Sailing into calmer waters
April 01st 2010 ISSA is one of the world's leading associations of cleaning and hygiene service providers, representing its 5,500 members at both the regional and international level. ISSA intends to create a common, global cleaning community, where any member of the profession can find valuable information, resources, business opportunities and support.
ISSA also allies itself with other trade organisations to leverage opportunities for ISSA members. In the UK, ISSA's Leicester office ensures that all of its British members are well represented and fully informed about their industry.
ISSA was originally created in 1923 by Alfred Richter,a US cleaning professional who saw the need for a professional body to act as a forum for discussion and sharing ideas. ISSA quickly grew into an international organisation, arranging trade shows, exhibitions and conferences that brought cleaning people together. ISSA has now organically expanded into Europe, where it has established offices in Amsterdam and Leicester.
ISSA offers the industry's largest cleaning shows around the world, as well as providing a vast array of educational videos and resources,networking on local, national, and international levels; industry management standards, legislative and regulatory services and industry news specifically for the world's cleaning community.
In 2009 we saw an u n p r e c e d e n t e d economic downturn that hit almost every business sector with job losses, budget cuts and, all too frequently, company closures.The cleaning industry was no exception, with contract cleaning services often top of the list when time came for budget cut-backs.
Fortunately, the cleaning industry – and the overall economy – appears to have ridden-out the worst, with most signs now pointing to a full, if slow, recovery. In spite of the recession, the 'show had to go on',and many areas of the industry continued to provide quality services and constant innovation.
What does the future hold?
We had a glimpse into the future with demonstrations of high-rise window cleaning robots and self-cleaning surfaces incorporating space-age nanotechnology. The ISSA Innovation Award programme provides the ideal opportunity for the professional cleaning world to present their innovative projects. This year’s winning entries will be able to showcase their products at the ISSA Interclean show in Amsterdam (26th - 29th April 2010) where more than 25,000 professional trade visitors from all over the world will be able to see the winning company’s excellence in research and development.
ISSA itself continued to bring the industry together at both ISSA Interclean Europe in April of last year and in Chicago last October. Both events were resounding successes, where more miserable thoughts of financial disasters were momentarily put aside to get down to some serious business (and some serious socialising).
In the coming 12 months, the cleaning industry will see greater focus on sustainability, as the wider availability of funds allows companies of all kinds to shift their attention from saving money to saving the planet. 2010, many will say, is a year to look forward to for so many reasons – and they would be right:We may not immediately return to the balmy waters of the prerecession economy, but we could find ourselves on the river that runs to the ocean. More articles from ISSA Europe: | 
