AHR EXPO 2001 Review - Atlanta Ken Sinclair, Editor It is over for another year, but here is a quick review of what we saw.  More details on the   Wireless Revolution to come in our March Issue.	.

International Exposition did it again with another well organized, comfortable, record breaking show in Atlanta. It is clear that the Building Automation Industry has a new measured variable to add to temperature, humidity, pressure, etc, and it is Indoor Air Quality or IAQ. The show hosted over 200 exhibitors showing IAQ products. As we  talked about the future it became clear that our building automation industry is rapidly entering the new field of dynamic information technology (IT). Rapid convergence is taking place with Internet and Intranet solutions. IT solutions abound with browser based everything, along with fully implemented wireless to internet to business models for our service industry. 

I was extremely pleased to catch up with Dave Branson, my speaking partner, and learn of the exciting plans to wedge virtual realities into the dusty old ASHRAE manuals now coming on CD. It is truly a new world. The Educational Sessions - open to all visitors at the Congress Center went well. 

The Show-Sponsored Intelligent Building/Automation Presentations were well attended. The Monday 1:00pm - "Automation Industry Update for Integration, Protocols, and the Web Evolution" was extremely well attended with great interaction from the attendees indicating more education is required on this subject.  Wednesday's feedback Forum Session was better attended by attendees of our previous sessions than exhibitors.  Part of the message we received was "give us more information sooner, and at different levels of expertise."

We will work with AHR Expo to expand both theirs and our virtual online training before the next show.

As you can see by the caricature of your editor it was not all work. This was drawn at Belimo's Super Bowl party, a gala event with lots of happenings besides the game. The next night we attended Automated Logic's reception and rubbed elbows with the who's who's of the automation industry. They obviously know the best restaurants in their town.  We were asked to several more functions but could only attend a few.  I feel that these events are extremely important as they let the industry interact in an venue that exists nowhere else. 

It was great fun for Jane and I to meet the people in person that we do virtual business with. An email give no hints as to a person's particulars so there were some great surprises.  Everyone was extremely supportive of our AutomatedBuildings.com endeavor.

Although our time on the exhibit floor was limited because of the education sessions and attending news releases, we did manage to browse the browser evolution at the show. 

The folk at Delta Controls in addition to showing us their browser evolution, showed us their new BACstat product.  We pondered the sample they gave us for some time but eventually ate up the concept ( a chocolate version of a BACstat ) on the way back to our hotel.  WebCtrl goes wireless was also a very interesting demo by Automated Logic. I will provide more in my March review of The Wireless Revolution at AHR Expo 2001. I got some insight into Alerton's BACtalk from one of their developers after one of our sessions. Certainly everyone is discovering that there is a great beyond, beyond browser interfaces. The Lon camp is growing by leaps and bounds. After attending their Monday press release we had to update the growth information given us early in January for our Tuesday session 

Atlanta is a great AHR Expo city. The Georgia World Congress Center plus the downtown buildings turn Architecture into Art.  I was appalled however at the lack of  recycling and the general lack of energy conservation effort. It was as if there was a lack of connection to global sustainability concerns. Even Art must reflect Life.

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