Beyond Buildings: Exploring Facilities Management

Brian Gregory [00:00:00]:

You. Hi, everybody. This is your host Brian for the Beyond Buildings podcast, where we meet innovative and inspiring facilities leaders from across the country. In this episode, I chat with Matthew Doyley, who is the Director of Events and Conferences for Otterbein University, where he is also a member of the alumni. He was an instrumental leader in helping the university to host the largest presidential debate in history in 2019. During this episode, we cover the challenges of implementing new software and process to an established organization. We also dive into the opportunity to utilize students to augment limited resources. Matt is a passionate motivating leader that you will definitely want to hear from.

Brian Gregory [00:00:33]:

Let's dive in. Welcome, Matthew. Thank you for joining me today on our podcast episode. Before we get started, just want to go ahead and jump in a little bit to your background. So maybe just tell us a little bit about you and how you got to the current role that you're in.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:00:45]:

Sure. Well, Brian, thanks so much for having me. Matthew Doyley here at Otterbein University, I am the director of the Office of Events and Conferences. And how we kind of interact is we use FMX as our single calendar system on campus. But I got there through I have a theater background and actually used to produce shows up in Michigan and works my way through higher ed and residents life and Greek life and ultimately over into fundraising and then event planning goes really actually hand in hand with producing shows. So something I've been doing for many years.

Brian Gregory [00:01:19]:

Awesome. Well, thanks for that background. Matthew, you did mention that you're an FMX customer, so thank you for the name drop there. But since you did mention that, maybe just share a little bit about your experience with adopting FMX at Otterbein. I know there are certainly bright spots, but there are also challenges and just dive into that, if you don't mind.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:01:37]:

Yeah, so our office is being created as we were looking for a way to kind of change the culture at Otterbein through breaking down silos. And so ultimately, kind of how it all started was we had to have conversations to really figure out what do we need to be more efficient? What does that cultural conversation look like about how space is being used and what are the needs of all these different people that kind of think that they own their building, if you will? Because on a college campus, you get people that potentially have their fiefdom, if you will, and they want to be able to own that space. And so our conversation really started well before even looking at software. It started by being able to have a real conversation about what would be helpful for all these building captains or folks that kind of ran a building to be more efficient. And ultimately software was one of those answers. And so that's where we began that conversation and looking at different options.

Brian Gregory [00:02:36]:

Awesome. And how long did you guys have those conversations and what specifically happened during yes.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:02:43]:

So really bringing all those people together to say, okay, where are our pitfalls? And one of them was that people were using Outlook, people were using some homegrown system, people were using pen and paper. And so everyone was using a different system. And so being able to all agree that we should be all on a same system was step number one. Because unless you're all rowing in the boat the same direction, you're not able to even get to having a conversation about what software makes sense.

Brian Gregory [00:03:13]:

Yeah, I can only imagine. Probably some people were early adopters and comfortable with that idea. Maybe others were harder to convince. Any tips or tricks to convince those that were really resistant?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:03:25]:

Yeah, I think just showing what they would have access to and be able to see versus hiding things and not knowing what was going on in a different building. But then also to really talk about the customer experience, where if you wanted to reserve whether it was an external client or an internal client, if you wanted to reserve a room in two different buildings, you had to talk to two different people. Heaven forbid, three different buildings, three different people, and so on and so on. And so being able to show those efficiencies and showing them that they can still have approval and ownership because we can set up this system at that point, even whatever, one that we picked, and make sure that you have that approval process. And so they still had some ownership in it and didn't feel like they were giving up complete control. And then there were others were like, great, you're taking over. Awesome. Please run with it.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:04:15]:

And so we have some unique spaces. I would say the library is one where we really wanted to make sure that they still had the approval process. They still have to be quiet in the library. And so the types of events there that are reserved, they still have that kind of approval process. And even like our boardroom, the president's office wants some say in that and even some of our music and theater facilities. So we wanted to really make sure that we were looking at a system and a way, again, to kind of be rowing in the same boat as the analogy I keep using, but being able to kind of bring everyone onto be the same page, but also give everyone the thing that they were looking for. And that partly was that control.

