The recent IAM Conference (International Association of Movers) in New York attracted over 1,800 participants – one of the highest attendances in its history. Steve Jordan reports.
John Burrows, IAM Chairman, opened the ‘State of the Association’ address at the 63rd IAM conference in New York on 25 October, 2025. He explained that the attendance was the second highest on record and thanked the volunteers and sponsors who make the event possible.
First on stage was Angela DeConti, Director of the new Global Moving Foundation (GMF). She explained some of the developments and achievements of the GMF since its formation at the beginning of the year. She said that they could be summarised as: evolution, education and expansion. This involved a rebranding exercise and the launch of the new website. Angela thanked the Board members for their time, energy and generosity.
“The mission is simple but powerful,” she said. “To strengthen the professionalism and long-term success of our workforce while fostering a culture of accessibility, excellence and continuous growth.” She encouraged others to volunteer to assist the organisation.
Angela explained the industry financial awards that are available to assist with training. These are the newly-branded Wohlstetter Academic Awards named after the Association’s founder Alan F. Wohlstetter, which awards $5,000 educational scholarships to IAM members. In the last year, nine such awards have been made. The Industry Training Program (ITP) makes $500 awards to any person in the industry to assist with industry training through pre-approved training programmes such as those provided by IAM Learning, FIDI, LACMA, EuRA and WERC. Since its start in 2022, the ITP has made 238 such payments. And the Skill-based Learning Award covers 50% of course fees, up to $2,000, for those taking other vocational courses such as project management, fork-lift driving or live animal handling.
Angela also highlighted the Jackie Anger Award, which recognises one individual and one company each year for charitable and community work. Companies may apply through the GMF website in early 2026.
Angela finally explained that since 2002, the GMF and the Alan F. Wohlstetter Fund that preceded it has invested over $850,000 into the industry, and she recognised the many donors who had provided the funds to make it all happen.
GMF Chairman, Terry Head, thanked Angela and her team for all their hard work and gave more detail on the actions of the organisation including bringing IAM Hear2help, an organisation formed to help provide disaster relief where it was needed, under the umbrella of the GMF and its support for the American Logistics Aid Network. The GMF is in the process of expanding its involvement in such humanitarian and charitable work.
Adam Lowy from Move for Hunger joined the stage. His organisation collects non-perishable food and distributes it to those in need. He said that the USA sees food waste on a massive scale and many food programmes, that would previously have provided help to food-insecure families, are being cut.
He explained that over the last 15 years, Move for Hunger has provided around 54 million meals, 12 million of those have been given by IAM members who collected unwanted food items from customers. Move for Hunger distributed 15 million meals to 500 food banks in the last year alone.
Adam said that 255 IAM members have contributed and specifically recognised those making the greatest contributions, including Just in Time Moving from Utah that topped the list.
Move for Hunger is also engaged in fund raising, which this year includes the Music City Drop in which Adam, and many industry individuals, will rapel (abseil) from the 20-storey OMNI Hotel in Nashville. Adam said that every $100 collected provides 400 meals for those in need. The GMF pledged to match-fund all industry donations received up to the value of $5,000. The funding also makes it possible for the organisation to accept, handle and deliver the many food donations received from producers every year.
Brian Limperopulos is the IAM president. He took the opportunity of welcoming everyone to the conference, saying that the 1,850 attendees made it the world’s largest gathering of the moving industry.
To set the scene he showed a video that highlighted the uncertainty both in the world and in the industry explaining that it was this that had driven the choice of conference theme, ‘Sharpen your Focus’ ...
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