The 20th edition of the renowned European Conference by United Nations and Centro Studi Galileo, which took place on 8th – 9th June 2023 at the Politecnico di Milano, ended with the cheers of the audience: the hundreds of attendees were able to appreciate over forty presentations by leading experts in the HVACR sector (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration and heat pumps), during a one-of-a-kind event (see photos).
The Conference began with a video message: the heartfelt opening speech by the founder of Centro Studi Galileo, Dr. Enrico Buoni, who was held back in Edinburgh by institutional commitments related to the event co-organizer Renewable Energy Institute, of which he is Honorary President: “a special thanks goes to all the participants“, he said during his speech, which summarized fifty years of educational activity in just one minute: “It is thanks to you that we can continue to carry on our activity every day, which now embraces 140 countries thanks to the collaboration with the United Nations and the International Institute of Refrigeration, and that has allowed us to carry out training courses even for the BBC, the major world banks and even a few steps away from the White House“.
Sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, the European Conference is organized and delivered thanks to the joint efforts by some of the main stakeholders in the sector: in addition to Centro Studi Galileo and United Nations – UNEP OzonAction, the event is provided by the IIF-IIR (International Institute of Refrigeration, Paris), AREA (union of twenty-four European RAC Associations of contractors), ATF (Italian Association of Refrigeration Technicians) and REI (Renewable Energy Institute, Edinburgh).
The 2023 Conference was a blastalso in terms of numbers: 42 speeches, 220 participants in presence and 50 connected remotely, joining from 38 Countries and 4 continents.
During the event there was space for two extremely significant moments, destined to mark the history of our sector: the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between theAfrican Union of RAC Associations U-3ARC and the IIF-IIR, the International Institute of Refrigeration, which will open a new era of mutual collaboration between the two realities. The signature was made respectively by the President and Director General of the two institutions, Madi Sakandé and Didier Coulomb.
Another significant event was the first-ever award ceremony to the winner of the “Women in Cooling Video Competition“, a new prize that was established by AREA in cooperation with CSG; the winner was Léana Khaled Payan, young French technician of Axima Refrigeration, who was evaluated as the best among the 12 participants (3 from Spain, 2 from France and Turkey, the rest from Ireland, Poland, Italy, Norway and Slovakia).
The winner was elected during the latest AREA General Assembly, held in Estonia at the end of May, by a jury that included both representatives of the association and the World Refrigeration Day. All videos are available on AREA’s YouTube channel and Facebook page and were recorded in the technician’s native language (subtitled), to enhance inclusiveness and encourage more women into the sector.
In the frame of the 20th EUConfRAC, there was of course also space for celebrations: to celebrate the anniversary of 40 years of history for CSG European Conferences, the first ever held in 1982 and now reaching its 20th edition, on the evening of Thursday 8th June a celebratory cocktail was offered, along with a splendid commemorative cake.
The Conference concluded with the announcement of the next edition’s dates, scheduled on 12th – 13th June 2025. Save the date!
