FMA Summits
Reduce Failures and Increase Uptime in Cold-Storage Facilities
Align on specs, commissioning, and handoff standards that prevent year-two failures.
Operator reality ↔ design-build solutions
Cold storage demand is outpacing supply. With 1.3 billion tons of food wasted annually due to inadequate infrastructure, and e-commerce driving growth in last-mile cold chain, operators and developers face pressure to expand capacity while maintaining uptime and preventing excursions. Each session pairs what failed in a real facility with the design-build fix that prevents recurrence.
- VP or Director of Operations
- VP or Director of Engineering
- Capital Projects Managers
- Construction Directors
- Facilities Planning Leaders
- Cold Storage GMs
- Refrigeration Engineers
- Energy and Sustainability Directors
- Real Estate Developers
- Cold Storage Investors
- Supply Chain Directors
- 3PL cold storage operators
- Food and beverage manufacturers
- Foodservice distributors
- Cold storage developers
- Grocery distribution centers
- Pharma and life sciences
- Meat and poultry processors
- Frozen food manufacturers
- E-commerce and last-mile delivery
- Vertical farming and urban ag
- Private equity and REITs
- Refrigeration systems and OEMs
- Automation and material handling
- Design-build and MEP firms
- Building envelope and insulation
- Controls, monitoring and software
- Doors, dock and fire protection
- Power systems and generators
- HVAC and air quality systems
- Lighting and energy management
- Flooring and coatings
- Natural refrigerants and sustainability
- Last-mile logistics and urban hubs
- Grid resilience and backup power
- Refrigeration redundancy
- Automation commissioning
- Envelope and vapor continuity
- Doors, dock and infiltration
- Controls and monitoring systems
- Energy and demand charges
- Fire protection and AHJ compliance
- Floor systems and thermal breaks
- Lighting and daylighting
- Air quality and humidity control
- Expansion and capacity planning
- E-commerce and last-mile cold storage
- Sustainability and green refrigeration
14 case study pairs (operator reality ↔ design-build fix)
Each item expands to show a paired view: OPS (what failed) and DB (what to spec, build, commission, and turn over to prevent recurrence). 40+ solution providers presenting across food security, uptime, and expansion topics.
Outage playbooks: drills, failover, downtime minimization
Drills, staffing, escalation, monitoring, and recovery sequences that prevent excursions.
Generator vs microgrid: sizing for refrigeration loads
Inrush, startup sequencing, load shedding, runtime math, and restart-ready design. Sponsors: Power systems, generators, microgrid providers
Temperature excursions: root causes and prevention
Trigger, detection, response, and the fix that eliminated recurrence.
Ammonia and CO2 redundancy: practical designs
Where redundancy matters and how to remove single points of failure. Sponsors: Refrigeration OEMs, controls, monitoring systems
AS/RS plus WMS integration: what broke and how it was fixed
Integration failures, downtime risk, and what changed to stabilize throughput.
Cutover plus rollback: handoff plans that prevent downtime
Staging, commissioning, rollback scenarios, and go-live sequencing. Sponsors: Automation, material handling, WMS and WCS providers
Condensation, frost, and ice: root causes in live facilities
Penetrations and transitions that failed and the maintenance burden that followed.
Vapor detailing: the handoff checklist
Roof, wall, penetration details, IMP joints, thermal breaks, and inspection points. Sponsors: Insulation, envelope, panel systems
Infiltration under traffic: what holds up at scale
High-cycle door performance, frost management, and excursion prevention.
Door and dock specs that prevent condensation
Spec, placement, airflow, and control strategies that stop infiltration failures. Sponsors: Door systems, dock equipment, seals and shelters
As-builts did not match reality: what it cost us
Documentation gaps, training gaps, missing spares, and alarm maps.
The handoff package: tests, training, spares, alarm maps
What must be delivered at turnover so the facility runs on day one and year two. Sponsors: Design-build firms, MEP, commissioning agents
Floor heave, cracking, and frost damage: year-two failures
What happens when insulation, drainage, or thermal breaks fail under load.
Under-slab design: insulation, drainage, and thermal breaks
Spec, installation, and inspection protocols that prevent costly repairs. Sponsors: Flooring systems, coatings, insulation, drainage solutions
Lighting failures in freezer environments: what breaks and why
Cold temperature failures, energy waste, and maintenance burden.
LED specs for freezer environments plus daylighting strategies
Cold-rated fixtures, controls, and daylighting that reduce energy and improve uptime. Sponsors: LED manufacturers, controls, energy management systems
Moisture ingress: condensation, ice buildup, and mold risk
How uncontrolled moisture creates maintenance and safety issues.
Dehumidification plus air locks: design that eliminates moisture
HVAC, dehumidification, air curtains, and vestibule design that control humidity. Sponsors: HVAC, dehumidification, air curtain systems
Fire marshal compliance: what we missed and what it cost
Violations, retrofits, and the cost of non-compliance discovered late.
Fire protection specs for cold storage: sprinklers, detection, access
NFPA compliance, AHJ coordination, dry vs wet systems, and inspection access. Sponsors: Fire protection systems, sprinklers, detection, suppression
Demand charges destroying ROI: what we did not see coming
Peak loads, refrigeration startup, and the utility bill impact.
Load management plus thermal storage: strategies that cut demand
Controls, load shifting, thermal storage, and renewable integration. Sponsors: Energy management, controls, thermal storage, solar and battery
Expansion mistakes: what we would change if we could rebuild
Over-building, under-sizing, and the phasing decisions that cost money.
