Our first in-person Annual Conference since the pandemic began was a great success, and now that the flurry of committee meetings, networking events, and technical discussions have ended and we’re all back at work, it’s time to set some new goals and carry the momentum of our recent meeting into the rest of the year.

For the executive committee and your staff at headquarters, that means everyone is working hard to make sure our recent initiatives – from the AIM Act to the IIAR new membership & benefits program beginning July 1 to the many new projects our committees have started – are continuing to develop and reach new milestones.

My priority this year is to carry those initiatives forward and make sure the growth of the industry and its use of natural refrigerants is well supported by your staff and our organization’s leadership.

Under the leadership of our Board of Directors, and Eric Johnston, our outgoing Board Chair, our committees have seen one of their most productive years yet. In the international arena, IIAR has established close ties with regions where ammonia refrigeration and the global cold chain are growing. We’ll continue to foster communication with all our international partners while at the same time looking for new opportunities to grow as a presence on the global stage.

Key to that effort is our education programs, the Academy of Natural Refrigerants and our educational video series I, II, & III, which – in addition to serving as a vital educational resource within our industry – is also laying the groundwork for powerful advocacy in the regulatory world.

As our new chairman, Trevor Hegg mentions in his column this month, IIAR has formed several new task forces to advance IIAR’s influence in the regulatory world and make our standards and other technical material more accessible and useable than ever.

My priority this year will be to make sure that these programs continue to make gains in delivering the best collective knowledge and resources our industry has to offer, both internally, to our members, and externally, to any regulators, support personnel, industries that touch industrial refrigeration, and companies and organizations new to the use of natural refrigerants.

I hope you feel free to contribute with the new ideas and level of participation that has become the hallmark of this group. While it’s hard to turn our attention away from all the excitement of our most recent conference, it’s time to start thinking about how to use that renewed enthusiasm in the coming year to strengthen IIAR’s member presence and plan for our next event.

The 2023 IIAR Industrial Refrigeration Conference & Heavy Equipment Expo, will be held March 12 – 15 in Long Beach, California. If you have a Technical Paper or a workshop that you would like to present in California, please contact Eric Smith at IIAR headquarters to submit your abstract as soon as possible. Technical Paper and session topics are the fabric of IIAR meetings and will be selected quickly to allow presenters plenty of time to prepare their presentations.

As members, your ongoing work and participation make all of our activities possible. Thank you for continuing to enrich our industry with your support.