Schedule of Events
Click on the dates below to reveal the full day's programming.
4:00 – 7:00 pm
Board of Directors Meeting (Lyric)
7:00 – 8:30 pm
Young Professional Social (optional)
7:00 am – 12:00 pm
Registration
7:45 – 8:30 am
Networking Breakfast
8:30 – 8:45 am
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Michael Corbat, CAFS, NAFA President
8:45 – 10:15 am
Stories, Not Just Statistics: How Leaders Engage and Retain Great Employees and Customers in Today's Multi-Generation Workforce
Alyson Van Hooser, Co-Owner Van Hooser Associates, Inc, Author, Keynote Speaker & Leadership Trainer
Van Hooser Associates
Losing great employees and customers may be your greatest competitive threat. Effectively engaging and influencing ecstatic employees and customers can be your greatest advantage. Differentiate yourself from those poaching your people by strategically and authentically aligning your leadership with the post-pandemic multi-generation workforce. The future of work is not just tech and artificial intelligence. Instead, leadership that effectively connects and engages with employees will be more important than ever. A one-size-fits-all leadership approach is a tactic of the past. Introducing, Stories, Not Just Statistics, the new leadership strategy and mindset that focuses resources — time, money, energy, and otherwise — on intentional actions that truly create infinite opportunities for team success.
10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Guest Program (optional)
Taste of Nashville Food and Sightseeing Tour
10:15 – 10:30 am
Break
10:30 – 11:15 am
Position yourself to sell Filtration in the Healthcare Market
Jacob Schneider
Health care is one of the biggest markets for filtration, but it is always a challenge to get the right people to pay enough attention to it. In this presentation, you'll gain insight to how end users, project managers, and property managers are (or are not) thinking about filters.
11:15 – 12:00 pm
Frames and Latches - Their Importance to the System’s Integrity and Filter Performance
Brandon Deilgat, CAFS, Sales Director, American Metal Filter Company
Jacob Schneider, Senior Manager, Meadows & Ohly
Norman Rodriques, Springfield Spring Corporation
Why is a filter only as good as the frame it's installed into? The answer is air bypass! A panel of industry veterans will discuss the role of universal holding frames, clips and fasteners in maintaining quality air filtration systems. The panel will talk applications, share best practices and answer questions from the floor. Don't miss out!
1:30 – 4:00 pm
NAFA Foundation Event (optional)
Axe Throwing Excursion at Bad Axe Throwing Nashville (optional)
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Welcome Reception
7:00 am – 12:00 pm
Registration
8:00 – 9:00 am
Business Meeting Breakfast
9:00 – 10:00 am
Get Ready To Rock!
Jason LeVasseur, Speaker and Author, The Rock Star Project
Jason is an award-winning speaker and performer who has shared the stage with bands like Train, John Mayer, Dave Mathews, and Maroon 5. This fun music-filled session will inspire you to understand how important you are individually, and to your colleagues, teams, customers, and the collective success of the conference experience. Jason celebrates the individual “instrument” (skills) and how your contribution to “the band” (team) ultimately serves the greater good of ”the audience” (customer). Through catchy songs and fun stories, Jason will boost your confidence to contribute, network and participate fully in the Nashville experience.
9:30 am– 1:00 pm
Guest Program (optional)
Tour of Belle Meade Historic Site and Winery
10:00 – 11:00 am
The History and Future of Filtration Testing
Bob Burkhead, Blue Heaven Technologies; Kathleen Owen, Owen Air Filtration Consulting, LLC; and Don Thornburg, Filtration Research Manager, Camfil
Interact with three of the most knowledgeable experts in the world as they present updates on the latest developments in filtration testing. Kathleen Owen, Bob Burkhead and Don Thornburg have been instrumental in developing and writing many of the test standards that we reference everyday. Short presentations followed by a question and answer session will give you the opportunity to pick the brains of the world’s best!
11:00 – 11:15 am
Break
11:15 am – 12:00 pm
Secrets Revealed – Two Clean Air Awards Judges Spill the Beans
Panel discussion with Sharon Needham, CAFS, NCT, BGE Indoor Air Quality Solutions Ltd. (moderator); Jim Rosenthal, CAFS, TEX-AIR Filters, and Nathan Wittman, CAFS, NCT, Filter Technology Company, Inc.
Clean Air Awards are a secret weapon in your customer toolkit. Not only do Clean Air Awards validate a commitment to indoor air quality and air filtration, they also provide credibility, visibility, and the opportunity to promote your customer and your services publicly. The truth is, submitting for a Clean Air Award takes some work and planning.
Are you curious to know how your submissions stack up to others? Are you interested in learning about ways to improve the process or avoid common mistakes? Would you like to know exactly what the judges are looking for and how they make decisions? Better yet, can you capitalize on easy points that are being left behind?
After reviewing hundreds of submissions, our two Clean Air Award judges will reveal tips and tricks to make your submissions stand-out. They will also share their unique perspective on market trends and insights uncovered through their evaluations. Join us for an engaging and interactive discussion to help make your next round of Clean Air Awards great!
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Networking Lunch
12:00 – 1:15 pm
Marketing and Membership Committee Meeting
Technical and Certification Committee Meeting
1:30 – 2:30 pm
CAFS Study Hall
2:30 – 4:30 pm
CAFS Testing
Hunter, Most, CAFS, AAF FLanders
6:30 – 9:00 pm
Reception and Awards Dinner - sponsored by Mikropor
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Registration
8:30 – 9:30 am
Networking Breakfast
8:00 – 9:15 am
Education and Training Committee Meeting
Guidelines Committee Meeting
9:30 – 10:45 am
Everything You Need to Know about ChatGPT: The Hottest (and Scariest) Technology of 2023
Beth Z, Speaker, CSP, Author, Your Nerdy Best Friend
Only a few months ago, a plain little website shared a free “Research Preview” of ChatGPT, and the world as we knew it changed forever. ChatGPT can write whole essays from a simple text prompt, formulate 100 social media post ideas from a single sentence, create computer code with just a description and compose poetry and songs in any artist's style in milliseconds. It'll create a summary from a long legal document, recommend resources for research and, by the time you read this, make your bed and bring you coffee. With this type of AI tool, there are ethical issues, legal issues, bias issues, quality issues, creativity issues, copyright issues, issue issues... and issues we haven't even considered. Join Beth Z, Your Nerdy Best Friend, for an in-depth look at ChatGPT and similar tools to discover: Where did it come from? How does it work? What can it do? How can it help you do your job better? Who does it hurt? And, most importantly... How far can it go?
10:45 – 11:30 am
Green Concepts within Filtration
Leonard Castellano, Parker HVAC Filtration
Mike Harriman, Aeolus Filter Corporation
Filtration always talks about going green but what is there available to really advance and make this begin to happen? This session will dive into the concepts of Alternative Energy and Filtration and Filter Recycling.