Positive part for REFRIAMÉRICAS that in its ten years of existence met all the expectations of its exhibitors and attendees to the academic program.
by Duván Chaverra Agudelo
RefriAméricas celebrated its 10th anniversary in style and it was so because there was a celebration that successfully mixed the educational segment with the commercial segment to integrate a single industry in two environments that converge in the same purpose: to provide the best of each one in development of the refrigeration sector.
Again, the congress and commercial exhibition was once again the benchmark for the cold in much of the Latin American region. Visitors and exhibitors from Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, decorated the fair with an international touch that attracted hundreds of visitors to learn about the latest developments in technology and train in the latest trends related to refrigeration.
A space for evolution
The academic sample of REFRIAMÉRICAS 2013 had a novel component. In addition to its usual line of conferences focused on technology and maintenance, on this occasion, a panel called "10 years of evolution by the hand of REFRIAMÉRICAS" was included in the conference program, in which recognized experts from the sector were present who delved into the most important facts that our sector has experienced in the last decade.
The panel included Giovanni Barletta, Emerson's technical director for the Andean and Caribbean; Rodnei Peres, foreign trade manager of Full Gauge Controls; Silvio Toro, regional director of Frostec and member of the board of directors of Acair; Gildardo Yáñez, member of Ashrae Mexico Chapter, and César Isaza, Circli Coordinator of the Pontifical Bolivarian University, who moderated the panel.
In addition to highlighting the multiple advances in technology and especially the interest that exists on the part of companies in producing products much more efficient with the environment and that consume a smaller amount of energy, the panel left a topic that everyone talks about and that few do: training and the need for a regulation that professionalizes much more the work within the refrigeration sector.
For example, Jairo Alirio Mejía, of the company Ingefrío of Colombia, and attendee of the congress, expressed his discomfort with the little training that several of the professionals of the industry have and stressed the importance of the guild being integrated to request serious regulation from government entities.
"I think these spaces are very important to expose our concerns before this kind of experts, because we need our profession not to have more engineers who still work with refrigerants like R12, that is disrespectful and the government does very little to avoid this."
Jairo, like other attendees at the forum, suggested to REFRIAMÉRICAS to invite representatives of the government or the Ministry of the Environment for next year to create a productive debate on the subject.
Similarly, Silvo Toro, who leads the refrigeration chapter at Acaire, promised to take all the statements of the attendees before the association and thus lead the project so that professionals and the government work more together for the coming from the industry.
"These ten years have been like location and understanding the need to be unionized, to be growing technologically, and to be constantly updating with the applications of new technologies. The next ten years may be one of the best decades for cold applications in Colombia," said Silvio Toro.
Surely, the contribution made by REFRIAMÉRICAS so that professionals spoke out and made known their disagreements with some behaviors that occur in the sector bear fruit and these aspects can be improved for the benefit of all.
Celebration on high
At the end of the first day of conferences, both exhibitors, attendees of the congress and visitors enjoyed a cocktail where recognition was made to the five companies that have been present in the commercial exhibition during the ten years of existence of REFRIMÁEIRCAS: Full Gauge, Thermocoil, Danfoss, Urecon, Mueller.
Later, all those attending the celebration enjoyed music, drank some liquor and tasted the typical Colombian food, to close the first day with a remarkable attendance and participation of the sector.
Colombia as a benchmark for the industry
Many of the international exhibitors who participated in REFRIAMÉRICAS see in Colombia a market no longer potential, as mentioned before, but a real market where there are great investment possibilities.
An example of this was the participation of a stand of the Brazilian Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (Abrava) that integrated a group of companies from that country to participate in the fair, because they see in this nation an opportunity for users to be interested in Brazilian technologies.
"Very people specialized in refrigeration have come to the fair, who work and act in this sector, who have a lot of experience and we receive excellent visits. We are looking to develop distributors in Colombia and there is a very good potential to do business," said Marcelo Marx, CEO of Delta Frío.
Another of the international visitors participating as an exhibitor was the Spanish Vicente Sanchiz, representative of Panelshock, who commented on the regional market that "due to the growth of the agricultural sector and meat issues, for us to come to Colombia is part of our strategy. This fair is an example of efficiency, everything I have had resolved, and next year we will see each other again."
