NORCROSS, Ga. – "Manufacturing is on the move," Site Selection (www.siteselection.com) Editor Mark Arend noted in explaining the magazine's new "IAMC Insider" section.
        Debuting in the magazine's November issue, the new Site Selection section focuses on the Industrial Asset Management Council (www.iamc.org), a new, fast-rising association that's dedicated to the issues surrounding industrial facilities.
        Why does Arend maintain that manufacturing is a hot commodity? The Site Selection editor points to a survey of corporate executives recently released by Development Counsellors International (DCI), the New York-based economic development marketing firm. Among 280 executives that DCI surveyed, 44 percent said manufacturing was the most likely candidate for a new or expanded facility for their firms. Manufacturing's 44 percent of the vote more than doubled the percentage of the survey's next two most highly ranked project types - corporate/regional/divisional headquarters, with 19 percent, and distribution centers, with 15 percent.

The "IAMC Insider" and Site Selection "will both cover corporate projects from a strategic perspective without making the reader wade through layers of 'consultant-speak' that plagues coverage elsewhere," said Arend (pictured above)

        Manufacturing's runaway No. 1 rank in DCI's survey underscores the wisdom of Site Selection's decision to run an "IAMC Insider" section in each issue of the magazine, Arend said.
        Centered on the association's industrial focus, the new section "is designed to be distinctive and easily recognizable as the IAMC pages," Arend said.
        Another of the IAMC section's distinguishing feature is one shared with Site Selection, he added. "They both cover corporate projects from a strategic perspective without making the reader wade through the layers of 'consultant-speak' that plague coverage elsewhere," Arend said.

'People and Projects,' Profile of Actives'
Expertise among November Features

"IAMC People and Projects" is one of the section's regular features that's likely to attract considerable reader interest. That feature, Arend explained, reviews specific projects that are under way among members and the firms for which they work. As with Site Selection, "People and Projects" emphasizes real-world experience rather than theory, he noted.
        November's installment of "IAMC People and Projects," for example, covers Air Products and Chemicals, BASF, Chevron-Texaco, Donaldson Co., Honeywell and Ingersoll-Rand.
        November's "IAMC Insider" also profiles the considerable experience and expertise among the association's Active (corporate-side) members. The average IAMC Active member, for example, has 17 years of asset management experience. And 68 percent of IAMC Actives are corporate directors, while 20 percent are managers, and 12 percent are vice presidents.
        The November Site Selection also details the sizable asset portfolios that IAMC Actives are managing. Active members' companies on average have 15.7 million sq. ft. (1.46 million sq. m.) of owned space and 7.7 million sq. ft. (715,330 million sq. m.) of leased space.

IAMC Members Will Comprise
Site Selection Advisory Board

As IAMC's official publication, Site Selection will be tapping into the rich vein of Active members' expertise, Arend said. The magazine, he noted, is in the process of establishing an editorial advisory board that will be made up of IAMC Active members.
        "Their role," Arend explained, "will be to serve as industry experts on site location and project management areas as we research and write articles. And they should feel free to call us with feedback on articles or to suggest topics they think should be covered." Other "IAMC Insider" features in the November Site Selection will include:

• A review of the program content at IAMC's inaugural Professional Forum, which will be held on Oct. 27-30 at the Westin Harbor Resort and Spa (www.westinsavannah.com) in Savannah, Ga.;
• Letters from IAMC Chairman Jack Brophy and IAMC President Larry Edge; and
• An at-a-glance look at IAMC member benefits and resources.