In This Podcast:

Paul Stalknecht, president and CEO, ACCA, met with The NEWS’ products and education editor, Nick Kostora, at the 2015 AHR Expo to discuss the importance of large tradeshows, ACCA’s plans for 2015, and much more.

Q: How important are tradeshows and large conferences to the HVACR industry?

A: The AHR Expo is so big. It’s enormous. It’s great for the manufacturing and engineering community to see new products and meet new manufacturers. But, on the contracting side, it can be somewhat overwhelming — just based on the size and the fact that you’ll very rarely ever run into a contractor in the halls. At the ACCA show, all the people attending are owners or key executives of contracting businesses, offering a lot of interfacing and networking on the trade show floor.

Q: What does ACCA have in store for its conference in 2015?

A: In addition to our learning labs, we have some great mainstream speakers including Lowell Catlett, a very popular, futuristic economist. He’s a dean at New Mexico State University’s department of agriculture and economics school. Not only does he bring the tutorial side as a professor, but he’s absolutely hilarious. He’s one of the best speakers we’ve ever had. This will be his third time back. But, most importantly, we offer contractor networking. Contractor owners are there, and, they help each other tremendously. Whether its social events or walking the expo halls, these guys are always willing to teach and learn from one another in a much smaller, confined environment.

Paul Stalknecht
ACCA president and CEO
Arlington, Virginia
www.acca.org

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Publication date: 2/23/2015