AirReps Breeze, December 2024 - Special Edition

It’s hard to believe that another entire year has come and gone. 2024 brought about major growth and changes, epic events, new partnerships, and a plethora of incredible memories made with our team. However, as we look forward to 2025, we know the very best is yet to come. For all of you - new subscribers and old - thank you very much for following along with our journey each month in 2024. We cannot wait to continue to share these updates, and we wish you all a happy and healthy holiday and 2025!

January - A trip to the Windy City

Starting back at the beginning, in January 2024, our team hit the ground running! We welcomed the new year with a trip to Chicago for the 2024 ASHRAE Winter Conference! 

At the conference, our team hosted the annual AirReps ASHRAE Winter Conference hospitality dinner, where members of our team, along with partners and customers came together to network and relax before the busy weekend and conference began! 

In a private section of Aster Hall, we shared a delicious dinner, decadent desserts, and of course, a full open bar to officially kick off the weekend before the big event in the City by the Lake!

It was a great way for members of our organization to connect with our manufacturers and industry partners. 

Throughout the weekend, Team AirReps could be spotted all over the city, as we conquered industry events, local hot spots and restaurants, and of course, the plethora of booths, demonstrations, and technology on display on the showroom floor at the conference. 

As the year comes to a close, our team looks forward to the 2025 ASHRAE Winter Conference, which will be held in Orlando this upcoming February; we can’t wait to see you there!

February - Unmasking the holiday magic - the AirReps Annual Holiday Party

If you’ve been to an AirReps party you’ll understand … there truly is no party quite like an AirReps party! 

In February, we showcased a recap of our annual holiday party, which around here, we take pretty seriously. The entire event was true to our theme of the year - from food to ensembles to decor - our holiday party this year transported our team to the Big Easy! 

To start the night, guests were welcomed with New Orleans-style entertainment and photo ops. Greeted with glasses of champagne and a festive stilt walker, everyone filtered into the main ballroom. Inside the decor transformed this simple room into a party worthy of the grandest Bourbon Street affair The party started as appetizers were passed, the bars were opened, and fortune tellers were on standby to read the cards of all of the guests who were brave enough!  

After cocktail hour, everyone sat at a delicious plated dinner as our CEO, Mike Hawkins, distributed anniversary gifts and made his annual speech. This year, more special than ever before, as we officially welcomed the Integrated Controls team to their first holiday party as a part of Team AirReps!

After dessert, it was time to head to the after-party! Greeted by dancers and a full performance, everyone knew the rest of the night would be a real treat. With more food at the ready and an open dancefloor accompanied by amazing tunes, everyone danced the night away. 

Here at AirReps, we know that our team of experts works hard each day to ensure our success. Our annual holiday party is just one way in which we show our appreciation for the team that makes AirReps, AirReps. 

March - AirReps Spokane VRV Training Room Grand Opening

As many of our readers may know, AirReps is a proud member of the Daikin family, and at the start of the spring, we were thrilled to open our brand new Daikin VRV Training Room in our office in Spokane, WA. 

In March, our team was finally able to share a project we had been working on for quite some time, a Daikin VRV Training Room that can (and has been!) utilized by our team for training and events for the HVAC community. 

This incredible addition is a major piece of our ongoing commitment to continued education for our entire team and the industry as a whole. Here at AirReps, we know that to continue to be the best, we must continue to invest in opportunities for our team to stay informed on the latest technology within the field. 

With our state-of-the-art Daikin VRV Training Room, AirReps feels poised to continue in our commitment. We’re proud to see how our team has utilized this space this year, and we cannot wait to continue to use this innovative space for years to come. 

April - Howdy partner, get ready to party!

April was an incredibly busy month for our team. We hosted the first-ever AirReps House Party, announced our partnership with Nyle, and celebrated as our very own Billy Kodosky was promoted to chief operating officer. 

We strongly urge readers to dive into Billy’s full interview back in the April edition, as he shared incredible insight about our company and the industry as a whole. However, if you don’t have the time today, Billy’s interview and overall temperament can be best summed up by a quote he shared, “‘Do what you say you are going to do.’ Simple, but not easy.” 

Back in April,  AirReps proudly shared that we had added yet another incredible product line to our laundry list of partners, Nyle Water Heating Systems!

