By Bob Baker

For those of us who attempt to keep up on what is new and useful in or rapidly changing industry, there are an unbelievable number of courses, conferences, meetings and projects that are available as learning opportunities. The areas and topics covered are rich and comprehensive; and sometimes, all at the same time.

Remaining current in the industry these days is more than a full time job. You are constantly faced with choices between the many opportunities and between them and saving some time for your "day job". Over the span of a year, we can count literally dozens of opportunities that we pass on either because of lack of time or budget limits.

An Emerging Trend?

That is the reason that I became excited when I discovered that the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) had decided to partner with the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and the American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Health (AIA/AAH) and hold a combined conference in Tampa March 15-17. This event combined the ASHRAE annual IAQ (IAQ 2004) conference with the International Conference and Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design and Construction.

Such combined conferences represent an opportunity for individuals of like interests to view presentations that they otherwise would not have the opportunity to see and form new contacts and relationships. In this case, the recent publication of the ASHRAE Healthcare Design Manual and the proposed Standard 170P (Ventilation of Healthcare Facilities) provided excellent opportunities for hospital engineers to learn about emerging HVAC issues in a depth they would not normally have the opportunity to. At the same time, HVAC Engineers and Indoor Air Quality Professionals had an in-depth look at overall hospital design and operational subjects they would not normally see.

Strong Programs

Attendees were presented with two strong programs when they picked up their attendance materials and could choose all of the offerings in either conference or pick and choose a mix of offerings from both conferences. Rather than a combined program book, there were two separate books. Other than the social events and meals, there were two combined sessions scheduled, the opening session and keynote address Monday morning and a summary session scheduled for noon on Wednesday.

The failure to integrate the programs led to some confusion for participants who wished to listen to papers from both conferences. The ASHE conference was broken into seven concurrent sessions with each offering five parallel tracks while the ASHRAE conference featured two Plenary Sessions, three Panel discussions and four Technical Sessions each featuring five papers in sequence. The two differing formats made it difficult to move between programs of the two conferences. In addition, session starting times were slightly different. The lack of coordination peaked on Wednesday when the final (combined) session was over before the proceeding ASHRAE session completed. Thus confused attendees were looking for a session that had already been held. Aside from the scheduling difficulties, the program materials and papers were interesting and offered new content.

One unfortunate occurrence was that the ASHE attendees did not get the full ASHRAE program book in their packets of materials. Thus, many were not even aware of sessions they would very much have liked to attend.

Future Challenge

I hope the organizations will try again. If they do, all will be served if there is a greater effort to coordinate the two conferences, follow a common format and observe the same session timing. It may be difficult to sort such things out between two planning teams and it is unlikely that either organization will turn over all planning to the other. If, however, a solution can be found, all attendees will benefit.

We will soon have another opportunity to see if the combined conference strategy can work to the advantage of all. In late September, the Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) and the National Air Filtration Association (NAFA) will hold a combined conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The two organizations state that they have been working to more closely coordinate the two meetings and make it a truly combined conference as opposed to two conferences that happen to take place in the same facility and at the same time.

We applaud the movement and hope that it grows and more organizations combine to hold coordinated events. It will both offer expanded opportunities for attendees and allow strained travel budgets to be used more efficiently.

Bob Baker is a member of IAQA, ASHRAE, CSPA and Chairman and CEO of BBJ Environmental Solutions, Inc., "The Standard of Care for Indoor Air". BBJ has offices in Tampa and Hong Kong and Mr. Baker follows indoor air quality developments throughout the world. For additional information, Mr. Baker can be reached at (800) 889-2251 or through the company web site at www.bbjenviro.com.