ASHRAE offers virtual access to more than 250 presentations

Some 2840 people attended the ASHRAE Winter Conference, held January 26-January 30, in Dallas, TX. Also taking place in conjunction with the Conference was the ASHRAE co-sponsored Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigerating Exposition, which set new all-time records for a Southwest show. The Expo attracted 51 337 attendees, including nearly 34 000 visitors, and also saw the most exhibitors, 1951, and largest square footage for any Southwest show. The Winter Conference technical program featured nearly 200 presentations, with the top attended session in the systems and equipment, facility management, energy conservation and fundamentals and applications tracks. The top-attended sessions were Introduction to the ASHRAE/REHVA Chilled Beam Design Guide; Desiccant Enhanced Air Conditioning; The FM Perspective: Reducing Energy Consumption and the True Cost of Maintenance; Innovative Energy Efficiency Strategies for Commercial Buildings; and Decoupling the Latent Load Through Psychrometrics. Other Conference highlights included the Technical Plenary, which drew 330 attendees, with its focus on ethics and engineering. These, and additional sessions, from the Technical Program are part of ASHRAE’s Virtual Conference, which provides access to more than 250 presentations. Register or access presentations at www.ashrae.org/dallasvirtual. ASHRAE took advantage of the diverse group of attendees to sign Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with the Council of American Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (CAMEE); the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO); and the Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan (SHASE). ASHRAE also furthered its existing relationship with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), launching its third biennial Work Plan for 2013-2014, based on a global cooperation agreement signed in 2007.