The Air Conditioning Contractors of America held its Business Technology and Operations Forum and Service Leadership Forum from October 24-27 in New Orleans. Hundreds of HVAC contractors, and their staff, attended the learning sessions and networking events.

The Business Technology and Operations Forum included 12 speakers who shared ideas about digital marketing technology and strategies, dispatching and inventory software integration practices, and cloud-based efficiency solutions. ACCA corporate partner Federated Insurance spoke about best practices for employee training and safety in an operations-focused seminar.

Robert Parsley, president of Quality Comfort Air in Spring, Texas and a new ACCA member said, “Because of these meetings, I have changed my thought process about running a company, particularly the dispatching and customer service components. Talking to other contractors and vendors helped me identify mistakes I was making that caused me to lose revenue. I am especially glad I brought my service manager with me to help him learn and grow, but also to assist me with implementing some of what we learned.”

The Service Leadership Forum also featured 12 speakers, including commercial and residential HVAC contractors who shared their companies’ best practices for service maintenance agreements. Other topics at the Service Leadership Forum included constructive ideas on technician recruiting and onboarding, modernized performance review methods, and practical techniques that smaller contractors use to implement large-scale projects.

Jim Baillargeon of Scott-Lee Heating and Cooling in St. Louis said, “I learned that I need to retool my commercial maintenance agreements. My pricing models need to be adjusted to ensure that I do not lose money and price myself out of the market. The session on maintenance agreements was an eye opener.”

The Business Technology and Operations and Service Leadership forums were sponsored by Angie’s List, Best Living Systems, Broadly, Data-Basics, Davisware, Emerson, Federated Insurance, FieldEdge, Home Service Chats, Jackson Systems, mHelpDesk, Mirage, NATE, Nexstar , Nortek Global HVAC, One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning, Pearl Certification, Pointman, SAWIN – Service Automations, Schedule Engine, ServiceTitan, Team Management Systems, The New Flat Rate, and USA Refrigerants.

ACCA’s next contractor event will be ACCA’s Annual Conference and IE3 Show at the Gaylord National Harbor in Washington, D.C., February 12-14. Visit http://www.ie3show.com/ to learn more about the ACCA Learning Labs and other events to be featured at the 2018 ACCA Annual Conference and IE3 Show.