Back to School, Back to Conferences
It’s autumn, so it’s not only the shoulder season and time to service your maintenance agreement customers’ heating equipment for the winter, but it’s time once again for various national organizations to hold meetings, conferences, conventions, and other events.
October is a popular month for various HVACR organizations and associations to meet. A few of the many conferences and meetings being held Oct. 2013 include:
- International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) Conference and Expo, Oct. 9-10, Las Vegas;
- Mechanical Service Contractors Association Annual Educational Conference, Oct. 13-16, Boca Raton, Fla.;
- IAQ 2013 (This year’s theme is Environmental Health in Low Energy Buildings), Oct. 15-18, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;
- CONNECT 2013(PHCC’s annual convention), Oct. 16-19, Las Vegas;
- Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association 2013 Annual Convention; Oct. 20-24; Maui, Hawaii;
Meetings, conferences, etc. offer educational opportunities for HVACR personnel to learn more about the technical side of the business, and often they offer courses in related areas, such as business management. Because they hold so many classes in a short amount of time, you can really learn a lot while you’re there, and it might help you figure out what areas you want to learn even more about, too.
Some conference-goers say they learn quite a bit outside of the formal sessions just talking to peers, like finding out how other companies handle a particular challenge. Another benefit from attending these events and talking to people, they say, is the networking.
Those conferences that have an exposition as part of the convention offer an opportunity to not only hear about the latest products, but sometimes to see them in action, which can give you a better idea of how they operate. Attendees can find out what a product can do by watching the producers of the equipment, components, or tools put the product through its paces.
So don’t forget to schedule time this fall and/or winter to go to one or more conferences to learn all that’s up-to-date in the industry. You can look on The NEWS’ website for those and other HVACR-related convention listings, in-person training seminars, and so forth.
Happy learning.
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