By Danny Keating, Director of the Louisiana/Mississippi HVAC Insider

It’s Monday, January 14th and I am in Atlanta, Georgia getting ready for the first day of the AHR Expo. I say the first day because it is Day 1 of the actual show, where you get to walk through the convention area and see all the exhibits. The show can start several days earlier as many of you attendees know. Even if you aren’t an actual AHR Expo exhibitor you can have meetings and training sessions to attend several days before Day 1.

 I arrived in Atlanta on Saturday since I had a 7 a.m. breakfast scheduled on Sunday that lasted until 11 a.m. I later had a dinner meeting at 7 p.m. that lasted to 10 p.m. Both were enjoyable and informative meetings that are somewhat reflective of the busy schedules most attendees have in addition to their actually going to the AHR Expo. I’m certainly not complaining since my dinner meeting was held at Bones Steakhouse in Buckhead; and yes, it was every bit as good as I heard it was.

2019 has started off in an interesting way for me. I decided to quit putting off getting my left hip replaced and on December 17th, I had the operation. Today, January 14th is exactly four weeks since my hip was replaced. Since I wasn’t allowed to fly to Atlanta due to medical concerns over blood clots related to the hip procedure I decided to drive. I had to stop every hour and walk around for ten minutes to minimize the risk, once again, of blood clots and so I made a two-day trip out of it.

I feel much better than I ever imagined I would feel four weeks post-op. The proof will be after a day of walking at AHR. Regardless of how I end up feeling after Day 1, I would hate to miss an AHR Expo for any reason. I find them very informative and many manufacturers use the Expo as an opportunity to have national sales meetings and training sessions. In addition there is no end to the number of events you can attend that serve great food and free adult beverages.

The AHR Expo is a great way to jumpstart your new year. If you are not in Atlanta today, you may want to plan to be in Orlando on February 3rd -5th in 2020.