My review of the 2025 BSCAI Executive Management Conference
A couple weeks ago I made my first trip to Hilton Head for my first ever Executive Management. This is my honest review.
I’ve attended a lot of cleaning conferences. At this point, I am fairly certain I’ve attended every major cleaning conference in North America. I’ve even attended many of the smaller regional cleaning conferences. The only one I hadn’t attended, to this point, was the BSCAI Executive Management Conference.
After attending the BSCAI CEO Conference in January, I think I’ve come to the realization that the BSCAI conferences are my favourite. The overwhelming majority of BSC’s that I meet at these events are super friendly and approachable. The content is also geared exclusively to commercial cleaning, so you’ll likely learn something new/valuable during every session.
Going into EMC I had high hopes. Especially coming off a great CEO Conference. I was excited for the location, the speaker lineup, and the opportunity to meet a new group of BSC professionals. I was also flying in on a high because I was in attendance for the Toronto Maple Leafs Round 2, Game 1, win over the Florida Panthers. It caused me to be up later than I’d like before an early Tuesday morning flight, but nevertheless I was coming in hot!
Edit: Looks like it's the same old story with the Maple Leafs. Up 2-0 only to collapse and get embarrassed in Game 7 at home, but I digress…
Let’s dive into my review of the 2025 BSCAI Executive Management Conference:
Destination: Hilton Head, South Carolina
I’ve been really interested in the Carolina’s lately. I recently visited North Carolina, and South Carolina has been on my list for some time, so this location was definitely welcomed. I also have a client who has a place in Hilton Head and he raves about how much he loves it down there.
Though I didn’t get to explore a lot of the area, I liked what I saw. Felt like a very chill place. Slow moving. The architecture and aesthetic is all very cohesive and on-brand with those red bricks, shutter windows and wrap around porches. Even the Starbucks and Verizon store were in this style, which makes the place feel non-commercialized.
Also, the weather was great. Warm with a little humidity but generally moderate.
Only downside about this location is that Hilton Head is tough to get to. You can fly into HHH airport, which is a 15-min drive to the conference hotel, but the issue is there are only a few flights in each day. Most cities don’t fly in directly. I had to fly through Newark. The other option is flying into Savannah and then taking a cab or Uber but that’s an hour drive. And I couldn’t fly directly into Savannah either. So my commute was less than ideal.
Rating: B+
Venue: Hilton Beach Resort
I didn’t stay at the hotel so I can’t give a detailed review of anything besides the common areas and the conference centre.
The hotel seemed a bit on the older side. The common areas and restaurants were pretty casual, American style restaurants. Nothing to write home about.
The conference centre was pretty good. The vendors were all set up along the hallway into the conference rooms, and then there were the premium vendor booths inside the room with the bars and buffet. The setup was good and everything flowed smoothly.
The private events, hosted by vendors and suppliers, were held at restaurants and patios around the property. These locations were decent, but again, nothing special.
I definitely preferred the quality of the JW Marriott in Cancun for the CEO Conference.
Rating: C+
Speakers and Seminars:
I sat through the majority of sessions and I enjoyed most of them.
EMC kicked off with a Cleaning & Cocktails event, hosted by Route and Rozalado. This was an additional event that you had to purchase as an add-on to your pass. Juan and Regina Jaramillo did a fantastic job moderating the panels! I was a speaker on one of the panels, along with Karla Contreras-Carpio and Diana Betancourth. We discussed the challenges and learnings of transitioning from the field to headquarters and trying to maintain a hands-on management culture. I really enjoyed the conversation and it seemed like it was well received by the attendees.
The other notable talk from Cleaning & Cocktails was Clean Up Your Leadership: Shine with Your Team from Within led by Yigal Adato. I’ve been connected with Yigal for some time but never met him. I really enjoyed his session. It was fun and interactive, and he kept it light with some humour. I think he did a great job keeping the room engaged.
Following Cleaning and Cocktails there was the EMC Welcome Reception. Nice mix and mingle with all the attendees. Decent spread, good turn out, and some drinks. Got the job done!
Thursday was a full day of talks and presentations. Taski gave a talk about some of their new innovations. Decent presentation. The keynote was given by Marc Koehler. An Ex-submarine captain, who spent his career in the U.S. Nuclear Submarine Force. He gave a great talk! Some valuable lessons and leadership skills to easily apply to your business. Also some cool stories and insights into his career powering a $1B nuclear submarine. A few other sessions on Thursday but nothing else that was notable.
Friday morning had a few talks. The most notable being Gerald Fong’s, CEO and Co-Founder of BrightGo. He gave a talk that bridged the gap between AI, Data, and what BrightGo is building that empowers BSCs to leverage this technology. I’m a big fan of Gerald’s talks. He gave a similar talk in Vegas, but took it a step deeper for EMC. Gerald is a very bright guy from Silicon Valley who clearly understands the BSC world and what janitorial companies want, and need, to be able to make data driven decisions to run their businesses better.
There were a few other speakers but I don’t really recall the topics. They were decent but didn’t take any notes.
Rating: A-
The Lobby Bar
I’m noticing a pattern at BSCAI events: the lobby bar is the place to be!
In Cancun the bar was buzzing from the afternoon into the late hours. Same happened at Hilton Head. Wednesday night the Leafs played (and they won), and the bar was bursting at the seams. I think we stayed until midnight but when we ducked out the place was still packed.
Thursday night was also a busy one at the bar, but I think Wednesday was wilder. Which was surprising because friends of mine who had been to EMC and they said that the Thursday night is usually the party night since it’s the last night of the event. Either way, it was fun!
The one downside is the bar felt a bit cramped and the bartenders were clearly overwhelmed. Service was slow during the pandemonium.
Rating: A-
The Attendees
The main reason I love the BSCAI Events is because it’s predominantly janitorial companies, but more specifically, janitorial company owners. People like me. Most of my career the only other owners I met were competitors in my market. And most of them are not friendly. Not like me.
The owners I’ve come to meet through BSCAI are really nice people. I love connecting and learning from people solving problems in the business world, but it makes it a little more fun when we’re working on similar problems speaking the same language.
What’s cool about EMC is you get a more diverse group of attendees. The BSCAI encourages members to bring more of their colleagues to the event so they can network and learn from other BSC Leaders. This is a cool aspect of EMC! I actually met with more non-owners than owners. I had some great conversations with VPs, Operations Managers, and a few C-Suite. Each shared some unique perspectives about their companies and what they’re working on.
Rating: A
Cost:
The conference pass was $625USD. For a conference that is approximately 2 days long, this does feel a bit pricey. Especially considering you have to pay more for the optional add-on events, like golf.
I did get value from the event. But I don’t believe I got any special take home gift like we did from the CEO Conference. I think an event like this should probably be around the $500 range, but probably even slightly lower.
Rating: C-
Overall Rating:
I enjoyed my first Executive Management Conference. I will definitely be attending again. I may not attend annually, but I’ll likely be back next year.
I think the vendors and suppliers were good. The location was nice. The speakers and sessions were fun. I got to meet a lot of nice people working on some cool things.
I would probably rank this conference in my Top 5 North American cleaning conferences.
Rating: B+