Brian Gregory [00:04:54]:

I love the whole piece of, first of all, let's not pick a system yet. Let's talk about the process, let's talk about the culture, let's agree on what we want and then we'll look at options because we've seen that go the other way. Like, here are the options. Can we force our culture or can we force a process to fit. So it's refreshing that you guys went that other way. So once you had those meetings and what was the next step? Like, how did you guys decide FMX versus somebody else?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:05:19]:

Sure. For us, it was FMX had everything that we needed and wanted because we were building anew. And so we had to really think about, what does that process look like from a customer experience, both internal and external, to be able to look at our spaces, figure out what we had to offer, and how could we kind of integrate all those different parts and pieces? And we're not a huge operation. I mean, we are in our own way, but we didn't need a software system that had, I would say, way too many bells and whistles. Right. We needed something that worked well and was efficient and being able to get everyone on the same page. So ultimately, I feel like one of the main reasons we picked it was because it makes sense, right? Like you do this, you do that and you have an event and it's approved. It's a straight line process where I feel like some of the other ones that we worked with, it was too much.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:06:20]:

We didn't need all the stuff that you just don't need. Right. I can't think of it's been a while, I can't think of any of the things, but I appreciated how it was just so clearly laid out from the beginning. It wasn't that we were building it and crafting it just for us, which I felt like some of the other softwares that we were looking at, it was a little bit more confusing of what happened in order.

Brian Gregory [00:06:45]:

Okay, so you guys went through the kind of cultural exercise. What do we want? You picked the software FMX, which is great. So how's it going now? Have you seen the results that you're looking to see? Are there still things that you still are working through?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:07:00]:

Yeah, absolutely. One of the other things that I should jump back a little bit on and then get into the answer of this is we wanted our registrar to still schedule classes. And so one of the things that FMX was able to do was still work with our main data system and we use banner on campus and integrate our class schedule and does a feed into FMX. And so that's a really important piece that I think ultimately is the success. Because of that integration, we are able to let the registrar do their job because we didn't want to take over that piece, but then be able to then schedule around those classes. And so ultimately, I think our success is that collaboration and FMX does that every day through an automatic file that gets uploaded from our system and through FMX. And so I think that is kind of the foundation of our success and how we use then our classrooms and facilities on campus because our number one thing that we're here for is our students. And so if FMX wasn't able to do that, that would be a huge loss because we wouldn't be able to have that automatic streamlined communication.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:08:09]:

But as far as other successes, things are going extremely well. We have trained everyone on campus that they need to put in their own requests. So that in itself was a cultural shock. Previously they would send an email and say hey, I need a room from this time to this time and wouldn't even necessarily say what their event was. And so having the opportunity to have, we call it an event inquiry form, to be able to put in all the things that they need for their event, go through that approval process and move it forward through the system has been wonderful.

Brian Gregory [00:08:41]:

Tell me a little bit about the training process because I know Utterbine, it's not a small organization and there are a lot of folks making requests. How do you handle training?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:08:51]:

Absolutely well. We were fortunate or not fortunate on the topic. This happened during COVID so unfortunate that COVID was happening, but fortunate for us that we were able to record and do some live training with a lot of people. And so that, I think, is the best way is to be able to share your screen, walk them through, and what is the best is they say, oh, this is easy because it's all the questions that they went back and forth previously via email trying to figure out. And so now they have all the questions right there, and not all of them are required, but we have the basics that we need for an event date, time, whether they're going to have catering, if they need any. Tables or chairs, AV support, and then their total attendance. And then their name, email and phone number so we can get in touch with them. Those are the basic requirements.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:09:40]:

But we have other questions too. If you do want catering, then what does your menu look like? If you need AV support, what does that look like? And all those then open up to ask additional questions based on the things that they need for their and you.

