EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
Chillventa 2018 was once again held at the NürnbergMesse Centre in Germany.
I weaved through the halls, bouncing
between Hall 7 and Hall 4, taking photos,
chatting to strangers, and seeing what
was out there. It felt like I had been
walking forever but it was only a few hours.
Later that afternoon, some of the UK’s
AC&R Journal journalists compared the
numbers on their step counters. Everyone
had surpassed their 10 000 steps ages ago
— and the one lady had done so in heels,
too! I would top out at 21 000 steps by the
end of this day …
I stopped by the A-Gas stand on my
way to my first event of the evening.
Michael Labacher and Carte Lubbe
posed for a picture and we had a quick
chat. They seemed as tired as I was. It had
been a long day all around.
But it was far from over.
AFTER-SHOW EVENTS
The previous evening, Steve Comstock
of ASHRAE had invited me to the drinks
reception at the US Pavilion where a
glass of Californian red went down very
smoothly.
Ariana Brandl, who does the PR for
NürnbergMesse GmbH, was also there and
There were various co-locating events in 2018, including the forums held on
the exhibition floor.
we spoke about the show. She has always
been my contact at Chillventa, making
sure that I have everything I need to get
the job done. She confirmed that it was
the biggest show they had ever had.
I ran into Johan Gouws, a local one
who had moved to the Middle East to
head up Tecumseh Products Middle
That was but the first few hours of Day 1,
the Tuesday. After the press conference,
as I was near the press lounge, I decided
to have some lunch before getting back
to the halls. By the way, I’ve never thought
of adding little slices of sausage to my
soup instead of croutons. It’s a great (and
delicious) idea.
During lunch, I am happy to come
across the guys from JARN (almost like
Japan’s RACA Journal). We have met so
many times before at these international
shows.
Rudy Gunst of FCO is also here for lunch
and we finally have time to properly catch
up. We would continue to bump into
each other for the duration of the show,
comparing notes and diaries to see which
events were happening when.
After regrouping, I headed down to the
halls again, running into Eurocool’s Rodney
Taylor once more outside. I had realised
long ago that the only way to survive
the great distances at Chillventa was to
use the service, back-of-house areas as
shortcuts between the halls. (Trust me on
this one.)
Selfie-time with Pravita Iyer of the India Cooling
publication.
18
East as their managing director. We had
connected on LinkedIn prior and it was
good to finally meet in person.
But I couldn’t stay long. I cut across
to the Bitzer stand where all the South
Africans were set to meet so we could
navigate to the bus together. As always,
I was incredibly happy to see Isolde
IT’S ONLY LUNCH TIME
HVAC&R professionals arrived from across the world to attend the 2018 show.
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Planning matters; though, be prepared for sudden
changes. Regrouping in the press lounge.
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
Cyril Macquet-Maurel, SAIRAC KwaZulu-Natal chairman.
COLD LINK AFRICA • January/February 2019