Organizers of the 2017 ASHRAE Winter Conference and the AHR Expo in Las Vegas said the events saw record attendance. In total, 3,579 people attended making it the most well attended winter conference in recent years. The attendees represented 58 countries and included 537 first-timers.

The AHR Expo set several records, including attendance of more than 68,000 registered visitors and exhibitor personnel, as well as 500,159 sq ft sold. The show was by far the largest and best attended expo in the Western states with some 1,968 exhibiting companies.

The conference also saw several collaborative efforts and agreements with associations and organizations from around the world.

“Partnering with allied organizations and associations better allows us to harness and adapt new technologies, which we can all use in working toward a more sustainable environment,” said ASHRAE President Tim Wentz. “By working together, we can create a worldwide best practices databank of innovative and successful technologies that can serve the built environment community.”

ASHRAE signed memoranda of understanding with several groups, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ISHRAE), and Association of German Engineers (VDI-GBG). The society also signed a strategic partnership agreement with the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning Associations (REHVA). In addition, it updated its Work Plan with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

As part of the event, the Clean Climate and Air Coalition (CCAC) held a Sustainable Technologies for Stationary Air Conditioning Workshop focused on climate-friendly and cost-effective air conditioning technologies. ASHRAE is an actor with CCAC.

At the conference, Wentz provided updates on several society initiatives and programs of importance to the industry. Among them was creation of a new “ASHRAE University” educational platform, which will locate all of ASHRAE’s educational products in one place where users can select the products to meet their professional goals. Additionally, a personal dashboard is built into the new platform allowing users to track their progress toward their goals. The new platform can be found at www.ashrae.org/elearning.

ASHRAE also has launched a new Technology Portal at www.ashrae.org/technologyportal. ASHRAE says this gives its members an easy, fast method of connecting to the latest information generated by ASHRAE’s research program. It serves a central body of knowledge for ASHRAE technology and research products. It provides access to more than 1,700 Journal articles published since 1997 and more than 600 final reports from ASHRAE research projects.

Wentz, an associate professor at the University of Nebraska — Lincoln, also shared an update on a new, online internship job board. The new internship portal is found on ASHRAE’s website at http://jobs.ashrae.org.