Facilities management lives! This was the verdict of yesterday's final debate at World Workplace Europe in Glasgow. Delegates were asked to consider the rather surprising proposition for a professional conference: 'Is there a market for facilities management or is it dead?'

The opposing viewpoints were put by Duncan Waddell of consultants FM Intelligence and Martin Pickard, Head of Property at BT Cellnet, before contributions from the floor were invited. The debate was chaired by Anne Lennox of Johnson Controls.

L-R Anne Lennox, Duncan Waddell and Martin Pickard

Duncan Waddell declared that there is certainly a developing and changing body of knowledge which characterises FM, although he was less sure that the name would survive. However, he warned against prejudice, ignorance and shortsightedness.

The 'new' economy will wreak fundamental change on FM said Martin Pickard: "Clicks not bricks is wiping out buildings, technology is wiping out many services." He also warned that other professions – HR, IT, finance - were looking to occupy the FM space, concluding: "FM is dead, long live resource management!"

Several delegates could not contemplate competition from dot.coms for many physically delivered services. Andrew Carter of FMConnect said that as social animals, human beings will always want to meet and to belong. FM was integral to providing and supporting the spaces where this could happen. He suggested that FM might move into the home market, providing a wide array of services for time-poor individuals.

Ian Cordery, Head of Facilities at Middlesex University, was adamant: "FM is dead, it was never really born. Conference audiences agonise at length over definitions and few people understand what we do. The profession should re-invent itself."

Comments from both Dutch and German delegates revealed that in those countries, facilities management is a brand name - left untranslated (or perhaps impossible to translate).

Hugh Henderson, Business Service Manager with Scottish Enterprise, probably expressed the thoughts of many delegates who have lived and worked through the ten years since FMs last met in Glasgow: "FM is experiencing a mid-life crisis and needs a dose of corporate Viagra!"

Those who believe there is still life in FM outnumbered their opponents six to three.

In any event, European FMs will have plenty of opportunities to debate these questions next year, with three events to choose from: the annual BIFM conference, a new and separate EuroFM event in Seville and World Workplace Europe 2001 to be held in Innsbruck.

• Look out for the full review of World Workplace Europe 2000, coming to your screen soon!

Richard Byatt