Brian Gregory [00:09:54]:

Know, there are always silver linings. Certainly wish COVID was never here, but there is some value. Yeah, I guess moving on from that, I want to get in a little bit to kind of data and I've talked to a few others, depending on your role, there's different metrics that you track, but specific for you Matthew, what key performance indicators do you track to see if you guys are on pace or not?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:10:15]:

Absolutely. So obviously there's the revenue, so there's the revenue of what we're doing from a budget standpoint. But the biggest thing that we look at to help tell that story is building usage. So as you were asking the question, pulled up some data real fast so all classes, those coming over from Banner and our events last fiscal year, so July 1 through June 30, we had 57,508 total reservations.

Brian Gregory [00:10:44]:

Wow.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:10:44]:

And so then we can say, okay, well, most of those were in this academic building. And maybe from a facility standpoint, we need to replace some furniture or housekeeping needs to take a better, deeper dive into that building because it's being used 20% of the time versus another building that's only maybe getting used 7% of the time. And so all of a sudden, what I can share is this story of where people are moving through campus. And so I've been able to share that with several different groups on campus to be able to really show what that looks like. We can also then break down the type of event that is happening in those spaces, whether that's an internal event, an external event, student organization based on how that event inquiry form is filled out from the beginning. And so I can very quickly say that there were 2312 total student organization reservations last year, and I can say that 19% of them were in this building or whatnot. And so being able to show that kind of data allows not only us to tell that story, but it allows us to influence potential long term projects and plans that happen on campus that we had never been able to do before.

Brian Gregory [00:11:56]:

That's great. One of the things that kind of piques my curiosity, utility department, I had a background in that side of things, right? So you look at these buildings and Building A uses 20% more energy than Building B. That's going to raise your eyebrows. But if you had facilities use data alongside that, say, okay, well, Building A also has 5000 events and Building B has nothing. It's easier to normalize it. Have you guys had any of those conversations or do you see any of that in the future?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:12:22]:

We have. We've started to talk to our facilities team and really look at what do motion detector lights in certain buildings look like versus others, and how do we prioritize those on campus based on when the buildings are being used. So definitely it's one of those we have felt hand in hand conversations that are super important as we're trying to make those kind of next steps.

Brian Gregory [00:12:45]:

Going back to the whole change management piece, because that's never easy, and certainly you're the leader of that change. When you think about the team that went through the whole thought exercise, went through the culture exercise, selected FMX and implemented, who else was critical? What kind of roles did you have to make this project successful? Or were you just the man and did it all by yourself?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:13:06]:

I never do anything completely by myself because it truly does take a team. But really thinking through that integration from Banner and what did that look like from an It standpoint and working with the FMX integration team to really figure out how to build that out so that it made sense and that it worked. And then also all those kind of building captains, I had to get their buy in to either get on board or not. And how did then we work through that? And I would say even today I was having a conversation earlier about how a building is being used and flipping it from one set up to another. And we always are making those compromises through collaboration. But software ultimately is what tells us what we need to do and helps that project plan and makes us more efficient because we're able to look at all of that and kind of work hand in hand. Definitely not the only person, but definitely a driver in all of that. And all those conversations, super important to make sure, again, everyone's on the same page that concerns are being addressed, listening to those different concerns.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:14:09]:

And then how do we adapt it? Or hey, this integrates with Outlook that you don't even have to log into FMX. You can have it show up on your Outlook calendar so you have quick access and it's one last step for you. Oh, really? And so it's constantly as employees change over or new people come into leadership roles, it's sharing those little tidbits that they're like, oh, this is really great. Oh, this is even better because it's making me be able to have access to that. And so I'm combining kind of the everyone involved, but also the success of it because everyone that uses it every day sees new ways of how it works and how it integrates and it's educating. We do have another space on campus where there's no walls on the adjoining room. And so someone today tried to put in a reservation. They're like, there's nothing there.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:14:57]:

I don't understand why there's a conflict. It's like, well, we built in a conflict because you can't have a microphone in both spaces and have a conflicting sound. And she's like, oh, that makes perfect sense. Thank you. I would have just put in the reservation and never would have thought of that. And so we were very intentional as a team to really look at all of our spaces on campus. How then were they outfitted with technology? The other piece that we did too is we wanted on college campuses and probably some other high schools and things like that. You have rooms that are named after people.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:15:26]:

So we wanted to make sure that all the donors were also listed in all of our data, so that when someone does reserve a room, that they see that that was a gift from so and so family. And so being able to really take that inventory of all of our spaces and think how that they work together to be able to then have a successful reservation in that space or that building. So lots of different people helped influence that. And student workers even went around and took photos of every single space because we loaded that all into FMX. Yeah, lots of team members there.

