It's a chance to be heard
The conference is broken into a few different sections. If you’re interested in a particular committee, or concerned about a standard a committee is working on, this is your opportunity to make your voice heard. Many of the committee sessions are open to the public. You can get admittance into a closed session if you ask the chair or a member in advance. Remember, this is a society of engineers – they aren’t going to discriminate or not allow a member in. This is your opportunity to be heard in an area you are concerned about and can lend some expertise to.
It's a great opportunity for education
The main educational sessions of the conference are from Sunday to Wednesday, early morning to mid-afternoon. There’s somewhere near 130 PDHs available throughout the meeting. The ASHRAE website has the entire schedule listed out clearly by general topic and specific areas of interests they call tracks. Plan which sessions you'd like to attend in advance. There are also discussion sessions, or forums, on certain topics during the meeting. You can listen to other engineers discuss key topics, ask questions and add your own two cents. Or, just drop in to a meeting on some topic that interests you. It's a great place to discuss ideas and concepts with other engineers without the pressure that they are going to use your awesome ideas or designs against you. They’re from somewhere far, far away from your office.
The AHR Expo is a bonus
The AHR Expo runs during the conference Monday to Wednesday. The expo gives you an opportunity to see every type of equipment, cut-outs of actual equipment, and talk with people from every HVAC manufacturer out there and then some. Wear comfortable shoes on the days you plan to walk the expo floor. Because the expo is so massive, make plans to attend a few days to see everything you’re interested in.
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