IIAR

“More than 30% of attendees were end users, and about 33% were contractors. That means about 65% of the people attending are those in the industry who will be installing, working on, and maintaining these systems,” said Yesenia Rector, IIAR’s annual conference and expo, meetings and international program director. “Education is tied to safety, and we want to ensure the accepted, recognized engineering practices in the industry are communicated.”

While everyone in the refrigeration industry is essential, Rector said the end users are on the front lines, using the systems. “They are the ones who are going to implement our practices and ensure these systems are ultimately safe,” she explained.

IIAR’s chapter in Mexico, with the support of IIAR USA, organized the event. “We had 125 companies participating and a total of almost 400 attendees,” Rector said, adding that more than 30 exhibitors took part in the conference, up from 26 at the last Mexico conference.

The education program consisted of over 12 technical presentations over two days. The third day featured a system maintenance presentation and a hands-on maintenance and equipment workshop. “That was very successful, and we had great reviews about it.”

IIAR also held a similar event in Costa Rica in in mid -November, in collaboration with their longstanding allied association, CIEMI. IIAR’s conference in Peru will be held the first week of June 2025, and the next conference in Mexico will take place in 2026.

“We have a new chair for the Mexico IIAR chapter, Robert Badillo from Danfoss. He will lead the 2026 event planning with the support of Frederico Alarcon, IIAR’s Latin American administrator. More information is to come,” Rector said.

Natural refrigerants, including CO2, are gaining traction in Latin America. IIAR has successfully supported standards in Latin America, but Rector said there is still a little way to go In Mexico.

“In Mexico, for reasons that I still cannot understand, it has been difficult,” she explained. “I think the regulatory agencies are rather scattered, making it challenging to establish a point of contact or determine where to start.”

IIAR has focused on training within the industry while continuing to reach out to key individuals and key agencies to support efforts to establish national standards in Mexico.