With the mind’s eye and ear, we can still see the flurry and hear the din of activity all those years ago – the months spent meeting a cross-section of the stakeholder community that eventually would become the readers, and listening to their thoughts on what the contents ought to be; writing and editing the stories; simultaneously designing the masthead and having it critiqued; establishing the first template of the entire stretch of pages and, finally, proofreading, as part of other pre-press activities, before sending it off to the Press. What a thrill! What excitement!

Today, it is hard to believe we are 228 magazine issues old. And we are able to reveal that since January 2006, with an average of 52 pages per issue, we have provided nearly 6,400,000 words of text on the happenings in our exciting industry, with each word painstakingly edited and proof-read against multiple parameters.

And since January 2006, we, as CPI Industry – the mother company – have also produced directories & guidebooks, supplements, editorial campaigns and books, for example, Al Jalees the first-of-its-kind English-to-Arabic technical HVACR Dictionary. And we have grown in size and in our ability to suggest and persuade action. Some readers have been incredibly kind in labelling us as the ‘Voice of the HVACR Industry’. Thank you for that! Really!

As for our Events Division, to date, we have produced over 90 conferences and awards ceremonies.

A few years ago, a global media association conducted a survey to see how media organisations around the world and over the years have sustained their coverage on climate change. We have never publicised our efforts, but we can safely say that not a single issue goes by where we don’t have the words energy efficiency (in the context of climate change), reliability or IAQ, to name three attributes.

We treat our position with a deep sense of responsibility. Producing every issue of the magazine is about listening to a voice of conscience and navigating an ethical minefield. It is the same with the awards programme, which has completed 14 years and has executed 17 awards ceremonies, including bespoke ones.

Today, the urge and compulsion to communicate is as deep-felt as ever. It is this urge that is the basis of the Editorial Campaign that we shall be launching in January 2025. Called Refrigerants Review, it shall run the entire course of the year.

“What’s there to talk about for an entire year?” you might ask. Well, sample this statement Nabil Shahin, the Managing Director of AHRI MENA made on December 4 while moderating AHRI’s event, ‘Convening HVACR Leaders: Shaping the Future of the Industry’: “Shockingly, 60% of all global refrigerants sold are used to replace leaks in existing systems rather than getting used in new equipment, underscoring the environmental implications of inadequate refrigerant handling. To minimise environmental harm, technicians need solid training in refrigerant handling, recovery, recycling and proper disposal.”

We have much to discuss, and we are highly motivated to carry on in the same spirit as 20 years ago.