Welcome to the 2024 IHM Conference

Last week’s conference in Stratford was a great success from start to finish.  

Delegates attended from across the province, the venue was excellent and we once again had strong sponsor participation.  

Please visit our Photo Gallery for a snapshot of this years conference, which also includes a couple of stars pictured below.

Highlights of this year's conference are below.

Carola Mittag was honoured with a special presentation in appreciation of her contribution of health and safety articles for the IHM newsletter for the past 11 years.  
Charlotte – Star Of The Show
Charlotte the service dog delighted everyone with her gentle demeanor and her friendly personality.

Highlights of the 2024 IHM Annual Educational Conference

The beautiful town of Stratford, Ontario welcomed delegates to the 2024 Annual Educational Conference.  The Arden Park Hotel was a great venue, the food was plentiful and delicious and the staff was amazing. The theme for this year’s conference “Much Ado About Managing” focused on both human relations and maintenance issues, and provided delegates with the information and solutions needed to face day to day challenges.   

Day One – Wednesday, May 8th 

The 5th annual golf tournament was held at Foxwood Golf Course with 40 golfers experiencing a combination of windy, sunny, cloudy and rainy weather but enjoying the  camaraderie of fellow golfers nonetheless.   Thanks to River Rock Laundry for their sponsorship of the tournament and lunch. 

Then back to the hotel for the Welcome Reception where golfers, delegates, sponsors and speakers took this opportunity to get together for a casual meet and greet.

Day Two – Thursday, May 9th 

The conference kicked off with greetings by Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma.  The mayor was delightful, humourous and he stayed on to enjoy the presentation by the keynote speaker – Brian Doucet.

Brian spoke of The Housing Crisis:  Root Causes and Transformative Solutions.   His message presented delegates with some interesting and informative food for thought as the country tackles the ongoing housing crises.   

The round table discussions followed the keynote address and the room was alive with the interchange of ideas and suggestions.

Krista Scott and Brynn Harlock, Housing Program Advisors with the Region of Waterloo,  led an excellent session on “Community Housing Succession Strategy – Preparing for the Post-End Mortgages Environment”.  The audience was engaged as was witnessed by the many questions that followed.

This was followed by a presentation by Shasta Parson, Limestone Legal Services who provided great advice on preparing for and participating in Evidence and Landlord Tenant Board Hearings.  

The day ended with a presentation by Simon Leith, Homepro Pest Control, on Mastering The Art of Pest Control.  This topic is always top of mind with property managers and Simon provided some excellent advice on preparing for and executing solutions that work.

The tradeshow was open throughout the day which gave delegates the opportunity to visit with all exhibitors and learn more about the new services, products and programs they offered.

Day Three – Friday, May 10th 

Brian Leverton, Chief Fire Prevention Officer, St. Marys Fire Department, started the day with a detailed presentation on the importance and requirements of a fire safety plan.  The message – preparation and planning are essential to ensure the safety of tenants and staff in the event of a fire.    

This was followed by an excellent presentation on Mould Awareness and Remediation – another issue that plagues property managers.  James Barker, Barker Environment Consultiong Inc., took delegates through the journey of identifying and remediating mould.  

The closing lunch and award presentations was a time to recognize members who had achieved milestones in the past year.  The following members received their service pins…..  

5 Year Service Pin:    

10 Year Service Pin    

A special presentation was made to Carola Mittag.  Carola has generously supported IHM by providing educational articles on workplace health and safety for inclusion in the IHM quarterly newsletter for the past 11 years.  IHM is extremely grateful for Carola’s support and it was an honour to recognize her through the presentation of a plaque that read “In appreciation of your generous support of the Institute of Housing Management Canada and to the IHM Quarterly Newsletter.  Your submission of articles related to workplace health and safety and human resource management has been an excellent source of valuable information for the Institute’s members and for that we are most grateful. 

View Our 2024 Sponsors And with that, the 2024 conference came to end.  Thanks to our presenters, the organizing committee, delegates and especially our sponsors.

Platinum: 

  • DSG Restoration

Gold Sponsors:

  • Coinamatic – Laundry & Beyond
  • Reliance Home Comfort
  • Rimkus
  • Yardi

Silver Sponsors:

  • WinMar Professional Restoration Specialists

Bronze Sponsors:

  • Apollo Pest Management 
  • HomePro Pest Control