R744.com spoke with Marc Chasserot, chairman of ATMOsphere Europe 2011. He explained why the focus will be on Europe this year and how the event can influence the future of natural refrigerants.

R744.com: After having organised ATMOsphere 2009 and 2010, this will be the third time you are organising this event. This time it is called ATMOsphere Europe 2011 - Why you are adding “Europe” to the title?

Marc Chasserot: There are different reasons for this. Firstly, by organising a global event in the past, we were not able to tackle all the issues. Last year we tried to focus on some of the similar general barriers and solutions for the uptake of natural refrigerants. However, there are some more specific problems that differ from one region to another regarding, for example, legislation or level of knowledge about technology, training etc. Secondly, given that Europe is still the leading market for natural refrigerant technology and that it influences the rest of the world, we thought it is very useful to look at the different EU policies, including the F-Gas Regulation and the Ecodesign Directive. Also, we wanted to identify which are the leading companies in Europe and what are the technology innovations that might be spread to the rest of the world over the next years.

However, we have not forgotten the rest of the world. In fact, we are actively planning ATMOsphere America 2012 for early next year, which will take place in Washington. This would be then followed by an ATMOsphere Asia event.

R744.com: What is the idea of the 10-point action plan you have announced for this year’s event?

Chasserot: Last year we produced a report summarising the sessions, round table discussion and results from ATMOsphere 2010. This was a good first step, but it was not good enough. This time, we really want to focus on concrete actions. We want to move beyond basic statements towards 10 key actions that are needed to bring natural refrigerants faster to Europe. This roadmap will then be disseminated to policy and industry experts around the world and we will then measure the progress made over the coming 12 months.

R744.com: What have you learnt from the last two events in terms of the content your participants are most interested in?

Chasserot: They want to know more about future policy and legislation that will impact their business, they also want to know what end-users, meaning retailers and consumer brands, are doing in terms of natural refrigerant based equipment and what they will buy in the future. In addition, the participants are interested in getting recent market data demonstrating the increase of natural refrigerants in different applications. And they also want case studies of innovative solutions with natural refrigerants that have real data and that have not been presented before. And this is exactly what we are going to offer with ATMOsphere Europe this year.

R744.com: Last year you introduced a workshop concept to enhance discussions and interactivity. A mixture of industry and policy representatives as well as academia, associations and NGOs sat in small groups to discuss the technology sessions as well as barriers and solutions for the uptake of natural refrigerants. Was this successful and will you integrate a similar model this year?

Chasserot: Last year we handpicked each individual for each table like at a wedding. The feedback for this setting as well as for the workshop concept in general was great. This is why we will also apply it to ATMOsphere Europe, but this year we will have even more of these round table discussions, including for the policy sessions. We are convinced that this will create lots of ideas, which we will then use to put together the 10-point action plan.

R744.com: What else will be different from the previous two events and what will stay the same – in other words what will remain central to the ATMOsphere methodology?

Chasserot: The ATMOsphere methodology will be all about interactivity and networking. For this, we will launch an ATMOsphere community on ATMO.org at the end of this summer. This will allow people to connect, join discussions, or set up meetings before the event. In addition, we will have questionnaires and surveys before and during ATMOsphere Europe. We will also have the moderated round table discussions and interactive panel debates. Last but not least, we will have networking rooms for individual meetings with potential customers or partners and plenty of networking time for face-to-face conversations.