Brian Gregory [00:15:57]:

Well, kind of switching topics a little bit, right. So we've got this in place. Obviously solved a lot of challenges, but I'm sure the job still has its current challenges. What are some of the biggest challenges you face day to day in your role?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:16:10]:

Managing the 1197 events that need something. So we have kind of defined events that just need a classroom or just need a space and don't need anything from our office. They just get approved and get moved on. But it's managing all the details of the other events and how that then integrates with FMX. And so being able to kind of stay on top of that. I talked a little bit earlier about the setup of a space and what does that look like and how do we make sure that one room gets flipped from tables that are set up in a circle versus theater style and et cetera. So being able to really figure out what does that integration look like? And then also just those new people to the community, or like we just had all new students start on campus, helping them to interact and see what are all these spaces? And what are these events that are going on? And how can I filter this calendar so that I can see what's going on? And so as I continue to talk to your team, I think that they've been amazing on taking that feedback. And I know that they're working on creating some new opportunities with calendars and other things that are on the horizon.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:17:15]:

So I never can complain about FMX because every time I come up with an idea, someone's always listening or willing to at least listen and be able to take that feedback. And so I've really appreciated that.

Brian Gregory [00:17:26]:

Sure. Well, I appreciate that answer. And FMX or not, if you had a magic wand and you could fix one thing that you're dealing with, what would that be?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:17:36]:

Probably what does that filtered kind of calendar look like? From an integration to your website to being able to really showcase the events that you want to put out there, being able to have it live on your website but then not have to recreate it, but it actually feeds from FMX. And so being able to really have that integration from a public website view, whether that's prospective students or families, like I said, there's thousands of events happening on campus, but how do you raise those few up to the top and really showcase them on the website without recreating the wheel? Because all the data is there. And so being able to integrate, that.

Brian Gregory [00:18:18]:

More recruitment for events and public facing. That makes a lot of sense.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:18:21]:

Exactly.

Brian Gregory [00:18:22]:

Cool. I mean, a few other things just want to get into. If you think about what is the next chapter? COVID hit, vents slowed down, events have picked back up. What new challenge do you see on the horizon?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:18:33]:

Yeah, it's space. People have found us and they want to plan their event, which is amazing, but we still have to have classes and be the primary reason why we're a university. And so it's been really fun meeting a lot of external groups wanting to come to campus to be able to use our facilities, because I feel like we've been able to showcase them differently because ultimately FMX for us is a space utilization formula. Okay. We have all this space and it's not being used 24 7365. So when can we use it? That makes sense, but we're getting to a point where it's like, okay, I need some good space just all the time because groups keep coming. And so what does that expansion look like for us and being able to know help kind of the Central Ohio area be able to fill that need for event space and meeting space across.

Brian Gregory [00:19:26]:

The Central Ohio region, has that influenced capital planning? Are you guys looking at new buildings and new space for the sake of space or not so much?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:19:36]:

I mean, I would like to think that. I mean, it's definitely part of conversations when buildings are renovated of what does this look like as far as a meeting space, or is it a lounge or what does that look like? And so, yeah, there's been some small conversations, but not building any new buildings anytime soon that I'm aware of, but definitely with some renovations and some how spaces are being used definitely has been part of that conversation.

Brian Gregory [00:19:58]:

Awesome. Well, I kind of know the answer to this, maybe. And we can't go into too much detail, I know, but when you think about all the events that you've handled during your time, are there any ones that stick out as exceptional?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:20:10]:

Yeah, I mean, I do think you know the answer to this one, but that's okay. It would definitely be the CNN New York Times fourth presidential debate in October of 2019. We were the host site for the largest presidential debate in history with 13 candidates on stage. And so being able to kind of be at the forefront of what that looked like on our campus was an amazing gift. To be able to work hand in hand with CNN and The New York Times, to really bring that to the world was a huge privilege of my career. And to kind of be that main contact to make that come to life was very cool.

