Between September 29 and October 3, the International Industrial Fair of Bogotá 2008 was held in the Colombian capital; the event gave the opportunity to members of the air conditioning and refrigeration industry to meet in the same pavilion to establish effective contacts and exchange experiences. On this occasion, the Acaire pavilion (Colombian Association of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration) doubled both the area that was had in the last version and the number of participating companies.As reported by Claudia Sánchez, executive director of this association, the balance was positive since around 5,200 people visited the pavilion that had a total area close to 1200 m2. Precisely several attendees confirmed the success of bringing together all the companies in the sector; they also highlighted the fact that there was ample space and that the quality and quantity of the contacts established was extremely important.
Fernando Becerra, Danfoss' refrigeration manager for Colombia and Ecuador said that "we had always been in the international pavilion with other Danish companies and this was the first time we were in the pavilion of the union. The balance was quite good for the fact of being with all the clients and with the other companies of the guild; we celebrate 75 years of Danfoss there. It was the fair with the best results so far because we made new contacts and met again with old customers with whom we re-established communication."
For his part, Giovanni Barletta, Emerson's technical manager for the Andean, Caribbean and Central American region, expressed his satisfaction and the positive results obtained in the pavilion by saying that "expectations were highly met because the visitors had a very important technical and commercial level, there were many people very interested in the products and the attendees ranged from end users, contractors, engineers and consultants. Meeting as a guild in the same place is favorable because we are in the same place the people who have the same interests and that adds up."
Another of the attendees with whom they had the opportunity to talk about the International Industrial Fair of Bogotá and about the Acaire Pavilion was Mauricio Baena, general manager of Thermal Ingeniería. "The balance was very positive because it has been the best equipment exhibition fair of the last two or three years because the physical space as such allowed us to show a series of equipment that we had not had the opportunity to exhibit: the industrial range. That hand in hand with the large influx of people, not only from the distribution sector, but the end user, allowed us to have a high impact of brand recall; it was better than we expected not only in business, but also in real contacts," Baena said. With regard to the quality of the contacts made by Thermal, it should be added that this company increased them outside Bogotá with members of the dairy and poultry sectors mostly.
In September 2009 Expo Acaire will be held in Cali, Colombia, in which most of the companies attending the International Fair confirmed their attendance. The academic program will have international speakers and the theme will revolve around the aspects of sustainability, green engineering and green architecture.
