ARLINGTON, Va. - The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) announced that registration has opened for the 2011 ACCA Annual Conference and Indoor Air Expo. The 43rd annual event will be held in San Antonio, Feb. 15-17.

According to ACCA, the 2011 conference will include more than 35 focused learning labs, taught by leading contractors and experts, in a variety of topic tracks, including Residential Contracting, Commercial Contracting, Business Fundamentals, and Technical Excellence. Contractors developed the educational program to ensure that the experts’ topics address real-world challenges and opportunities in the HVACR contracting industry.

Some of the topics to be covered during the conference are:

• Social Media in the Real World: A Contractor Case Study

• Getting Maximum Replacements From Your Customer Base

• Solar Power and the HVACR Contractor

• Geothermal Project Management

• BIM in Action: Building Information Modeling and Commercial HVACR

• Hiring and Firing: A Contractor Shares Best Practices

• New HVAC Business Opportunities: Teaming for Comprehensive Retrofits

• Small Business, Big Money: Landing Federal Contracts

• 6 Steps to Selling Commercial Service

• Building a Service Department That Works

• Net Zero: Building ZERO, or Building MAX?

• Working with Third-Party Energy Raters

A full list of scheduled workshops is available at www.accaconference.com/education.

Keynote speakers include Ross Shafer, an innovative business thinker, who will help contractors figure out if they are ready for the recovery by dissecting success stories and pointing out the warning signs that businesses often ignore. And, Bruce Wilkinson will help attendees take what they’ve learned during the week and put it into practice during a dynamic and funny closing session.

ACCA is recording all of the conference’s presentations and workshops, and those who purchase a full, “first employee” registration before Dec. 1, 2010, will receive the full Learning Labs DVD set for free after the conference.

“We’re always looking for ways to provide our contractor members and conference participants with terrific value, so this is a way we can help them get the most out of the largest educational event for contractors,” said Paul Stalknecht, president and CEO. “We will mail out the DVDs as soon as production is complete, to all attendees who either registered early to earn it for free or purchased a copy on-site. This will allow them to refresh their learning experiences, and share valuable learning with the top leaders in their companies that may not have been able to attend.”

Full conference registration includes all of the learning labs, sessions, and forums, as well as passes to the Indoor Air Expo and the evening Chairman’s Banquet.

The ACCA Conference is held in conjunction with the Indoor Air Expo, the industry-wide marketplace and showcase. The 2011 Indoor Air Expo is co-presented by ACCA, the Indoor Air Quality Association, and new this year, the Radiant Professionals Alliance.

The official hotel of the ACCA event is the Grand Hyatt San Antonio and the expo will take place at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, which is adjacent to the hotel. For complete program information, including accommodation and schedule details, visit www.accaconference.com.

Publication date: 10/25/2010