The inaugural CleanBuilding's Expo opened Tuesday in Baltimore with a noticeable buzz surrounding the cleaning industry. Building service contractors and cleaning operations managers alike maneuvered the show floor as manufacturers waxed poetic about the products they hope will improve the industry. But before the floor opened up, visitors listened in on workshops touching on a bevy of topics.

Ben Walker, director of business development at ManageMen, Inc., used humor and strong imagary to demonstrate the common problems facing the industry, as well as ways to improve upon them.

Walker talked about waste and broke it down into different categories, so listeners didn't just view it as one uniform type of garbage, says Latreece Miller, president of Miller's Touch Cleaning, Newburgh, New York.

Miller also enjoyed Gene Woodard, director of buildings at the University of Washington in Seattle. Woodard provided creative ideas for how employers can motivate their cleaners, as well as advice on how to treat them better.

"You have to empower them to maximize results," says Miller.

Tim Alt of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Pullman, Washington, came to the show to learn about new products and see what his peers are doing. Schweitzer already exercises waste reduction and green cleaning, but Alt says it might pay to take an even closer look at the practices after seeing what he did in the presentations.

Chandler Hendricks of Standard Solutions Maintenance Group in Burton, Michigan hadn't planned on coming to Cleaning Buildings Expo until hearing chatter from peers regarding the event. Once he arrived, Hendricks was surprised by the structure of the event as well as the variety of vendors. He says he was particularly impressed by the broad spectrum of chemicals being shown on the event floor.

The second day of CleanBuildings Expo will offer more of the same, with just enough of a twist. New speakers will lead sessions devoted to fostering a culture of sustainability, hardwood floor trends, new technology in cleaning, carpet maintenance, self-cleaning services and more. These conference sessions will run from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and then start again at 3:45 p.m. The expo hall will open a half hour earlier at 11:30 a.m. and will stay open until 3:30 p.m.