Ed Katz

— Entrepreneur, Inventor, Teacher, Author

“For all his success and achievements . . . , Ed Katz is most passionate about teaching. A natural behind the podium, Katz receives rave reviews as keynote speaker, guest lecturer, and trainer for his fresh enthusiasm and his ability to motivate and inspire an audience. Despite what would seem to be a painfully dry subject, a session with Ed Katz is truly an unforgettable experience.”

Ed Katz has changed the way businesses move. He realized early on that office moving is a service; give the customer superior service and they’ll be back. Minimize the disruption, damage, and downtime normally associated with moving — let them stay in business — and moving becomes a painless experience.

His training programs & seminars offered through the International Office Moving Institute (IOMI®) help moving companies, furniture dealers, and project managers develop or improve their commercial moving business, and help iinhouse move crews improve service quality.

Ed Katz has spent more than 30 years listening to customers and developing methods and tools to either minimize moving complaints or eliminate them altogether. Better still, he’s willing to share what he has learned.

When Ed Katz founded Peachtree Movers in Atlanta, GA, he moved furniture like every other mover. And heard the same complaints. Moving means packing and unpacking and everyone hates it. Besides the drudgery and inevitable lost and mixed-up files, productivity comes to a complete standstill. The customer is out of business. To add insult to injury, the mover damages walls, floors, and furniture getting to the truck. Haphazardly stacked on the moving van, many items such as glass, framed art work, and computers undergo a beating in transit and emerge at the new location marred or broken, sometimes worse. After the move, the customer feels as battered as his or her belongings.

But Ed Katz took customer complaints seriously and began developing methods and tools to eliminate or minimize the grievances. To minimize damage, Katz devised protection systems for building surfaces and sensitive electronic equipment. To minimize office disruption, he developed moving methods that allow customers access to records and files right up to the time they’re rolled out the door. To his customers’ delight, Katz began moving the contents in the furniture rather than the contents and the furniture, and thus the “boxless” move® was born. By virtually eliminating the costly downtime of packing, his customers stayed in business and loved it.

Moving “boxless”, using his patented Spider Crane® and Space Gobblers™ combination, gave companies planning a move a green-tech option never before available. Katz realized that his unlikely sounding devices were not only smart for business by saving customers time and money but the process is environmentally-friendly, with fewer truck loads burning less gas and less packing materials thrown away after the move.

In 1996, Peachtree Movers was chosen “Number 1” in both updating the industry and customer satisfaction by the National Moving and Storage Association. Shortly before Katz sold Peachtree Movers in 2000, it received the Consumer’s Choice Award for Best Office Mover in Atlanta. His methods, techniques, and inventions have been featured in numerous trade journals, business magazines, and the Wall Street Journal. Katz’s innovations have brought him international recognition, and the unofficial title of guru of office moves.

As a first-time author, Katz was chosen Distinguished Author of the Year for 1999 by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) for Commercial Relocation: A Comprehensive Guide for Industry Professionals & Service Buyers. Katz produced Moving Computers, his first self-paced, multimedia training CD in 2000, and two years later released his second book, Office Moving for Movers. His latest work, Move Your Business (Without Becoming A Moving Target) was published in 2004.

Katz holds a master’s degree in urban renewal and city planning from the University of Pittsburgh, and spent four years as a Wall Street stock broker and investment counselor before moving to Atlanta to sell commercial real estate. It was the horror stories of building landlords that introduced him to office moving.

For all his success and achievements as a businessman, inventor, and author, Ed Katz is most passionate about teaching. A natural behind the podium, Katz receives rave reviews as keynote speaker, guest lecturer, and training instructor for his fresh enthusiasm and his ability to motivate and inspire an audience. Despite what would seem to be a painfully dry subject, for tens of thousands of industry professionals, a session with Ed Katz has been a truly unforgettable experience.