For over 40 years, Nyle Water Heating Systems has offered consumers quality when it comes to building potable water heat pumps. With four decades of experience and counting, AirReps knew that with Nyle Water Heating Systems as a partner, we could continue our mission to provide new options for heat pump water heater solutions for buildings and projects of any size!

Months later, we are still beyond thrilled to work with Nyle Water Heating Systems and to have their products in our lineup, which has expanded both of our brands while helping us to continue to offer the best of the best to our clients. 

This month, our team showcased our motto - work hard, play hard - as a part of the WSSHE Spring Symposium, we hosted our very first AirReps House Party in Chelan, Washington. During happy hour, AirReps the party began with catered barbecue, an open bar, a cornhole challenge, games, and, of course, some cool AirReps t-shirts as swag! 

The event was a total success, as we also had the opportunity to showcase an InControl demo during the house party. Who says you can’t mix business with pleasure? Here at AirReps, we still do it daily! 

Over 50 guests from our manufacturers to potential clients enjoyed the party and we’re already looking forward to the AirReps House Party 2.0 in 2025!

May -  AirReps University Filming

In May at our headquarters office in Bellevue, Washington, months of hard work finally came together for our annual AirReps University filming. AirReps University, ARU, is just one way our entire team here at AirReps dedicates themselves to continued education. 

The videos from this filming session live on our website and YouTube channel and serve as continued learning opportunities for all in the HVAC industry. 

Our AirReps University video library is updated annually to reflect timely topics impacting HVAC worldwide. From new codes and regulations to state-of-the-art technology, our team selects the topics they are most passionate about and we set out to create shareable content centered around those topics.

After months of hard work discussing and selecting topics, writing and editing scripts, and working with our partners in production, it’s exciting to get to our shoot day for our ARU videos. It’s an all-day affair, but it was certainly the highlight of our May! 

June - Almost time … the AirReps Expo!

In June, our team begins to gear up for the AirReps Expo, our biggest event of the year, which takes place every August. This June, our AirReps Breeze was dedicated to sharing initial information about the event for 2024. 

This year, the event was even bigger than ever before. Typically, we have the AirReps Expo, which is comprised of a manufacturer’s dinner, a tradeshow, the AirReps Engineering Summit, and the golf invitational. This year, we added two traveling Engineering Summits with speakers who are experts in the industry. As the year comes to a close, we’re already working on the information that will launch next June, so subscribe and stay tuned!

July - Sponsorships and Summits, Cornaments and Roadshows

In July, we once again had our focus on the AirReps Expo, announcing the amazing sponsors that make our event possible, and the speakers who would be sharing their specialties and knowledge at the AirReps Engineering Summit. 

We announced that Chris Ebener, one of our partners from Nyle, would speak about Domestic Heat Pump Water Heaters in Commercial Settings: Specifications and Applications.

From our parent company, Daikin, Jeff Everly of Daikin Applied, was gearing up to share more about the Next Generation Heat Pump RTUs with R-32, a presentation that highlighted the radical changes in the Rebel rooftop as the industry transitions to R32 refrigerants. 

This year, we were also proud to host Dan Stranges from Ark Heat, who spoke on Decarbonizing the Built Environment: Strategies & New-Age Heat Pump Technologies at the 2024 AirReps Engineering Summit. 

And last, but of course, not least, Erdem Kokgil from our friends at Oxygen8 was gearing up to share more about High-Efficiency ERVs with Integrated Heat Pumps! 

In addition to planning our main AirReps Expo, which included the AirReps Engineering Summit, our team was also making plans to take a bit of this event on the road with the Daikin and AirReps Roadshow!

With stops in Portland and Bend, Oregon, attendees would have the chance to explore some of the latest technology from Daikin in a hands-on experience. Plus, we had some of our industry experts at these locations as well, to bring a bite-sized Engineering Summit to more engineering students and young professionals in our Pacific Northwest Community!

At the tail end of July, we also hosted our annual Spokane Cornament! 🌽

This event is a unique tournament where our team members and guests play competitive rounds of cornhole! This event is yet another chance for our team to connect with partners and manufacturers while having some fun!

With plenty of food, drinks, and of course, the big game, this day is a non-stop good time!

