Dozens of cleaning industry professionals from across the United States converged on ISSA’s Rosemont, Illinois, headquarters for the 2024 Business Growth Strategies Conference.

This exclusive three-day event took place June 11-13 and featured nearly 20 cleaning industry thought leaders who shared their expertise on such topics as optimizing performance practices, enhancing sales techniques, improving worker retention, and other topics designed to boost the business of the building service contractors (BSCs) and residential cleaners in attendance.

Business Growth Strategies’ distinguished keynote speakers included Ricky Regaldo, CEO and founder of Route; Dean Mercado of Online Marketing Muscle; and Debbie Sardone of Debbie Sardone Consulting. The trio shared real-world advice on some of the most pressing issues facing our industry.  Attendees also participated in multiple interactive panel discussions, allowing them to share new ideas and innovations in a spirited back-and-forth setting.

In addition to the educational offerings, this year’s Business Growth Strategies also provided attendees with the opportunity to network with other like-minded business leaders and share their success stories.

“We are beyond grateful for the participation of so many individuals that shared their stories, knowledge, and expertise with a new network of friends,”  said ISSA Chief Global Education Officer Brant Insero. “We witnessed new relationships and bonds with likeminded executives created within a purposely designed intimate setting.  These are the moments that ISSA fosters with our members. We are already beginning to explore ways to make Business Growth Strategies stronger for next year.”

Special thanks to the event’s sponsors, Sunbelt Rentals and ThinkLite, whose gracious support enabled this year’s Business Growth Strategies to be a huge success.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported two human cases of influenza that are resistant to the most popularly antiviral flu medicine oseltamivir phosphate, known by the brand name Tamiflu.

While flu viruses are continually evolving, the CDC’s new infectious diseases report showed this variant contains two major mutations that derive from the most common version of seasonal flu called influenza A (H1N1), WebMD reported.

These concerning mutations could lower the effectiveness of treatment with Tamiflu, CNN reported. The mutated version of the flu virus was not resistant to newer, less used-antiviral drugs, such as baloxavir marboxil, which goes by the brand name Xofluza, the CDC said. In general, flu antiviral drugs have been shown to reduce the severity of the flu, and some studies have reported a link between taking these medicines and a lower risk of death for adults hospitalized with flu, WebMD said.

With active global surveillance for mutations, experts said the threat to humans remains low. Still, c, according to the CDC. However, the dual mutant flu variants cases remain infrequent, amounting to approximately 1% of the samples collected between May 2023 and February 2024.

Since October 2023, an estimated 35 million cases of flu have occurred in the U.S., resulting in 390,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths, according to the CDC’s weekly FluView publication.