December 8, 2025 — For Steve Rees, whose 40-year career in healthcare facilities management recently included a role as chief program officer, capital management, for Alberta Health Services, the potential to build relationships with like-minded people from all over the world is the single biggest reason to attend the IFHE 2026 World Congress. The U.S. representative to IFHE, the Association of Medical Facility Professionals (AMFP), in partnership with EmeraldX, is hosting the next IFHE World Congress on October 17-20, 2026, in New Orleans.
In an extraordinary twist, the 2026 event will be co-located with the Healthcare Design (HCD) Conference + Expo – giving attendees access to an uncommonly broad range of expertise in delivering and operating innovative healthcare facilities.
The networking opportunities available from a gathering like this, Rees says, provide healthcare facilities professionals with a wealth of resources. The International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE) past president has built what he calls “life-changing” relationships with peers from around the world.
Rees attended his first IFHE World Congress nearly two decades ago in Cape Town, South Africa, as president of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES). “It was amazing to meet so many people with the same interests and passions, but in a totally different world facing some of the same problems and some very different problems,” he says. The networking conducted across this and later events has led to lifelong friendships and created a dense network of partners on whom to call in the face of challenges.
Rees recalls that this list of global contacts became particularly invaluable during the COVID pandemic. “Italy was facing issues with COVID before we did here in North America. We learned so much from the Italians that, through CHES, we put into strategic plans rolled out across Canada,” he says.
Through his involvement in IFHE, Rees also discovered that some of the more than 40 million square feet of real estate he managed shared characteristics with Trondheim University Hospital (PDF), in Trondheim, Norway. “Because of Norway’s climate, they have a lot of the same weather issues as we do where I work in Alberta,” he says. “They built an incredible facility in Trondheim. Through IFHE I met the fellow who ran the hospital, Gunnar Baekken. An incredible role model. We become good friends.”
IFHE is a nonprofit, nongovernmental body whose members include national healthcare engineering and facilities management organizations across more than 35 countries. Through membership in organizations like CHES and AMFP, healthcare facilities professionals can gain international insight through publications such as the IFHE Digest. However, the upcoming World Congress promises the networking value that only an in-person event can provide.
“I can’t tell you how many people I met in that first international conference that I’m still in contact with today,” Rees says. “It’s so valuable.”
To learn more about the 2026 IFHE World Congress, visit AMFP or IFHE.
