Marco Buoni, AREA Board Member responsible for International Affairs, and former AREA President for four years, as well as Director of Centro Studi Galileo and Secretary General of the Italian Association of Refrigeration Technicians – ATF, will take part in the IIR Knowledge Day on 26 November in Dubai, organised within HVACR World 2026. The event will bring together international experts to discuss technologies, policies, refrigerants, energy efficiency and, above all, the skills needed to support the rapid growth of cooling across the MEASA region – Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
HVACR World will take place from 23 to 26 November 2026 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, with the International Institute of Refrigeration – IIR serving as Knowledge Partner. The programme on 26 November will be entirely dedicated to the IIR Knowledge Day, with sessions on high-ambient cooling, heat pumps, next-generation refrigerants, sustainable cooling, artificial intelligence and training.
Marco Buoni will contribute to the workshop “Building a skilled and sustainable HVAC&R workforce”, focused on the challenges associated with developing the technical workforce in the region. The session will begin with contributions from the speakers based on their professional experience, followed by a panel discussion and questions from the audience, with particular attention to training, certification and skills development.
Joining Marco Buoni on the panel will be Naveen Sivakumar, Danfoss; Zeinab Mohamed, EPTA Group; Andrea Paltrinieri, LU-VE; and Ammar Abdulhameed, SKM Air Conditioning, bringing different but complementary perspectives on the professional development of the HVAC&R workforce.
The issue is particularly relevant in a region where demand for cooling continues to grow rapidly. According to IIR, the HVACR market in the MEASA region is projected to grow by 6.5% annually through 2032, while data centre cooling demand is increasing by around 15% per year across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and India.
In this context, the availability of qualified technicians is becoming essential to ensure safety, energy efficiency and the correct application of new technologies and low-GWP refrigerants.
Centro Studi Galileo’s participation will therefore bring to Dubai more than fifty years of experience in technical training, together with extensive international activity in certification and workforce development for RACHP professionals, once again strengthening the connection between skills, innovation and the sustainable transition of the sector.