The Mechanical Contractors Association of America just finished up its 2010 meeting here in San Francisco. The March 28-April 1 event brought hundreds of mechanical contractors from across the country to listen to prominent keynote speakers and participate in valuable educational sessions.

While the weather in the city was not tourist friendly (cold wind and rain), the educational sessions seemed to offer a positive future outlook for the HVACR industry. Most of the seminar speakers said the economy has finally bottomed out. And while business is still slow, they said this is a great time for contractors to start planning ahead for the business that is going to come rolling in.

So what does that mean? Start taking advantage of low interest rates right now. Also, renegotiate vendor contracts while vendors are looking to make cash. Get your workers trained so that they are prepared to take on the new work load. And start investing in new technology that is going to make all those job offers easier to deal with.

The MCAA conference will be covered in an upcoming issue of Snips.