The 2025 BSCAI CEO Conference
My honest review as a first-time attendee.
The year is 2009. I was a bushy-eyed and brash sophomore in university, attending my second consecutive “Reading Week” in Cancun. When I boarded the plane back to Toronto I told myself: “I am never coming back to Cancun!”.
Last week I was back in Cancun…
For my American friends, “Reading Week” is the Canadian version of Spring Break. I put it in quotes because during my four-year university experience, I found that very few people are reading during “Reading Week”. But I digress.
From January 14 to 17 I attended the BSCAI CEO Conference, which was held at the JW Marriott Hotel & Spa in Cancun, Mexico. This was my first time attending the CEO Conference, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. On one hand I felt like it was just going to be a vacation masquerading as a conference. But on the other hand, I was optimistic it might make for a laidback setting to connect and share ideas with my peers and fellow janitorial company owners.
In the end, both assumptions were correct. It definitely had more of a vacation vibe than any other cleaning conference I’ve attended. But it was a great setting to connect with other cleaning experts.
Let’s dive into my review on each aspect of the week.
A Review of the BSCAI CEO Conference
Registration
The BSCAI website is easy enough to navigate, but for this event the details were a bit vague. The agenda listed out all the events that were taking place, so you generally knew where you had to be and when, but there wasn’t a lot of depth to the descriptions. Not a big deal, but would’ve been nice to know a little more about each event, speaker, and seminar.
Signing up for the events was straightforward enough. You could see who signed up for the Opening Night Off-Site Group Dinners, which made it easy to jump into a group with people you knew, or find a new table of peers you hoped to connect with.
Rating: B
Destination
I’ll be honest, I never thought I would go back to Cancun, let alone for a cleaning conference. I had some reservations when they announced this location and I thought the experience might feel somewhat cheap, compared to the Contracting Success event in Vegas.
On top of that, I’m always a bit wary travelling to Mexico. I think it’s a beautiful country and I’ve been a handful of times. But the country does have a history of crime and violence that is not so discreet, which certainly lingers in the back of your mind while you’re there. Rational or not, it’s something I thought about from the moment I landed.
That being said, I was actually quite happy with the destination. The weather was great. Cancun is pretty affordable. And it allowed my wife and I to tack on 3 days in Mexico City at the back end of the trip, which was a great experience.
So on the whole I liked Cancun as a destination, and I’m giving it a bump in score because of the short flight to Mexico City.
Rating: A-
Hotel
The hotel was terrific! The check-in was smooth, the lobby was grand and had a nice central bar, the pools appeared clean, the beachfront had pristine white sand, the rooms were clean and spacious with great balconies, the gym was fully equipped, the conference centre was solid, and the food was good.
There’s not much to dislike about the JW Marriott Cancun. Overall it felt comparable to a 4-star Las Vegas hotel, without the casino. The only thing that would’ve given this a higher score is if it was all-inclusive. Though despite having to pay for food and drink, it didn’t feel that expensive for two people over 3 days. Would stay here again.
Rating: A
Speakers & Seminars
Let me start by saying, I rarely pay attention to the speakers at conferences. I promise it’s not personal and I mean no offence by it, I just find that the information shared is almost always too broad and is rarely tactical or measurable. Personally, I like to consume new ideas or lessons that I can take away, put in to practice, and improve my business in some way, even if it’s only a minor marked improvement.
I am saying this as someone who has also spoken a handful of times in recent years. I am guilty of this too. I don’t blame the speakers. The majority of speakers at conferences are volunteers, and most are speaking to a room filled with peers, and certainly competitors. No one is going to willingly give away their playbook and trade secrets.
Despite my reservations, I enjoyed the seminars that featured panels with janitorial owners. While they’re usually more of a conversation and fairly broad, you’ll often get to hear a story that is relatable, or a learning that may prove useful down the road. So I do try to pay attention to my fellow owners.
On the other hand, the speakers I tend to pay less attention to fall into two buckets:
“Woo-woo” motivational speakers
Prognosticators
The CEO Conference featured both of the above.
There was a speaker on Day 1 that gave a “woo-woo talk” about “Reaching Your Aspiration Line: How to Improve Performance, Mindset, and Well-being”. Normally, I would hate this type of seminar. But the speaker, whose name is eluding me, actually called out that the first half would be very “woo-woo”. During the second half of his talk he got into some interesting mindset tricks and tactics, which the audience all seemed to enjoy. I found this speaker to be engaging and was pleasantly surprised.
There was a good M&A seminar provided by Mark Herbick (Founder & CEO of Pursant) which is a topic I always find interesting, though it felt like this one was geared more towards the older owners and focused on life leading up to, and following, an exit. Not much for me to take away but the room seemed engaged.
There were was an economic and financial outlook presentation, which I wasn’t very engaged with. Again, no offence, I just don’t find prognosticating useful. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that no business owner in that room changed anything about their business model, based on the prognosticators predictions. As Warren Buffett said: “Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future".
I missed the final fireside chat with Oscar Munoz, former CEO of United Airlines. I would’ve liked to attend that one. I would guess someone who led the world’s 2nd largest airline, by revenue, probably has some good advice and interesting stories.
Rating: B+
Social Events
It’s hard to mess up social events at a conference.
A big central hotel bar? Check!
Golf round? Check! (didn’t attend this)
Opening night group dinners? Check!
Margarita making class? Check!
Poolside reception? Check!
Supplier themed party? Check!
Closing day catamaran? Check! (didn’t attend this)
Don’t think there’s much more you can jam into 3 days. The social portion of this conference was perfect.
Also, hard not to have fun when surrounded by tacos and tequila.
Rating: A+
Cost
$995 USD feels a bit pricey. Especially considering hotel, airfare, transportation, food, drinks, golf, opening group dinners, margarita making class, catamaran, and any other excursions are an extra cost.
If you’re going in with the understanding that this is a business expense and a great way to connect with other hard working, successful, janitorial experts then you’ll come away feeling alright. But if you’re going into this looking for quantifiable ROI you might be disappointed.
Rating: C
Overall Score
I think at this point I’ve been to almost every cleaning conference in North America. The BSCAI Contracting Success in conjunction with the ISSA North America Show has always been my favourite cleaning conference. Mainly because of the size and the fact that it’s usually held in Las Vegas. Without a doubt Las Vegas is the best city for a business trip.
That being said, the downside to a Las Vegas conference is that everything is sprawling, so you don’t often bump into your peers in social settings unless it’s at a planned event. At the CEO Conference everyone is on the same property, so you have a lot of those happenstance interactions in a social setting. This made for a lot of fun conversations.
So after careful consideration, and a deep analysis, I can confidently say that the CEO Conference is my favourite cleaning industry event to date. I really enjoyed the setting, the people, and the atmosphere.
I will definitely be attending the next CEO Conference in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on January 28-30, 2026. If you own a commercial cleaning company in North America, you should definitely put this event on your calendar!
Rating: A
