Commercial accounts can bring a carpet cleaning company steady revenue and long-term growth. They can also expose every weak spot in how that company is organized.

Research only earns its keep in this industry when it changes something on the next job. That idea sits at the center of the CIRI Science Symposium, held September 28-29 at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas.

The two-day event drew 115 people and put speakers from institutions including Yale University, the University of Toronto, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the same room with the professionals who clean, dry and restore buildings for a living.

Plenty of industry careers start with a training program or an entry-level sales territory. Steve Swigart’s first real memory of the ISSA Show starts with an errand.

Swigart, chairman of the board of Spartan Chemical Company in Maumee, Ohio, is the recipient of the 2026 ISSA Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award. The honor goes to an individual whom the ISSA board of directors considers deserving of recognition for substantial contributions to the industry and/or to the association over a significant period. In Swigart’s case, that period stretches back more than half a century to a hotel suite in Chicago.

Jeff Stone has never really worked outside the cleaning industry. He grew up around his family's soap business in Detroit, and he has represented ProTeam since the company opened its doors 39 years ago.

This year, ISSA recognizes that career with its 2026 Manufacturer Representatives' Distinguished Service Award, an honor reserved for individuals who support manufacturer representatives, the industry and the association.

Restoration contractors do more than dry out basements and rebuild fire-damaged rooms. They also have to document what they find, justify the work they perform and communicate with insurers without crossing legal lines. For Scott Huml, owner of TACMIT (Tactical Mitigation Services) in Southern California, one rule guides all of it: the client is the policyholder, not the carrier.

Building a successful cleaning company is one accomplishment. Keeping it growing year after year is another. Helping other people build their own futures along the way is what the ISSA VEO Visionario Award was created to recognize.

Nancy Galván, founder and CEO of Unica Enterprises in Dallas, and Veronica Vidal, founder and CEO of Custom Cleaning and Management Services (CCMS) in Florida, were among the 2026 Visionario Award winners at the ISSA VEO Conference in Dallas this September. The award draws its meaning from VEO itself: Visión, Empeño, Oportunidad, or vision, determination and opportunity.

Independent restoration companies make up a large share of the industry, and many of them operate without the corporate support, shared systems or national network a franchise brand provides. For the Restoration Industry Association (RIA), that gap is the reason its work for independents has become a priority. Earlier this year the association launched its Voice of the Independent Task Force, an advisory group meant to make sure the independent perspective shapes RIA strategy.

Eric Marceleño started working for his wife’s janitorial company in February 2016. He didn’t wait until morning to get started. “The night that I was hired, we got immediately to work, stayed up to about two or three in the morning, contacting contracting officers by email, text and just trying to market the company, get our name out in front of all the contracting officers, federal contracting officers across the Southwest,” Marceleño said during a Straight Talk! podcast taped right before the 2026 ISSA VEOConference in Dallas.