Sinatra, Joel, even Jay-Z’s lyrics about their beloved New York could not have prepared us for the 2014 AHR Expo. It’s been a couple weeks and after letting the dust settle and despite a storm that dropped a foot of snow on New York City and created a State-of-Emergency in parts of New York, nothing, including Mother Nature would have stopped thousands of determined attendees and exhibitors from filling the aisles and booths at the 2014 AHR Expo held at the Javits Convention Center in NYC, January 21-23.
According to Show organizer International Exposition Company, a total of over 61,000 attendees (42,991 visitors and 18,219 exhibitor personnel) registered for the 2014 AHR Expo. HVACR professionals from all 50 states and over 130 countries braved the elements to see the latest products and technologies on display from over 1,900 exhibiting companies from around the world. These figures make the 2014 AHR Expo the highest registered attendance in the history of the exposition.
Show organizers were very concerned when the weather forecast predicted there would be a snow storm on opening day and arctic cold the last two days of the show. According to Clay Stevens, President of International Exposition Company, which produces and manages the AHR Expo. “We were encouraged when we saw thousands of people pouring into the show as if the weather wasn’t a factor. I’m sure we would have blown away the all-time attendance record even more if the weather hadn’t been so severe.”
With exhibitors covering 385,000 square feet of space at Javits Convention Center, AHRAE meetings, seminars and educational sessions, my feet got a great workout for three days visiting with industry colleagues and seeing hundreds of new products.
All in all, it was a fantastic week of training and networking. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in AHR Expo in New York City and I can’t wait for next year in Chicago, January 26-28, 2015.
In the meantime, here’s a video recap of the show and discussions with several manufactures about some of the great products they exhibited.
