as one unified industry, with common goals and purpose, with like-minded industry peers and friends, is irreplaceable,” said ISSA Show North America Group Director Lindsay Roberts. “Events like ISSA Show North America create memories, connections, and experiences that can last for years.”
Read on to learn about the networking events and first-class educational lineup for the comeback event of the year.
Education Highlights
Whether you are just starting your career or are an experienced professional, you will find the training you need to take your career to the next level from among the more than 60 educational sessions led by industry experts in commercial, institutional, and residential cleaning sectors. The education program offers practical information, new ideas, and panel discussions on important and challenging topics for building service contractors (BSCs), facility managers, in-house service providers, and more. You will gain immediate knowledge you can put to work right away when you return home.
The 2021 show also offers opportunities to hone a specific skillset or attain a professional certification in areas including environmental services, residential cleaning, and custodial training. These certification courses and workshops are affiliated with ISSA divisions IEHA and ARCSI and ISSA’s Cleaning Management Institute (CMI). They begin on Saturday, November 13, and run through Friday, November 19. Additional registration and fees are required.
Here are some highlights of the education sessions in store for those who register for the All-Access Pass.
Commercial Cleaning
In his session, Will Robots Take Your Job? The Future Impact of Automation and Technology on BSCs, Jon Hill, CEO of Laser Clean Systems, will discuss how automation and technology have transformed many industries and will change the way BSCs approach their work. “As BSCs, are we approaching a jobless future, or will new jobs replace the ones that are lost? We think it is the latter and have designed a concept called ‘Human Assisted Automated Solutions’ or HAAS for short,” said Hill. Find out how the current phase of increasing automation will create new kinds of employment within the cleaning industry.
The way people buy things has evolved over the last two decades, and cleaning services is no exception. In his session, Strategies to Close the Sales You Want, Curt Kempton, founder of Symphosize LLC, will help you spot trends and find ways to adapt to being the obvious choice to your prospects. Using 10 real-world examples of customer change over the last 10 to 20 years, Kempton will help you understand today’s “research society” and explain the idea of curating a buying process.
See more in the Commercial Cleaning track.
Health care
Brought to you by IEHA, a division of ISSA
Ideal for cleaning professionals in the health care sector, the panel discussion Trending Topics That Influence Environmental Services will focus on technical innovations, trends, and current technology that is advancing environmental services (EVS) departments. Attendees will hear from five EVS leaders who represent long-care health care facilities, hospitals, and medical office buildings across the country.
Do you use a disinfectant? Do you need a disinfectant? How does one know what disinfectant to use? An expert on infection prevention as it relates to cleaning and author of Infection Prevention for Dummies, J. Darrel Hicks will answer these questions and many others in his session Safe/Clean/Disinfected Procedures in Health Care, which is intended to clarify a very confusing topic: disinfectants and surface disinfection. “Cleaning can avert the need to disinfect in some situations because clean and dry surfaces can’t harbor microbial growth for very long,” Hicks said.
See more in the Health Care Cleaning track.
Hospitality
Brought to you by IEHA, a division of ISSA
Marcais Frazier, head coach at Elan Coaching, and Ashli Johnson, chief experience officer at Urbane Hospitality Group, will discuss the benefits of internal employee coaching in the session Game Plan to Win: Coaching Strategies for Service-based Businesses. The speakers will discuss how employing a coaching strategy from a 360-degree perspective can be a gamechanger for you and your organization and offer specific strategies to cultivate a winning mindset for your hospitality team.
Reaching and leading millennial and Gen Z employees has been a challenge in the hospitality industry. In her session Generation (wh)Y: Finding What Matters to the Modern Workforce, Amber Starling, founder and CEO at Good Witch Cleaning Services, will teach strategies and tactics for recruiting and retaining employees who will become future leaders in hospitality.
See more in the Hospitality track.
K-12 & Higher Education
Presented by Healthy Green Schools & Colleges
Sara Porter, director of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges, will lead the panel discussion Infection Prevention in a School Setting: Safer Disinfection, Best Practices and Training Tools with Mike Jones, director of custodial services at Columbia Public Schools in Columbia, Missouri, and Jodi Krause, assistant director of housekeeping at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jones and Krause will share procurement, training, and location-specific cleaning and disinfection requirements that are outlined in the Healthy Green Schools standard. This session will spell out effective and responsible cleaning practices for health and safety, providing alternatives to COVID-19 disinfection regimens that can expose students and staff to unnecessary health risks from hazardous chemicals.
The pandemic has emphasized how important indoor air quality (IAQ) is for a healthy, safe, and comfortable school setting. Educational facilities now have higher standards for IAQ, money to spend on upgrades to ventilation, and evidence that supports an investment in IAQ efforts. Porter will also lead the session Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in the Post-Pandemic Era. Facility managers will discuss the elements of a comprehensive IAQ plan including HVAC maintenance and repairs, cleaning product procurement, and IAQ monitoring methods.
See more in the K-12 & Higher Education track.
The other educational tracks featured at this year’s show include Business Development & Leadership; Distributor; Facility Health & Management, brought to you by GBAC and Sponsored by Diversey; and Residential Cleaning, brought to you by ARCI, a division of ISSA. Learn more at www.issa.com/education.
