Program

CNAM 2013 is the 7th Annual Conference on municipal asset management. Past conferences have provided critical and leading information that assists municipalities across Canada in the development of asset management plans and programs.

With the theme of Expanding Horizons, the goal is to encourage delegates to "think outside the box" by applying the knowledge gained at previous CNAM Conferences and moving forward with their own local needs to implement best asset management practices. This conference will encourage innovative solutions and continuous improvement in the state and condition of our infrastructure and further the ongoing development of municipal asset management across Canada.

Final Program (PDF)

Program Overview PDF

Continuous Improvement

The evolution of asset management has progressed from gathering basic knowledge, to completing rudimentary analysis, to determining needs, to developing solutions, to the integration of lines of business and to final implementation. Regardless of where we are in our state of practice, as municipalities we strive to make better decisions with our limited resources; expanding our knowledge base to continuously improve our asset management abilities. There is much to learn from each other; why re-invent the wheel when you can learn from your colleagues.

• What innovative processes did you use to assess the condition of your assets?
• What leaps have you made to improve the condition of your assets?
• Were you able to gather lessons learned from similar municipalities (Benchmarks)? What were the similarities and/or differences between municipalities?
• What steps did you take when overcoming challenges faced when trying to implement lessons learned from other municipalities?
• What are you doing to sustain the improvement or change to your asset management practices? Do you have a process to measure and improve asset management competence?
• Is there increased integration with internal areas i.e. engineering and finance?
• What governance frameworks have been developed and provided success?
• Can you demonstrate innovative and creative decision-making?
• What processes have been used to solidify process changes and prevent backsliding?
• How have you closed the "knowledge-doing gap" and applied asset management principles to improve asset performance?
• How have you engaged stakeholders and communicated asset management initiatives to gain support?

Successful Solutions

All municipalities are striving towards the same goal: Sustainable Asset Management.  This is an opportunity to showcase municipal success stories with regards to asset management. Provide information to your peers on your innovative tools and processes that assisted in advancing asset management techniques in your community. Demonstrate to other municipalities that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

• What was the initial problem that required a solution?
• What tools and/or processes were used in your solution?
• How were you able to demonstrate the value added?
• Demonstrate the innovation and creativity used in your solution
• What were the lessons learned?
• How were stakeholders engaged and linked to the process?
• How is your solution linked to your organizations strategic plan, how were you able to sustain top management support for process changes?

These topics are meant as suggestions to stimulate thought and creativity and should not limit the scope of what we are interested in hearing. If you have an asset management process or tool you feel is worth sharing, we encourage you to submit an abstract regardless of alignment with those suggested.