Modular design plus phased expansion: right-sizing for growth
Phasing, modular systems, infrastructure planning, and avoiding premature capex. Sponsors: Design-build, MEP, modular systems, consulting
Urban fulfillment failures: what broke at scale
High-velocity throughput, tight temp windows, and the failures that stopped delivery SLAs.
Micro-fulfillment hubs: design for rapid delivery and food safety
Urban site constraints, automation integration, and cold chain integrity for tight delivery windows. Sponsors: Urban warehouse developers, last-mile logistics, grocery tech, automation
Carbon reduction mandates: meeting targets without uptime risk
How sustainability goals, refrigerant phase-outs, and energy mandates clash with operational reality.
Solar plus natural refrigerants: ROI and implementation paths
CO2 and ammonia transitions, solar integration, energy storage, and the business case for green systems. Sponsors: Natural refrigerant OEMs, solar providers, battery storage, sustainability consultants
Why delegates win when they meet our sponsors
Not a vendor hall. A curated room of 40+ serious solution providers so your meetings produce answers, not brochures. As cold storage capacity struggles to keep pace with demand, these partners deliver the systems that prevent excursions and maximize uptime.
Get answers from teams who have done it at scale
Meet engineers and operators who translate constraints into practical solutions fast.
Victoria Sanville
LG Electronics
Stress-test power and resilience decisions
Validate backup power, resilience, and upgrade paths before you commit capex.
Mike Norelli
GE Vernova
Skip the noise and meet decision-ready experts
No booths. Structured conversations focused on your facility’s uptime risk.
Jim McDonald
PowerSecure
Turn meetings into implementable next steps
Leave with a shortlist, a plan, and introductions that accelerate execution.
John Price
Solar EV Solutions
Bring your VP or Director team. Leave with a preventable-failure playbook.
If you are expanding, retrofitting, automating, or stabilizing a live cold storage facility, this is built for you. Two days. Case studies. Handoff standards you can implement. Built for the reality of 1.3 billion tons of food waste and fast e-commerce growth.
Summit Schedule
Three days engineered for cold storage outcomes: pre-scheduled 1:1s you choose, operator case studies that compress learning, and hosted networking built around refrigeration, uptime, power, expansion, and food security.
3-Day Summit Overview
View detailed schedule
| Time | Day 1 Wednesday · Oct 7 |
Day 2 Thursday · Oct 8 |
Day 3 Friday · Oct 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7:00am | Corporate dining and networking | Corporate dining and networking | |
| 8:00am to 10:00am | Operator and partner case studies | Operator and partner case studies | |
| 10:00am | Hosted networking in exhibit room | Hosted networking in exhibit room | |
| 11:00am | Operator and partner case studies | Operator and partner case studies | |
| 12:00pm | Pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings (lunch) | Pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings (lunch) | |
| 1:00pm | Operator and partner case studies | Operator and partner case studies | |
| 2:00pm | Partner setup and registration | Operator and partner case studies | |
| 3:00pm | Partner setup and registration | Hosted networking in exhibit room | |
| 3:30pm | Partner setup and registration | Operator and partner case studies | |
| 5:00pm to 7:00pm | Partner setup and registration | Private reception, dinner, 1:1 meetings |
Event Location
Hilton Chicago / Oak Brook Hills Resort and Conference Center · Oak Brook, IL
A resort-style, delegate-friendly venue with the space and layout to run curated 1:1s, operator case studies, and private networking built for focus and outcomes.
Hotel info and rooms →Why operators trust the FMA Summits format
Real operators describing the structure, quality, and outcomes of the format.
Best facilities-focused event
One room, real operators, and immediate takeaways you can apply.
Brendan Sullivan
Estee Lauder Companies
Consistent value
Curated discussions and relationships that move from talk to execution.
Steven Driver
Sanofi
Learning across sectors
Concise sessions with relevant peer insight you can bring back to the team.
Scott Bonhoff
FBI
Deep conversations
One-to-one meetings, concise presentations, and peer learning that sticks.
Matt Emden
Principia College
Choose your seats
Full access to the program, meals and receptions, and curated introductions with solution providers relevant to cold storage operations, expansion, and food security.
| Seats | Package | Investment | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Solo delegate | $2,900 (per delegate) |
One site, one project priority, or a single decision-maker evaluating options. | Buy 1 seat |
| 2 | Two-person team | $5,800 (per delegate) |
Facilities plus refrigeration and engineering attending together to compare solutions. | Buy 2 seats |
| 3 | Core leadership team | $5,550 (per delegate) |
Facilities, engineering, and operations aligning on upgrades and timelines. | Buy 3 seats |
| 4 | Project squad | $7,400 (per delegate) |
Bring refrigeration, power and energy, and maintenance into one coordinated plan. | Buy 4 seats |
| 5 | Enterprise team | $9,250 (per delegate) |
Multi-site portfolios or national networks standardizing solutions across facilities. | Buy 5 seats |
Cold storage commands premium rents and lower vacancy rates. Whether you are expanding existing facilities or breaking ground on new capacity, this summit delivers the preventable-failure playbook that protects your investment and accelerates time-to-revenue.
After registration, we will also email calendar links and reminders closer to the summit.
Pick your seats. Bring the people who will execute.
If this summit matches the problems on your desk, refrigeration reliability, power capacity, uptime risk, expansion planning, and food security, the highest ROI comes from attending with the leaders who will implement the plan when you get back.
This is the inaugural Cold Storage Summit. Seats limited to 110 delegates. Capacity constraints make early planning essential.