In the end, everyone was a winner from this awesome day of play and connection. However, of course, there were also the real winners, who went home with some pretty epic prizes!

August -All things Expo

Our August edition went pretty much the same way as our August here at AirReps. It was all things AirReps Expo! 

The evening before the big event we hosted over 20 different companies for our Manufactuer’s Dinner at Central Bar + Restaurant, where delicious dinner and fabulous drinks were served as everyone settled into Bellevue before the big day! 

To us, this dinner is an important way for our team to connect with our partners, and for our partners to connect as well. Fostering strong relationships is always a top priority here at AirReps, and we love being able to thank everyone for coming to our event in a more intimate setting. 

On the morning of the AirReps Expo, we kicked things off with the AirReps Expo Trade Show, and this year we had more booths than ever before. The trade show provided an opportunity for all our AirReps Expo guests to come together to spend the morning connecting and learning before separating for the remainder of the day into different activities. While guests explored the most innovative new products and services in HVAC, our team provided a delicious breakfast and morning drinks while a DJ spun tracks and set the mood for the rest of the day! Our guests won prizes, made new connections, and engaged in challenges, like our Flop Wall, all while exploring the Trade Show booths.

After the Trade Show, our attendees separated into two groups. Young professionals and students who reserved their spots in advance were invited to attend our free AirReps Expo Engineering Summit. After a day of lunching and learning, one lucky attendee even ended the day with a brand-new iPad to continue their learning outside of the classroom.

While young professionals and students headed over to the AirReps Expo Engineering Summit, partners, colleagues, and other invited guests grabbed their golf carts and headed out to the stunning golf course at Newcastle!

Celebrating 22 years, the AirReps Expo Golf Invitational is the crown jewel of our annual events. With over 140 participants making up 36 teams, they competed in an 18-hole friendly competition. After over twenty years, we’re still finding fun new ways to expand our event in 2025! 

We could have stopped there, but we are AirReps after all. After our local AirReps Expo, we hit the road with the Daikin Roadshow and a mini version of our Engineering Summit.

This event gave a broader audience the chance to experience Daikin technologies hands-on with our AirReps experts as guides.

Our commitment to learning and innovation continued with our Engineering Summit courses throughout Oregon.

Experts spoke to students and young engineering professionals on important industry topics, just as they did at our cornerstone Engineering Summit event in Washington.

Overall, it was our busiest month of the year - but we think it might have been our best as well!

September - Goodbye sweet summer!

In September, we said goodbye to the sweet summer with our annual AirReps Summer Picnic! Our AirReps Summer Picnic has become a beloved tradition here at AirReps for our team members and their families. 

Here at AirReps, family and work/life balance are essential to us, so we invite not only our team, but also their husbands and wives, children, and even their parents to join us for a special day of fun, food, and games! 

This year, we served up food truck eats, which were a huge hit! For the kids, and the kids at heart, we had treats like snow cones and henna, perfect for some summertime fun! 

October - Prost!

In October, we held our annual Oktoberfest event! Inspired by the historic event, first held in 1800s Germany, this event is always a fun chance to enjoy the season with our team, partners, and colleagues. 

Our headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, was transformed into a beer hall, just like they have in Munich, Germany! Complete with decorations, live music, custom steins, and traditional German food and drinks, it’s quite a sight!  

This year, we were proud to have some of our manufacturers join in on the fun, EBTRON, Danfoss, Nyle Water Heating Systems, and Flow Control Industries, Inc. set up booths and stations with equipment and demonstrations for attendees, allowing everyone to learn while enjoying a beer and a brat!

Oktoberfest 2024 was the perfect way to celebrate the fall at AirReps, and we cannot wait to continue to grow this event in 2025!

November - Feeling thankful

Last month, we added a thankful tree to our office so team members from all different segments of our business could share what they were most thankful for in 2024. 

From friends to health to family, we saw a little bit of it all, but we were proud that many of our team members were feeling thankful for the time they spent here at AirReps each day! 

Check out the November edition to see more from our team on what they love most about AirReps all year round! 

December - We’ll see you in 2025!

If you made it this far - thank you! Thank you for another year of supporting AirReps through the AirReps Breeze and on our platform here on LinkedIn. We look forward to what 2025 will bring, and wish you all the happiest and healthiest holiday season … we’ll see you in 2025!