Brian Gregory [00:20:49]:

Yeah, I mean, Otterbine was the spotlight for the world for a period of time.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:20:54]:

Yes. Not only Otterbine, but Westerville and people wandering around and trying to get a glimpse on what was happening. Absolutely.

Brian Gregory [00:21:02]:

How long had you been in your role when that landed?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:21:04]:

Yeah. So the office started July 1 of 2019, and that call came a couple of weeks later, and so they were technically my first official client.

Brian Gregory [00:21:12]:

All right, well, once you've done that, I think you can pretty much handle anything, Matthew.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:21:18]:

That's right. And actually we were fortunate that CNN came back to campus again during the Trump Biden debate that happened in Cleveland during that cycle and got all the Ohio voter kind of know being able to not only have the creation of our office. But be able to integrate software and really look at that space was why we were able to kind of do an event like that to that size. Because all of a sudden we're like, oh, this space can be available, or moving people around. It made things easier because it was there and we were ready to be able to jump on it.

Brian Gregory [00:21:50]:

It had to build your department's straight cred just to pull that just a little bit.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:21:56]:

It also helped that that was our first event. So to take us all the way back to the beginning and talking about culture for campus to say, oh, my gosh, this is amazing, and this office put this on. Exactly. It definitely helped with the street cred and the notoriety of The Office since we've made a splash to kick it off. Absolutely.

Brian Gregory [00:22:14]:

I want to pull on one other thread, too. This is going slightly off topic, but you mentioned use students to collect pictures and that sort of thing. How do you leverage students in your operation?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:22:25]:

Yeah, students are a huge part of our operation. There is a lot of little details that need to get done every day. And so we have about ten students that work for us. They help process not only FMX requests, but look at them, put them in to gather that data that is needed for every event. They answer the phone, take messages from clients, and look at what those needs are.

Brian Gregory [00:22:48]:

It's kind of full circle in some ways. Back in college, myself and my co founder Mitch, we had this group called The Labsters. So, like, we're the sociology research lab. They called us labsters. And one of the things we did was run tech around Ohio State University for events, set up laptops, make sure the person knew what was going on. So it's funny, it's kind of full circle, and it's great to see that you guys are utilizing students kind of in the same way.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:23:12]:

Absolutely. We have students that do that for us, and so they're meeting with a client and making sure their technology is set up, whether that's a microphone or a projector, or making sure that they have that HDMI cord versus some other adapter. So absolutely. We have that integrated right into our team as well. So a good model that you were a part of and definitely a full circle moment for you.

Brian Gregory [00:23:32]:

Yeah. Fond memories. All right, well, I know we're coming up a little bit on time here, but I like to end each one of these episodes just with some advice. So, like, Matthew, if you think about somebody else out there that wants to enter the event management space or facilities management in general, what advice would you give to them?

Matthew D'Oyly [00:23:47]:

I think the biggest thing, and we've hit on it throughout, is being able to listen to ultimately, what is it that would make your operation more efficient. And so really figuring out from those constituents that you work with, what do they want, what do they need, what makes sense in their day to day operation, that a software would help them be more efficient and help them do their job better? Because I think often we just say, oh, we need something, we need to do this or we need to do that. And unless you're out there talking to the people and listening to the people that are going to use this every day, you set yourself up for failure. So you get that buy in, you change that culture, you listen and you're able to hopefully then kind of round that corner to be able to create a great impact.

Brian Gregory [00:24:36]:

Awesome. Great advice. And Matthew, thank you again for your time. I know you're a busy guy. Not as busy now as you were, I guess, in 2019, 2020, but still pretty darn busy. So thank you and hope to see you soon.

Matthew D'Oyly [00:24:47]:

Yeah, no, thank you very much, Brian. Appreciate it.