The saga of dueling trade shows in Europe has come to an end. But the near two-year journey is certainly a life lesson for those wondering how many places exhibitors and attendees are willing to go and how often. Promoters will need to aggressively and completely detail the benefits of attending their particular expo. And they will need to deliver.

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show had more than 2,200 exhibitors showing wares to more than 70,000 attendees. Given that many exhibitors, there was plenty of new technology in the refrigeration sector including those related to ice machines, walk-ins, and reach-ins.

Phaseout of HCFCs such as R-22 continues, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also continues to tweak and fine-tune certain aspects of the process. The agency held a half-day summit for stakeholders in the phaseout, so that brought manufacturers and trade associations to Washington, D.C.

Just as there is concern in the air conditioning sector over the changeover away from R-22, there are similar fears that too much of that refrigerant is still being used on the refrigeration side.

Deciding what to do with recovered refrigerant presents contractors with a question - to vent or not to vent? With recovered refrigerant, ensuring that it is cleaned to ARI 700 purity standards is another challenge.

The HVACR industry is on the offensive to keep HFCs in the pipeline as political pressure increases to include such refrigerants in a basket of global warming gases and subject them to extensive regulation and potential phaseout. Currently high on the industry radar screen is the Lieberman-Warner America’s Climate Security Act, which has HFCs in its cross hairs.

The emphasis on efficiency and sustainability is expected to continue to grow, even more so given rapidly rising energy costs. It certainly would be in the best interest of contractors to be up to speed on the newest HVAC technologies - and be ready to supply and install those products.

If techs can find any way to reduce any aspects of what is in a truck, they more than likely will take a hard look at that option. A recent development for coil cleaning has been the adaptation of chemicals in a granular form to be mixed with water on the jobsite.

Sustainability is not just the buzzword in commercial real estate. The concept has spread to major industrial refrigeration sites. That was evident by comments and the keynote address at the most recent International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration Conference & Exhibition.

The annual conference and exhibition of the International Insitute of Ammonia Refrigeration (IIAR) had a special emphasis on the exhibition aspect this year.